Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6 annually) -- how to be observed in 2021? in Greece?

 from Washington Post dot-com

Greek churches held services Wednesday to mark the Feast of the Epiphany, flouting government restrictions to halt the spread of the coronavirus on one of the most important Orthodox Christian holidays.

Greece entered a hard lockdown Sunday amid a new rise in cases and ahead of a planned reopening of schools on Jan. 11. The lockdown included a ban on religious ceremonies, a move that angered the Greek Orthodox Church.

Earlier this week, church leaders wrote to the government and vowed to defy the ban. The Orthodox Church is highly influential in Greece, where the majority of the population is Orthodox Christian.

On Wednesday, congregants attended services in the capital, Athens, and other cities. Attendance was limited to between 25 and 50 people, depending on the size of the church, Greek media reported.

Police patrolled outside churches but did not prevent people from entering, Reuters reported.

The Feast of the Epiphany commemorates the baptism of Jesus. In some places, believers mark the holiday with a ritual that includes a priest throwing a cross into a body of water. Swimmers race to retrieve the cross and the diver who carries it back is believed to be blessed with good luck.

Greece has escaped some of the widespread covid surges in the rest of Europe, but suffered a peak in infections in November. About 133,000 people in Greece have contracted the virus, while some 4,400 people have died.