Overview
- Lyubertsy hospital trauma chief Pavel Korobeynikov warned that people with hypertension, heart disease or asthma, as well as anyone intoxicated, should not enter ice holes due to the risk of acute cardiac or respiratory events.
- Ieromonakh Feodorit, an emergency physician, said immersion while drunk is categorically unsafe and emphasized that Epiphany water is blessed primarily for drinking rather than as a mandate to plunge.
- Podolsk eparchy spokesperson Father Antoniy Kindyakov noted the immersion custom arose in Jerusalem’s milder winter climate, urging Russians to approach the practice prudently in freezing conditions.
- For healthy participants who choose to immerse briefly, Feodorit advised immediate external warming or hot tea after exiting the water and discouraged using alcohol to warm up.
- The church recognizes threefold immersion invoking the Holy Trinity as a popular tradition, and Epiphany in the Russian Orthodox Church is observed on January 19.