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Anastenaria
A folk religious practice in northern Greece — fire-walking on the feast of SS. Constantine and Helen.
The Anastenaria is a ritual fire-walking ceremony practiced in certain villages in northern Greece and Bulgaria on the feast of SS. Constantine and Helen (May 21). The practitioners (anastenarides) walk barefoot on burning coals while holding icons of the saints. The practice is pre-Christian in origin and has been viewed with suspicion by the Orthodox Church hierarchy, though it persists in popular tradition. It illustrates the ongoing tension in Orthodox practice between formal theology and popular religious expression.