Mid-Pentecost

Following ancient Jewish traditions of dividing the year into festal seasons and the feasts themselves into parts, the Orthodox Church commemorates the half-point way from the feast of Pascha to the feast of Pentecost, with the feast of Mid-Pentecost. It is an ancient tradition to bless holy water on this feast, which is done in the monastery at the old-fashioned water-well, which has recently been refurbished. At the end of the liturgy on this day, several of the monastery priests and deacons, accompanied by the choir and the faithful processed to the well to the ringing of bells, for the Lesser Blessing of Water.