Kyiv is marking 900 years of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery now (and, at the same time, 1020 years since the adoption of Christianity in Kyivan Rus).

At St. Michael's today, it seemed as if they were preparing for a huge church-sponsored beer festival - or the other way around: a huge church festival sponsored by the major beer producers.



It looked very surreal - and embarrassing.



And it sounded pretty awful, too: the cursing of the sweaty construction workers, mixed with the beautiful God, have mercy on us streaming out of one of the windows of the refectory of St. John the Divine (which was used as a gym in the 1970s, by the way).



I have to admit that I did not see a single beer can/bottle there - but at least five brands were represented in various non-beverage forms: Rohan, Chernihivske, Obolon (tents, truck), Baltika (car), Staropramen (chairs).

(P.S. And Slavutych - the truck is that of Slavutych, not Obolon. Which makes it a total of six brands.)

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And then I ran into this couple of church-goers - and just couldn't get my eyes off them:







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All 20 pictures from my walk around St. Michael's are here.