The wedding tree -
Can you see bottles hanging at the top of this tree that overlooks the Irtysh?
When a couple gets married, they drive to this woodsy area outside of the city where their best male friend climbs the tree and ties a champaign bottle as high up as possible. This ensures good luck for the new couple.
_______________Saint spring -
On Jan 19th it is the resurrection of Christ day and people go to the spring and swim in the water. They cut a cross out of the ice and swim or they go in the little house pictured here that only holds water. Legend says if you swim there you will be blessed by God and not be sick that year. You can also bottle the water to drink to ensure good health all year long.
The Irtysh River runs from Op, Russia to China. In China it is called Black Irtysh.__________________________
This is the house that Dostoyevsky lived in for 5 years after he was exiled from Russia. It had very small rooms except for his study which was a pretty good size.Downstairs there is a collection of antiques and the guide down there was thrilled to show us some of the old things like a bread mold that was used for an Easter bread. It had a cross and some other symbols on it. A thing like that is pretty meaningful (the fact that is survived) when churches were being destroyed and religion in general was not acceptable during the Russian take-over.
6 comments:
I love the idea of Saint Spring. I'll bet if I was over there I could talk Ken into taking a swim on January 19th. That would break our record of April 22nd,2005 here at Crystal Lake. Plus it would be nice to have a blessing for a healthy year.
Give Andre and Gregory extra love from Jane and I.
love Dad & Jane
What an amazing experience - to travel to areas of the world that most of us never will (and some of us have probably never even heard of)!
Hope your day goes well with the courts. You're all in my thoughts and prayers.
-Sonja
I hope they bottle the water BEFORE everyone swims in it! Eeeeeewwww! Seriously though, I'm glad you are getting to do some sightseeing. I guess you can't take the boys on any field trips yet though? Soon enough, right!
Love,
Mike
The places you have visited are really neat. I can't wait for you to show the boys these pictures when they are older and tell them about them. Jenny you have to start a whole other life book!
I can see where a crazy friend celebrating your bond, drunk on Champaign, NOT falling from the top of the tree in a hail of liquor glass and tumbling over the cliff and into the freezing water 12 stories below, would be considered be a sign of good luck.
Totally!! :)
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