A Ural Federal University student from Ecuador showed a "matryoshka" during Epiphany bathing.

      UrFU student from Ecuador showed a “Matryoshka” during Epiphany bathing

      January 20, 2026

      Foreign students and postgraduates of UrFU took part in the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, the press service of the Ural Federal University named after B.N. Yeltsin reports. Students usually take the initiative to participate in Epiphany bathing themselves, the university said.

      Foreign students plunged into an ice hole set up on Lake Shartash near the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity (on Proyezzhaya Street). Before that, Father Nikolai told those gathered about the history of the holiday.

      Usually foreigners take the initiative to participate in Epiphany bathing themselves because they are interested in learning how Orthodox Christians celebrate the Baptism and want to see with their own eyes the mass immersions in the ice hole.

      This year 26 students from different countries wished to immerse themselves in the consecrated font: Serbia, China, Colombia, Syria, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Nigeria, Mexico, Iran and Chile. After immersion in the icy water, all participants were treated to hot tea with pancakes.

      As Srdjan Radakovic, a postgraduate student of the Chemical-Technological Institute of UrFU from Serbia, said, being a believer and an Orthodox, he had repeatedly taken part in similar rites in his homeland. However, in Yekaterinburg he immersed himself in the icy water at Epiphany for the first time.

      “In Serbia the holiday takes place differently, without ice and an ice hole. The priest throws the cross into the river or lake, and the faithful immerse themselves in the water. The immersion takes place at a positive air temperature, about +5 °C, but the feeling of cold is much sharper, because everything happens in the open air, and not in a closed tent like you have,” Srdjan Radakovic shared. “I really liked how wonderfully everything was organized, I felt a spiritual renewal.”

      Journalists’ attention was also drawn to another Epiphany bather, Sebastian Ruiz from Ecuador. A large matryoshka tattoo and the inscription “My life — my rules” were noticed on his shoulder. Sebastian said he got that tattoo in memory of his life in Russia. On another large tattoo on Sebastian’s chest a roaring bear is depicted.

      As the UrFU press service told the Uralweb portal, Sebastian Ruiz is currently studying at the preparatory faculty, learning Russian, and plans to apply for a residency at a medical university.

      Related links:

      Orthodox celebrate the Baptism of the Lord (PHOTO)

      From January 18 to 19 all Orthodox Christians celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. Fonts are consecrated, and after that anyone who wishes can plunge into the holy water. How it happened, in our report from Sredneuralsk.

      For the first time a child was baptized in a Sverdlovsk pre-trial detention center

      For the first time in the history of SIZO-6 in Kirovgrad, the child of a detained accused woman was baptized by a priest, the press service of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Sverdlovsk Region reports. “They often say that children should not suffer because of adults’ mistakes.”

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