video transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: Orthodox Christians in Istanbul attended the annual Epiphany dive ceremony on Sunday. After a traditional church service, worshippers walked to the Golden Horn estuary with Patriarch Bartholomew. As part of a tradition dating back to Byzantine times, a crucifix is thrown into the waters by the patriarch and young divers plunge in, competing to retrieve it. Hundreds of members of Istanbul's Greek Orthodox community attend the ceremony every year on the banks of the stretch of water known as the Golden Horn, which cuts into the western side of the Bosphorus, dividing the city's European and Asian sides.