A video of an Orthodox Christian priest take a dip in a water body to mark the day of the Epiphany is viral on social media with the false claim that it shows Christians being inspired by the ongoing Maha Kumbh celebrations in Prayagraj.
BOOM spoke to a Catholic priest, who explained that the ritual seen in the viral video is an ancient practice followed by Orthodox Christians with no connection to the ongoing Maha Kumbh in India.
We further found multiple videos of Orthodox Christians taking part in similar dips in water bodies, to celebrate Epiphany - which marks the occasion of the baptism of Jesus Christ.
The video, shows a man wearing white robes and a Christian crucifix enter a water body and take three dips while a crowd watches on. It is being shared on Facebook with the caption, "Christians were inspired to create a similar event for their religion. Consequently, a Father proposed the idea of taking a dip in a lake, and starting next year, this religion will begin its own version of a Kumbha Mela at that lake. These individuals appear to lack integrity, as they adopt practices from our scriptures yet criticize us. However, the unanswered questions remain: Is this practice found in the original Bible, or will the Bible be altered to include this new form of "Christian Kumbh"? This requires an explanation. #ChristianKumbh"
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Video Shows Epiphany Dip, Not Kumbh-Inspired Event
BOOM consulted with a Catholic priest, who told us that the ritual seen in the viral video was commonly celebrated by Orthodox Christians to mark the occasion of the baptism of Jesus Christ, also called the day of the Epiphany.
Looking through the viral video, we found the TikTok logo, along with the username @danilescuandrei. Taking cue from this, we did a keyword search on TikTok using VPN, and found the exact same video posted by a similar handle. The video contained a caption in Cyrillic, stating that it showed Epiphany celebrations in the Romanian town of Slobozia on January 19, 2025.
Looking through the comments, we found other users also mentioning "water baptism" and "baptism of jesus" along with a mention of how it is performed by the Orthodox church every year.
Looking further, we also found a BBC article from 2020, explaining the Orthodox Christian tradition of Epiphany. The article elaborated that in countries like Russia, many people brave the cold waters of January, and take three dips to commemorate the baptism of Jesus Christ.
We also found several other videos of Orthodox Christians in Russia, Romania and Georgia taking dips in water to commemorate the day of the Epiphany. View these videos here, here and here.
