third attempt. If she had not managed I would have drowned.
After this, I lost all desire to learn to swim properly. I can stay afloat and can even swim a little. But, should I imagine that under me there is no bottom, I panic.
Ours was a very traditional family. As a child I felt that my heart beat in unison with the events that were being celebrated by the Church as we participated in all the Church Feasts and honoured the traditions that were connected with them.
Galina with her parents, Marina and Fr. Andrew Katkoff
Great Lent, Passion Week, Confession and Communion - the entire school or class prepared together and shared the experience.
The feelings of reverence and full immersion in the events leading up to the sufferings of Christ, their culmination during the services of Holy Thursday and Good Friday to the joy of hearing the words, ‘Christ is Risen!’ at the midnight Pascal service. I was really in the moment. I felt that Christ rose, ‘Now, at this very moment.’ I trembled and a feeling of deep joy filled my child’s soul, my eyes were filled with tears and I felt with my heart the presence of the risen Christ. As an adult I miss experiencing this heightened spiritual awareness.
Preparation for Christmas began several weeks before the Feast with the making of pelmeni (dumplings). In our small town of Hailar, everyone knew at whose place the pelmeni were being made so friends arranged working bees at each other’s houses. It became a pleasant but necessary chore.
We children loved these types of working bees. Although we were not actually allowed to make the pelmeni, we were allowed to roll out the dough. We were pleased to be allowed to participate and to listen in to the adult conversation.
The finished pelmeni were frozen and poured into bags. Enough were made to last until Theophany, the period known as sviatki. Even without freezers, in China as in Russia itself, pelmeni were kept frozen in the larder. Our storeroom had a large tub lined with a linen bag into which the pelmeni were poured. We used to go down with a large scoop or a deep dish and scoop up the pelmeni to be boiled and enjoyed.
Now, 40-50 years later, living in Australia, we continue to enjoy pelmeni and have introduced them to our Australian friends for whom this simple dish has become a delicacy. Meat and poultry was bought. Various delicacies were prepared – sausages, jellied meats and pates.
Closer to the day, tortes and cakes were baked. Houses were cleaned and decorated. Curtains were taken down and together with tablecloths and napkins were laundered. Given the freezing weather during that time of the year, this was no easy task. Everything was hung out on ropes in the courtyard. All the laundry froze and was brought into the house for the night as it could be stolen. Our home felt cosy, filled with the fresh fragrance of the fir (Christmas) tree.
On Christmas Eve, while I was in a deep sleep, the decorated Christmas tree appeared. For a long time I was sure that it was brought by Grandfather Frost, yet even when I was certain that a loving Mama and Papa did all, I preferred to cling to the illusion – still trying to continue the fairytale, still wanting to believe in Grandfather Frost.
Early Christmas morning, young children, usually boys, came to sing carols. The night before, Mama prepared small coins, lollies, nuts and other treats and these gifts were distributed to the various groups of children who came throughout the morning.
From morning, the table was set with festive food – a smorgasbord of savoury delicacies, wines, cakes and sweets. Viziteri (visitors comprising husbands and male friends) started arriving around midday. The tradition of entertaining viziteri was in all families – rich and poor.
The lady of the house prepared a feast according to her means, but each table reflected the joy of the occasion. The men went from house to house and visited the ladies. The ladies welcomed them and accepted their congratulations on the Feast. The men stayed long enough to toast the special day with a drink followed by a little to eat and would then hurry off to repeat the same at the house of the next lady. By evening there was quite a competition between the ladies as each counted up how many viziteri she had throughout the day.
On the first day of Christmas or Pascha (Easter), the priest and members of the choir would usually visit each home and conduct a short service culminating in a particularly joyous singing of the Troparion (festive hymn). These wonderful moments will never be forgotten and will continue to warm my heart. I will forever admire how carefully my parents preserved and passed on these traditions.
In the evening on Christmas Day, new, this time older, carol singers came carrying a large paper star of different colours. In the star there burned a candle before a picture of Christ in the manger and the children of the house joined the carollers in the singing of festive hymns and carols. They were also given money and treats.
The second day was the day when ladies made visits to each other. However, these would often end up in one house as many found it difficult to curtail their conversations once they got together over tea. In the evening the ladies were joined by their husbands and the table was set for dinner.
Christmas was celebrated up to the Feast of Theophany (the Baptism of Christ) and Easter up to the Feast of the Ascension, or in some places to Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday. So, from the second or third day of Christmas, the children’s parties began.
In each house, rich or poor, there was always a Christmas tree and someone dressed as Grandfather Frost. There were party games and each child received an individual bag from Grandfather Frost. Each bag mostly contained a mandarin, an apple, nuts, lollies and biscuits. Each child had to say a poem before receiving the gift and I remember clearly with what trepidation I approached Grandfather Frost.
The children were dressed in their best clothes and always wore party hats made by the loving hands of their mothers. These Christmas parties were an everyday event right through to Theophany because each mother organised a party for her own child.
As it was winter, apples and mandarins were bought earlier and were kept in the cellar till they were needed. The bags often contained a toy, crackers and sparklers. At sundown each mother would come to collect her child. With Theophany, the partying concluded and normal life began, and for the children – school.
The celebration of the Feast of Our Lord’s Theophany (the Baptism of Jesus at the river Jordan by St John the Baptist) was very special.
There were two churches in Hailar. After the Divine Liturgy, there was a procession from these churches to the ice filled river where a cross and an altar table were sculpted out of ice. A festive service in celebration of the Baptism of Christ was served.
During the singing of the Troparion, doves were released. Young boys would hold the homing pigeons and wait for the words, ‘And the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the certainty of the Word’, to let them go. In his book, ‘White Harbin’, G.B. Melihov writes, ‘From 1921, the blessing of the waters was done on the Sungari river which became for the faithful the river Jordan.
After Divine Liturgy, the clergy and parishioners from all the Harbin churches would go in procession to the river. A font was cut out of the ice and many young bravehearts bathed in the icy baptismal waters.
Many years later, when I lived in Harbin, I always went to the blessing of the waters at the river Sungari. It was very joyful. The procession from the Iversky Church, Sts Peter and Paul Church made its way to the St. Sofia Cathedral.
There,
