Wooden Fonts to Be Set Up In Moscow City Centre on Epiphany for Outdoor Dipping

Wooden fonts for outdoor dipping are being set up on Revolution Square in the city centre of Moscow, the press service of the Moscow central administrative district told Interfax on Friday. “A prayer service for consecration of water will be held at 13.30 MSK, and, then, we invite everyone to take a dip in an outdoor ritual font”, a staff member at the prefecture said. Heated cabins for changing are being prepared for the participants. Hot tea with honey will be given to people after they dip in the fonts. Actors from historical and ethnographical theatre and folk groups will give performances on Revolution Square, and clown and puppet shows are also scheduled to be held. The spokesman of the prefecture reminded Interfax that the Russian Winter Festival is being held from 1 December to 19 January on Revolution Square. The Christmas village was constructed especially for the festival from the late-nineteenth century sketches. “Everyone will find something to their liking. Children can go to the attractions, while adults can buy unique folk art items”, the spokesman said.

18 January 2008

Interfax-Religion

www.interfax.ru

Emercom Saves a Monastery in Veliki Novgorod from an Aggressive Cat

The other day, rescuers from Emercom (Ministry of Emergency Services) conducted a special operation at St Anthony Monastery to capture an aggressive cat that was attacking people. The newspaper St Petersburg Vedomosti reported on Monday that the staff of the Novgorod Museum Preserve, which includes the monastery, repeatedly complained about assaults made by a large cat they couldn’t restrain on their own. Once on the spot, the rescuers spent their forces before they could capture the beast, which got into the monastery’s Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady, no one knows how. “The cat proved to be a real big veteran, a very aggressive and dashing attacker”, one of the rescuers reported. They set the cat free outside the monastery walls.

4 September 2006

Interfax-Religion

www.interfax.ru

Orthodox Believers Celebrate Epiphany Eve in Chechnya

The old Russian babas do it… what about you?

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Bishop Feofan of Stavropolye and Vladikavkaz came to Grozny on Thursday to celebrate a festival liturgy and prayer service in the church of Archangel Mikhail, our Interfax correspondent reported. According to Bishop Feofan, Orthodox believers who live in Chechnya widely celebrate the Epiphany eve, or the Twelfth Night, that concludes the 12-day period of the Christmastide. Believers from Grozny and other districts in Chechnya attended a molieben at Archangel Mikhail church. Bishop Feofan, who visited Chechnya on the invitation of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, told Interfax that “questions of security in the republic aren’t serious any more. I stood in the centre of Grozny in church, I conducted a molieben, I travelled through the capital of the Chechen Republic and its districts, and it showed that the situation here is secure, and peace and quietness rule in the republic”, he noted.

18 January 2008

Interfax-Religion

www.interfax.ru

MES Specialists Assist the People of Yakutsk to Receive a Epiphany Blessing in Minus 40 Degree Weather

Although the afternoon temperature is -41 degrees Celsius (-42 degrees Fahrenheit) in Yakutsk, many people came to holes chopped in the ice on the Lena River for an Epiphany blessing, our Interfax correspondent reported. Bishop Zosima of Yakutsk and Lena consecrated water in the Lena River in the afternoon. People taking a dip in it receive a blessing. The outdoor rite was possible in such a severe climate thanks to the efforts of specialists from the regional branch of the Ministry for Emergency Situations (MES), who cut cross-shaped holes in the ice and set up big army tents above them. Each tent is equipped with forced-draught heaters, which makes dipping possible even for people unprepared for the extreme cold.

18 January 2008

Interfax-Religion

www.interfax.ru