Feast of the Transfiguration (Apple-Blessing Feast – Jablychny Spas), Azdamichy 2015. Перамяненьне Гасподняе (Яблычны Спас), Аздамічы 2015 год.
Falling in the middle of the two-week Dormition fast, the feast of the Transfiguration, August 19 in the Orthodox calendar, subsumes the pre-Christian rite of blessing apples. In memory of children who have died young, people 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.
This was the ninth year in a row that I have had the privilege of photographing Jablychny Spas at the parish church of the Holy Trinity in Azdamichy.
