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Miscellaneous SIG Cultural Notes
Period Slavic Superstitions:
I know that the offerings of kut'ya and eggs to the dead is attested by
period texts and referred to as superstitious by period sources.
I also know that the tradition of drowning a straw doll representing
Winter/Death, known as Marzanna, was attested by a period source (Annals
of Jan Dlugoz). The Annals also mention other superstitions or traditions
about history, etc. as held in 15th century Poland, in a section that was
not part of the English translation I saw. Anyone have any information
from that?
Also, I understand that the recitation of the Angelus at every possible
opportunity was a strong tradition among the Western Slavs who practiced
Roman-rite Catholicism and the Domostroi talks about a prayer to be said
on every possible opporunity for Russian-rite believers. (Yes, I know this
is not a superstition but a belief/habit.)
--
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne@mail.browser.net
From: Jenne Heise (jenne@mail.browser.net)
Anybody have anything on the periodness of the tradition of the Oplatek
(the christmas wafer, broken and shared between the family)?
--
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne@mail.browser.net
From: MHoll@aol.com -
First you have to separate the various Slavic traditions. Second, the
information is scant and rare. There is almost nothing on Russian
non-Christian tradition (what you call superstition). Things can only be
inferred by what the Church rails against. No descriptions of rituals.
As for Church traditions, they haven't changed. The services, prayers said,
holidays, fasts and Lent, etc, etc, are the same today as they were in
period. The only thing we know has changed is how Russians put their fingers
together to cross themselves (used to be index and middle finger together and
the rest folded down against the palm; now it's thumb, index and middle
finger together, the other two folded down).
This is for Russia. Catholic countries will have different traditions, and
maybe some cultures, especially those closer to Western Europe, will have
some period descriptions of period rituals/superstitions/beliefs.
--Predslava.
From: Jenne Heise (jenne@mail.browser.net) -
I was checking into www.findarticles.com (searchable full text from 300
magazines & journals) to see if the SIG group might find it helpful [The
answer is yes, the first article that comes up if you search for Medieval
Russia is the History Today article from 1995 giving excerpts from
recovered birchbark letters)
And came across a review of _The Bathhouse at Midnight: A Historical
Survey of Magic and Diviniation in Russia_ by W.F. Ryan. (University Park:
Penn State University Press, 1999). The reviewers noted that the author
did use ethnography but also worked from primary texts. So, I checked our
library and we have it. It includes interesting snippets like this one
about divination:
"In Kiev Rus' this ambivalence is neatly illustrated by the juxtaposition
in the _Russian Primary Chronicle_ for the year 1064 of a long and
entirely creduluous digression on contemporary and historical portents of
disaster (celestial phenomena, monstrous births, earthquakes, behavior of
birds, etc. ) and a sermon under the year 1068 condemning as pagan the
belief in divination by chance meetings, ill-omened encounters with a monk
or a pig, or sneezing (all of which continued to be omens into modern
times).
It is worth remembering that most natural signs and omens recorded for
Russia have exact counterparts in other parts of Europe, and many can be
shown to have been known in classical antiquity, from which, by devious
routes, they are probably derived."
--
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne@mail.browser.net
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