It was an established tradition in Northern Russia to make hand-carved wooden crosses for veneration and prayer. The details of this woodcarving are full of symbolic meaning. On both sides of the cross are the instruments of Christ’s death—a lance and a reed. Behind it is the wall of Jerusalem outside of which Christ was crucified. At the foot of the cross is a skull representing the head of Adam, the first human being created by God. It is also a topographic reference to the hill of Golgotha where the execution of Christ took place. The word Golgotha stems from an Aramaic word meaning “the skull.” The sides of the icon depict scenes of the Passions of Christ similar to the Stations of the Cross in the Catholic tradition.