I attended my first Russian Orthodox church service yesterday morning. It was at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, DC. Everything was so traditional and beautiful. It's located in Northwest DC around a lot of the national embassies - which is a super nice part of DC. And DC in general is noticeably nicer now after Trump cracked down on homelessness and crime recently. The exterior was pretty nice, but the interior was way nicer (picrel). My dad is half-Slavic and I was baptized in an Orthodox church when I was a baby, but I wasn't sure I'd be welcomed since I'm very new to religion in general. But everyone was super nice. Some older Russian-American guy could tell that I was new and introduced himself to me, gave me a basic rundown of what to do, and handed me a booklet with the lyrics of the beautiful music being sung. A Russian-American woman then gave me a candle and told me to light it and place it in front of one of the icons like Jesus or Mary. I chose Jesus. I then stood near the back and observed the service and the people around me. I was expecting to see mostly Russian and Slavic Americans, recent Russian immigrants, older people, especially older women, and a half-empty service. But instead it was packed with everyone standing for the entire nearly 2-hour service. And the ages ranged from babies to the elderly, but it was mostly people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Couples didn't hold hands or touch each other like they do in the handful of Protestant and Catholic services that I've been to. And most of the women were wearing dresses and veils and were very thin and pretty. And most of the guys looked relatively athletic, like they were soldier fit or played sports. I could hear young kids speaking Russian as they ran around chasing each other. It was giga wholesome. I was also surprised that the head priest spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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