Two things will make more sense by the time you will have finished reading this blog post: one, the title of it, and two, the reason I have been nominated to write it.
Today we went out of Voronezh to visit Zadonsk Monastery, which houses about 400 people, including monks, Russian civilians and staff members. All the ladies had to have scarves over their heads and long skirts. Even pants were not acceptable for ladies, and there was a tiny shack outside the monastery with a grab bag of assorted skirts and scarves- even those of us who wore skirts that came above our knees were encouraged to put on a longer skirt over it.
A guide gave us a detailed history of the monastery, which is more than 4 centuries old and had been turned into a vegetable processing plant during the Soviet era. It was re-opened as a monastery in the 1990’s and is still under heavy construction.
We then took a bus to the holy spring nearby. Traditionally, one goes into the spring “au naturel” (in the nude) and dunks oneself three times; one for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We were comforted by the fact that there were separate women’s and men’s entrances.
Even though some of us are wimps (myself included) and brought a bathing suit just in case, the braver members of the team convinced us we should take the plunge bathing-suit free. “When in Rome…”
There was a row of hooks on the wall, where people hung up their things. People walked down the steps into the spring, then up a second set of steps on the other side. The water was icy but the plunge was quick.
We are proud to say we did it! Hooray us!
Now… where’s my underwear?
I’m not kidding, guys… All of my clothes were right here. Come on, check bags, the inside of towels, clothes we changed out of… maybe it got wrapped up in there somewhere?
No?
Are you KIDDING me?
Looks like I’ll be wearing my dry bathing suit underneath my dress to church tonight.
Laura
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