The Orthodox Christians remember every year the Baptism of Jesus on the night between 18 and 19 January.
The celebrations begin with an evening function in the church, after which the priest blesses the water contained in the tanks. Believers collect the holy water in receptacles and take it home, where they will use it to wash, drink or simply keep it as if it were a relic. It is believed that holy water has unique properties. For example, it can last for several years, enclosed in a container, without altering.
Bathing in the cold water of a baptismal font, to remember the Baptism of Jesus, is one of the most popular and suggestive Orthodox traditions.
The pools are set up inside churches or chapels, although most often they are simple cross-shaped holes in the ice of rivers or ponds.
According to tradition, the dive must take place in a hole dug in the ice: believers must immerse themselves for a short bath, make the sign of the cross and recite 3 times a prayer to the Holy Trinity.
Here at Vinnytsia, tradition has been respected: many people took a bath in the frozen river of the city.
We volunteers also went there ... but only as simple spectators!
Antonio