Memoirs of Galina. Galina Kuchina
who formed a human chain, guarding the Theophany procession for its entire progress.
We left Harbin in 1957 and this tradition continued even after our departure. Many Chinese people also went to the Sungari with buckets and I remember asking one man why he was taking this water home.
‘Madam, can’t you understand anything. If you drink this water, you will not be sick,’ he answered.
I do not remember my parents talking to me about things spiritual – nor did they attempt to impose their opinions onto me – but the picture of family life, the behaviour of my parents, their regular attendance at church, and their performance of rituals and traditions confirmed in me a faith.
A big influence on me and on my spiritual development was Fr. Rostislav Gan. He was our pastor, parish priest and family friend. Again, it was not his sermons, which could not be fully grasped by a child’s mind, but the person of the priest, which influenced my view of the world and my spiritual growth.
Easter had a greater meaning for me than the Feast of the Nativity (Christmas), even though Christmas was always considered the ‘children’s Feast’. We prepared for Easter with Great Lent.
The week before the beginning of Lent, we celebrated Maslenitsia (Pancake Week). We enjoyed different types of pancakes, topped with sour cream, sturgeon, caviar, herring, jam etc. Then came Forgiveness Sunday ...
On this day, the Sunday Liturgy was always followed by a Vespers service, during which Fr. Rostislav would deliver a strict sermon on the nature of fasting, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation. The priest would then ask forgiveness from the entire congregation and the members of the congregation would ask forgiveness from each other. There was a general reconciliation within the church and at home amongst members of the family. However, the next day, on the first Monday of Great Lent, the atmosphere completely changes. There are no more dances or concerts. The church takes on a sombre look. The vestments worn by the clergy are now black with white crosses.
During Lent, students go to church for confession and then again to Holy Communion on the following day.
As students, we loved Palm Sunday. We respectfully stood in church in the evening, holding bunches of pussy willow, decorated with paper flowers and candles.
Holy Week was the most difficult week of Great Lent. Naturally, because of school, we could not attend all the unceasing morning and evening services that were scheduled. However, the services of Holy Thursday, including the Reading of the 12 Gospels as well as the Burial Services on Holy (Good) Friday were never missed. Following the service of the 12 Gospels, people took home the lit candle that they had been holding during the service. They went from room to room and made a sign of the cross on the beam of each door of their house.
Many years later, I was in Moscow in 1992 and by old tradition brought the lit candle to the home where I was staying. This surprised my friends because this tradition had not been followed during Soviet times.
On Good Friday, very emotional services take place - vinos plashenitsi (the taking down from the Cross) and pogrebenie (the Lamentations). The dimly lit church, with its sombre singing and readings on the Passion of Our Lord, creates a full picture of the tragedy of what occurred. We would return home, with bowed heads, concentrating on the full impact of the sufferings of Christ. But then, Paskha arrives ...
The church is brightly lit with chandeliers and candles. The dark coverings and vestments are replaced with white. ‘Christ is Risen!’ and ‘He is Risen Indeed!’ echoes through the church. All are joyous, smiling and happy.
I still remember our last Pashal service in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Harbin. Metropolitan Nestor served as hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate. Co-serving were Bishop Nikandr and a number of priests. I remember how Bishop Nestor, with each cry of ‘Christ if Risen!’ lifted his hand with candles and we could see all the colours of the rainbow reflected from his crystal rosary beads. This detail has remained with me all these years.
Bishop Nikandr Leonidov
After the service, we went home and broke the fast and in the morning the ladies of the house prepared to receive their visiteri.
With the joy of Easter came much work for our mothers especially when they embarked on the sacred duty of baking the kulichi (Easter cakes). All the ingredients were prepared earlier. Mama was preoccupied for several days before baking day. Discussions were held with her sister, Alexandra Fedorovna Lupova (with whom they shared a very close friendship). They had to decide whether to bake the kulichi in their own ovens or to take them to the Chinese bakers who provided their ovens for a nominal fee.
I loved the whole preparation process because nuts and sultanas needed to be sorted. Almonds were covered with hot water to remove the skins; while sultanas were washed to remove dust and sand. Large towels were spread on tables for the sultanas and almonds. How delicious it was to sneak a sultana or almond with Mama pretending not to notice.
The leaven was started at night and from that time to the time that the last kulich was taken out of the oven, women did not have any peace. Concerned faces, eyes full of fear, ‘What if the dough does not rise?’ So many ingredients could be ruined. So much worry!
Doors were opened and closed quietly. On no account could you bang the door. The dough could sink. Then, the magic moment. The last kulich is taken out of the oven, Mama is glowing, Aunt Shura is happy and everything else – is nothing.
After surviving the baking of the kulichi, the tortes, biscuits and other foods are not a problem. The decoration of the cakes and the colouring of the eggs were all a very important part of the preparation and setting of the festive Easter table. Here, the artistry of each housekeeper came to the fore.
Later in Australia, during my long service leave following 25 years work in the hospital, I took a course with Vera Stepanovna Apanaskevich in the special art of cake and kulichi decoration. I learned how to make fruit jellies and zefir (marshmellow). Unfortunately, calories proved to be a problem. Roses, mushrooms with chocolate tops, flowers etc. made from butter-cream may have looked good but were unhealthy so this art was not used often. However, I did make my daughter’s wedding cake when she married Vasia and decorated Christening cakes for my grandchildren.
It is important to describe how Radonitsa (remembrance of those who died) was celebrated in Harbin. On the tenth day after Paskha, on Tuesday, all Orthodox churches would conduct a general Panikhida (Memorial Service). After the Panikhida the clergy and people made their way to the Uspensky cemetery where shorter, individual services were held at each grave.
According to old Russian custom, it was usual to bring kutia (a bowl of sweetened rice or other grain usually decorated with dried fruit), food and something to drink. People would in this way pray for and remember the departed at the grave site. Special buses were often used and the local authorities ensured that buses, trams and pedestrians all moved in an orderly fashion.
It is sad to note that the Uspensky (Dormition) Cathedral and the cemetery were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The memorial stones were then used to pave the streets and the cemetery was razed to become a park. People said that when walking along the streets of Harbin it was sometimes possible to see the names of loved ones and acquaintances among the stones embedded in the paths and roads. These were the grimaces of fate that life presented during the days of ‘great changes’ which took away and destroyed millions of innocent people in jails, camps and exile.
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