Kizhi Island—

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Thursday-

The wind was bitter cold and we were encouraged to wear several layers of clothing as we prepared to go ashore.  This is a museum area (island) showing a lovely old wooden church with 22 aspen shingled cupolas and other wooden buildings which were brought to this spot as part of the museum area.  

10 people live here in winter with 50 or so traveling here for work.  In summer 150 museum staffers work here.  The major transport in winter is helicopter.  The Island is 6 miles long and 1 mile wide. 

The church complex includes a “winter church” which is of much tighter construction to preserve the heat in the building.     Many icons were displayed as in other churches we have seen.  In this church at the end of WWII, Finnish solders who occupied the area, took many of this church’s icons back home with them.  They were returned later.

We toured a typical house of this area from several centuries ago.  There were important places in the house for the head of the family (red corner) and  the baby’s cradle hung from the ceiling and could be moved around the room so that the child was tended by Mom at all times. 

The house had a winter room, and  areas upstairs for working during the Russian winter.  Animals were housed under the working area. 

We saw a young woman spinning thread and our guide said that a woman would be expected to weave 200 meters of cloth before she could marry.  She was expected to provide her husband’s family with hand woven gifts.    We were asked to tell if the girl we saw doing beadwork was married.  We were  told to look at her hair.  One braid signifies an unmarried girl.  On marriage, the mother in law braids half of her hair and her mother braids the other half and she is expected to wear two braids from that time on.

A sauna house was located outside the dwelling and near the lake.  I think we could all have used a time in a saund because by that time we were chilled to the bone.  The island was expecting a storm and we were experiencing the preliminary to the storm.    Our guide told us about sauna rules.  No whistling, no singing, don’t go in alone, and bring the spirit of the sauna a gift (piece of bread, piece of candle, just anything)

Next, We were shown a rye field, with drying racks and a threshing house nearby.  We saw a wind mill, not for pumping water, but for milling the grain.  They call their “windmills” for pumping water, water mills.  Duh, makes sense

The church of St Lazarus (14 Cent.- oldest wooden church in Russia) has a legend that says that if a person approaches it before dawn, walks 40 circles around the church praying, that he will be healthy for the rest of his life.    Might be worth a try if we were here before dawn.  This picture is of a cemetery.  Note the crosses- one arm pointing to heaven, the other to hell.

When we got back to the dock, we couldn’t get to our ship.  Earlier we had walked through another ship to get to the dock, and that ship had just left.  We had to wait in the cold wind for our ship to move to the dock for us to embark.

N missed this on shore adventure because of a stomach problem.   And that is the reason for so few pictures of this stop, I have a hard time taking notes and taking pictures.  He is the usual photographer for our excursions.