Greek Names and the Truth
Under beautiful skies this past weekend the St. Andrew Greek Orthodox festival took place on the church grounds. We the vendors were inside an air conditioned large auditorium and let the day begin. Wasn't very busy on Saturday for us, but something else happened that needs attention.
I want to write to you to explain an unusual occurrence that happened on Saturday afternoon and within a hour of each other. I spot a man browsing the Greek key chain table. The eight foot table is covered from one side to another side organized in open trays and rows hundreds of alphabetized and indexed Greek names key chains. The current count is just over 400 male and female Greek names. I never said I have ALL the names.
This man took a quick look and he me a told the story. A woman a friend of his wife's is coming from Greece. Her name is Alethia or Αλήθεια meaning the 'the truth'. It's a uncommon name but, it doesn't surprise me since there are fairly common names like Κυριακή (Sunday) and Παρασκευή (Friday) named after weekdays. I proceed to take this name information with the agreement that I will engrave one with this name and send it to him. Not a big deal to me and often offer to this to people who really want to see their names etched into anodized aluminum.
An hour or so later another couple comes by this time and they are looking at all the names again. I wasn't at the booth behind the table but, off to the side speaking to someone. They didn't seem as Greek as the first person but, I asked anyway if they needed help to find a name. The woman says to me in English and tries to pronounce her middle name in Greek. At first I don't recognize it. That's common when foreigners aren't use to the language and forget how to pronounce Greek sounds and words. I say...hesitantly, do you mean Alethia? And she says 'Yes!'. I immediately tell her what happened earlier and proceed to reach for my note pad where I had written down all my sales and notes and to show them that this is not a fluke and really did happen. I showed them the name and address of this person who this first key chain will be sent too.
Weird, strange, a coincidence. What does it mean? Especially with this word's definition. The truth and to happen at a Greek Orthodox Church festival too.
What do you think it means?