ON the night of Jan 18 and 19, thousands of Russians took part in a ritual of swimming in an ice hole.
Although this event took place on Epiphany, a religious holiday, this is not a religious act but just an ancient folk custom.
It is believed that water on this day has extraordinary power: it washes away not only sins, but also illnesses, and brings spiritual and physical health to a person.
Russian writer Apollon (1868 to 1937), in his book "People's Rus: All-year round legends, beliefs, customs and proverbs of the Russian people" (1901), wrote: "Epiphany frosts are considered the most severe, and not without reason: winter gathers around this time with all its might.
"But despite the cold, since ancient times, people have lived the custom of swimming in the Epiphany ice hole. They bathe to cleanse themselves of sinful filth in the blessed water."
On Epiphany, many men plunged into ice holes to cleanse themselves of sins, something that was told by foreign writers and travellers since the 16th to 18th centuries.
Often, they plunged into a special ice hole for washing clothes downstream from the place where the blessing of water takes place.
On Jan 19, near a pond with an ice hole called Zelenka (green) not far from my house, I met Sergey.
He plunged into the water three times and hurried to the shore, where, after rubbing himself with a towel, he quickly got dressed.
Luckily that day it was only -4C. The day before, it was -12C, and a few days ago, -27C.
We talked a little. He said that he didn't bathe in the ice hole often, although he believed in the healing properties of the water on this day.
I myself went into a church not far from the pond for a minute.
There were a lot of people there. They came to get blessed water for free.
I gave in to temptation and took home a large bottle of this water too.
This tradition is not a church rite and is not prescribed by the church. It was not invented by theologians, but by people who perform this ritual solely on their own initiative.
According to representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, the widespread idea of people cleansing themselves of sins by dipping into a consecrated ice hole three times is erroneous
They said: "Sin is washed away by repentance. Only the one who repents of sin by firstly doing the confession and, secondly, makes every effort not to sin again, receives forgiveness."
Bishop of Domodedovo, Evtikhiy (Kurochkin), wrote an article criticising Epiphany bathing.
He says it is a health risk and just a superstition. Bathing in ice water often can lead to colds and exacerbation of chronic ailments.
However, despite this, bathing on Epiphany has become fashionable
It is done not only by believers, but also those who swim in the ice hole for the thrill, for a dose of adrenaline and for taking photos.
Would you risk plunging into an ice hole to wash away your sins?
The writer, writing from Russia, is a former lecturer at Universiti Malaya
