Christians go to church to take holy water

Before Epiphany, the Orthodox Christians go to church to take holy water that they use to heal wounds and to protect themselves from evil, Info-Prim Neo reports. Svetlana Savitski from Chisinau said her parents stuck to this tradition and she follows their example. “The waters of Jordan were blessed today in order to prepare the baptizing of Jesus Christ. We take this water from Church every year. They consider this water to be medicinal,” she said, adding that the water blessed today is drunk before taking the communication, while the water blessed on Epiphany – after taking the communion. Andrei Lozovan from Chisinau said he always goes to church on the eve of Epiphany. “I give the children holy water to drink. We use it for other purposes as well. We splash the flowers with the holy water that remained from last year,” he said. Another faithful man, Gheorghe Braila from Ialoveni said it is for the first time that he managed to come to church before Epiphany. “The holy water helps you clean yourself from sins. We drink it when we have troubles. It is good to drink it every morning. The water blessed today is kept for a year. It is the most powerful water and we should store it up,” he said. The day before Epiphany, the Christians eat nothing. The next day, they drink holy water in the morning and then can bath in blessed water.