6 of the strangest rituals of the Russian people

1. Salting and baking babies

In ancient times, in Russian villages (as, indeed, in all the rest) mortality in the first years of life was high, since such benefits of civilization as antibiotics and pediatric medicine had not yet been introduced. However, loving parents with the ingenuity inherent in peasants looked for other ways to protect their offspring from dangers and diseases.

If the baby was born prematurely, was weak, ill, or exhibited suspicious behavior - such as being too quiet or too loud - arrived in the following way.

The baby was coated with dough, placed on a shovel, which was used for baking bread, and thrust into a heated oven.

It was believed that there the child would “ripen”, just like in mother's womb. This strange ritual called baking children was preserved in some regions until the 20th century. It was accompanied by the reading of prayers and incantations, round dances around the midwives’ house, as well as dialogues between the parents and the midwife supervising the action:

- What are you doing, godfather?
— I’m baking dryness (disease).
- And you, godfather, look, you wouldn’t bake Vanka too!
- So what? And I won’t spare Vanka, just to get rid of her, the evil woman!
- Bake it, and sell Vanka to me!

The healer took the child, and he spent the night with her, and then she returned him to his parents. The dough taken from the baby was then thrown to the dog in order to transfer the diseases collected from him to it.

If this ritual seemed too extravagant to you, there is another option - the so-called salting of the baby. We take a supposedly sick child and rub its salt and soot. If the mixture corrodes the skin and it falls off in shreds, it doesn’t matter, the disease will go away along with it. However, you don’t have to completely rub the offspring with salt - enough pour it into his ears. Helps from evil eye.

Similar customs, by the way, met also in Turkey and Central Asian countries.

2. Discovery of sorcerers

In enlightened Europe of the late 15th - mid-17th centuries searching for witches, sorcerers and other workers in the sorcery industry were dealt with by the Holy Inquisition. The superstitious Russian peasants did not have one, so they had to cope with the servants of Satan on their own.

Wizards and witches committed many bad things - in particular, they caused diseases, crop failures and stole milk from cows. Why? Well, just because of his bad character.

Naturally, they carried out their pranks incognito, avoiding the righteous anger of their neighbors.

Therefore, if the villagers suspected that there was a warlock in the village, they carried out ritualto reveal the identity of the villain. IN special day - March 25 - after the morning service, the most desperate peasant had to sit on a horse, “which is not a pity,” with his back forward, facing the tail. And drive around the village without looking back.

Having left the village, the witch catcher had to look at the chimneys. The fact is that on this fateful day, evil spirits allegedly “ventilates» sorcerers who fly out of pipes upside down. Of course, she does this under the cover of an invisibility spell, and only by sitting on a horse backwards can you spot the warlock levitating above the roof of his house.

True, when performing the ritual you need to be careful. If a villager looks back while riding a horse, the evil spirits will immediately tear the nag into pieces, and the witch-catcher himself will either die or go crazy with fear. Therefore, the “discovery of the sorcerer” is increasingly delegated specially trained healers.

Firstly, they were not afraid evil spirits, and secondly, they knew how to steer a horse without looking at the road. Of course, these professionals worked only for a serious remuneration, which was collected by the entire village.

3. Merman's treat

The fate of the fishermen was directly related to the catch, so it was vital for them to maintain normal relations with the merman. In addition to them, millers and beekeepers also depended on the disfavor of the water spirit. Mermen could mess up many troubles: drowning someone, diverting the catch from the nets, ruining the mill wheels, or even killing bees in the hives.

What connection could there be between a creature living at the bottom of its pond and bees? Don't ask, you just need to believe in such things.

As folk observations testified, from April 1 (old style), the merman that lived in each pond came out of hibernation hungry and angry. The evil spirit dispersed the fish, broke the ice, caused waves - in general, in every possible way made it clear that he was in a bad mood. To calm the merman, he was given a treat.

Three days before April 1, fishermen bought the gypsies have the worst horse without haggling. All this time they tried to fatten the horse with bread and hemp cake. On the last evening, the ungulate's head was smeared with honey and salt, red ribbons were woven into its mane, its legs were tied with ropes, and a pair of old millstones were placed around its neck. At exactly midnight, the horse was taken to the river where the merman lived and thrown into the hole. If the ice had already melted, they had to load the “gift” into a boat, take it to the middle of the reservoir and drown it there.

It was assumed that a fed merman became kinder and did not cause floods, did not tear nets and fishing rods, and did not frighten the fish. And if the fishermen were slow-witted and delayed with the gift, the spirit allegedly gave them hints in the form of strong vibrations of the water and dull groans from underground.

After successfully handing over the horse as a gift to evil spirits, the senior fisherman poured oil into the river, saying: “Here is a housewarming gift for you, grandfather. Love and have pity on our family!” Satisfied with the successful transaction with the merman, the men returned home and, according to 19th century ethnographer Ivan Sakharov, “we happily spent the whole night in drunkenness».

4. Fighting Cow Death

Nowadays, the death of pets is attributed to infections. However, in ancient times, ordinary Russian peasants did not have microscopes, and therefore livestock mortality were associated with much darker reasons. It was believed that there was a certain special force - Cow Death, and it was this that destroyed the cattle. And the life of the entire settlement depended on the well-being of the latter.

Cow death appeared to people in the form of an old, disgusting woman with clawed “rake hands.” She not capable she wanted to enter the village herself, and therefore appeared to passing travelers and merchants and asked for a ride to the nearest village. When the well-wisher fulfilled the request, Cow Death, having reached the given location, exterminated all there cattle.

To deal with the villain and stop the death, the peasants took desperate measures. They performed a ritual called “ploughing the village” (not from “fan”, but from “to plow”).

This was done exclusively by women and girls. At night they secretly were going to - barefoot, wearing only white shirts, with their hair down, so that they could use a plow to make a furrow around the village. It was believed that Cow Death would not be able to overcome this boundary.

Either one girl or three at once were harnessed to the plow. Moreover, they had to be completely naked and preferably chaste. However, sometimes, on the contrary, pregnant women were used as draft force.

A widow woman took charge of guiding the agricultural tool from behind. The participants in the ceremony made noise, rattled frying pans, dampers, pokers and cracked whips. It is mentioned that in the Dankovsky district of the Ryazan province, women even shot from guns - apparently, the evil spirits were afraid of the good old firearms. As they say, the Lord allowed demons into our world, and Colonel Colt evened our chances. Joke.

Also, the participants in the procession carried brooms with them, sometimes riding them like a horse, capturing burning bunches of splinters or straw, dry linden logs, bath brooms without leaves, animal or living skulls rooster In addition, they carried sacred Christian attributes such as icons, candles and incense in a censer or simply in a pot of hot coals.

If the women came across an animal along the way, for example cat or a dog, they killed his. Because, of course, it was death itself that took on such a form in order to hide from retribution. If they bumped into a belated traveler, they could beat him up - who knows who a feverish woman can turn into?

At the end of the ritual, having made a full circle around the village, the peasant women dug a hole, filled it with manure, set it on fire and led the sick cattle through the smoke. It was believed that this would heal animals. There's no need to be veterinarianto judge how “effective” such therapy might be.

After plowing the cow's death allegedly ran in the village “stunted and starved”, she suffered and, out of grief, went to the steppe.

5. Fortune telling with stroking

Since ancient times, people all over the world resorted to fortune telling to find out your destiny. Girls who were about to get married especially liked to do this. Indeed, in times when no equality of rights was heard of, a woman’s whole life depended on whether the marriage was successful.

Most often, girls made fortunes during Christmas time - this is 15 nights from Christmas Eve to Epiphany. There were rituals with mirrors, candles, cards, throwing shoes over the fence and more.

There was a more interesting one way - when a girl wishing to get married put a bag on a horse’s head, sat on the animal backwards and rode around the village. The logic is like this: if an ungulate goes to someone’s gate, the girl will be immediately married off. And if he clatters to the barn or to the fence, then this year no one will woo.

But the most original method of finding out the future was associated with a bathhouse or barn - this is an agricultural building where sheaves are dried.

It was believed that these places were inhabited, respectively, by bannik and ovinnik - representatives of evil spirits. And who should you ask for the future if not them, right?

In general, a fortune-telling girl would approach a window or door, lift up her skirts and stick her bare loin into the room with the words: “Betrothed-mummer, stroke me!”

If the demon did if it is a bare paw, then the groom is destined for her to be poor, and if she has a hairy one, then, on the contrary, the girl will be the bride of a rich man. If no one touched her, then there would be no marriage in sight. And if evil spirits hit a girl with a whip, that means she must be the wife of a domestic tyrant and endure beatings.

Sometimes, however, the benefit comes from this ritual Not only ladies, but also young men sought to extract. The latter hid in barns and bathhouses so that they could touch an unfamiliar girl with impunity. 19th century ethnographer Sergei Maksimov even recorded Here’s the story: once in Penza, a fortune teller stuck her butt into a barn, the guy hiding there grabbed her, and she, deciding that she had become a victim of a demon’s harassment, died of fright.

6. Funeral of the flies

In Vladimir, Smolensk, Kaluga, Kursk, Oryol, Tula provinces and in many other places, Russian peasants had a very peculiar custom, performed during the period from the day of Semyon the Letoproved (September 1, old style) to the Intercession (1 October). The villagers gathered to organize a magnificent funeral for insects.

Funerals were given honor to flies, cockroaches, fleas, bedbugs, lice and mosquitoes.

How wrote ethnographer Ivan Sakharov, Serpukhov girls placed dead insects in coffins carved from root vegetables. For example, from turnips. However, beet and rutabaga were also suitable. In other cities and counties, invertebrates were sent on their last journey in boxes, nut shells, bast shoes and sarcophagi made from wood chips.

Funeral accompanied noisy mourning, lamentations, a memorial service, beating pots imitating funeral bells, reading funeral prayers and psalms. After the insects were buried, miniature crosses were placed on their graves. The deceased were remembered with pies, honey, mash and beer.

Why was this necessary? Well, there are three reasons. Firstly, was consideredthat the funeral of flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches and other parasites will lead to the fact that they will all die and stop drinking blood and spoiling food. The ritual, by the way, was very effective from a practical point of view. Although this may have been due to the fact that the “funeral” was held in the fall, when the livestock insects naturally decreased due to cooling.

Secondly, the ritual could also be motivated the belief of Russian peasants that the souls of deceased relatives turn into flies and other insects. This means that honoring them could help improve relations with their ancestors.

And finally, the third reason: the funeral ceremony for flies, mosquitoes or cockroaches is often took comic character. Because it’s just fun to bury them like people, according to all the rules. Perhaps this helped the peasants to take their minds off thoughts about their own mortality. And just have a nice time at the wake, even if no one died.