Apple-Blessing Festival (part I), Azdamichy 2009/Яблычны Спас (частка І), Аздамічы 2009 год
Apple-Blessing, observed on August 19 — Transfiguration Day in the Orthodox calendar — is an early harvest festival. In memory of children who have died young, people, especially women, traditionally must not eat new apples or other newly-ripe fruit before the blessing of apples; it is a traditional belief that deferring the eating of apples permits deceased children to receive apples from the Lord in heaven first.
The Apple-Blessing church service in the Polesian village of Azdamichy is one of the parish’s most important celebrations in the cycle of the year.
