In Ukraine, winter holiday season finished on Jan.19 with Epiphany, an important holiday for Orthodox and Greek Catholic Christians. On this day, believers re-enact the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River by dipping in icy lakes and rivers.
This year’s Epiphany Day saw crisp, sunny weather at about three degrees below zero: but the cold has never deterred people, considering that the religious ritual is believed to be an opportunity to wash off one’s sins.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko and mayors of over 30 Ukrainian cities and Kyiv city administration officials, collectively plunged into the Dnipro River.
The main holiday celebrations in Kyiv, traditionally taking place at Hydropark, were also attended by the Patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Filaret who blessed the waters.
This year Ukrainian believers had one more reason to celebrate: Ukraine now has its unified, independent church. Its elected leader Metropolitan Epiphanius called the historic moment of receiving tomos, a document declaring the independence of Ukrainian church from Moscow Patriarchate, ‘the second baptism of Ukraine.”
However, for many winter swimming isn’t a religious ritual but more of a hobby, which has its own name: walrusing. The supposed health benefits of such cold bathing include boosting of the immune system, reducing stress and even weight loss.
Tatyana Fesenko, 57, has been taking cold swims on Epiphany Day for 20 years. She said she first went swimming in winter to support her friend.
“In the end, my friend refused to plunge into water. But I did. Since then I have been swimming on Epiphany Day every year,” she told Kyiv Post, adding that she feels uplifted and light after diving into cold water.
