Come on in, the water’s lovely! Hundreds of Russian Orthodox Christians plunge into icy pool to celebrate baptism of Jesus
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | January 21, 2013 11:49Thousands of Orthodox Church followers plunged into icy rivers and ponds across Russia and the former Soviet republics to commemorate the baptism of Jesus Christ.
Worshipers braved temperatures of -26C to mark Epiphany by cleansing themselves with water deemed holy for the day.
Water that is blessed by a cleric on Epiphany is considered holy and pure until next year’s celebration, and is believed to have special powers of protection and healing.
Believers were pictured cleansing themselves in Moscow’s Red Square, at Tyarlevo village outside St Petersburg, where the temperature was -26C, in Lviv, western Ukraine, and in Minsk, Belarus.
Orthodox Christians celebrate the religious holiday of Epiphany according to the Julian calendar on January 19
Epiphany Day marks the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by Saint John and is traditionally held in Russia, which uses the Julian calendar, on January 19.
Egypt, Syria and Lebanon follow the same calendar but churches that use the Gregorian calendar celebrate the feast on January 6.
Since 1970, the rule for the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church is: ‘The Epiphany of the Lord is celebrated on 6 January, unless, where it is not observed as a Holy day of obligation, it has been assigned to the Sunday occurring between 2 and 8 January.’
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