Jan 19 2007

The Most ‘Baptised’ Muslim in Kazakhstan!

Category: Kazakhstan,PicturesChrisM @ 4:57 am

Catchy post title I thought, as Irina explained what a gentleman had just (jokingly) proclaimed, just prior to jumping into water in a frozen river, wearing just his underwear.

It was a little after midnight, on the frozen river, here in Astana. We had walked down to see what was going on, as this is the day that the local (Orthodox?) church cuts a hole in the river’s ice, blesses the water, and some people go for a quick dip in the freezing water.
Tom has explained the process a lot better than I can, so for a little further background info, please head to his post HERE. Then come back and gawk at the photos.

(Tom himself is heading down to the river for a quick dip, in a few hours, but I’ll be in bed by then, and Ira will be at work, so we decided to take a peek ourselves at the river escapades. Hope Tom and (his librarian friend) Irina survive the cold and find something to drink to warm themselves up afterwards.)

If you want to see last night’s photos, please click the link below this line, or the title of this post. (I’ve taken it off the front page to try and save a bit of bandwidth on the server….

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4 Responses to “The Most ‘Baptised’ Muslim in Kazakhstan!”

  1. Walton says:

    So you didn’t take the dip yourself?

  2. Chris Merriman says:

    I was thinking about it, but didn’t in the end. Maybe next year?
    Will probably wait and see what condition Tom is in first :>
    See you tomorrow (did you achieve sweet freedom today?).

  3. John Kav says:

    Bloody hell! I thought the Boxing Day crowd who go into the sea off the South Wales coast were nuts – but this defies imagination. In that cold survival time must be measured in seconds! I’m even surprised the camera still functions.

    JohnK

  4. Chris Merriman says:

    We might still go for a dip, the holes are kept open for a while, and there are steps into the water in some places – don’t fancy trying to grab a hand hold on the ice!