Regardless of freezing climate circumstances, believers in Russia’s area of Yakutia marked Orthodox Epiphany on Friday (January 19) by plunging right into a gap reduce within the ice in air temperatures that reached minus 40 levels Celsius (minus 40 levels Fahrenheit).
Almost 100 residents of the subarctic city of Neryungri gathered on the banks of the Chulman River for a standard Epiphany service and a symbolic triple plunge. The worshippers consider that this ritual washes away their sins.
The Russian Orthodox Church commemorates Epiphany on January 19, a ritual that commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ within the Jordan River.
