RUSSIA: People all across Russia jump into icy waters to wash off their sins and to kick start a healthy new year

Record ID: 760368

  • Title: RUSSIA: People all across Russia jump into icy waters to wash off their sins and to kick start a healthy new year
  • Date: 20th January 2012
  • Summary: MAN WITH A LITTLE BOY ON HIS ARMS COMING OUT OF WATER, BOY SAYING 'I'M NOT GOING THERE AGAIN!'
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Quirky,Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVAE7KXM7606T49AG8XL0S1BOXB7
  • Story Text: Thousands of people jumped in frigid waters all across Russia on Thursday (January 19, 2012) to mark the celebration of the Russian Orthodox Epiphany. From the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East to the heart of Moscow, all over the vast nation believers braced freezing winter weather to make the holy jump.
    In Moscow, according to Orthodox tradition priests first blessed the water in the hole cut in frozen Moskva river before believers could take the holy bath.
    The age-old ritual commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, or the Epiphany, which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates on 19 January, in the middle of the Russian winter. By bathing on this day, believers symbolically wash off their sins. They also believe the dip in the cold is good for their health. Religion aside, Russians have long believed in the beneficial effects of bathing in freezing water. Many do so throughout the winter, earning them the nickname of "morzhi," or walruses.
    "I am a winter swimmer, there's a place near here where I have been winter swimming for seven years already. On such a great holiday like Epiphany, which is one of the twelve great feasts, the feeling is amazing, you don't feel the cold and you feel God's grace," Moscow resident Yuri Nikolayevich said.
    "(This way) you are closer to traditions, you get good positive emotions, you get into good mood and it is very refreshing," Moscow resident Elena said standing in her bathrobe right after she had dipped in icy river water.
    In the most of Eastern Russia the temperatures are usually plummeting below 50 degrees Celsius in some parts of Siberia, but that did not put of the believers from their annual bath.
    Hundreds of people in the Kamchatka Peninsula on the Pacific Ocean walked to the icy waters of the Avachinskiy bay at midnight and ran in to the water.
    "You come out of water feeling purged (from sin). And it's warm, it's absolutely normal, and I have lost one of my slippers," one of the late night bathers said after his holy plunge.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
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