Every year on the 14th of September the Holy Cross is celebrated in every Orthodox church in Greece.
On this day the women in the villages cut some branches of the basilicum that they have been growing all summer to bring it to church, where it will be blessed. The Greeks do this because they believe that Saint Helen found the Cross on a place where a lot of basilicum grew.
In some places people also take water to the church to be blessed, this water then will be used to make the new leaven that will be used to make the leavened bread of the coming year.
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