"Do it fast and don't scream," Nikolai Pastushenko, 34, thinks as he wades into the icy cold water of the river running through the center of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. He does the sign of the cross across his bare chest and then he dunks. Once. Twice. Three times. His mind goes blank.
Pastushenko is one of about three dozen people who have come down to this spot along the Dnipro River to take the plunge, a tradition across Ukraine — and Russia — on Jan. 19. The Christian holiday of Epiphany celebrates the baptism of Jesus Christ, though this annual ice swim's religious ties are loose. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine has been vocal in its objections to it, including in a Facebook post this week that said, "there is no religious reason for the immersion in winter water and never has been."
