Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Ahhhhh.....

Apologies for the delay in blogging.  The truth...the extended winter was getting a bit frustrating and I was apparently hibernating until warmer weather arrived. Happy to announce - spring has arrived with 68 degrees at present - clouds?  Not a one.  The city is buzzing.  The snow has vanished.  Crocuses pushing up from the earth.  Green shoots on trees.  We have finally joined the rest of civilization with warmer weather!  Can I get an “amen”?!

Passed these today...hello green!

Speaking of weather - with the change from winter to spring, we had some crazy fronts push through - check out this shot of the Kremlin...ominous comes to mind.




Easter in Russia...this being our first Easter away from home, Steve and I experienced part of a Russian Orthodox Easter service - fascinating!  In Russia, palms are hard to come by...so on Palm Sunday, instead of palms, pussy willows are handed out...



The Easter service starts at 11 p.m. on Easter eve.  The church is entered in darkness and part way through the service, each partitioner lights a candle as the light of the world begins to grow.  Typically, the congregation departs and walks around the church and then re-enters for a service that continues until the wee small hours of the morning. Church bells ring all over Moscow for 15 minutes starting at 11:45 p.m.....pure, pure heaven.

Our neighborhood church...
Beautiful...  (took this shot in colder days)

We attended a beautiful, small church right next to our apartment building....one of the few that survived Stalin’s church destruction during Soviet times.  Women must cover their heads with a scarf and wear a skirt.  The service was beautiful (we took in about 45 minutes) and so perfect for our first Easter abroad.

2 comments:

  1. AMEN! Isn't that the church I wanted to go into? What does it look like inside? I am happy to hear that it's operational. Lovely blog, Ann. Hurray for Spring--you guys deserve it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes...this was the church under renovation during your visit. It is beautiful...and the heavenly scent of candles is wonderful!

    ReplyDelete