Dormition of the Theotokos

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This hanging was done for today's feast day - the Assumption of the Virgin.  It often requires a bit of explanation.
You see Christ there behind the body of Mary holding what looks to be a baby - that represents Mary's soul.  It's an interesting sort of reversal in imagery since there are so many of Mary holding the infant Christ child.
Above the whole scene is the assumption of the body of Mary being taken to heaven.  I knew a Protestant minister who said that he believed in the bodily assumption of the virgin, because who knows WHAT people would do in the way of tests and such if her body were found.  
People sometimes ask who the man is over on the right side hunched over.  That's Paul, and in traditional icons of this piece he is usually there in a posture of grieving.

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