Kyivans bathe in Dnipro River on epiphany

By Staff reports.

Published Jan. 20, 2011 at 8:54 am

Thousands of capital residents and politicians on Jan. 19 bathed in the Dnipro River to celebrate the epiphany.

Photo by AP

Orthodox priests conducted church services at ice holes in ponds and along the Dnipro River in Kyiv on Jan. 19 as part of Epiphany celebrations in Kyiv, where politicians and ordinary citizens traditionally bathe to clean themselves with water deemed holy for the day. Volodymyr, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, blessed Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, Presidential Administration chief Serhiy Lyovochkin, deputy Prime Minister Andriy Klyuyev at one site. Former President Viktor Yushchenko returned to Kyiv to bathe in another. A photo essay on the events is available here.