Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

224 HOME LIFE IN HELLASnunneries are idiorrhythmic, each of the nunshaving a separate establishment and ordering herlife much as she pleases. Such communities asthe Little Sisters of the Poor, the Sisters ofSt. Vincent de Paul, or the many sisterhoodsof the Anglican communion, engaged in works ofGreece,charity of various kinds, are unknown inand educational work, like that carried on by theUrsulines or the Dames de Sion, does not liewithin the province of the Greek nuns ;so that wecan hardly regret—and no one in Greece regretsthat they are fast dying out and within a measurabletime will be a memory of the past.It has been said that a Greek is always eitherfasting or feasting. The celebration of saints'days recurs much more frequently than in theWest, whilst the fasts are far longer and more formidable.As in the Church of England, Wednesdaysand Fridays throughout the year are fastdays, but they are more strictly observed.Lentis longer than with us, lasting forty-eight days.In addition, there is the forty days' fast beforeChristmas, from November 15th to December24th. Then there is the fast of the Holy Apostles,from the Monday succeeding the First Sundayafter Pentecost to June 29th. Another fast, knownas the Falling Asleep of the Virgin, lasts fromthe 1 st to the 15th of August. The 5th January,the Eve of the Epiphany, September 14th, HolyCross Day, and August 29th, the Beheading ofSt. John Baptist, are also fasts. Not only does