01/30/07Canopy of the Jordan
 On January 25, 2007, during the Epiphany Week and in connection with this festival, the new exhibition: Canopy of the Jordan was opened by the Vladimir and Suzdal Museum-Reserve on the premises of the belfry in the Kremlin of Suzdal. The Canopy of the Jordan is a unique work of Old Russian art of the late 17th century.
 On the Epiphany Day, January 6 (Old style), a special beautifully-decorated canopy was set upon an ice-hole (called "the Jordan") for blessing the waters. The ritual of blessing the waters has been known from time immemorial in Russia. Many people took part in cross-processions to the rivers or lakes and then watched a priest putting down a cross into the cross-shaped ice-hole.
 The canopy exhibited was commissioned by Metropolitan Hilarion of Suzdal, a famous religious dignitary and a confessor of Tsar Feodor Alexeyevich. The canopy was assembled on the Epiphany Day, and the rest of the year was kept disassembled. It consists of 260 separate parts cut of pine wood with an axe. The canopy has a shape of a five-domed church and rests on 4 round carved pillars. Its height is 8,5 m. The canopy is painted in tempera with "grasses": ornaments of twisted branches, leaves and flowers.
The unique exhibit was restored by the museum workers in 1969 – 1973 and in 2005 – 2006. At present the canopy of the Jordan of Suzdal is the only one which has survived from the 17th century in Russia.
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