Despite freezing weather conditions, believers in Russia’s region of Yakutia marked Orthodox Epiphany on Friday (January 19) by plunging into a hole cut in the ice in air temperatures that reached minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit).
Nearly one hundred residents of the subarctic town of Neryungri gathered on the banks of the Chulman River for a traditional Epiphany service and a symbolic triple plunge. The worshippers believe 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 in the Jordan River.
