CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM! Greeting all of you, my dear family and friends, with the Nativity of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and sending you my heartfelt love, with wishes for a peaceful and prosperous upcoming New Year, and for all God's blessings for you!
I missed you on Christmas and do miss you--and you can be sure that I am thinking of you--my family, and everyone at Holy Epiphany! I am there in spirit!
(Here is a view of my little crèche I brought over. The Wise Man and camel on the left are very old, from when I was a young girl.)
A view of the inside of St. Nicholas v Klyonnikakh on Maroseika Street, Midnight Liturgy, Holy Nativity. The church is decorated with whole Christmas trees--one on each side and more around the back. As you can see, in this parish virtually all the women cover their heads...
… even the "Little women." This miniature Babushka reminds me so much of Sasha when she was little!
This is one of the many "Elki" (Christmas trees) that decorated the church. It is in front of the fresco of St. John the Russian. You can see that the Russian "Christmas trees" are a little different from ours…. (i.e. thinner!) Unfortunately, I couldn't get any more pictures this time because the lady who was standing next to me stopped me as I was about to take a really good shot of the church, "It's not allowed to take photographs here!" One never knows whether it really isn't allowed, or whether someone is just being a little too zealous. Earlier, one of the iconographers of the parish gave me a tour and urged me to take lots and lots of pictures of this very same church! Granted, not during a service… But this is Russia, the land of absolutely irrational and inexplicable contradictions. (The kind of contradictions, in fact, that cause Russians to take "no" with a certain contradictory grain of salt sometimes…. -- but not always! ;)
After Liturgy, there was a rare common trapeza, around 2:00 in the morning. The Metro (subway) closes down around 1 AM, so it was lucky that I got a ride home from someone who had a car. Those who went to midnight Liturgy and couldn't catch a ride home were stranded at the church--waiting the whole night until the Metro opened first thing in the morning. Some kind of Orthodox film was being shown in the church house next door… some went to that, others talked with their friends, and yet others--a whole row of little old ladies--were snoozing on the back bench of the side chapel!
And the most amazing thing about this is that there was also a Liturgy at 9:00 in the morning (different priest and altar), so no one had to be stranded!
My iconographer friend had been mentioning something about some service at 4 PM on Christmas Day, but she couldn't get back to me right away to explain what it was. Stay tuned for the next entry…
Целую Вас всех!
