Holy Tuesday is dedicated to foresight and vigilance, with the parable of the ten virgins and the wonderfully poetic trope of Cassian.

The Lord, during His ascent to Jerusalem, approaching His voluntary Passion, told His disciples certain parables, in order to prepare them.

One of them is the parable of the ten virgins. So let’s see what the parable says.

There would be a wedding. Ten maidens came out to meet the bridegroom who was coming. The five of them were brainy. The other five were mindless. They took all their lamps, to welcome him. The fools took no oil with them to light them.

The groom was late coming and they all fell asleep. At midnight voices were heard: “Look! Here comes the groom! Come out to welcome him!’

Then the wise men with the oil lit their lamps and ran to welcome the bridegroom and rejoice with the wedding feast.

The foolish begged oil from the wise, but they would not give it to them, because if they distributed their oil, it would not be enough for them either.

So they left and went into the night to buy.

In the meantime the bridegroom came and all his entourage and the five minded girls entered the house, where the wedding feast was to take place. When the five mindless (baby) girls arrived, much later, and asked to come in too, they were not opened. “Who are you?” I don’t know you” said the groom. The parable concludes with Jesus telling his disciples, “Therefore, be alert, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

The well-known narrative presents Christ as the Bridegroom, who comes “in the middle of the night”. The poetic speech recreates the Gospel narration in the most ideal way: “Behold, Christ, as the bridegroom of the soul, comes unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Happy will be he who finds himself awake, and on the contrary, unworthy he who remains slow and careless. My soul, take care not to fall into sleep, lest you surrender to spiritual death and be shut out of his eternal kingdom.”

Blessed is he who quickens in faith, in hope, in love, in the struggle. Unworthy, however, is he who rages in the passions, in lukewarmness, in blasphemy, in the anti-God worldly attitude.

We see the bridegroom’s house adorned and resplendent. But we do not have clean clothes to enter the divine weddings of salvation. Only one can brighten the uniform of our soul, remove the nystagmus of laziness and give “a burnt-out lamp of virtues”, the light-giver and Savior Christ.

The parable reminds us that one can struggle in life to be a good person, but that does not save him. Salvation comes as a result not only of good works, but of right faith in Christ the Savior, which is expressed in good works. Faith without works is dead and works without proper faith remain fruitless and unprofitable.

The customs of Holy Tuesday

This day is dedicated to cleaning the house. In some regions of Greece, cookies and buns are made on Maundy Tuesday, a custom, however, that usually takes place on Maundy Thursday. In Thassos, the age-old custom “For April Fool’s Day” is being revived, where traditional dances are performed. In Ierissos of Halkidiki they have the custom of “Tou maoui niou t’aloni”.

After the memorial prayer and the recitation of the eulogy, the elders begin the dance. Little by little all the inhabitants are caught and often the dance is four hundred meters long. They sing and dance all the Easter songs and end with the “Kangeleutos” dance, which is a representation of the massacre of 400 priests by the Turks, during the revolution of 1821. During the celebration, coffee is shared, which is boiled in a large “painting” cauldron. buns and eggs.