Snow covered the banks of a river near Moscow where several hundred people led by Orthodox priests slid along an icy path on January 19 to cleanse their souls and bodies with the river water.
"When Thou, O Lord, was baptized in [the River] Jordan, the worship of the Trinity was manifested," sang a small choir in Church Slavonic barely audible to onlookers striving to get a glimpse of the activity at the river's edge. A priest dipped a heavy liturgical cross hanging on a rope into the water, making the sign of the cross three times.
Minutes later, sweaters and sheepskin coats were dropped on the snow, and the bravest of the pilgrims hurriedly crossed themselves before plunging into the icy river.
Although unusually mild for a Russian winter, the air temperature hovered around 0 degrees Celsius—far colder than temperatures were imagined to be in the ancient Middle East, where the ceremony to mark the festival of Epiphany had its origins in the first centuries AD.
In western Christianity, Epiphany—a Greek word meaning "manifestation"—marks the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, whereas in Orthodoxy, the festival commemorates the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan, when, according to the New Testament, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove.
In many traditionally Orthodox countries, Epiphany is celebrated on January 19, 13 days later than in western churches, because most Orthodox churches still calculate the church year according to the Julian calendar.
Orthodox Christians believe that water from any river, pond, tap, or shower becomes Christ's baptismal water on this day.
The faithful celebrated Epiphany with water blessing ceremonies in various places around the world, from Serbia to Siberia to Ethiopia. At the River Jordan, which today separates Israeli-controlled territories from the kingdom of Jordan, worshippers gathered on both sides of the river on the eve of Epiphany, January 18, as Archbishop Phinidectos of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jordan blessed the water on the eastern bank of the river, the Associated Press reported.
In most Russian Orthodox churches, the blessing is performed in large water tanks, and crowds of people line up with jars, bottles, and canisters to fill and take home.
But here in Istra, about 60 kilometers from Moscow, biblical events take on a special significance. Sitting on a hill above the river is a white compound called New Jerusalem, originally built in the 17th century by Patriarch Nikon.
The compound, an Orthodox monastery, contains a replica of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Patriarch Nikon called the nearby park Gethsemane—after the garden to which Jesus and his disciples retired after the Last Supper—and renamed the portion of the Istra River that runs through the park River Jordan.
Closed shortly after the revolution, the monastery was bombed during the Second World War. Since 1994 when the monastery was reopened, the community has shared the grounds with the Moscow regional art and history museum.
The river is one of the region's favorite spots for marking the Epiphany celebration, in large part because the water, fed by natural springs, is clean enough to drink.
Like the majority of celebrants on Saturday, Vladimir Likhatsky, an engineer from Moscow, did not dare to dive into the icy water. But his friend Victor, who identified himself only as an assistant to a member of the Russian parliament, said he had swum here the previous night, when the first blessing of the water was performed on the nearby source of the spring.
Victor said he was not a morzh, or walrus, as health-conscious fans of winter swimming are called in Russian.
"This is not morzhevaniye [ice swimming]," he says. "This is a holy act. You do it with faith in God, and He strengthens your health and spirit. You immerse yourself once again into the holiness of everything that surrounds him."
Orthodox Christianity does not oppose things material to things spiritual, but instead emphasizes the wholeness of creation. For this reason, blessings of natural substances—which may appear strange to some modern Westerners—are an integral part of the Eastern Christian mindset.
This explains in part why immersing oneself in water—a Christian version of an ancient purification ritual—has proved to be such a persistent tradition in Russia, despite the nation's unfavorable climate.
In addition, a widespread superstitious belief in rituals also accounts for the popularity of the water ceremony. On Epiphany, Orthodox churches across Russia are packed with people who at other times rarely set foot inside them, lining up with jars and canisters to receive holy water.
At the river in New Jerusalem, Nikolai Gubarev, 17, was sure that the water he carried in two canisters would "help someone who is sick or exorcise devils." He was not certain, however, whether it would have any effect without a prayer to God. "Perhaps it would still help, but less," he said. "Of course there has to be an internal belief, an internal participation in the process."
Unlike Gubarev, who said he was "not yet ready" to take a dip in the river, Margarita Cherkasova, 61, joked that she was the oldest swimmer around.
"It feels wonderful! Go try yourself!" Cherkasova exclaimed, drying herself with a towel after emerging from the river. "Those who believe in God have no fear!"
Copyright © 2002 ENI
Related Elsewhere
The Moscow Times has a slightly different version of this story written by Andrei Zolotov. It is accompanied by a great photo essay from the Epiphany festivities.
A Saint Petersburg University site on the Patriarch Nikon has an online tour of New Jerusalem featuring an overview map and individual pages and pictures for various sections of the monastery.
See more Christianity Today articles available in the Russia World Report and Eastern Orthodoxy.
