In the United States, we have a clear distinction between the religious and the secular. All religious things are delegated to a religious space and time, but are protected by the laws created in a public space and enforced by secular entities. Although this “separation of church and state” is the status quo, there are distinct times when it is considered appropriate for the religious and secular to meet – for instance, consider the “Pledge of Allegiance.” The Pledge states that we are “one nation under God:” this is a half-truth. We are a united nation (most of the time); however, we are a nation with multiple religious narratives. Conversely, I noticed that Greece is not the same in this regard because one could make that there is a shared, national religious narrative in the form of Greek Orthodox Christianity.
One of the first things I noticed upon arriving in Greece was the prevalence of icons in public spaces. In the Orthodox tradition, the icon is not simply the depiction of a saint, but indeed the saint itself. When an individual prays before an icon, they are praying to God via the saint, who transmits the human’s prayers. I was surprised when I observed these icons in abundance on the streets of Thessaloniki and Serres. In fact, the majority of the souvenirs that I viewed in the gift stores were either icons (even in the form of keychains) or prayer beads/ropes. During my time at the monastery of Hagios Ioannis Prodromos, I learned that in Greek culture, the distinction between the religious and the secular is not as distinctly enforced as in the United States. For instance, during one of the various Sunday services at the monastery, I saw people socializing outside of the sanctuary and it was not considered disrespectful to the nuns or priest conducting the service. After I left the monastery, I had an opportunity spend my last night in Greece in downtown Thessaloniki and I found that people (especially young people) were socializing downtown in the same manner as individuals socialized in the monastery. I gathered that the Orthodox Church was an integral component of a Greek individual’s socialization and upbringing. Furthermore, I learned a fact that supported my observation: in Greece, religion is taught in public schools. In the Greek public education system, students take courses on Greek Orthodox Christianity that are taught by seminary-certified instructors.
In conclusion, I find the relationship between the religious and sacred in Greek culture fascinating, mainly in comparison to the rest of countries that compose the European Union or “Western Europe,” which have a more secular nature. One probable explanation for this differentiation lies in the history and geography of Greece as a territory of both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires –east meets west. If we look back into the history of the United States, religion was once a more prominent unifying factor during the time of mass immigration into the country. The Christian narrative united native-born and immigrant Americans under a familiar and common narrative; it also, was a unifying factor during the Civil Rights Movement – in Greece, religion still unifies the country.
