The Moldovan Orthodox Church, along with other churches following the old Julian calendar, is celebrating Transfiguration of Jesus today.

The celebration, which is one the Orthodoxy’s twelve great feasts of the year, marks the event where, according to the gospels, Jesus began to shine with bright rays of light while praying with three of his apostles on a mountaintop.   

This is the only day during the ongoing Dormition Fast on which fish is allowed, in addition to wine and oil.

The Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and All Moldova says the feast of Transfiguration is an occasion for believers to make “a spiritual transformation, to lighten up their minds with good thoughts, and their hearts with pure feelings, to illuminate their lives with good deeds of helping and comforting the sad, the bereaved, the poor and the lonely”.

On Transfiguration, believers bring grapes to the church to be blessed and shared. Popular tradition says the feast marks the end of summer and the “transfiguration” of nature.