Radaunitsa (part I), Azdamichy 2011. Радаўніца (частка І), Аздамічы 2011 год.
Radaunitsa is the main occasion among several during the year when Belarusians honor their forebears by cleaning the family graves and having them blessed by the parish priest. The rite, which falls on the ninth day after Orthodox Easter (thus May 14 in 2013), is profoundly syncretic: fully Christian and fully pre-Christian, reaching back millennia.
In parishes with a cemetery chapel, as here in Azdamichy, the priest leads a liturgy in the chapel before circulating through the cemetery to bless graves.
