Can you find Egypt on a map? What else do you know about this African nation with 100 million people?
Word + Quiz: oasis
oasis ō-ˈā-səs noun
1. a shelter serving as a place of safety or sanctuary
2. a fertile tract in a desert (where the water table approaches the surface)
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The word oasis has appeared in 181 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Dec. 17 in the interactive “See What Happens When N.Y.C. Streets Are Full of People Instead of Cars” by Matthew Haag:
The focal point of the neighborhood is Tompkins Square Park, developed into a landscaped oasis more than 150 years ago on former swampland.
Many locals said the park’s best features — a place to sit or relax amid greenery — should be adopted along Avenue B. Debora Williams, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, said the sidewalks should have more trees and plants.
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Our Eighth Annual Student Editorial Contest
Sign up now for our free Feb. 11 webinar about this year’s contest, Teaching Argumentative Writing.
What makes you mad?
What would you like to see change?
What do you wish more people understood?
Over the last seven years, tens of thousands of teenagers from around the world have answered these questions in the form of short opinion essays submitted to our annual spring Editorial Contest.
They’ve made compelling arguments on issues big and small, from climate change, Black Lives Matter, lockdown drills, college admissions and immigration, to Ultimate Frisbee, teen slang, the blessings of selfie culture, and why pineapple pizza deserves more respect.
The best of them — our annual winners — not only ground their claims in strong evidence, but also engage us with voice, style and the kind of rhetorical flourishes you can observe up close if you check out the work of Ananya Udaygiri, Edward Xu and Abel John, the three winners featured in the video above.
Now we’re inviting you to do the same. Make an argument in 450 words or fewer about something that matters to you, and persuade us that we should care, too.
Below are all the details you need, plus many, many resources to help. Please post any questions to the comments here, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
Students ages 11 to 19 anywhere in the world attending middle or high school can participate. We will include links to the submission form on Feb. 23.
Contest Guidelines
1. Choose a topic you care about, and make an argument that will persuade readers to care about that topic, too.
Start by choosing something you are genuinely interested in. We’ve been running student writing contests for over a decade, and one thing we know for sure is that the best writing is inspired by students’ real interests and experiences. You might start by asking yourself the three questions at the top of this post and brainstorming a few answers.
You might also think about what topics you are an authority on, no matter how small. Take some 2019 winners, for example. Maybe, like Tony Xiao, you play a lot of video games and have noticed things about gaming culture that bother you. Or maybe, like Eva Ferguson, you have a health condition that gives you insights others don’t have. Or it could be that, like Isabelle Hwang, you’re just messy — and annoyed that no one understands messiness is a sign of creativity. What issues and topics do you know or care a lot about?
2. Your editorial must not exceed 450 words, so make sure your argument is focused enough that you can still make a strong case.
Let’s say you choose to write about college admissions. While it might be possible to write an essay for this contest that would upend the entire admissions system as we know it, 450 words are probably far too few to take on everything that’s problematic about the process. Instead, try carving out a smaller claim, the way Erin Tan did in 2020 when she focused on how changes wrought by the pandemic could impact college admissions forever. In other words, make a claim that you have room to defend so that you can focus on the logic of your argument.
(Please note: Your title and list of sources are separate and do not count as part of your 450-word limit.)
3. Research and gather evidence to bolster your argument, using at least one source published in The New York Times and at least one source from outside The Times.
At a time when breaking out of one’s “filter bubble” is more important than ever, we hope this contest encourages you to deepen your opinions by using multiple sources, ideally ones that offer a range of perspectives on your chosen issue. Just make sure those sources are reliable ones.
There is no limit on the number of sources you can use, but we ask that you cite at least one Times article and at least one article from outside The Times. There is a dedicated field in the submission form to cite a number of sources, because readers (and judges) should always be able to tell where you got your evidence. (You do not need to provide in-text citations.)
Please be very careful to put quotations around any direct quotes you use, and to cite the source of anything you paraphrase. If we put a sentence from your submission into a search engine, we don’t want to find it anywhere else — unless you’re clearly quoting or citing that source. We take evidence and allegations of plagiarism very seriously.
4. You can write your editorial by yourself or with a group, but please submit only one editorial per student.
Because editorial writing at newspapers is a collaborative process, you can write your entry as a team or by yourself — though, please, only one submission per student.
If you are working as a team, just remember to submit all of your names when you post your entry. And if you’re submitting as part of a team, you should not also submit as an individual.
5. We will use this rubric to judge your work, but the best way to get a feel for what we’re looking for is to read a few essays by previous winners.
We believe in using student work as mentor texts, so much so that we’ve just published a book — and teacher’s guide — with 100 award-winning essays drawn from this contest.
But you don’t have to buy the book to see many examples; just skim through this column of recent winners and choose some that interest you. As you go, ask yourself: What ideas does this give me for my own work? What do I admire? What “writer’s moves” did this student use that I might try to use to make my own piece stronger?
6. All entries must be submitted by April 13 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern using the contest form above.
We provide a small window of time after that deadline to allow for technical difficulties. However, at some point after the deadline, our contest submission form closes and you will not be allowed to submit an entry, so please be mindful of the deadline and submit early.
Please read through all the official eligibility and submission rules before submitting your editorial. If you have questions, please see the Frequently Asked Questions section below.
Resources for Teachers and Students
As teachers know, the persuasive essay has long been a staple of high school education, but the Common Core standards seem to have put evidence-based argumentative writing on everybody’s agenda. You couldn’t ask for a more real-world example of the genre than the essays published in newspaper opinion sections every day, and The Times publishes a bounty of them.
Beyond that daily section, however, we have many more resources to help teachers and students plan for this contest:
Our daily Student Opinion feature, a low-stakes opportunity to practice honing arguments for an audience. Anyone 13-19 years old is welcome to post on any question past or present.
A curated selection of argumentative writing prompts: 401 Prompts for Argumentative Writing plus, new for 2021, 300 Questions and Images to Inspire Argument Writing
A free webinar about this year’s contest, Teaching Argumentative Writing. (Feb. 11)
Earlier webinars, now on-demand: “Teach Argumentative Writing With Our Student Editorial Contest” and “Write to Change the World: Crafting Persuasive Pieces With Help From Nicholas Kristof and the Times Op-Ed Page.”
Our video “How to Write an Editorial.”
Our lesson plan: “10 Ways to Teach Argument-Writing With The New York Times” which links to many more resources relevant to this contest, including ideas from educators who teach with it annually.
Our contest rubric.
A new book, “Student Voice,” that collects 100 of the best student essays from this contest all in one place, categorized by subjects like “Teenage Life Online,” “Gender and Sexuality” and “Sports and Gaming” — plus, a related teacher’s guide.
Coming soon: Some new entries in our Annotated By the Author series, featuring student winners from 2020 discussing their work and sharing tips.
Frequently Asked Questions
QUESTIONS ABOUT JUDGING
How will my editorial be judged?
Your work will be read by New York Times journalists, as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.
What’s the prize?
Having your work published on The Learning Network and being eligible to have your work published in the print New York Times.
When will the winners be announced?
About six weeks to two months after the contest has closed.
If you are a finalist, you will be notified before publication via email. Please check your inbox for a permission form that must be signed by a parent or guardian if you are under 18 years old in order for us to publish your name and work on our site.
My essay wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?
We receive thousands of entries for this contest, so unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on each student’s essay.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES
Who is eligible to participate in this contest?
For this contest, we invite students ages 11 to 19 in middle school or high school to write an editorial. For students in the United States, we consider middle school to begin in sixth grade; students outside of the United States must be at least 11 years old to enter.
The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest, nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.
If you are not sure if you are eligible for this contest (for example, if you’re taking a gap year), please see our more detailed eligibility rules.
Can I have someone else check my work?
We understand that students will often revise their work based on feedback from teachers and peers. That is allowed for this contest. However, be sure that the final submission reflects the ideas, voice and writing ability of the student, not someone else.
My essay has already been published in my school newspaper. Can I submit it to this contest?
No. We ask that your editorial be original for this contest. Please don’t submit anything you have already published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.
Who can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?
Leave a comment on this post or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
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QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST
I’m a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?
Here is our full unit on teaching argumentative writing. We will be adding resources throughout the weeks the contest runs this year, and both this page and that one will be updated.
Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?
The New York Times is now available to high school students and teachers across the United States for FREE through Sept. 1, 2021. Learn more and invite your classes here. (Please note that once teachers send an invitation, students will need to accept it to get their free account.)
If your students are not yet in high school, and they don’t have a subscription, they can get access to Times pieces through The Learning Network. All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page (scroll down past the featured articles to the article stream). In the rest of The Times, they can access up to five free articles a month.
How do my students prove to me that they entered this contest?
After they submit their essays, students should receive an email from The New York Times with the subject heading “Thank you for your submission to our Editorial Contest,” which they can forward to you to show their entry has been accepted.
300 Questions and Images to Inspire Argument Writing
If you’ve taught argument writing with our resources in the past, you already know we ask a fresh question every day as part of our long-running Student Opinion series. Teenagers around the world are invited to visit and post their thoughts on topics including politics, medical ethics, fashion, sports and entertainment.
We’ve rounded up lists of these prompts in the past, but this year we’re doing something new: Below you can find a categorized collection of all our recent, relevant Student Opinion questions, but alongside them we’re also including related Picture Prompts. These short, image-based forums are accessible to learners of all ages, but still provide engaging jumping-off points to help students make and support claims.
For instance, let’s say your class is interested in meme culture. A Student Opinion question asks, “Do Memes Make the Internet a Better Place?” and invites students to read and weigh in on a New York Times article that examines the role of memes in how teenagers process world events. Over 700 students have already submitted their thoughts.
But if you scan the “Technology and Social Media” category below, you’ll see we also have a Picture Prompt that asks a more direct, concrete question: “What are your favorite memes?” For many, that may be a fun, comfortable place to start.
So give your students both “voice and choice” by inviting them to find the questions and format that speak to them. All the prompts below are still open for comment. We look forward to seeing which ones inspire the most passionate arguments, and we invite your class to submit the results to our Eighth Annual Editorial Contest.
Technology & Social Media
How Have You Used Our Student Editorials as Mentor Texts? An Invitation to Teachers and Students
Kabby Hong, an English teacher in Wisconsin, shows his students how essays like “In Three and a Half Hours, an Alarm Will Go Off,” a 2015 contest winner, not only make a tight argument, but do so with voice and style. He says the varied verbs in the first paragraph alone — “drag,” “plop” and “dive” — inspire his students to be more thoughtful about their own word choices.
Dawn Viles, an English teacher in Tennessee, uses the essays to encourage students who think they have nothing to say. She shows them the wide array of topics winners have taken on in the past, and says that her class found “I’m a Disabled Teenager, and Social Media Is My Lifeline” particularly compelling this year.
And Christa Forster, an English teacher in Houston, pairs the work of winners with literature to make themes like “taking a stand” more accessible and concrete. Essays like “The Red Stain on Society,” “Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence,” and “Confronting Toxicity in Gaming” recently had her sophomores “chattering energetically” in virtual breakout rooms about the sentences they found interesting, risky and moving, she says.
If you, too, are a teacher who has taught with the work of any of the previous winners of our Student Editorial Contest — or if you are a student who has learned from them — we invite you to tell us what worked and why.
And if you’ve never used these essays as mentor texts, this is an invitation to try it and see what happens.
We hope to publish your ideas next month, both to kick off our Eighth Annual Student Editorial Contest, which runs from Feb. 23-April 13, and to celebrate the publication of the first-ever Learning Network books, a collection of over 100 of these short essays and a companion teacher’s guide that make using them easy.
The book “Student Voice” gathers evergreen, winning essays from 2014-20 all in one place, and categorizes them by subjects like “Teenage Life Online,” “Gender and Sexuality” and “Sports and Gaming.” The teacher’s guide contains practical strategies from the Times Opinion section and from more than a dozen educators who teach with our contest. It also includes helpful additions like a “Topic Generator” for students, a list of writing prompts and an index to some of the successful rhetorical moves these student writers have made.
Our aim is to show teenagers a variety of ways students their own age have made effective and powerful arguments that grew out of their real-life experiences and interests — playing tackle football, taking selfies and shopping for shoes, as well as fighting racial, religious, gender and ableist stereotypes. But our most important goal in putting together this collection? To convince any kids who pick up the book that they, too, have something important to say.
However you get access to them, let us know what you’ve used, and how and why you’ve used them, by filling out the form below. We’d love to hear from teachers and from students, so please spread the word!
If you need help, below the form we’ve listed a few questions — some for educators and some for students — that might spur brainstorming.
Educators
Have you used any of the essays by previous winners of this contest to:
Encourage them to make their own voices heard?
Pair with other works or topics you are teaching?
Demonstrate to them that there are as many ways to write evidence-based opinion pieces as there are writers of those pieces?
Or, have you use these essays in some other way?
If you have used the essays, tell us what’s worked best. If you haven’t, this is an invitation to experiment and tell us what happens.
Students
Have you used any of the work of the winners as inspiration, whether you found it yourself or a teacher assigned it?
Did another student’s topic help you figure out what you’d like to write about or what topics you’d want to avoid?
Have you admired or even borrowed any “writer’s moves” from a piece — whether that “move” was crafting an opening line, introducing evidence, weaving in a first-person point of view, or anything else, no matter how small?
Have you used any of these essays in any other way? Please let us know.
Students must be 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, or 16 and older elsewhere, to submit.
Lesson of the Day: ‘A Look at Past Vaccine Drives: Smallpox, Polio and the Swine Flu’
5. What important lessons can we apply from the history of vaccine campaigns to the current one? Name at least two.
6. What is your reaction to the article? Does it change your view of the current vaccine campaign? What did you find most memorable, surprising or thought-provoking? What questions about vaccines and the current vaccine distribution effort do you still have?
Going Further
Option 1: Make a Recommendation to President Biden
Imagine you are a member of the president’s coronavirus team: What advice would you give to President Biden to improve the current vaccination rollout in the United States?
In December, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. vowed to get “at least 100 million Covid vaccine shots into the arms of the American people” during his first 100 days in office. On Jan. 25, Mr. Biden revised his target:
President Biden, under pressure to speed up the pace of coronavirus vaccination, said on Monday that he was now aiming for the United States to administer 1.5 million vaccine doses a day — a goal that is 50 percent higher than his initial target but one that the nation already appears on track to meet.
The president made his comments just hours after he banned travel by noncitizens into the United States from South Africa because of concern about a coronavirus variant spreading in that country, and moved to extend similar bans imposed by his predecessor on travel from Brazil, Europe and Britain. Those bans were set to expire on Tuesday.
Mr. Biden has vowed to get “100 million Covid-19 shots in the arms of the American people” by his 100th day in office. Because two doses are required, and some Americans have already been vaccinated, his promise would cover about 67 million Americans. To realize it, the United States would have to administer one million shots a day.
Read the rest of the Jan. 25 article, and then consider: What are the strengths and weaknesses of President Biden’s plan for improving the coronavirus vaccination campaign? Is it too ambitious or not ambitious enough? Do you believe that it adequately addresses the problems in the rollout so far? What is missing from his plan? What lessons from two centuries of vaccination drives can you offer to the new administration?
To help you formulate your advice to the new president, read, watch or listen to these resources to better understand the successes and failures of the current vaccination campaign and Mr. Biden’s plans to improve it:
Biden Pledges Federal Vaccine Campaign to Beat a Surging Coronavirus
Here’s Why Distribution of the Vaccine Is Taking Longer Than Expected
New Pandemic Plight: Hospitals Are Running Out of Vaccines
Black and Latino New Yorkers Trail White Residents in Vaccine Rollout
How West Virginia Became a U.S. Leader in Vaccine Rollout
Please, Biden, Try for 2 Million Shots a Day
Four Ways to Fix the Vaccine Rollout
Biden Unveils Plan to Combat Coronavirus | Video
‘We Have to Start Treating This as the National Emergency It Is.’ | Podcast
Vaccination Day at Dodger Stadium: Hours of Traffic and 7,730 Shots | Photo Essay
Option 2: Create a Visual Timeline
Create a visual timeline that explains and compares vaccine drives throughout history. Consider how you can use images, shapes, size and color to represent important information, like scope, time, location and other recurring themes and lessons. Here are more tips from Venngage.
Sketch the timeline on a piece of paper or try building it digitally on a free platform like Padlet or Venngage.
Get inspiration and advice from Paulina’s story—and see how she’s using AI to improve healthcare in Ghana!
Meet Paulina, a final-year medical student exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to solve healthcare delivery problems in West Africa. Read on to see how she’s using what she’s learned from her courses to not only expand educational opportunities in her community, but tackle community health projects through programming and data analysis.
I was introduced to the world of AI by Coursera and now I cannot stay away. I joined Coursera in November 2019 because I was curious about building software to tackle problems with healthcare delivery and had heard the buzz around AI and machine learning (ML).
I care about people being in good health. I am close to completing medical school, and while I’m a beginner in my tech journey, one way I can already contribute to the community is by sharing what I’m learning. I have been volunteering for various initiatives since 2017, working in about seven different communities in the Ashanti region of Ghana. After the pandemic started, for example, I took the opportunity to write an article exploring the use of local gins as hand sanitizers. I interviewed an expert chemical scientist to analyze its effectiveness and find better ways of leveraging these findings. My report was aired on national television.
To increase my knowledge and skills, I’ve taken seven AI-related courses and one writing course on Coursera so far. These include Machine Learning by Stanford University and a Guided Project in Creating Neural Networks from Scratch in TensorFlow. Coursera has provided me with a great platform to study what I want to study—in a systematic manner and at my own pace. I have begun practising what I’m learning on real-world projects. I have a long way to go but I have imbibed Coursera’s advice to “keep learning!”
Paulina’s advice: Don’t be discouraged by the time it takes to reach your goal. Start with an hour or two a day, and keep it going: a day at a time.
Here are some of the courses that I completed:
Here is how I used what I learned in programming and data analysis to increase my impact on my community:
- I am working on a research project in child health for some communities in Ghana. With a few lines of code, I found a quick way to extract data from questionnaires for easier analysis. This would have taken hours to do manually!
- I’m also part of a teaming building software to solve blood donation and delivery problems in Ghana and Nigeria. Our solution required us to incorporate a geolocation API — which I learned how to do specifically on Coursera.
On a more personal note, I was born to farmers, and raised in a farming community. I often joke with my friends that, “once a farm girl, always a farm girl.” Beyond sentimental reasons, I would like to employ the skills I gain to enhance food production and distribution. That’s the beauty and versatility of gaining software development skills—they can be employed everywhere.
One last thing I wanted to mention as a fun fact: I volunteer with Yielding Accomplished African Women (Yaa.W), an organization that trains young women from all over Africa in tech and finance. In December 2019, Yaa.W organized Africa’s first Women in Machine Learning conference. For the 100 women selected, they were each required to complete two specific ML-related courses on Coursera, as prerequisites for the conference! Learn more about this program and how you can get involved here.
Coursera Receives B Corp™ Certification
By Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO Coursera
Today, we are proud to announce that Coursera has received B Corp certification from B Lab, an independent non-profit organization, for meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. We have also converted to a Public Benefit Corporation. Now we have a legal duty not only to our shareholders but also to make a positive impact on society more broadly.
Now more than ever, institutions must play a vital role in rebuilding a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Society needs companies to be a catalyst for positive social change, ensuring that their growth and innovations have a broader and equitable impact on our communities.
Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng founded Coursera with a mission to provide universal access to world-class learning. While our purpose, strategy, and practices have always been consistent with B Corp requirements, the demand Coursera has experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic calls for us to play an even greater role in empowering communities and institutions. This is one of the reasons we are now committing to a higher standard of purpose and impact through third-party validation, public transparency, and legal accountability. Becoming a Public Benefit Corporation in the State of Delaware and obtaining B Corp certification represents our formal commitment that we will continue our efforts to reduce barriers to world-class education and help institutions around the globe collaborate, learn, and advance together.
I am excited about the transition and how it creates new opportunities for our stakeholders to join us in our efforts to make a positive difference in the world. It brings us even closer to many of our educator partners. As top universities, they are naturally driven by a bigger cause. It will also broaden our collaboration with industry educators and enterprise customers who share our commitment to a better and more equitable world. Finally, we are tremendously excited about the influence it will have on our employees and culture — today and in the future. Together, we expect this journey to further inspire Courserians as we lead the way in exemplifying how businesses like Coursera can be a force for good in the world.
Free February 2021 Wallpaper & Instagram quote
Our free February 2021 wallpaper is here!
This month is all about love, colorful hearts, and sweets so I could not pick a different pattern for a wallpaper. Soft pink heart shapes on the pastel backrgound will add a worm touch to still cold winter days. It is a small valentine gift from us to you!
As always, our February’s free wallpaper comes with two different mobile phone layouts. They are great to use at once – the simple version for your phone background and the one with a quote for the lock screen.
This month quote
2020 was a harsh year for lots of people. I’m so proud of all of you that we made it to the next year. This month’s quote is here to remind you that you shouldn’t stop dreaming and loving each other.
Dream without fear, love without limits
P.S the square image is also included in the download package below! Feel free to post it on your Instagram.
What font is it?
Free February’s wallpaper features Lucita and Geometrica. The first one comes with really cute heart embellishments and was featured in our 8 Best Valentine’s Day Fonts list. It is my first choice for all romantic and casual projects.
Looking for more? Check our previous wallpapers!
In conclusion, the free download includes three desktop options – one with the calendar and one without the calendar and one with a quote. There is also a wallpaper for tablet and two options for the phone. We have also included an Instagram ready square with the weekly quote.
Your voice matters!
If you have your favorite quotes and would like them to appear on the next free wallpaper, make sure to post them in the comments below or send us your ideas via email.
Enjoy!
FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.
Lastly, we would appreciate if you can share this freebie. It is really easy! Just click on the buttons below. It is completely free for you but helps us grow and produce even more content.
Share and help us grow. Thanks!
P.S This post includes affiliate links so by clicking them you are supporting us. Thanks!
Glimpses of an Ancient Fire-Walking Ritual in Northern Greece
The room was dimly lit, illuminated only by a weak yellow light bulb and the flames from the fireplace. A small group of men and women, clutching the holy icons of Greek Orthodox saints, was dancing and twirling around the floor under the sound of the instruments: a Thracian lyre, a gaida, a tambourine. The dancers, surrendering to the music, had their eyes closed.
Everyone sang together:
Constantine the little one, little Constantine,
His mother had him, she took care of him while he was very young,
A message came for him to go to war,
He saddles and horseshoes his horse in the night,
He puts silver petals, golden nails and a pearl on the saddle.
Their voices carried outside into the rainy streets. A while later, in a kind of an ecstasy, they began walking barefoot on burning coals.
Each year on May 21, the Greek Orthodox Church celebrates Saint Constantine and Saint Helen. In the small village of Lagadas, about half an hour outside Thessaloniki in northern Greece, the celebrations last for three days and include a spectacular fire-walking ritual called Anastenaria, the word for which derives from the Greek “anastasi,” meaning resurrection.
In 2016 I traveled to northern Greece to meet some of the people who maintain these traditions.
The family and close friends of Anastasios Gaintatzis are some of the last remaining participants. Mr. Gaintatzis, who is 85, is one of the oldest fire walkers in the country. His family, who once lived in what is today the Bulgarian town of Kosti, in eastern Thrace, arrived in Lagadas in 1923, after the compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
The people gathered here were members of a club formed by the Gaintatzis family in 1994 to help perpetuate the local fire-walking traditions.
Ethnographers believe that the ritual has its roots in the ancient Greek celebrations of Dionysus — and that, through the years, the pagan traditions have melded with Orthodox rites.
Others believe in a local legend that attributes the origins of the ceremony to when the church of Constantine and Helen caught fire in Kosti, many hundreds of years ago. According to lore, the voices of the saints were heard pleading for help inside the church. Villagers entered the flaming building to rescue the saints’ icons, and, when they came out, neither the rescuers nor the icons were harmed. They’d been protected from the fire by the saints.
The Anastenaria ritual starts at the konaki, a special shrine dedicated to the saints, where the icons are placed among the amanetia (red handkerchiefs that are considered sacred by the fire walkers) and other tributes.
Then the musicians arrive and the celebration begins.
The fire-walking ceremony is usually performed outside, but in 2016 a heavy rainfall forced the event indoors.
One of the group members placed large pieces of wood on the fireplace and, by the time hot coals had formed, everybody was ready to begin. The celebrants removed the carpet, scattered the burning coal on the ground and, one by one, started walking on it, barefoot, with closed eyes, almost drunk with the emotions of the moment.
Some participants walked slowly, others more quickly. They followed the rhythm of the music. I tried to pay close attention to their faces. They showed no signs of pain or inconvenience. In fact they seemed rather calm and peaceful.
When the first batch of coal had cooled, a second batch was brought out from the fireplace, and the ceremony continued unabated.
Even as a spectator, I felt a swell of emotion while watching the fire walkers — and perhaps even the deep mystery and divinity of the moment.
The Anastenaria rituals in Lagadas usually attract dozens of people from the surrounding area, but on the first day the poor weather kept most visitors away. The following two days, however, after the rain stopped, many people came to watch — and this time the fire-walking pit was set up in an outdoor area near the konaki, provided to the celebrants by the municipality.
Metal barriers were arranged in a large circle to keep the audience safe, and in the center members of the group lit a huge fire on a pile of wood. As night fell, people gathered around to watch. When the fire walkers and the musicians left the konaki, it was already pitch black outside. All the lights in the area went off, and the only thing you could see was the burning coal. The crowd stared in silence as the fire walkers rushed onto the embers.
After the celebration, the members of the group gathered back at the konaki and ate hot bowls of soup to help ward off the cold weather. They offered a bowl to me, too. Soon everyone had departed except for Anastasios Gaintatzis.
Mr. Gaintatzis has long tried to keep the custom alive by bringing new family members and close friends into the fold whenever possible. But it’s not an easy task, he said.
“It’s something that can’t be taught,” he told me. “It’s the saints who call you.”
