On the first day of summer, Orthodox believers in Pereslavl-Zalessky decided to conquer the ocean - this is how they call the huge Pleshcheyevo Lake, one of the main attractions of the small town and the main source of local legends. Why they did not succeed - in the material RIA Novosti.
Almost all the townspeople are sure that the lake is unusual and almost alive. Once the wife of Prince Dmitry Donskoy Evdokia was miraculously saved here. Pursued by the Tatars, she and several other people sailed on a small raft to the middle of the lake. It is not clear what they hoped for, but suddenly a fog thickened over the water, and the pursuers lost sight of the fugitives. The shocked princess rebuilt a monastery in the city destroyed after numerous raids, and a tradition arose in Pereslavl - on the sixth Sunday after Easter, to arrange a procession of the cross on boats to the middle of the lake. After the revolution, it was interrupted.
War of stone with Christians
"Will they be allowed into the water or not?" - the most important question in the Goritsky Monastery on an unexpected winter morning on the first day of summer. Air temperature - five degrees, icy wind from Pleshcheev, rain. TV operators and numerous photographers prayed along with believers - the beautiful picture was under threat. The regional Ministry of Emergency Situations issued a warning about dangerous disturbances on the lake and the boat activity was eventually banned.
“He has a capricious disposition throughout history. According to legends, earlier the water reached the level of the ramparts surrounding the city. And also the Blue Stone sank in it, probably, it will not bring a good mood. Underneath there is another one, and under that one more, the divers saw, and there lives a huge pike, so many are afraid to swim with us,”laughs Ekaterina, the owner of one of the coastal cafes.
In pre-Christian times, gifts to the gods were brought to the Blue Stone - pies, bread, fruits of the harvest. The stone was thrown down, a wooden church was built. But the church burned down, and the stone, in an incomprehensible way, was again on the mountain. Several times they put crosses there, and each time something happened to them. Peter I loaded a stone onto a ship to take away the "pagan symbol" forever, but the one, breaking the bottom, drowned. And after a while he again found himself on the shore, where he still lies, attracting numerous lovers of strange cults.
Participants in the procession in Pereslavl-Zalessky. June 1, 2018 / Yulia Makoveichuk / ria.ru
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Why ancestors were better
The procession took place anyway, albeit only to the shore. About two hundred people solemnly walked the whole city and through the Rybnaya Sloboda, praised by Russian artists, went down to the temple of the Forty Martyrs of Sevastia standing on the very edge of the lake at the mouth of the Trubezh River. Without fear of icy splashes, Bishop of Pereslavl and Uglich Theodore serves here a prayer service for water.
“We are reviving not only church traditions, but also the simple foundations of our society. This procession of the cross took place since ancient times, stopped a hundred years ago, and now we at least tried to return it. The wind did not prevent us from doing the most important thing - to consecrate the watery nature of the lake, to give it a blessed power that can heal ailments and pacify those at war,”he says.
People like it, they want to communicate, they need something that unites, continues the bishop. “We are interested in ancestors and compare ourselves with them, we ask ourselves a question: why could they live like Prince Dmitry Donskoy? Why did they believe more than us? Maybe because they lived during the period of wars and invasions, spending every day in the face of death? The holy fathers said: remember death, and you will not sin forever,”the bishop reflects.
With the last words of the prayer service, it suddenly warms up and the sun appears.
Participants in the procession in Pereslavl-Zalessky. June 1, 2018 / Yulia Makoveichuk / ria.ru
Thank God that I am a Cossack
A boy of about six in characteristic clothing speaks these words clearly and with a smile to the camera. Local Cossacks have officially existed for six years, they participate in all divine services and are very wary of the "clan Cossacks" (the descendants of those who served on the borders of the empire).
“We work with children, study Cossack folklore, songs, dances, flanking, horses, clothes, teach them and learn ourselves. Of course, they begin to criticize, they say, you are not like that, you are not real, but you look at them - they cannot do anything like that. The ancestral Cossack knows neither songs nor dances! The twig has dried up, there are no fruits,”says Vyacheslav,“our boss,”bitterly, as his colleagues respectfully presented him.
The Pereslavl Cossacks take faith seriously, for real. “We have completely ecclesiastical ones, and there are those who are taking the first steps. It would be the same, it would be boring, but everyone is different, interesting,”he continues.
“This river, this lake, these people - all this is lovely for us, we live by it. The weather is sunny, the wind is blowing, the ocean is raging, the mood is wonderful, our little ones are with us, everyone is good and glory to God,”one of the Cossacks innocently recounts his impressions of the procession. Next summer, they will again try to go to the middle of the lake, on the third day of which a fabulous pike lives.
Participants in the procession in Pereslavl-Zalessky. June 1, 2018 / Yulia Makoveichuk / ria.ru
Alexey Mikheev