Ok this is a great place to come to in early October so mark your calendars. The St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Cathedral has a Russian Bazaar each year in early October that highlights some great things about their own cathedral and Russian culture.First thing is that you can go on a spectacular tour of the cathedral. It is truly amazing inside and there are so many interesting icons that I could see a great lesson in learning about how to visually represent stories and parables.
Not to mention that this is a great place for students to learn more about the Orthodox branches of Christianity and to ask why they evolved so differently from the western Christianity that is more prevalent here in DC.We went on the tour and it is very quick since the footprint of the building is quite small (also since in Orthodox tradition there are restrictions on getting to the altar area). But the tour was fascinating because our leader talked about all the icons, murals, traditions, significance of the architecture and also explained how worship took place. Before bringing a group of students I would definitely go over icons, orthodoxy, basic tenets of Christianity and definitely John the Baptist. There are many icons related to Russian priests and prophets also so that is something you should have students explore while they are here and follow up on afterward at school.
The festival itself takes place mainly on the landing outside of the main entrance. It is not a huge area so space is limited but students would be able to look at Russian crafts, taste piroghi and pilmeni as well as sample Russian chocolates. If you can't bring students here since it is on a weekend then send them to the Bazaar for extra credit!
Contact Info:
Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
4001 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20011
(202) 726-3000
Russian Bazaar first week of October
www.stjohndc.org
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