The August 19 Apple-Blessing festival (feast of the Transfiguration) in Azdamichy’s church of the Holy Trinity is one of the parish’s most important feasts in the cycle of the year. There is an air of celebration and purpose as Father Aljaksandr makes three circuits of the churchyard to bless parishioners’ apples and pears at the end of the liturgy: as soon as people kiss the cross on the third circuit they hurry to the cemetery to leave on family graves some of the fruit that has been blessed.
