Spring Bayou B & B Inn

The view of Spring Bayou is gorgeous here. And on Epiphany morning, it was swarming with a sea of people. Thousands of locals and visitors came to see what all the hubub was about, what turns this sleepy little tourist town into a thriving community once again.
On the Orthodox celebration of Epiphany, January 6, people gather at Spring Bayou from all over the country in Warm or cold weather and watch as boys ages 16 – 18 dive for a cross thrown into the bayou by the church officials. The tossing of the cross and the boy’s jumping in commemorates the baptisim of Christ.
This year, it was warm! (unlike last year, where I remember it being nearly freezing) 49 boys swam to boats tethered at the perimeter of the dive area, capsizing 2 of them. That made the crowd laugh. When the cross was brought up, it was a Tarpon Springs local boy, 18 years old who found it, bringing his family a year of luck and local celebrity.