BTW Greece moving into the EU meant they had to get a special ratified status to keep blocking women access (that would be illegal otherwise)
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=15779940...
Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
21–30 of 173 posts
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#22Before the "woke" people come out of their holes and try to bash this: The concept IS NOT to exclude women, the idea was to move to the most distant place possible, and to live a life far away from society, love, sex, etc. - something everybody should respect. These people living there dont want to harm anybody, and there's no reason to "go there an visit them" or to do any "feminist" stunts.
Intention matters.
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#23Not too different in reason, but until 1868 some female disciples of a particular religion were banned from climbing Mt Fuji passed a certain point: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-religious-cult-belie...
> Not everyone could revel in wonders of Mount Fuji’s lava caves. Until 1868, women were banned from climbing higher than the middle zone of the mountain, ascetics worrying that they would distract men from their religious duties and other traditional taboos.
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#24The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…
>Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled 16th-century Gregorian calendar; they still use the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, which lags 13 days behind
Russian Orthodox Church also still follows the Julian calendar. Majority of Orthodox countries switched to Gregorian only in the 20th century.
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#25I often yearn for the "unearthly quiet" and structure of a monastic life. I am not religious but I just feel as if I don't belong in society: I don't care about work, jobs, careers, riches, fame. I would like a life of study, contemplation and silence.
I think there's a small mismatch of expectations. A monastery is not generally a "life of study". There may be study and prayerful contemplation, but there is definitely labor, physical labor -- generally starting with some measure of agriculture -- as the community supports itself.
It's also still a society, a small one at least, a group life. It is likely to impose on you much more than society in general, though in different ways. If you prefer solitude, you may be looking to become a hermit, rather than a monk.
In a secular context: You might care about work, jobs, careers, and riches, is not for their own sake, but because the riches can support you in a life of study. With a million or two from tech you can buy a small house somewhere quiet and study there all you like.
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#26Before the "woke" people come out of their holes and try to bash this: The concept IS NOT to exclude women, the idea was to move to the most distant place possible, and to live a life far away from society, love, sex, etc. - something everybody should respect. These people living there dont want to harm anybody, and there's no reason to "go there an visit them" or to do any "feminist" stunts. Intention matters.
I still feel it's stupid to get far away from society
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#27The time zone issues sound fun: > A visit to Mount Athos also involves literal time travel. The monasteries there still go by Byzantine time, in which the day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the time zone changes literally every day. Visitors may have to set their watches back by as much as seven hours as they cross the border. And don't forget to change the date as well. Mount Athos never adopted the new-fangled…
It sounds irrelevant instead, and whoever wrote the article, is obviously being a bit too playful with words.
Of course it's not "two weeks ago there", it's just that the date is different: it's as if you tried to use a different calendar system altogether — it's fine, you just need to convert back and forth. FWIW, a bunch of churches (Russian, Serbian, Romanian Orthodox churches) still respect the Julian calendar too, and other than Christmas falling on January 7th in the Gregorian calendar (and Easter calculations using different start points), none of it is particularly notable. Gregorian calendar is not more "correct," it's just better aligned with astronomical events.
Astronomers also take middle of the day as the start of the day (look up Julian Days), because noon (Sun at the apex) is what we can actually observe and measure, so that's not something outrageous either.
Basically, it's "scandalous" type of reporting on different conventions which obviously have no practical matter.
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#28https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerxes_Canal is pretty neat too
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#29Before the "woke" people come out of their holes and try to bash this: The concept IS NOT to exclude women, the idea was to move to the most distant place possible, and to live a life far away from society, love, sex, etc. - something everybody should respect. These people living there dont want to harm anybody, and there's no reason to "go there an visit them" or to do any "feminist" stunts. Intention matters.
If the concept is not to exclude women but instead to move to the most distant place possible, then why do they let men from outside visit but not women?
Re: Mount Athos, the “Autonomous Monastic State” of Greece (2016)
#30Before the "woke" people come out of their holes and try to bash this: The concept IS NOT to exclude women, the idea was to move to the most distant place possible, and to live a life far away from society, love, sex, etc. - something everybody should respect. These people living there dont want to harm anybody, and there's no reason to "go there an visit them" or to do any "feminist" stunts. Intention matters.
[deleted]