Slavic beliefs. Ancient Slavs: how did they live and what did they believe? How does cutting your hair affect your life?
In Slavic paganism there was no strongly expressed dualism, a clear division into positive and negative; the evil principle among the Slavs did not have the power and independence that the good principle had, although it seemed to be in constant struggle with it. And yet, dualism manifested itself in the sense that women, as in the East, were considered the dark half in Slavic Rus'. And almost with worse consequences. Evil was understood only as a relative violation of primary order and harmony.
1. At the birth of twins, one of them was taken from the mother and killed in a special way, giving the living twin a brother in the world of the dead, creating a powerful in a magical sense Power that unites Life and Death together. This is what they did to raise a soothsayer or sorcerer.
2. Slavic female deities were the guardians of the clan - beregins, helpers in childbirth and life. However, the beregins were also goddesses of death. Since ancient times, it was believed that a pregnant woman, and especially a woman giving birth, opens a direct passage to the other world. And during childbirth, Something can break through the torn veil along with the child. A child can be possessed by a demon. Moreover, even any woman during her period was a potential portal into the unconscious. Hence the idea of a woman as unclean and the ban on sexual contact with her; it was believed that a man could simply give his life force to the dead. And the bereginii, to a greater extent, protected not the woman in labor, but the people around her from exposure through the woman in labor.
3. “Voluntary” death of women together with their deceased husbands: “The tribes of the Slavs (as the Latins called the Slavs) and the Antes (between the Dnieper and the Dniester) are the same in their way of life and morals; free, they are in no way inclined to become slaves.. Their wives are chaste beyond all human nature, so that many of them consider the death of their husbands to be their own death and voluntarily strangle themselves, not considering life in widowhood.” There was also a ritual murder of concubine slaves at the master's grave.
4. Starting with the arrival of spring, the Slavs celebrated holidays that were orgiastic in nature, similar to the Greek Dionysia. During the seventh week, which began the mermaid week, the girls wove a wreath from birch branches, which contains and retains the plant power of the earth. Kissing each other through living branches (the rite of cumulation), they join in the plant power of the earth, which should be transferred to women. After the ritual, to which only women were allowed, a feast was held to which the boys were invited. The ritual revelry began. It was accompanied by the farewell of mermaids (human children who died unbaptized, or drowned or drowned girls, as well as children exchanged at a time when a woman in labor is left alone in the bathhouse, and she lies without a cross, and the child sleeps next to her unbaptized), and the summer "Ivan Kupala". The ancient pagan Slavs, before the advent of Orthodoxy, worshiped numerous gods, one of which was the god of fertility Kupalo, but even after the advent of Orthodoxy they did not want to abolish pagan holidays. He was described as a handsome young man wearing a wreath of yellow flowers. A love legend is associated with the image of the deity. Separated from his own sister in childhood, Kupalo, not knowing that this was his own blood, subsequently married her. And it ended tragically: the brother and sister committed suicide by drowning. Hence the erotic nature of the holiday. Sexual sin and homosexual games were allowed. To bring themselves into the right state, the pagan Slavs drank special herbal decoctions. On Kupala night, the abbot of the Pskov Elizarov Monastery, Elder Pamphilus, complained to the Pskov authorities, “not all the city will rise up and go wild, the tambourines are knocking and the voices of sniffles and the strings are buzzing, while the wives and maidens are splashing and dancing, and their heads are nodding, their lips are hostile to the cry and the cry, all the foul songs and demonic pleasures are accomplished, and the wobbling of their backbone, and the jumping and trampling of their feet is also a great deception and fall for the husbands and youths: but as for the prodigal vacillation of women and girls, so also for the married women there is lawless desecration and desecration. corruption of virgins." Revelry holidays ended with cleansing rituals: bathing in water or mutual forgiveness. It was believed that after going through all this, a person was purified. The same holidays were held in honor of the Family, for the sake of the fertility of the land; children born under such customs were raised by their legal husbands, if there were any.
5. A special type of nervous female disease, known as “hysteria,” was extremely widespread. This disease manifests itself in the form of seizures, more noisy than dangerous, and strikes with the monotony of occasions and the choice of places for its temporary appearance. It was believed that they were possessed by an evil spirit, which confused the worshipers with inhuman screams and various cries to the voices of all domestic animals: dog barking and cat meowing were replaced by rooster crowing, horse neighing, etc. When the whooper began to calm down, she was carefully taken out of the church and laid down on the ground and tried to cover it with a white blanket, for which compassionate women brought the tablecloth with which the Easter table was covered with the breaking of the fast, or the one in which they carried eggs, Easter cake and Easter to the Easter matins for the blessing. The generally accepted method of calming whoopers during fits is to put a plow collar on them, with preference being given to one taken from a sweaty horse. In some places (Melenkovsky district, Vladimir province), putting a collar on the patient, they also tie horse shoes to her feet, and sometimes they burn her heels with a hot iron. Lying in a collar, he will more readily indicate who spoiled it and answer the usual question in such cases: “Who is your father?” Strange women ask the clique about the “father” through the open door, when the patient with a collar on her neck is brought to the threshold, and the questioners try to convince her that by revealing the secret she will not offend the “father” sitting in her (the clique always answers in the masculine gender during a seizure) . In the Vologda province, the klikush, stripped to their shirts, despite the bitter frost, were dipped into the ice hole, lowering their feet into the water, as soon as they had time to carry away the crosses and banners.
6.The psychology of primitive man allowed for the possibility of marriages between animals and people, and animals themselves were often perceived as direct relatives of humans. Everyone knows Russian fairy tales in which a bear lives with a woman, snakes fly to women at night, a person can be born from a cow, a boar, a dog, a bull, and boys can hatch from eggs. In this regard, the tale of the Eastern Slavs about Ivanushka the Bear's Ear, the son of a man and a bear, is indicative. A bear (she-bear) meets a woman (man) and takes her (him) to the den. A boy is born to them: “he’s completely human, only bear ears” (“a man to the waist, but a bear from the waist down”). This character is distinguished by his extraordinary and irrepressible strength (at the age of six he uproots an oak tree from the ground, etc.). As a result of his half-animal origins, he has two powers: human and bear. Also in fairy tales, animals are called little fox-sister, wolf-brother, bear-grandfather. This to a certain extent testifies to the idea of blood-related ties between humans and animals. “A man who meets a bear, in a fight, cuts off its paw and brings it home to the woman. The old woman peels off the skin from her paw and sets the paw to cook (bear meat), while she begins to spin the bear fur. The bear, having made a wooden leg from a linden tree, goes to the sleeping village, breaks into the hut and eats the offenders. The bear takes revenge according to all the rules of consanguineous revenge: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Since they eat his meat, it means he eats living people.”
7.According to pagan customs, in order to restore the well-being of the community, people who hid the harvest or negatively affected it (or the offspring of livestock, etc.) were killed or expelled, having previously ruined it. Only the Magi were knowledgeable here, acting as seers, to whose gaze the innermost secrets were accessible. Only they knew the reason for the misfortune that befell the people; this meant the supersensitivity of the Magi in the field of pagan worldview. The male population of the churchyards visited by the Magi, succumbing to the prevailing strict pagan morals and seeing in the Magi as intermediaries between people and deities, resignedly “brought to him his sister, mother and wife.” Also voluntarily, a century earlier, the pagans of Kyiv “brought their sons and daughters to the parishioners” for sacrifices to their gods. This was required by the priestly ritual. The Magi “in a dream, having cut through the shoulder (of women), took out any life or fish.” Of course, women belonged to noble families of pogost communities and for this reason alone could be subject to death according to pagan laws. But they could also be suspected of possessing witchcraft spells that bring evil forces to people (This trend regarding the possession of witchcraft and evil forces by women also appeared after baptism, since in the old pagan (before the new era) communities it was welcomed if a girl or woman walked to study with the sorcerer, because it was she (the woman) who was responsible for the health of her children, i.e. the future of her community). The witchcraft background of the actions of the “best wives” is visible from the words of the Magi: “if you destroy these, there will be a gobino,” i.e. suppression of the evil coming from the “wives” was possible only as a result of their extermination.
8. There were also mythical ideas about the danger of the first night with a woman. According to these ideas, a woman has something like teeth inside, and she can bite off something with them. In order for this not to happen, the first to do this was not the groom, but a priest or sorcerer with magical knowledge and abilities. Often the priest performed not even an act, but defloration with a special stone tool. A relic of this ritual among the Slavs was the custom of the Montenegrins, so that on the first night after the wedding it was not the groom who slept with the bride, but the groom. And in Russian fairy tales, instead of the hero, his friend, a magical assistant, lies with the princess.
In general, from a psychological point of view, hostility towards women is a means of asserting masculine qualities in oneself - the opposite should be considered as bad and dangerous. Since ancient times, man and woman were enemies (Amazons and centaurs). Also, the fear of being rejected or ridiculed is one of the reasons for the emergence of homosexuality, which, by the way, was very common in Rus' in the Middle Ages, and was first banned only after the 17th century, in contrast to European countries, where it had long been punished by death. For the same reason, maniacs appear. Relations between the sexes have always been complex, due to the fact that the worldview on these same relationships was often radically different from the worldview of the opposite object, besides, as Leopold von Sacher-Masoch said, in love you can be either a hammer or an anvil, and this is always means humiliation of one of the partners. In our time, many women have become, as the Japanese say, fujoshi (spoiled by yaoi) or slashers, i.e. loyal to gays and bisexuals and even condoning this, but this is more likely a consequence of adaptability and unwillingness to endure humiliation and disrespect coming from men. The problem remains a problem, there is no mutual understanding, and the number of Russian population is steadily falling down.
Take a closer look at the current neo-fascists who are striving for the revival of the Russian spirit, how do they treat women, and not foreigners, but their own? It seems that they have already returned to those barbaric times when everything stated above was the norm. I also strive for the reunification and revival of the national mentality, but not only of the Russian people, but of all Slavic countries. The emergence of nationalists in individual fraternal states fighting against their own brothers is unacceptable.
The concepts of evil spirits and its various manifestations undoubtedly constitute the general background on which the largest mass of prejudices and superstitions existing among people rests. Everything that is more or less mysterious and that at the same time is in one way or another harmful to a person, people usually attribute to the action of some unclean spirit (since they all have their own special functions, or, more correctly, special areas of their actions), then still this does not destroy the general belief of a person that, in any case, this is the work of an “unclean” one.
However, it cannot be said that people attribute to evil spirits only manifestations that are harmful to people, causing harm to people. Although all unclean spirits, according to the concepts of the Slavs, are indeed evil creatures in themselves, sometimes they are patronizing to certain people they “like” and provide various services to their favorites in their material life. Not to mention the fact that there is a whole category of persons who are, as it were, intermediaries between people and unclean spirits and for whom these latter play an almost service role, fulfilling their various desires and whims, mostly aimed at the harm of other people. But besides these persons who are in constant communication with evil spirits, according to the concepts of people, every person in general has the opportunity to appease or appease an unclean spirit who is angry for some reason or to prevent this anger in advance. For this, there are well-known rules and rituals that can be called, in some way, a demonological cult.
According to the Slavs, the origin of evil spirits is as follows: in the beginning there was God and only good angels. But one of them, nicknamed Satan, was filled with envy of God, and he himself wanted to be one. A struggle broke out between him and God, and it ended with God casting Satan into the mud (swamp), which is why Satan has since become known as Satanail. And his minions fell from the sky in all directions, and became goblins, water goblins, brownies and other evil spirits. Thus, unclean spirits have taken possession of certain areas, in which they are trying in every possible way to harm people.
Below will be presented various rituals of modern Slavs, shown in the example Surgut region.
a) Views of modern people on various church holidays and the accompanying customs and rituals
Christmas time, and especially New Year's Eve, is a time for young people to make fortunes about their future fate. Let's consider the most important church holidays and periods, starting with Epiphany Christmas Eve.
Evening Epiphany Christmas Eve people call it “a terrible evening” and say that at this time one must be especially wary of evil spirits, which, as if alarmed by the upcoming blessing of water, begin to rush and rush everywhere. Therefore, upon returning from church, all windows and doors are covered with coal or chalk. And with the holy water brought from the church, having sprinkled the house, they certainly then sprinkle the cattle as well, because, according to legend, if you do not sprinkle the cattle and the fence with holy water, then that night the unclean one will torment the cattle “heavily” and tomorrow (on Epiphany morning) you will find it in soap and sweat. Along with the water, they also bring a candle from the church, which is dipped into the water while still in the church, and kept in the water all the time. This candle also has great protective power against unclean spirits.
Also on Epiphany Eve, people do their best to tell fortunes and try to predict the future.
On baptism, after the blessing of water, those who went to the Christmastide as mummers, bathe in the ice hole to wash away this sin, since mummering by old people is considered a great sin.
The holiday following Epiphany is Maslenitsa- farewell to winter, which is accompanied by the construction of a “coil” (ice mountain) for young people and horseback riding around the city in the last three weeks by more respectable people. People bake pancakes and burn an effigy of Maslenitsa. And on the “forgiveness” day (the last day of Maslenitsa) they go to “say goodbye” to their elders, as well as to the graves of relatives. After this ritual, Maslenitsa is considered over.
Lent is coming. Of all the days of fasting, the one that attracts the most attention is Maundy Thursday, which is accompanied by various rituals and signs that have an undoubted connection with evil spirits. For example, on Maundy Thursday, having gotten up early in the morning, after washing, etc., you should jump off three steps of the porch or jump over three thresholds “backward” (backwards): you will be a light person all year, that is, you will not be sick all year.
Annunciation(March 25) is considered a major holiday. According to beliefs, on this day “a bird does not build a nest, a maiden does not braid her hair”... In the same way, sleeping with your wife on the Annunciation is considered a great sin. There were cases when priests imposed penance on a husband if a child was born on Christmas, since in this case they think that such a child was conceived on the Annunciation.
First day Easter, According to legend, the sun “plays” at sunrise - it increases and decreases. Many people allegedly saw this phenomenon. If a girl sleeps through Christ's Matins, this is a sign that she will get a bad husband. From the first day of Easter until the Ascension, Christ walks under the windows and listens to what they say about him. Therefore, you cannot spit outside the window or pour anything there, even clean water: you can pour it on Christ.
In a day Ivana Kupala Medicinal herbs are collected, festivities and fortune telling are held.
b) Customs and rituals at birth and baptism and related superstitions and signs
Long before the onset of childbirth, women already take some precautions both to preserve their own lives during pregnancy and during childbirth, and, mainly, to keep their child safe. Pregnant women are forbidden to step over a shaft, golik or dog, as well as “kick” the dog with their feet - the child may develop a “coachman”, that is, the child’s back will hurt and bend backwards. You should also not cross the legs of a pregnant woman; pregnant women should not sit on the threshold. You can't be pregnant with a dead man: the child will die in the womb, and you also can't be a matchmaker - for the same reason. A month or two before the birth, a grandmother is invited to “rule” the belly and monitor the normal course of pregnancy. When the time comes to give birth, first of all, the woman takes off the shirt she was wearing and puts on a clean one, then they comb her head and braid her hair, remove her earrings and rings, and take off her shoes. Then they light a candle in front of the icons, which burns all the time. As soon as the baby is born and the grandmother cleans up everything after the mother in labor, and the “place” (afterbirth) is wrapped in a rag with a piece of bread and buried in the ground underground, the grandmother goes to all her relatives and friends and invites them to the newborn “for a cup of tea.”
Until the child is baptized, the fire in the house cannot be extinguished, and the mother cannot turn away from the child to the other side. If a newborn child is worried, this is the work of an unclean spirit, which, according to people, often replaces children. In this case, it means that he replaced the calm one with the restless one.
When a child is baptized, they observe: if the child’s hair, cut by the priest and thrown into the font, sinks, the child will soon die, and if it floats to the top, it will live long. When a grandmother returns from church with her child after baptism, some relative of the newborn meets them at the threshold of the house and blesses the child with bread, after which she raises her hand with the bread up so that the grandmother and child pass under it. The edge of this bread is cut off and placed in a cradle: the child will be calmer and, in addition, the bread will protect him from various misfortunes.
c) Wedding customs and rituals
Arranging marriages is considered a matter for elders. As soon as the guy decides to get married or his relatives find it necessary to marry him in one way or another, a council of elders gathers. At this council the bride is chosen. Then, at the same council of elders, they choose a matchmaker.
From this moment, wedding rituals begin, which open with “matchmaking”, continue with a “date”, or “translations”, and a “bachelorette party” and end with a “feast”.
Before leaving for the crown, the bride and groom are blessed with bread and salt and an icon. The groom stands in the middle of the room, and his parents, first the father, followed by the mother, take one by one the icon from the table and bless the groom with it in the shape of a cross. They do the same with bread. Together with the groom's parents, his godparents - father and mother, each with their own icon - bless the groom. At the same time, the groom bows at their feet and kisses them. Then the groom goes to the bride. She has the same procedure for blessing, but not just the bride, but together with the groom. Then everyone goes to church. Ahead of the wedding train the bride is carrying a blessed icon. When the wedding candles are lit in the church, they notice whose candle burns the most will die first.
d) Customs and rituals in everyday life
· As soon as the built house is finally ready, a special day is appointed for the transition and guests are invited. At the same time, in the new upper rooms the floor is covered with hay, and candles are lit near the icons. Guests gather in the new house before the owners and wait for them. For some time, those gathered silently and with a solemn air sit and wait. Then the owners appear, and the owner carries bread with salt and an icon, and the hostess carries a cat, chicken and sauerkraut.
· When traveling somewhere, it is considered necessary to sit down for a short time, and on the day when someone is going away, they do not leave the hut until he has left and an hour or two has passed after his departure.
· During a fire, an icon is surrounded around a burning house, and a “cock’s egg” is thrown into the fire, which, according to legend, is carried by a rooster before its death.
· If a dog is lost, then you need to call its name up to three times through the chimney at the time when the first smoke comes out of the newly flooded stove, and the dog will appear.
· At midnight on Midsummer's Day, you need to get a completely black cat, boil it in a cauldron. When the cat is boiled to the bones, they begin to sort through all its bones in front of the mirror: they take a bone, wipe it with a towel, look through it in the mirror and put it aside. After some time, you will certainly reach such a bone that when you look in the mirror, you will see nothing - neither yourself nor the bone. This bone is taken: it has the property of hiding a person, like an invisibility cap.
· During a thunderstorm, they light candles near all the icons and pray to God, while they certainly close the chimney and drive cats and dogs out of the house, and they put stones on the windows and in the vents, because they think that through the stone they cannot enter the house “ Thunder Arrow."
e) Funeral rites and superstitions about the dead
· When a patient dies, they light a candle near the front icon, and place a cup of clean water on the table near the dying person’s bed.
· When a person dies, those passing by the house where he lies can easily notice how in the front corner of this house there is someone in white standing as if he is guarding someone... This is death waiting for its victim. Many say that they saw it “with their own eyes.”
· People are very afraid of the dead and, in order not to experience this fear, they use this technique: they take the deceased by the legs and say: “It’s not I, fear, who am afraid of you, but you, fear, be afraid of me,” and then they walk backwards to the threshold. After this, the deceased will no longer inspire fear.
· The inexperienced dead hears everything that happens or is said near him, and only when the eternal memory is sung over him for the last time, lowering him into the grave, does he lose all consciousness.
· If the coffin made for the deceased accidentally turns out to be long or if the coverlet turns out to be longer than the coffin, this serves as a bad omen: someone from the same house will die.
· When the deceased is taken out of the house, a stone is placed in the front corner where he lay.
· From the cemetery, everyone who accompanied the body of the deceased is usually invited to a special funeral meal, and the beggars are also called, who are given three alms, for example, three loaves, three pies, etc.
· On the day of the wake, they order a memorial service or mass, go to the graves and lament, and then call guests and beggars in the usual manner.
· To avoid longing for the dead, they take a pinch of sand from their graves and place it on their chest in their bosom.
· Widows are not supposed to wear earrings. As soon as the husband dies, the wife immediately takes off her earrings and rings.
· Regarding suicides, they say that a person never “chokes on” of his own free will: he is attacked by devils. But this can only happen when the person does not have a cross on his neck.
· If a dead person does not rot for a long time, they think that this is either a relic or a person cursed by his mother or God.
12 important and interesting Old Slavonic beliefs, signs and customs, illustrated with photographs. Many of these signs are not known to everyone, and many are simply undeservedly forgotten. And in vain, because it is in these simple rules that our ancestors followed that there is wisdom accumulated over centuries of observation, capable of telling in an accessible language how to behave in order to live in harmony with nature and oneself.
Damaging a man's beard or forcibly cutting it off in ancient times was considered a grave crime against one's ancient Family and an insult to the Heavenly Gods who patronize this Family.
The first silver spoons in Rus' were made in 998 by Vladimir Svyatoslavich for his squad at its request.
According to ancient Slavic teaching, wearing skirts and dresses restores connection with the energy of the family line through the female line.
Cossacks wore earrings in their ears for a reason. An earring in the left ear meant that the Cossack was the only son in the family, and in the right - the last
Radinets - depicted on cradles and cradles. It is believed that Radinets gives small children joy and peace, and also protects them from the evil eye and ghosts.
In ancient Rus', a wreath was always the main decoration of girls and was a mandatory attribute during pagan holidays. Great hopes were placed on the wreath: depending on the girl’s wishes, the wreath was decorated with different flowers.
The ancient Slavs believed that one family with all its ancestral branches forms a huge family clan, united by one spiritual connection, one surname. And over time, this family begins to personify a single energy-informational space - an egregor.
Did you know how the Slavs differed between women's and men's belts? The difference was in the length: men's - single-row, women's - double-row (wound around the waist twice).
The ancient Slavs had a sign - to let a cat be the first to enter a new house. Because a cat is able to find the healthiest, most comfortable place in the home. They enter the house after the cat has settled down in this place. Usually a bed is placed there for the young, and after the birth of a child - a cradle.
In Ancient Rus' there was a belief that evil spirits could influence any person if he was not protected by special amulets. The body is always protected by a shirt, a dress with protective symbols embroidered on them, bracelets on the wrists, necklaces on the neck, and a special bandage on the forehead.
Since ancient times, the Slavs have celebrated the change of seasons and the changing phases of the sun. Therefore, each season of the year was responsible for its own hypostasis of the Sun God. In the period between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox (from June 22 to September 23), the sun-husband Dazhdbog (Kupaila) was worshiped.
The fern flower or Perun's color is able to protect its owner from all kinds of ailments, damage and the evil eye. The Slavs believed that the fern flower had a destructive effect on all dark forces without exception, therefore the owner of this artifact is impenetrable and invulnerable to evil. They looked for him on the night of Kupala and believed that he would be able to fulfill their most cherished desires.
The ancient Slavs attached great importance to the objects and living beings that surrounded them.
Our ancestors deified nature, seeking to find in it protection and support in a complex and harsh world. And with the help of signs and beliefs, they tried to protect themselves from everything frightening and inexplicable.
Many Slavic superstitions, signs and beliefs cannot be explained either by logic or science, but, nevertheless, in the modern world people continue to follow them, keeping a piece of superstitious fear in their souls.
Slavic signs with explanations
When moving to a new house or apartment, you need to take an old broom with you. This Slavic belief is due to the fact that a Brownie can live under a broom and needs to be transported to a new place. This is also done to ensure that the discarded old broom is not stepped on and thus does not cause harm to the owners.
You cannot whistle in the house, otherwise there will be no money. In Rus', whistling was viewed negatively, since it was believed that whistling was a pastime for idle people. In addition, the sharp sound could frighten a pregnant woman or child. This sound was also associated with the whistle of the wind, which with its gusts could carry away property and money from the house.
Do not wash or sweep the floor immediately after departure from the house of a guest or close relative - there will be no way for him. According to legends, it was believed that this was the same as washing, sweeping, driving him out of the house.
If you forget something in someone else’s house, this is a sign that you will soon return there. This Slavic belief does not require any special explanation - if you forgot something, then willy-nilly you will have to return.
You cannot say hello and goodbye on the threshold - this portends a quarrel. This belief is explained by the fact that the ancient Slavs attached special importance to the threshold in the house, considering it a mystical border between the outside world and the home.
A broom standing in the corner with the handle down protects against damage and the evil eye. This is how our ancestors called for help from the Brownie and showed their enemies at home that they were ready to sweep them out with the trash. There is another explanation for this superstition: a thrifty housewife always puts the broom with the handle down, because this way it will last longer.
Do not keep broken or cracked dishes in the house, is a sign of misfortune. Broken dishes, according to Slavic beliefs, can lead to discord in the family and disagreement between relatives. In addition, broken or cracked dishes are dangerous and can cause injury.
The doors began to creak - unfortunately. This superstition can be explained by the fact that the front door is a protection not only from strangers, but also an obstacle to evil spirits. That’s why our ancestors perceived its creaking as a kind of warning.
You can’t sit on the threshold - it’s a sign of illness. This belief is easily explained: sitting on the threshold with the door open, a person finds himself in a draft.
You can’t throw out trash after sunset, because there won’t be any money, and they might get stolen. The essence of this belief is associated with the fear of losing something in the dark, when evil spirits begin to dominate.
An unmarried girl sitting on the windowsill will not get married. The ancient Slavs believed that a girl should not expose herself. About the one who does nothing but look on the street, they said that she has only one thing on her mind - to look out for suitors and get acquainted with guys.
Signs of the ancient Slavs about home and family
You cannot kiss the heels of a small child - then the baby will go late and grow up capricious and spoiled.
In order for the birth to go smoothly and easily, the woman in labor needs to wear her husband’s shirt or jacket.
Meeting a woman with an empty bucket means failure and misfortune.
The candles that the newlyweds keep lit during the wedding predict who will live longer. The one whose candle burns longer and more evenly will outlive his spouse.
It is a bad omen to stick a knife into a loaf - to trouble.
Half-eaten bread and crumbs are not thrown away from the table. They must be given to the birds, otherwise hunger will settle in the house.
You can’t eat in front of a mirror and look into it after dark - your beauty will fade.
In the house where someone died, all mirrors must be covered with thick fabric so that the soul of the deceased does not return to the world of the living.
Forgotten Slavic signs
You cannot cut your hair during pregnancy, otherwise the baby will be stillborn. In the modern world, this Slavic sign exists in a different version. Now it is believed that by cutting her hair, the expectant mother “cuts” the baby’s happiness.
In a new house, the rooster is locked up on the first night. Today it is believed that it is enough to let a cat into a new home first.
If a brick falls out of the stove, this is a sign of bad things.
After moving to a new house, you cannot whitewash the ceilings for a whole year. In the modern world, this Slavic sign does not recommend repairing the ceiling until a year has passed since the housewarming.
Our distant ancestors treated the forest with reverence, which they looked at as nothing less than a living being. Villages were built near the forests, temples were located in them, and they were inhabited by friendly (and not so friendly) undead. The forest fed, provided shelter and shelter. It is no coincidence that the tree became the symbol that unites Prav, Yav and Nav: the roots leading from the underworld gave the trunk - the reality in which you and I live, and the branches, the crown - the abode of the gods.
Thanks to this, the tree began to be considered a ladder along which one can travel through the worlds. Many Slavic peoples have preserved beliefs according to which the soul of a deceased person moves into a tree. Most likely, they arose after the baptism of Rus', since most of them contain references either to the Bible or to Christian cemeteries. However, this is also part of our history. According to these legends, the creaking tree became the abode of a restless soul; This is also where the ban on collecting any raw materials from cemeteries originates. A tree was planted at the grave in which the soul could find peace. That is why it was forbidden to break branches and pick fruits from cemetery trees. A very clear example is given in the “Divine Comedy”: without knowing it, Dante embodied on paper the echoes of Slavic beliefs: in his Hell, in the fifth circle, the souls of suicides are kept, who languish in the guise of trees. If you break off a branch or pick a leaf from such a tree, blood flows, and you can hear moaning and crying.
Life is also inextricably linked with the tree. Not only the Slavs, but also many other peoples believed that when a baby is born, a tree should be planted near the house. It was specially selected: for boys, “masculine” (oak, maple, ash), for girls, “feminine” (birch, linden). There is even a special horoscope for this case, calculated by the Druids: by the position of the Sun twice a year (winter and summer solstices, spring and autumn equinoxes) they determined the fate and character of a person. Each sign of their horoscope had two periods: for example, people born from December 23 to January 1, or from June 25 to July 4, belonged to the Apple sign. There are also signs of Fir, Elm, Pine, Linden and others. If you are planning to plant a tree near your house in the near future in honor of the birth of a child, then first familiarize yourself with its properties: there is a category of vampire trees that will not bring any benefit, but will only take away your vitality. The tree must also die “humanly” - by its own death.
No less than with man, a tree is inextricably linked with gods and spirits. My great-grandmother told me that you shouldn’t hide under a tree during a thunderstorm. She did not mean the possibility of a fire from lightning - in her village they believed that during a thunderstorm, evil spirits hide from God’s wrath in the trees, preferring lonely trunks. Accordingly, in addition to evil spirits, it was also possible to receive from a deity, who would accidentally miss and, instead of an evil spirit, throw lightning at the little man. By the way, this belief came specifically from the Slavs: Perun chased devils with lightning (or whoever he was aiming at - don’t consider it blasphemy, God simply had enough enemies), and then his image was brazenly plagiarized by Christians, replacing Perun with Elijah the Prophet.
Among the revered ones, old trees with large hollows, standing apart from the rest, stood out. People turned to them for treatment: the sufferer tied a small gift to a branch, hid a small gift in a hollow or roots; it was believed that such a “sacrifice” allowed a person to be saturated with tree vitality and accelerated recovery from illness. People went to these same trees to celebrate wedding ceremonies and other important rituals: God’s judgment was held at their roots, and the crown was a silent witness to oaths and solemn promises. After baptism, the veneration of trees was transformed, but the essence remained almost unchanged: they no longer took vows near the old oak tree, but they confessed to it in the absence of a confessor in the vicinity. Cutting down old large trees like oaks or elms was strictly prohibited: the Slavs believed that if you cut down the Tsar Tree, you would be in trouble - such an offense promised pestilence, drought, famine or war.
It is known that the Slavs built huts from wood. However, not all the forest could be cut down for this purpose. The following were considered prohibited:
- old trunks that have survived more than one generation;
- giants who were spared by lightning and hurricanes;
- young trees;
- crooked, unusually fused trees, or trunks with abnormally large hollows;
- dead wood (the woody “mask of death” can be seen here: it was impossible to bring home a “dead” tree);
- some peoples did not cut down trees in winter;
- what was planted by a person preserves his memory - such plantings were also protected from the prospect of being turned into a log house.
A separate category includes “lush” trees growing at road intersections. They are considered cursed, and Belarusians call them “Stoyarosovs”. They cannot be chopped: the business in which the trunk is planned to be used will not be successful. All trees that feed on human energy, in particular aspen and spruce, were considered cursed.
And when trees were chosen, say, for the construction of a new house, then you should have talked to them. They explained to the tree for what purpose they were taking it, and asked the spirit to come out. It was also necessary to drag the trunk to the construction site carefully: if you damaged the young shoots, you could incur a fatal series of failures. And the obligatory final ritual was a bath: no matter how noble the final goal of cutting down, it was still the murder of a living creature, and the sin was washed away with hot steam.
The following trees stood out among the Slavs:
- Oak is the sacred tree of Perun, a truly masculine species, the embodiment of strength, courage and wisdom. Temples and divine courts were set up in oak groves. It is the oak that is considered the prototype of the World Tree, growing through three worlds immediately from the very moment of Creation.
- Birch is a female tree with a dual interpretation. On the one hand, the birch tree was revered as a protector from evil forces, they placed its branches in the house and laid out its branches in the attics, and knitted brooms for the bathhouse. Girls washed themselves with birch sap, and birch was a strong amulet for pregnant women and women in labor. At the same time, lightning often struck it, the place where the birch grew attracted evil spirits, and restless souls settled in the lonely crooked trees.
- Hazel is a universal shrub, the fruits of which were eaten (especially during rituals and ceremonies), and baskets were woven from its branches. On the days of remembrance of the dead, nuts were scattered on the floor - in this way they lured the spirits of deceased relatives. Hazel was not struck by lightning, so it was used to make protective amulets for both people and homes.
- Elderberry, spruce, aspen, maple are trees that carry a negative load. It is believed that evil spirits like to live in them, so they were not used in construction, but were successfully used as amulets against evil forces. According to legend, the maple is a man turned into a tree; its wood was not used for kindling or making coffins.
- Spruce is still used today to create cemetery wreaths - its “funeral” meaning has stretched through the centuries. The tree is considered “feminine”; it cannot be planted next to a house in which there are many men - it can cause trouble.
- The role of thorny bushes is to drive away all kinds of evil spirits. Already in Christian beliefs, plants with thorns were attributed to the devil - they say, people will cling to them and swear. And before the baptism of Rus', they were used as a talisman and for various kinds of love spells. It is not for nothing that the blackthorn is associated with Polel - the wreath on the young man’s head is woven from this plant, strewn with flowers.
