The Apple-Blessing festival, which contains strong pre-Christian elements, is commingled with the Orthodox celebration of the feast of the Transfiguration on August 19. This is the second of three August harvest festivals in the Orthodox calendar. In memory of children who have died young, people, especially women, avoid eating new apples or other newly-ripe fruit before the blessing. It is a traditional Belarusan 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 Azdamichy’s parish of the Holy Trinity is one of the parish’s most important feasts in the cycle of the year. Families make a point of having their children participate fully (as here, where a boy kisses the icon on entering the church), and there is a special sense of joy and anticipation as parishioners await the blessing of apples at the end of the liturgy.
Feast of the Transfiguration/Apple-Blessing festival (Jablychny Spas), Azdamichy 2013. Праабражэньне Гасподняе/Яблычны Спас, Аздамічы 2013 г.
