"The touching blessing of waters". Rare publications of the Presidential Library illustrate the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord

On 19 (6, the old style) marks Baptism of the Lord - one of the most significant Orthodox holidays. The Presidential Library's collections History of the Russian Orthodox Church and New Year’s Day and Christmas in Russia, available at the institution's portal, provide various materials about the spiritual content and features of its celebration.

The holiday's history dates back to Jesus Christ's baptism in the Jordan River. Archpriest Ioann Bukharev wrote in the textbook The Very First Religious and Moral Conversations with Children... (1901): "...Jesus Christ came to John the Baptist to be baptized. God talked to John, and he recognized the Savior in Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ insisted to be baptized by John, John told Him: "I should be baptized by You, not You by me". Jesus said, "Don't deter. God's will should be performed".

The same author explains the other names for the holiday of the Baptism of the Lord in the book On the holidays of the Orthodox Church (1874): "the other name is Epiphany, because on this day, during the Baptism of the Lord, all three incarnations of the Holy Trinity were revealed to people: God the Father spoke from heaven, the Son was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven to the Son. <...> This holiday is also called the Epiphany because from the Baptism day Jesus Christ revealed Himself to the world as God the Savior... What does the name Enlightenment mean for the Baptism of the Lord? It means that after His baptism, Christ the Savior began to enlighten people with a sermon on faith and virtue...".

Archpriest Vasily Nikolsky describes this day celebrations by the Orthodox Christians in the publication The Twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church or the Flowers of the Church Garden (1892): "On January 6, after the Liturgy, priests and their parishioners go to the river with the holy cross, icons and banners. There they bless water and sing the holiday Troparion... The touching blessing of waters conveys the believers' souls to the time of Jesus Christ's baptism in Jordan. And therefore the religious procession to the river calls the procession to Jordan. It is our great joy that the Holy Church evokes the Jordan event every year. We bless water in our rivers to commemorate this event. It is not in vain, that not only people are blessed with Epiphany water, but also dwellings, all barns and gardens. It aims to drive away Satan, the enemy of all humanity, from people and their property".

Art critic and historian Ivan Bozheryanov also paid great attention to the festive traditions of the Baptism of the Lord in his work The Way the Russian People Feasted and Celebrate Christmas, New Year, Epiphany and Shrovetide (1895): "...in ancient times, according to foreigners, on the Epiphany day, people from the whole state gathered in Moscow to see the blessing of waters by the patriarch on the Moskva River. <…> After dipping the cross in water, the patriarch dragged water from Jordan with a silver bucket and gave it to the obedientiary. He also filled the royal bucket, which was taken to the palace to sparge icons with holy water. Then, the patriarch blessed the Tsar with a cross three times, sprinkled him with holy water and congratulated".

The Presidential Library's collection includes a digital copy of Petersburg. Admiralteyskaya Embankment - the picture by Ivan Bianka, the pioneer of Saint-Petersburg photography. One of the first documentary images was taken in 1854, on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, during the annual blessing of waters in the Neva. There is the baptismal font in the background - a temporary wooden temple erected for the Epiphany. Also, the long-ago celebration is illustrated by the presented newsreel footage On the celebration of the Epiphany, the ceremony of the procession, the consecration of water in Pechory in 1938.