page_title: Winter swimming
section_title: Eastern Europe and Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Winter swimming / National traditions / Eastern Europe and Russia
caption_attribution_description: English: “Epiphany celebration in Maritime Territory”. Epiphany bathing on the Feast of Theophany in an ice-hole in the Partizanka river, the village of Vladimiro-Alexandrovskoye, Maritime Territory. Русский: «Праздник Крещения Господня в Приморском крае». Крещенские купания в праздник Богоявления в проруби на реке Партизанка вблизи села Владимиро-Александровское Приморского края. Россия , Приморский край
context_page_description: Winter swimming is the activity of swimming during the winter season, typically in outdoor locations or in unheated pools or lidos. In colder countries it may be synonymous with ice swimming, when the water is frozen over. This requires either breaking the ice or entering where a spring prevents the formation of ice. It may also be simulated by a pool of water at 0 °C, the temperature at which water freezes.
  In Eastern Europe and Russia, winter swimming is part of the celebration of the Epiphany. Competitions for winter swimming also exist. Many winter swimmers swim with standard swimming costumes rather than with wetsuits or other thermal protection. Famous ice and winter swimmers include Lynne Cox and Lewis Gordon Pugh.
  Also, many locations in North America and Western Europe hold polar bear plunges, commonly to celebrate New Year's Day, although participants are not expected to swim and generally most do not swim.
  International winter and ice swimming competitions take place around the world with two of the larger organizing bodies being the International Ice Swimming Association and the International Winter Swimming Association.
context_section_description: In Russia ice swimming could have been existed since pagan times. During the times of Moscovian Russia swimming in ice holes was a popular tradition. Records are dating the tradition  back to as early as 1525. It was also an important court ceremony and a folk custom in Tsardom of Russia.
  In Russia and other Eastern European countries where Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the prevalent religion ice swimming is connected with the celebration of the Epiphany. The Epiphany is observed on 19 January according to the Julian calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church. The day marks the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan. To celebrate this, holes are cut in the ice on rivers, lakes or other bodies of water, usually in the form of a Christian or Orthodox cross. Around midnight, believers submerge themselves three times in the water to honour the Holy Trinity, after a priest says a prayer.
  Ice swimming on the Epiphany is relatively new. It was practised by only a few before the October Revolution of 1917 and occurred even less frequently in the time of the Soviet Union, when Christians were persecuted. However, the ritual became very popular in the 1990s since the Dissolution of the Soviet Union. In Moscow alone, 30,000 believers swam in ice holes in 37 fonts during the Epiphany of 2010. There is a popular belief that the practice erases a person's sins, but this is not endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church.
  Ice swimming is also practised during the entire winter by Walrus Clubs, whose members are called "walruses" (Russian: моржи, "morzhi"). In other Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, the Epiphany is celebrated on 6 January. There it is tradition for Orthodox priests to cast wooden crosses in the water, which are then retrieved by the believers. It is popularly believed that the person who finds the cross is freed from evil spirits. Other countries where this is done include Serbia and Montenegro.
caption: An ice hole is cut in the form of a cross in Russia to celebrate the Epiphany
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