In private dwellings and in churches icons were decorated with fine embroideries and precious brocades. In humble houses they were replaced by embroidered towels. According to ancient Russian traditions women could not use paint and brushes, yet the exercised their skill in needlework and expressed their gratitude for a fulfilled prayer and their veneration of icons by fine embroideries. In later times the icon were covered with gold and silver plaques, pearls and precious stones, which were also donations of gratitude, memoriam for deceased and token of veneration. Icons, as well as paintings decorating the inside of the chur ches represent the Saviour, the Holy Virgin, the Holy Trinity, Saints events of the Old and the New Testaments, they illustrate the dogma, prayers and hymns.
Services are long in Russian churches.
There are no banches and people stand for hours as people stood at the time of the Holy Apostles. No sounds of the organ resound during the service and singing is the only music. Beside hymns and canticles the exclamation of the priest and of the deacon are answered by the choir in the name of all present. The liturgical songs are prayers of repentence, hymns of glorification or mystical interpretations of the Divine Liturgy, which in the Eastern Church from its very beginning to its end symbolizes Christ's life, His Incarnation, His Nativity, His Teaching, Sacrifice, Resurrection and Ascencion. Russians never use prayer-books during the services since they understand Slavonic, used in the Russian Church, and which is the ancient form of their own language.