What links the Russian Orthodox Church with walruses in Russia and Aquacity in Poprad, Slovakia?

April 11, 2010

What, you might well ask, links the Russian Orthodox Church with walruses in Russia and Aquacity in Poprad, Slovakia?
The Russian Orthodox Church is said to have been founded by Andrew the Apostle who, it is believed, travelled as far as the Black Sea's northern coasts and indeed as far as Kiev. In the 9th century, Saints Cyril and Methodius translated parts of the Bible into the Slvavonic language which led to the spread of Christianity amongst the Slavs. The growth of Christianity in those regions has led to the Russian Orthodox Church becoming, perhaps, the largest Eastern Orthodox church in the world with some 135 million adherents. Such a vast congregation makes it second behind the Roman Catholic Church.  It is a tradition amongst Russian Orthodox believers, hopefully not compulsory, to immerse themselves in water at Epiphany which for them falls on January 19th, rather than the 6th. Most, if not all, of Russia is in the grip of winter in mid-January so a dip in the river first involves cutting a hole in the ice, the hole being in the shape of a cross. The act of immersion has deep spiritual origins and participants report a sense of inner cleansing but also of  bodily well-being which lasts for days.
That feeling of good health is shared by members of the Russian Walrus Fraternity, winter swimming clubs across the country, who, as the name suggests, swim in the frozen rivers and seas around Russia. Winter swimmers in this country, who of course struggle to find such cold waters, also report that they suffer fewer colds and the many, many thousands of people who always finish off their morning ablutions with a cold shower similarly claim to be healthier.
Finally, to Aquacity in Poprad a city in northern Slovakia. In most of Central and Eastern Europe there are numerous thermal baths, usually attached to hotels. These thermal baths provide different benefits depending on the composition of the water, drawn from mineral springs. Aquacity, however, has gone in a different direction and offers Cryotherapy. There the customer goes into a small room which is chilled to -120C. To put this into perspective, the coldest natural temperature recorded was in 1983 at the Vostok station in Antarctica and that was a balmy -84C. One is only in the Cryotherapy room for 2 minutes, under, it is said, medical supervision, and the 2 minute stay is followed by a vigorous workout in the gym – if one's limbs are capable of working. Aquacity says that the extreme cold stimulates the body's production of enzymes and hormones. The treatment is also said to alleviate a number of other conditions including eczema, psoriasis, Parkinson's and MS. Leaving aside those claims it seems that there is a common theme linked to immersion in cold and very, very cold water and even colder spaces; that is, a sense of greater spiritual and bodily well-being. 

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