22 April 2012 - It wasn't meant to be a pilgrimage

Security check at the cathedral

There is a booklet in my apartment called, "Moscow Far and Wide:  Guide of 50 To Tours of Capital."  It showed up a little over a week ago and I assume was deposited by the people who clean/service the apartment (which, yes, I really do need to do a separate post about).  Anyway, it appears to be meant for travel organizers who want some ideas of where they can take people, rather than a detailed guide, but it nevertheless has some maps and how long they are, so I have started to just go out and follow them and see what I come across.  What I stumbled across today, though, was most assuredly not covered in the guide.  Well, not exactly.

I set out this morning to do the Kremlin Outskirts route that was estimated at 4.5 kilometers with an estimated walk/tour time of 3.5 hours.  Based on my previous tours with the book, the time is usually longer than what is needed, which I suppose assumes that the tour guides themselves would be adding commentary along the way that would take up more time than me just walking the path.  It was scheduled (for those who know Moscow) to start at the Smolenskaya Metro station and end at the Park Kultury station.  Now, the booklet is just a hair too large to fit into my small purse and I don't like looking like a total tourist carrying around a tour guide, so my solution is to take photos of the pages in the book (one half of the page is in Russian, the other is in English, so it's not that much content) with my iPhone, and then follow the map and read the related descriptions on my iPhone as I wander along, while also taking additional pictures of what I'm seeing with said iPhone.

Well, perhaps I should have taken a closer look at the quality of my pictures before I set out today.  Because what became apparently near the end was that the end of the path kind of bled into the margin and I hadn't opened the book far enough to get the whole thing when I took the picture.  So while I see to have seen all the items on the tour (except a chameleon in front of a modern office/apartment complex -- which I'm pretty I sure I saw except this feature -- that changes color with the temperature, maybe like those cool little weather owls we had back in the 70s)  it wasn't abundantly clear how I was supposed to get to the Metro to get home.  Hmmm....  But around this time, I saw the Peter the Great statue in the middle of the river that I had been meaning to check out, so I started walking along the building side of the embankment to try to get closer.  

On the other side of the road were metal barriers with police or military spaced regularly behind them.  It seemed like pedestrians were allowed behind the barriers, but I couldn't figure out how/where I could cross the street and get through the barriers.  So I just kept walking.  After my wandering, I was a bit tired and not walking all that quickly and I noticed that many of the people passing me were women with scarves covering their heads and dressed in their best.  Something about it made me think maybe there was some kind of religious thing going on, but I didn't think much more about it, until I saw a priest walk by.  And the others started speeding up.  Then I saw on the bridge across the river a whole bunch of people carrying flags or something moving across the bridge to an area that appeared to be ahead of us.  Hmmm....  I quickened my pace to see what was going on.

Priestly types and banners/symbols out on the street

Well, it turns out that Christ the Savior Cathedral (yes, the same one I mentioned last week regarding the big Easter celebration) was directly ahead and clearly everyone was headed there.  As I got closer (we were approaching from the back side of the cathedral it seemed), there were several magnetometers and lots of police.   It wasn't clear to me whether just anyone could go in or if you had to be part of an official procession or something going in, and I figured I would be turned away if I started asking in English what was going on, not to mention that all I had to put over my head was a black pashmina.  And honestly, I didn't want to attend a service of some sort of service that clearly was special to the Russian church members and be an intrusion.  So I hung out near the entrance and started watching people coming up.

It was fascinating.  There were a lot of people showing up with all sorts of beautiful banners that looked like they would be used in the services of churches.  But it was strange to see people getting out of cars with these.  Other people were carrying religious paintings and symbols.  And there were a whole bunch of priests in full priestly garments walking up the street to the entrance.  So I snapped a few pictures which you'll see here.  Overall, just fascinating.

When I got home, I tried to figure out what was happening.  It seems that this was not related to Easter, but was a kind of gathering to defend the religion and the artifacts of the religion that have been stolen and vandalized in recent months.   Regardless of one's religious persuasions, it saddens me to think of people harming things that are so special to others that are likely quite old and certainly aren't hurting anyone else.

I'm including a video link below that tells a bit more about the service, which apparently was HUGE when you look at all the crowds.   Accompanying text and photos also can be found at http://rt.com/news/russians-church-defense-service-668/

I also learned that Pussy Riot (a group of female musicians that have been staging impromptu and unauthorized concerts, generally related to politics) had done one of these things IN the cathedral back in February.  I have to admit, I'm not a fan of them doing it in that particular venue, though I do appreciate what they did in Red Square, which I suppose may be just as special to others.  While I like the energy of the girls, I admit that I am a bit offended that they would do such a stunt in such a sacred place.  Though I guess that Red Square is perhaps somewhat "sacred" in a political sense and I have no issues with them staging a concert there to protest the political regime.  I will nevertheless continue to follow what they are doing.