Thousands of pilgrims arrived on the shores of the Jordan

Thousands of Orthodox pilgrims from around the world arrived on the shores of the Jordan. Precisely in the Holy land are the main celebrations on the occasion of the feast of the Epiphany.

The last 1.5 km of the pilgrims walked. State border runs across the muddy riverbed of the Jordan, but in the celebration of baptism a special mode is canceled. Under the thunder of drums, past the barbed wire and minefields down from the Judean plateau Patriarchal procession to the banks of the Jordan, as once down this road, Jesus, to be baptized by John the Baptist. In the hand of one of the hierarchs of the Greek and of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem white dove. She's unconcerned about the drum roll and the shrill sound of bagpipes.

This bird, the symbol of the Holy spirit, in the likeness of a dove descended on Christ in the day of the Epiphany, will release at the moment of the consecration of the Jordan water Patriarch Theophilus. Copts and Ethiopian farmers with the African drums, the scouts of the local Arab Orthodox community, clergy, and faithful from Greece, Russia and Serbia, 10 Orthodox countries are waiting for the moment when the river will lower a cypress cross, and the waters of the Jordan, as some claim, will seethe and for a moment will flow back.

A cordon of guards trying in vain to keep rushing to the water the crowd. Dive into the waters of the Jordan for pilgrims from the time of John the Baptist is the cleansing of the soul. Triple crossing himself in the Jordan water dip, drink it, pour it into the jars, cans and bottles, taking with them, hoping to cure diseases physical and mental turmoil, because once in the water immersed the Son of man.

sections: Society, World News