On Saturday I wanted to venture out to visit a museum. However, as most Saturdays go...I did not get a move on my day early enough (getting to be a bad habit, I must work on this). What I mean is that I bummed around in my PJs until about 4pm.
I changed my plans to accommodate to my laziness, and decided to check out a monastery that would be open later instead.
Before I arrived at The Monastery of St. Peter, I did not know what to expect. I thought maybe it would just be like a big church and some buildings open to the public to wander through and look at.
(Side note: it took me about 45 minutes to find this monastery once I got off of the metro. My sense of direction is improving from being here, but I still just wander around until what I am looking for miraculously pops up in my face. Anyway...here are some photos from when I was aimlessly wandering around) :
I have noticed advertisements for The Little Mermaid musical all over the city...and don't you know, I ran right into the theatre where it is showing! I almost ditched the search for the monastery and got in line for this. Then I remembered the monastery would be free...this show definitely was not. So I trekked on.
For two seconds I thought maybe this church was what I was looking for. Then I remembered that the pictures on Google of The Monastery of St. Peter were of red buildings. "Nooooo, you Gina you!" I thought to myself. "This religious looking building is not red, silly!"
Then suddenly...completely out of the blue...I turned a corner, and TA-DA! There was The Monastery of St. Peter:
"I knew I'd find it! Easy!"...I didn't just think that, it burst out of my mouth. A little family who was also entering this area heard me. The small children stared at me like I was a complete 3 headed alien. I just stared back and thought to myself "well I think you sound and look funny too!"....or maybe I said that out loud as well. You know what, I may have..but I don't remember...anyway, that's not the important part. The important part was that the females in this family had their hair completely covered as they entered. I was beginning to realize that the people showing up were here for an actual Russian Orthodox mass. Not tourists wanting to gawk at an old beautifully decorated church. I thought "Good thing I wore a scarf today!" as I quickly wrapped it around my head to cover up my hair too. I could see inside this building, that there was in fact actual worship happening.
Some background: This monastery was founded in the 1300s. In the 1700s, Peter the great sought refuge here when he was in some sort of trouble back in the day, and he had a hand in the construction of some of the buildings. Here, if you want to read more, click here---->HERE!
I could tell from what I could see through the windows, that this church was very pretty, and I decided I wanted to go inside. But, as there was real Russian Orthodox worship happening, I did not want to just barge in, do everything wrong, and offend the entire congregation. So I became the biggest creeper in all of Moscow. I circled the outside of the entire church on tiptoe, as I peered in all the windows to make mental notes on what they were doing, so I knew how to behave once I entered. I'm not going to lie, I felt pretty mysterious as I slivered around the old church at dusk with my head covered in a black scarf. My "playin' it cool" cover was almost blown when this thing showed up to creep on me while I creeped on the church:
It proceeded to follow me and "meow" until I felt I creeped enough to enter the church.
Once I entered, I thought it would be best if I just acted like I was Russian and knew exactly was I was doing...and not lead on that I was actually copying everything the little babushka did in front of me.
No one was sitting, in fact there were not even pews. Everyone just stood around, and it seemed there was a line. So I got in it. Did I know what was going on, or what I should do? No! But I bet the babushka in front me did, and I'd just copy! Anyway, what they do once to the front is this: They genuflect (and it is opposite from the way catholics genuflect), bow with their forehead touching a picture of Jesus, then kiss the picture....and THEN do the same thing with another picture of some other icon and flowers. After this, turn around, they walk straight back to the main priest and some of his monk friends. The priest dips a paint brush in oil, and marks the cross on their forehead. Then they kiss the priests wrist (before I did this, I contemplated for a moment whether or not I should ask him if he recently washed his hands...just as a precaution). Then comes the good part. They get the communion from a monk, which was some kind of delicious raspberry bread (I ALMOST got in line a second time so I could have another piece).
I copied all of this, as if I knew PRECISELY what I was doing, "because I do this every Saturday night". I don't think anyone suspected a thing.
After communion, the lights were turned out so that the whole building was only lit by candlelight....which was still pretty bright! There were many chandeliers hanging from the ceiling which was where many of the candles were located. The priest circled the standing congregation as he flung incense all over us. After this, the priest and monks stood for a long time on the alter with their backs towards us. There never was a sermon or lecture. Only a bunch of hymns echoing loudly. I really felt like I was put in a time machine. Throughout the hymns, people would randomly walk to the mosaics of Jesus and other icons on the wall, and kiss their feet.
I copied as everyone would genuflect and bow together at what seemed to me as random times. One time, we genuflected and bowed at least 10 times in a row! After the 11th time, I stopped and thought "Alright thats enough, I already did yoga today", and decided it was time to go.
I spent about an hour in there. People seemed to be coming and going the whole time, so I did not feel bad when it was my turn to peace out. The inside was absolutely beautiful, but if I whipped out my camera in the middle of their worship to a million photos, no one would think I was Russian anymore. So I do not have photos of the inside.
In 1st grade news: They are learning about the 4 seasons, so tomorrow I will be making this with them:
...I'm caving and letting them use scissors. I better still have all of my hair and limbs by the end of their lesson...
-Gina
I changed my plans to accommodate to my laziness, and decided to check out a monastery that would be open later instead.
Before I arrived at The Monastery of St. Peter, I did not know what to expect. I thought maybe it would just be like a big church and some buildings open to the public to wander through and look at.
(Side note: it took me about 45 minutes to find this monastery once I got off of the metro. My sense of direction is improving from being here, but I still just wander around until what I am looking for miraculously pops up in my face. Anyway...here are some photos from when I was aimlessly wandering around) :
I have noticed advertisements for The Little Mermaid musical all over the city...and don't you know, I ran right into the theatre where it is showing! I almost ditched the search for the monastery and got in line for this. Then I remembered the monastery would be free...this show definitely was not. So I trekked on.
For two seconds I thought maybe this church was what I was looking for. Then I remembered that the pictures on Google of The Monastery of St. Peter were of red buildings. "Nooooo, you Gina you!" I thought to myself. "This religious looking building is not red, silly!"
Then suddenly...completely out of the blue...I turned a corner, and TA-DA! There was The Monastery of St. Peter:
"I knew I'd find it! Easy!"...I didn't just think that, it burst out of my mouth. A little family who was also entering this area heard me. The small children stared at me like I was a complete 3 headed alien. I just stared back and thought to myself "well I think you sound and look funny too!"....or maybe I said that out loud as well. You know what, I may have..but I don't remember...anyway, that's not the important part. The important part was that the females in this family had their hair completely covered as they entered. I was beginning to realize that the people showing up were here for an actual Russian Orthodox mass. Not tourists wanting to gawk at an old beautifully decorated church. I thought "Good thing I wore a scarf today!" as I quickly wrapped it around my head to cover up my hair too. I could see inside this building, that there was in fact actual worship happening.
Some background: This monastery was founded in the 1300s. In the 1700s, Peter the great sought refuge here when he was in some sort of trouble back in the day, and he had a hand in the construction of some of the buildings. Here, if you want to read more, click here---->HERE!
I could tell from what I could see through the windows, that this church was very pretty, and I decided I wanted to go inside. But, as there was real Russian Orthodox worship happening, I did not want to just barge in, do everything wrong, and offend the entire congregation. So I became the biggest creeper in all of Moscow. I circled the outside of the entire church on tiptoe, as I peered in all the windows to make mental notes on what they were doing, so I knew how to behave once I entered. I'm not going to lie, I felt pretty mysterious as I slivered around the old church at dusk with my head covered in a black scarf. My "playin' it cool" cover was almost blown when this thing showed up to creep on me while I creeped on the church:
It proceeded to follow me and "meow" until I felt I creeped enough to enter the church.
Once I entered, I thought it would be best if I just acted like I was Russian and knew exactly was I was doing...and not lead on that I was actually copying everything the little babushka did in front of me.
No one was sitting, in fact there were not even pews. Everyone just stood around, and it seemed there was a line. So I got in it. Did I know what was going on, or what I should do? No! But I bet the babushka in front me did, and I'd just copy! Anyway, what they do once to the front is this: They genuflect (and it is opposite from the way catholics genuflect), bow with their forehead touching a picture of Jesus, then kiss the picture....and THEN do the same thing with another picture of some other icon and flowers. After this, turn around, they walk straight back to the main priest and some of his monk friends. The priest dips a paint brush in oil, and marks the cross on their forehead. Then they kiss the priests wrist (before I did this, I contemplated for a moment whether or not I should ask him if he recently washed his hands...just as a precaution). Then comes the good part. They get the communion from a monk, which was some kind of delicious raspberry bread (I ALMOST got in line a second time so I could have another piece).
I copied all of this, as if I knew PRECISELY what I was doing, "because I do this every Saturday night". I don't think anyone suspected a thing.
After communion, the lights were turned out so that the whole building was only lit by candlelight....which was still pretty bright! There were many chandeliers hanging from the ceiling which was where many of the candles were located. The priest circled the standing congregation as he flung incense all over us. After this, the priest and monks stood for a long time on the alter with their backs towards us. There never was a sermon or lecture. Only a bunch of hymns echoing loudly. I really felt like I was put in a time machine. Throughout the hymns, people would randomly walk to the mosaics of Jesus and other icons on the wall, and kiss their feet.
I copied as everyone would genuflect and bow together at what seemed to me as random times. One time, we genuflected and bowed at least 10 times in a row! After the 11th time, I stopped and thought "Alright thats enough, I already did yoga today", and decided it was time to go.
I spent about an hour in there. People seemed to be coming and going the whole time, so I did not feel bad when it was my turn to peace out. The inside was absolutely beautiful, but if I whipped out my camera in the middle of their worship to a million photos, no one would think I was Russian anymore. So I do not have photos of the inside.
In 1st grade news: They are learning about the 4 seasons, so tomorrow I will be making this with them:
...I'm caving and letting them use scissors. I better still have all of my hair and limbs by the end of their lesson...
-Gina
No comments:
Post a Comment