Fire, walk with me: red-hot religious fervour endures in northern Greece

[icymist]

LAGADAS, Greece (AFP) - As night falls on the small town of Langadas, northern Greece, a dozen men and women prepare for a centuries-old ritual that combines Orthodox Christian rites with paganism and is literally a trial of faith by fire.

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"This ceremony has very ancient roots. It dates from a time when people worshipped the sun and fire," says ethnologist Miranda Terzopoulou.

"I see a purifying sense in it ... an internal force to master fire, which is a pagan element," adds Terzopoulou, herself initiated into the fire-walking rite over past years along with dozens of new adepts.

Not surprisingly, Greece's powerful Orthodox Church that frowns on all vestiges of paganism says fire-walking is "heretical," and Orthodox priests are rarely seen during the ritual.

"The Church says that we have the Devil inside us," says Melikis.

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The Devil inside, the Devil inside, Every single one of us, the Devil inside.... inxs