Every year, December 18, the Orthodox prepare for the great Christian holiday of the Epiphany of the Lord or Baptism. It is believed that this is the third most important of the twelve major holidays of the church, after Easter and Christmas.
All day before the holiday the Orthodox should carefully prepare for the upcoming Epiphany. Women diligently cleaned houses, as it was believed that rubbish should be swept out of the most inaccessible places. The sacred meaning of the coming great holiday was the cleansing of all bad things, the liberation from sins through ablution or immersion in holy water. The more precise meaning of the Greek concept, which came into the Orthodox tradition as baptism, implies taking on itself the creed. However, the word "baptism" in itself means liberating immersion. So, John the Baptist (Baptist) christened Jesus Christ in the Jordan River. He immersed it in water for a short time, having performed a cleansing bath.
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