Sergey Posad Revisited

We had a great time with the Gibbons. We had a roast beef dinner on Sunday night. I did my best to stay on my diet. I passed on the chocolate cake and ice cream. The next morning I ate hardboiled eggs which I brought for my breakfast. The rest ate cereal topped with fruit and toast with apricot jam. It was not fun watching all of this. After eating I began feeling a bit off. Low blood sugar and a little bit of an uneasy stomach after our ride to Sergey Posad. So I broke down and ate a couple of cookies and a snickers bar!! (I had been perfect for 5 days up to that moment). I have had this experience before brought on by the diet, as a result of the body being shocked into a state of ketosis. Had I been in a place where I could have just laid down for a while, I probably would have been OK, but I needed some sugar if we were going to be walking very far...which was exactly what we were going to do.

Larry thought it would be good idea to get an English speaking guide, so we did and it saved us lots of waiting in line and we actually learned a few things, that we missed last time. Below is a photo essay of the grand iconostasis that we didn't see last time. The last time we were there this part of the building was closed.

The Iconostasis with ancient chandelier.
The Iconostasis showing the handcarved detail. Everything you see in gold is handcarved wood.
This is a close-up of the handcarved wood.
Exit from the Iconostasis showing the elaborate wall designs.
The iconostasis from just inside the main hall.
The main hall of worship. The iconostasis is at the end of this photo.
Outside with our guide.
LaDawn sporting a Russian woman's version of a Davy Crockett mink hat!!

Our guide was very friendly and full of tidbits of information. One that I was reminded of is the slanted crossbeam on their cross, representing the criminals on both sides of Christ during his crucifixion. One headed for paradaise and the other headed for...well you know. The top cross beam is supposed to represent the sign above Christ's head.

According to wikipedia, this has not always been the case.
The Eastern Orthodox cross (also known as Crux Orthodoxa, the Byzantine cross, the Eastern cross, and the "Russian" cross) can be considered a modified version of the Patriarchal cross, having two smaller crossbeams, one at the top and one near the bottom, in addition to the longer crossbeam. The lower crossbeam represents the footrest (suppendaneum) to which the feet of Jesus were nailed. In most earlier representations (and still currently in the Greek Church) the crossbar near the bottom is straight. In later Russian and other traditions, it came to be depicted as slanted, with the side to the viewer's left usually being higher. One tradition says that this comes from the idea that as Jesus took his last breath, the bar his feet were nailed to broke, thus slanting to the side. It is also said that the slanted bar represents the repentant thief and the unrepentant thief that were crucified with Christ, the one to Jesus' right hand repenting and rising to be with God, and one on his left falling to Hell and separation from God.

I finally finished the post on the Gorky and Puskin house museums, if you are interested. About 4 or 5 posts back.