Chapter 4 March. Maslenitsa. Sour girls. Divination. Rites. Signs The Romans called the month "March" in honor of the god of war Mars, who was also called upon to protect peaceful labor. In Rus', March had many names: in the north it was called "dry" because of the spring heat, and

Chapter 7 June. Green Christmas. Trinity. Baptism of the cuckoo. Whit Monday. Summer divination. Conspiracies In the old Russian calendar, June was called "Svetozar", which means illuminated by light. Svetozar among the Slavs personified youth, youth, strength. There were also other names: izok,

Fortune-telling of townswomen on fallen autumn leaves Fortune-telling No. 1. For fortune-telling, you need to collect fallen leaves of three colors: green, yellow and red (nine leaves of each color). Collected autumn leaves must be put into the box, and then shake it well. Take out without looking

Rites and conspiracies to remove damage Rite and conspiracy 1Place the icon of the Holy Trinity on the table and light a church candle in front of it. Pour water into a basin, pour buckwheat or rice there, and then read the plot for fifteen minutes, without taking your eyes off the floating

Autumn natures The autumn time endows people born at this time of the year with early maturity, slowness, and prudence. They will think a hundred times before doing anything. There are many pedants among the "autumn" men. They are principled and diplomatic. Diligent at work and

Autumn nature Wise autumn, associated in our minds with maturity, experience, slowness. She endows people born at this time with the corresponding features. "Autumn" women are quite prudent and pedantic. Before doing something, think for a long time.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I MAIN TYPES OF FORTUNE

CHAPTER II. Christmas fortune-telling

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

Russian holiday culture is ambiguous. The fact is that in the context of historical events, many festive rites underwent very strong changes, so Maslenitsa turned from a pagan cult into an Orthodox holiday, which, however, retained many pagan features.

In general, the majority of Russian calendar holidays largely bear the features of pagan rites. Divination is also one of the elements of pagan culture.

The researcher of Russian culture M. Zabylin provides the following classification among the Christmas fortune-telling (more precisely, the types of fortune-telling): fortune-telling on things, burying gold, calling passers-by and passers-by, eavesdropping, fortune-telling on hens, fortune-telling on horses, fortune-telling at the gate, fortune-telling with a shoe, fortune-telling on bulbs , divination by an egg, divination on logs, divination by wax, divination by a collection, divination by a torch, divination by an ox or cow skin, divination in a frying pan, etc. sign. This is very interesting, because you can see that when fortune-telling was not abolished, they made up a tangible part of the life of the ancient Slavs, and each fortune-telling performed very specific functions, answered very specific questions regarding future life individual person or group of people. On this moment you can find a sufficient number of publications devoted to fortune-telling, but there are practically no studies on the origins of this action.

My work is divided into two main parts. The first part talks about some individual reasons for divination. The second considers divination directly related to Christmas holidays.

CHAPTER I

MAIN TYPES OF FORTUNE

Dream divination is one of the most common types of divination, based on the traditional notion that a person's soul leaves his body in a dream and travels to heaven or hell. If in other types of fortune-telling a person only approaches the border between “this” and the other worlds, then during sleep his immortal, according to beliefs, part - the soul - has the opportunity to gain knowledge directly in the “other” world, where only the dead can penetrate. In this regard, it is significant that in popular beliefs, sleep and death act as one-order, one-natural (for comparison, there are sayings: “The dream of death is a brother” or “The dream of death is your own”) and even as identical (one can compare folk definitions: “Death is an eternal dream”, “You will fall asleep that you will die”, “Sleepy that you are dead”, “A person is sleeping - not alive”, etc.). The relationship between sleep and death is also evidenced by the language material: to rest (sleep) - to rest (to die), the bedroom is a tomb, sleeping is dormancy, sleeping is the deceased, etc.

The motif of sleep as a way to get into the “other” world (hell, heaven, the thirtieth kingdom) is widespread in narrative folklore genres: legends, bylichkas, obmiraniya, fairy tales, in which every time, returning to “one’s own” world from the “other”, the hero acquires the knowledge that is significant, relevant for him in his life situation. The same can be said about the fortuneteller subject.

The identification of sleep and death in folklore and poetic texts is supported by folk ideas about the fragility of the border between the real state of sleep and death: so, according to legend, one who sleeps with his shirt collar buttoned up will sleep his soul, that is, he will die. Close to this belief is the prohibition widely spread among Russians to abruptly wake up a sleeping person, because his soul, which is outside the body, will not have time to return and the person will die.

The attitude to dreams (visions) as information-knowledge, a sign received from the “other” world, where everything is known, known, “written” in advance, led to faith in prophetic dreams(dreams are predictions of the future). In the practice of divination, dreams were considered prophetic, timed to coincide with certain time points that had the significance of a milestone. Within the calendar year, fortune-telling for a dream was made on the Feast of the Introduction, on Ivan Kupala and some others. But the brightest and most varied cycle of these divinations fell on Christmas time.

Fortune-telling for sleep, as a rule, is single. Usually they were engaged in girls who had reached marriageable age, their mothers or relatives. Knowledge could be obtained both from a girl’s dream (either the girl was guessing herself, or her mother or relative was guessing, and the girl herself might not know about it), and from the dream of a fortuneteller’s mother (the daughter put items related to fortune-telling in her mother’s bed, and mother may not have known about it.

For fortune-telling for sleep, they prepared objects (a bridge of twigs, a well of splinter, a mirror, a key with a lock, etc.), which were placed in a place associated with the bed (under the pillow, under the mattress, under the bed), or performed actions that preceded divination ( put on a stocking on one leg, closed a real well or a bucket of water, went outside to the ninth milestone and, taking a branch there, returned home, etc.). Going to bed, they cast an imperative spell: either an appeal to the “narrowed-disguised” with a request to come and perform this or that action (to drink, undress, take across the bridge, etc.) or to the object used in divination (belt, cockroach, etc.) etc.), so that they show where the “narrowed-mummers” lives. Sometimes spells were cast without any preliminary action and without any objects whatsoever.

As in other types of divination, when divining for a dream, they did not read a prayer, removed the pectoral cross, and let their hair down. It is significant that they went to bed dressed, which likened the fortuneteller to the dead. This circumstance also testifies to the fact that a journey was supposed in the dream, and therefore it was necessary to be dressed.

Objects used in divination for a dream or objects created by a fortuneteller directly or indirectly correlate with the symbolism of marriage and the wedding ceremony. So, a comb, soap, a mirror, which the girl put under the pillow with the words: “The betrothed-mummer, come comb my hair and wash me!” are often a gift from the groom to the bride at various stages of the wedding ceremony. The meaning of a rod from a broom (“Narrowed-mummer, come to me to bathe!”), Stocking on one leg (“Narrowed-mummer, come undress me!”), Broom (“Narrowed-mummer, come with me half of revenge!”) , frying pans and frying pans (the daughter puts them under the mattress or at the head of the mother's bed - feed the groom with pancakes), etc., are also elements of the wedding ceremony.

The image of the bridge over which the guy takes the girl (from the twigs of a broom they made a bridge over a cup of water and put it under the bed: “Betrothed-mummer, take me across the bridge!”), Is characteristic of wedding lyrics and symbolizes marriage.

The motive of thirst in the widespread divination is “oversalting” (they ate something salty at night or mixed a thimble of salt with a thimble of water and drank, saying: “The betrothed-mummer, come give me a drink!”) And the motive of locking-unlocking (the girl locked a well in the yard, a bucket of water, and put the key under the pillow: “Narrowed-mummer, come ask for the key, water the horse!”; mother or relative locked the girl’s braid - a symbol of girlhood, her shirt, belt, bed) in traditional culture have a fairly transparent erotic symbolism.

Fortune-telling with a branch taken from the ninth milestone (“Ninth milestone, show the groom!”), Or with a belt (they were whipped three times about the belief of a strange house and each time they said: “Vereya, faith, show my groom. Belt, belt, show me narrowed train”; when they went to bed, the belt was spread across the bed and slept on it) are associated with the idea of ​​the significance of “border” objects (milestone, gate post) and the motif of the road along which the “narrowed” can pass by these objects.

Fortune-telling with a cockroach, which in the ritual acts as a guide, is related to the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe path from the girl’s house to the groom’s house: a cockroach taken in a neighbor’s house was placed under the pillow and said three times: “Cockroach, cockroach, take me to the gate where the betrothed lives " or "Cockroach, cockroach, take me around the cities, show me where my betrothed lives."

In divination for a dream, as in other types of divination, the traditional idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe magical meaning of everything first was used. So, the fortuneteller put the first piece from dinner under the pillow and invited the “betrothed” to the meal. If a girl is New Year it happened to spend the night in a new place, she said before going to bed: “I’m sleeping in a new place, dream of the bridegroom!”

The next morning, the fortuneteller remembered the dream and interpreted it. So that the dream is not forgotten, according to popular beliefs, it was impossible to get out of bed and immediately look out the window. So that the dream, which is considered prophetic, did not come true, the one who saw it should go to the well and wash with water from it, that is, “wash away the dream” before 12 o'clock in the afternoon.

Harvest divination. One of the main themes of divination in traditional Russian culture. In ethnographic sources of the XIX-XX centuries. divination about the harvest, make up a much smaller volume compared to divination about fate. Nevertheless, their significance in folk culture is undeniable, despite the fact that the main occupation of its carriers was agriculture.

The main questions of fortune-telling about the harvest are whether bread will be born well; which of the grains and horticultural crops will give the best harvest in the new year and which, therefore, needs to be sown more; what is the best time for sowing; which of the household should start sowing.

Large quantity Fortune-telling about the harvest was made during Christmas time, starting a new cycle of the solar calendar. At Christmas, during a meal, straws were pulled out of a sheaf of rye placed in a red corner and the future harvest was judged by the spikelet. In the Great Russian regions, bordering on the Belarusian and Ukrainian ones, straws were drawn from under the tablecloth, since here on Christmas Eve it was customary to put hay or straw on the table.

The main Christmas divination about the harvest fell on New Year's Eve. Fortune-telling was widespread, connected with the search for grain under the table the next morning after the New Year's meal: the grain found promised a harvest and wealth. In the Vologda province, this fortune-telling was timed to coincide with Epiphany Eve. In the Penza province, on New Year's Eve, a loaf was specially baked, which was left at the icons for the night, the next morning they looked to see if the weight of the bread increased or decreased: in the first case, they waited for the harvest year and ate the loaf with the whole family, in the second, they assumed a crop failure, and gave the bread to livestock, so that he does not suffer from hunger during starvation.

If in Christmas time the peasant was mainly worried about the fundamental question: will the year be fruitful, then in spring period he asked himself more concrete problems. So, in the Crossroads, meaning the middle of Great Lent and at the same time comprehended in the popular mind as one of the calendar milestones associated with the approach of sowing work, they guessed at the “best hand”, “happy hand”, that is, about who should start sowing in order to the harvest was greater. On the Annunciation, immediately preceding the sowing period, the peasants wondered about a better time to start work. So, in Siberia, on this holiday, the first three eggs laid by a young hen were weighed, more weight of the first egg indicated that it is better for the crop to sow in the "first" sowing (at the end of April until May 1). If the second egg is heavier, it should be sown from the middle of the sowing time (from Nikola Veshny), and if the third is the hardest, sowing should be started at the last date, that is, from May 15 to May 20. Angarians had a similar fortune-telling according to the thickness of the “max” (milk) of the pike of the first catch.

The last harvest divination of the year was held on the night of Ivan Kupala, on a holiday associated with the summer solstice, that is, the final half of the year, during which the peasant did everything to ensure a good harvest for himself, but now everything depended only on nature itself. In the Yenisei province, this fortune-telling consisted in the fact that on the night of Ivan the Dome, a soaked rag was hung in the yard, and in the morning they looked: if the rag dried up, the summer would be warm and the bread would be born well, and if it freezes, it will be cold in summer and the bread will freeze. A similar divination was performed on the Angara on the night of the Annunciation.

All members of the household were participants in fortune-telling about the harvest in the family circle, and often the dominant role was assigned to the owner of the house. But the whole community could guess about the well-being of the harvest. So, in the Penza province, society chose 12 old people (according to the number of months in a year), who were distinguished by an exemplary life. Around midnight on the eve of the New Year, the old people went to the church and outside the church fence, near the porch, they placed sheaves of various grain crops and potatoes. The next morning, the same old people returned to the church and noted: on which of the sheaves there is more frost, more bread should be sown.

The material used for divination about the harvest is homogeneous - both within the very set of objects (sheaf - ear - grain - bread), and in comparison with what they are trying to find out (harvest). The subject series "ear - grain - bread" reflects the stages of processing the crop, gradually turning from a natural phenomenon (plant) into an object of culture (bread). All these items in traditional culture take on the symbolic meaning of harvest and fertility. The same can be said about eggs and pike milk (caviar): their use in G. about y. due to the fact that in mythopoetic representations they have the same meaning as the grain, the latter - at the level of the vegetable code, and the egg and milk - at the level of the animal code.

Grain, ears of corn and bread were widely used material in fortune-telling about fate. Here they served as a sign of prosperity in a future life or promised a girl a rich, prosperous groom. Some fortune-telling about the harvest and fate were identical in form: for example, in both the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, it was customary at Christmas time to pull ears of corn out of a shock with their teeth. The quality of the spikelet (full or empty, without grains) indicated in one divination the future harvest or crop failure, in the other - a rich or poor groom. The pattern of parallelism of the symbolism of grain (ear, bread) - harvest and wealth - is quite transparent and once again indicates the relationship between agricultural and family rituals.

The objects used in divination for the harvest (the grain found under the table; the cross-baked cross) were preserved until the first sowing as having a productive power and put into the sower with seeds or used as ritual food when they began to sow the field.

Fortune-telling about the harvest is closely connected with signs, the main object of observation of which is the weather, which affects the life of plants. New Year's signs (frost, hoarfrost, snow cover, etc.) were built on the basis of many years of observations of the peasant over the dependence of the crop not only on summer, but also on winter weather.

Heat and cold, humidity and drought are the main regulators of soil fertility. Hence the use of water, taking into account its "behavior" in conditions of heat or cold in the above-mentioned fortune-telling for the Epiphany.

The main bearer of the harvest, according to the peasant, was the land, which in mythopoetic representations was assigned the role of the source of all life; therefore, in oral art, and in ritual practice, and even in everyday life, she was called the mother-raw earth. Such an attitude towards the earth naturally leads to turning to it in divination about the harvest. On Christmas after matins, they went to the crossroads, drew a cross with a stick or a finger on the ground and fell to this place with their ears, listened: if they heard that a sleigh with a load was coming, there would be a crop, if empty, there would be a shortage.

CHAPTER II.

Christmas fortune-telling

Christmas time, i.e. holy days - twelve days after the feast of the Nativity of Christ, until the feast of the Epiphany. They are also called St. in the evenings, maybe in remembrance of the events of the Nativity and the baptism of the Savior, which took place at night or evening time. Holy Twelve Days After the Feast of Christmas christ church started from ancient times. This can be indicated by 13 conversations of St. Ephraim the Syrian, uttered by him from December 25 to January 6, as well as the "words" of St. Ambrose of Milan and St. Gregory of Nyssa. The ancient twelve-day celebration of Christmas time (dwdecahmern) is confirmed church charter Saint Savva the Sanctified (d. 530), according to which in the days of S. “no fasting, there are below the knee, lower in the church, lower in the cells,” and it is forbidden to perform the sacrament of marriage. It is also confirmed by the Code of Justinian, published in 535 by the Second Turonian Council, in 567, all days from the Nativity of Christ to the Epiphany are called holidays. Meanwhile, the holiness of these days and evenings in many places was violated by divination and other superstitious customs that survived from the pagan festivals of the same season. Against this are directed, among other things, 61 and 62 rules of the sixth ecumenical council. The law in force in our country forbids “on the eve of the Nativity of Christ and during Christmas time, according to ancient idolatrous traditions, games and, dressing up in idol robes, perform dances in the streets and sing seductive songs” (St. Zach. XIV, part 4, 33 - 34).

Christmas divination is the largest, most diverse and bright complex of divination within the calendar year. Its confinement specifically to Christmas time is due to the specifics of this time period as the main one within the annual cycle of transition from the old to the new. A feature of this period is the vagueness of the time boundary (a kind of timelessness - a gap in which signs of the old and the new, the past and the beginning are not identified) and the disappearance of "spatial" boundaries between the "worlds" (the living and the dead, people and beings of inhuman nature - impure forces) - create the possibility of a person's contact with the "other" world, where, according to popular ideas, the fate of people is written.

Unlike fortune-telling of other annual periods, Yuletide fortune-telling is independent: they are isolated from other ritual complexes performed during these periods.

In Yuletide fortune-telling, two main topics that concern the peasant are developed with equal significance: the future harvest and fate (proposed events in life) within the next year. Both topics affect the interests of each individual person, as well as an individual family, and the entire community as a whole.

Within the framework of the Christmas period, they could guess on any day, but most of the fortune-telling that the people consider “true” was made on Christmas Eve, Christmas and Epiphany, and on the eve of St. Basil's Day (on New Year's Eve), that is, on dates more specifically marked with the sign of the boundary .

How special group one can consider fortune-telling in the family circle about the fate of each of its members, the greatest variability of these fortune-telling, mainly due to the variety of objects used, is presented during the Christmas period. Family divination about life and death was timed, as a rule, to New Year's Eve. They are characterized by a single composition of participants (family) and a single structure: identical objects, each of which symbolizes one or another family member, are left overnight, and on the New Year's morning, their condition is judged on life or death. It is noteworthy that the objects used are parts of something whole (pieces of bread - bread; twigs - a branch; logs - a tree trunk), symbolizing, in turn, a family. A change in the state of the object (a twig in the snow or a log near the wall fell, a piece of bread disappeared in the hallway) portends death to the person to whom the object was assigned from the family. Only in the case when the missing piece of bread was for the girl, it was believed that she would marry, but still leave this family. Fortune-telling with spoons is close to those noted: after dinner, according to the number of people in the family, they put them in a large frying pan, poured water and took them out into the cold. In the morning they looked: if the water froze in a hole - to the death of the one whose spoon.

The greatest variety among all Christmas fortune-telling is distinguished by girlish ones: they are built on a variety of principles and answer questions of both a general nature and quite specific ones; moreover, some of the divinations give information of the highest degree of accuracy and exhaustion.

The most general (about fate in general), but, nevertheless, widespread everywhere, are fortune-telling based on the transformation of one or another material (substance) with the help of fire and water. This is the casting of wax, tin, lead, which are first melted and then poured into water, where substances take on a new form. They consider either this form or its shadow on the wall and try to interpret the resulting drawing or silhouette in accordance with traditional ideas. The choice of material for casting is not accidental. In addition to the fact that these materials are convenient in their physical properties(easily melt and harden), they are associated with images of creatures with otherworldly nature and performing intermediary functions in mythopoetic texts and in ritual practice. So, wax, naturally, correlates with a bee (for the image of a bee, see Kutya), and metals, especially tin, according to popular beliefs, are associated with the image of a snake (in fairy tales, for example, the snake, that is, “other”, kingdom is characterized as tin ). The correlation of these materials with intermediary beings, as well as with the "other" world determines their predictive function and use in divination, in magic, in folk medicine.

Fortune-telling with the help of casting adjoins divination with releasing an egg into a glass of warm water: protein or yolk, as well as burning or soaking crumpled paper.

The general question about fate is answered by fortune-telling based on drawing lots, for example, fortune-telling. Fortune-telling can be attributed to the same type, when a girl puts a female headdress, a piece of bread and a piece of wood in a pot, and then, closing her eyes, pulls out her “fate” in the new year: marriage, continuation of girlhood or death. Divination with fat (a quadrangular board) is similar in structure, only there are not one, but four girls guessing here. Bread, coal, a stove (a piece of clay from the stove) and a ring were placed on the corners of the fattening; they covered everything with a tablecloth and sang: “I’m already burying the fat for the holy evening, for St. Basil’s. The fattening is small, the windows are large, slanted, slatted, a flea could not jump, a goat jumped, took its horns away, twisted its tail. You take your corner! They opened the tablecloth and looked at who got what: bread - to live richly, coal - to death, stove - to live in sorrow, a ring - to marriage.

The largest number of fortune-telling methods is connected with the question that is relevant for girls of marriageable age - will marriage take place in the new year? Here, listening under other people's windows was also used (the girl knocked on the window with a spoon: if the man's voice answered, she would get married, the woman's voice - “sit at home”), on the gateway (during Epiphany mass, the fortuneteller, opening the front and rear gates, covered herself with a tablecloth, sat on the doorway of the front gate and waited: if a train with bells and bells drove through the yard - to marriage, if nothing was heard - stay "in the girls"), and pulling out lots (several pots were placed in the hut, under one of them they put povoinik - a female headdress: whichever of the girls chooses this pot, she will get married; or for one girl they put two pots on the bench: under one - a scarf, under the other - a povoinik; the choice of the first pot promised the continuation of girlhood, the second - marriage), and monitoring the change in the state of the object (the towel was hung out for an hour in the hallway or at night outside the window with the words: “Betrothed-mummer, come wipe yourself!” - if the towel became wet, the girl should be married in the new year). Fortune-telling was also popular, based on the count of grain (they counted the grains before and after letting the chicken peck), straws from a handful of straw taken in the barn or something else (the pair balance foreshadowed marriage), as well as measuring out a hut or yard a stick, a yoke, a log, one's own body, etc.: if the object does not fit into the measured space or the girl, when rolling around the yard, turns out to be facing the street, this portends a marriage. In fortune-telling about marriage, they were guided by who would be the first to enter the house (on Christmas Eve, the girl beat the mother with a rolling pin - a cross beam on the ceiling, and in the morning she noticed: if someone married was the first to enter the house, then her fate was to get married). Fortune-telling was widespread, connected with the search for an object hidden in the snow (search for a kneader with the help of a whorl, a stick for stirring the dough) or with unimpeded entry into the street through the gate, provided that the girl was wearing a kneader on her head, as well as falling into a trough or kneader , to which you need to go "backwards" and not miss. One of the reasons for the diversity of girlish fortune-telling about marriage is the specification of issues related to this topic. Guessing who would get married first, the girls each threw their cake to the dog or let the rooster approach the handfuls of grain, each of which contained a ring of one or another fortuneteller, and looked: whose cake the dog would eat first or whose handful of grain the rooster would peck. For the same purpose, the girls took the cinders of the first torches lit in the morning, went with them to the hole and lowered the torched torches into the water, returning home, they tried to light them again: the girl who managed to do this faster than anyone else had to get married before the others.

Fortune-telling related to the question of where the girl will marry and, accordingly, where to expect the groom, was most often based on hearing (at the crossroads, near the fence, in the attic and in other places: where will the barking of a dog or the sounds of the gospel be heard during Epiphany mass), on determining the direction where the smoke from the lit shavings will go, where the ignited torch will turn, stuck in a slot in the floor, in which direction the cow will lie in the morning with horns tied with a girl's belt in the evening. Most often, divination on this topic was based on throwing, sometimes with closed eyes, various objects: a whorl, a poker, a shoe from the left foot (it was thrown over a hut, a gate, a well, a haystack, a woodpile), rolled up into a ball and unfolding into belt flight.

A lot of Christmas divination was aimed at recognizing the various characteristics of the groom: young or old, guy or widower, poor or rich, handsome or ugly, good or evil.

In order to find out what the hair color of the groom was, they took a handful of snow in the gateway and looked for hair or hair in it and judged by its color; or, having combed their hair, they lowered a comb on a thread underground for the night, and in the morning they checked which hair the betrothed had “combed”.

Fortune-telling about the name of the groom was most often based on questioning him from the first person he met and on listening under other people's windows, in his house under the mother, or on the interpretation of the sounds heard when grinding grain with millstones, when whirling a whorl in an ice hole, when a tree sways, when snow creaks under feet.

Specifically, the face and appearance of the betrothed were recognized with the help of fortune-telling for a dream and the so-called "terrible" fortune-telling.

In addition to the person of the groom, the girls were interested in many questions family life, for example, the composition of the future family (they wondered about him, looking at the number of reflections of the month in the mirror), the nature of the mother-in-law (they brought water from the hole in the mouth and poured it into the pan, put a twisted piece of tow on the water and set it on fire: boiling water promised an evil mother-in-law, and calm water when burning tow - peaceful), how many children will be in marriage (by the number of knots - on the first log pulled out of the woodcutter or by the number of tubercles (boys) and pits (girls) in a glass of water taken out into the cold). Fortune-telling also helped to find out who will dominate in new family(they tied a rooster and a chicken with their tails, put them under a sieve and watched which of the birds would pull the other one), whether life would be okay in marriage (spun “napak”, that is, from left to right, two threads symbolizing the bride and groom were lowered into the water on frying pan and watched them: if the threads stick together, then life with her husband will be fine).

divination holy future

CONCLUSION

With all the variety of Christmas divination, it should be noted that the principles of their construction are close: observance of spatio-temporal conditions for the action, the use of various household items, taking into account their symbolic meanings in traditional culture, the pronunciation of formulas of an imperative conspiracy nature, protective measures: at the verbal level - zachuranie, at the action level - the sign of the cross, tracing and scribing using objects that, according to popular belief, have magical powers (grab, knife, poker, frying pan, made of metal, set fire to a torch, etc.).

In the case of Yuletide divination, it is especially obvious that the phenomenon of divinatory action is a kind of dialogue between a person, a specific subject, with “other” forces, with a “different” world and, more broadly, with nature, the cosmos. This is evidenced by the strict confinement of fortune-telling to a certain significant place and time, as well as the appeal of fortune-tellers during the rite to beings of a “different” nature: representatives of demonology - the goblin, bannik (fortune-telling in the bath), “self”, that is, unclean, devils and devils , as well as to the very forces of nature: to the earth (listening to the earth), to the month (“Month, clear month, show us the suitors!”), to the water in the well or the hole (listening to what name the water will “say”). In a girl's fortune-telling about a betrothed, a star can give an “answer”: in which direction the star falls on Christmas time, the groom is on that side. In the same respect, it is significant to use the properties of the elements of fire and water in fortune-telling, sometimes combined within the framework of one fortune-telling action, for example, in the ritual of casting wax, tin. A manifestation of contact in the process of divination with ancestors living in the "other" world is the appeal even to the very first ancestors of the human race. “In the snow, a devil, like Adam's head, tell the truth, the truth. Evin’s head is like a snow feature, tell the truth, the truth, ”the girl said, making an imprint with her body on the snow at night, which she then examined in the morning: a clear imprint promised happiness during the year, and cracked during the night - on the contrary, foreshadowed an unhappy life.

Christmas divination as an extremely bright phenomenon traditional culture associated with one of the fundamental issues in human life - the question of fate, share, were the basis of plots or important episodes for the story literary works Russian writers, including V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin, M.P. Pogodin, P. Bazhov and others.

Until now, Christmas fortune-telling, although having lost consciousness modern man his magical meaning, remain one of the exciting entertainments in the transition to the New Year.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Anonicheva T., Sukhanova L. Winter calendar rituals and songs accompanying them. // Song traditions of the Volga region M., 1996.

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Tags: The main types of divination Abstract Culturology

Twelve holy days (according to the number of months in a year) were always full of rituals. With their help, they tried to ensure well-being for the whole year, to protect themselves from evil spirits and the evil eye. During the rituals, the girls traditionally took off their pectoral crosses, all jewelry and belts, loosened their hair, and used only candles as lighting.

Types of proven divination on the water

Take four glasses and fill them halfway with water. In the first - add half a spoon of sugar, in the second - salt, in the third put a piece of bread, and in the fourth put the ring. Blindfold and wrap yourself around yourself twice. Ask a friend to swap the glasses, and then - choose one of them. If you get a sweet one, the year will be rich in happy moments, including harmony in your personal life. Salt promises difficulties, but if you make an effort, you will definitely succeed. Bread is unexpected profit and solid capital, which can be especially important in difficult financial times. And the ring speaks for itself - wait for a marriage proposal, replenishment in the family, or just a comfortable love relationship.

There are other proven divination related to water. For example, pour it into a deep plate - this is a conditional "sea / pond", stick thin paper strips with predictions along its edges - "shores". These can be both general concepts (“good luck at work”, “health”, “wealth in the family”), and something more specific, say, the name of the future spouse or cherished desires. Take a half of a walnut shell (“boat”), put a small candle end (“conductor”) in it, put it in the middle of the plate and wait: which shore will your homemade boat of hope land on?

A fail-safe option for girls with a very rich imagination. Take a glass with a flat bottom, pour a third of water and lower the ring to the bottom. Now rub your eyes well and try hard to see through the water in the middle of the ring the face of the future husband.

One of the oldest (read, "run in" for centuries) proven fortune-telling is on wax. "Voskoley" are mentioned in the 1639 Treasury. For the ceremony, pieces of beeswax were drowned in a mug or spoon, and then poured into a vessel with cold water(you can saucer) or on the snow. In another version, the wax was dripped into the water from a slightly tilted burning candle. Carefully catch the “figurine” and peer into the frozen outlines - you can judge the future from them. The beauty is that the resulting figure (if you are completely satisfied with its interpretation) can be saved as a talisman. The most famous values:

cross - troubles with finances and / and in personal life;

beast - be careful with your surroundings, it seems that an enemy is winding around you;

stripes - for moving or traveling;

a human figure is a new true friend;

trees are joy;

a wax pancake that has settled to the bottom - marriage is not expected in the next couple of years;

a lot of small round droplets frozen next to large figures - for money. The bigger, the better!

Types of divination with objects

For those who have a rest in hot countries at Christmas time, you can safely skip this item and move on to the next one. Everyone else, be careful. Take a small mirror, pour water over it and at exactly midnight take it outside, into the frost. When patterns appear on the surface, bring it back into the house and carefully examine it. If circles appear - you will live in abundance all year, if you notice a spruce branch - you will have to work hard, squares promise various life difficulties, and triangles - luck in any business.

Of all the types of divination, this is as old as the world and rarely fails. Our great-great-great-great-grandmothers chose a book of spiritual content for this - most often scriptures. In the modern interpretation, they can be replaced by everything that comes to your hand at the moment of fortune-telling - a book on psychology or, for example, your favorite magazine. Without revealing the edition, ask a secret question aloud or to yourself, guess the page number and line from above or below, and open it in the right place. The answer is in front of you. We give a hint: almost every issue of ELLE contains more than five hundred pages. There is where to turn around and what to dream about. The most advanced method (here and now) is divination on the Net. For example, click at random on any article on the site and count right amount lines. We won’t advise bad things, and we have more than enough betrothed.

Before midnight, prepare a mirror, put a couple of spruce branches in front of it. Before going to bed, write the name of the desired person or cherished desire on the mirror. In the morning, waking up, first of all look - if the inscription has disappeared, then everything will surely come true, and if it has not changed in any way, you will remain in your interests.

Have fun and try your luck with your friends. Four girls participate in this fortune-telling at once or each in turn. On the corners of the cutting board (in the village it was called “zhirovka”) they put a piece of bread, a piece of coal / pebble, a piece of clay / brick and a ring. From above, the board is covered with a towel and they begin to twist, singing: “I’ll save the fat for the holy evening. The fat is small, the windows are large, slanted-slatted, the flea could not jump, the goat jumped, took the horns away, twisted its tail. Choose your corner! Finished singing - stop the rotation and see who got what. Bread - wealth, coal - diseases, clay - sorrows, and the ring - marriage.

It is known that it is during Christmas time that the most secret dreams are dreamed - treat the night rest during this period more sensitively. The easiest way to fortune-tell is to say before going to bed: "My betrothed, come to me." And in the morning try to remember - which acquaintance / stranger came to you in a dream first? For fidelity, you can put scissors and bread under the pillow, which attract prophetic dreams, especially on the night from Thursday to Friday. Going to bed, say: “Thursday with Wednesday, Tuesday with Monday, Sunday with Saturday. Friday alone and I, young, alone. I am lying on the Zion mountains, three angels in my head: one sees, the other will tell, the third will indicate fate. To be continued already in the dream.

Hippolyte? Serezhenka? Or maybe Jason? Place several dozen paper notes under your pillow with different male names. (The more and more original - the more interesting!) In the morning, without peeping, draw out one of them - the name of the man predetermined by your fate.

What methods of divination are there with cards? For example, like this! On one of the holy nights, take out four kings from the deck, mix them up and put them under the pillow. Get one first thing in the morning. The king of spades is an aged groom or jealous, a red king is young and rich, a cross is a military man or a businessman, a diamond is desirable.

The most fashionable way is divination with stockings. Before going to bed, a woman puts on one new stocking with lace on any leg and says: “My betrothed, undress me.” Your future husband will be the one who takes it off in a dream.

I was drawn to the salty - this is about Epiphany fortune-tellers. A few minutes before going to bed, eat something salty: cucumbers, herring - whatever you like. In ancient times, girls took a thimble of salt, a thimble of water, mixed them and drank (or, more precisely, ate!). Before going to bed, say: "Whoever is my betrothed-mummer, he will give me water to drink." With the one who fulfills this request in a dream, fate will bind you. Do not oversleep happiness!

Gypsies are a separate ethnic group, descendants of immigrants from India (end of the 1st millennium AD), calling themselves Roma (emphasis on the last syllable).

Over the centuries-old history of nomadic life, the gypsies have enriched their traditions with what is interesting and entertaining for them. For example, women's gypsy national ones have nothing in common with Indian saris and are more like the dresses of Spanish women of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the emotionality of singing romances is akin to Russian.

It is believed that every gypsy is born with the possession of palmistry, magic and all kinds of divination. Which, of course, is not true. After all, all of the above need to be learned. Undoubtedly, the transfer of knowledge by gender takes place, but that gypsy who does not want to be a fortune teller will never become one.

At present, some types of gypsy fortune-telling on cards have come down to us. Two of them, which my mother introduced me to as a child, under the names "Esmeralda" and "Fortune", I again take out for you from my notebook.

For divination "Esmeralda" a deck of fifty-two cards is taken. After shuffling, making a question and removing it with the left little finger towards you cards in Esmeralda are laid out according to the scheme described below:

Center maps are of the utmost importance. The top cards indicate the future, the bottom cards indicate the present and/or the past. The right triples of cards are associated with the material world, which includes money, relationships, everything related to human actions. The left threes are related to the spiritual world - to human desires, thoughts, feelings and emotions. Corner cards (12, 13, 14, 15) indicate what is leaving your life (the fate of the client).

If there are more suit cards in the Esmeralda layout peak, then this indicates impending unexpected changes that are associated with some kind of violent activity. predominance worms- a sign of a cheerful life without worries, full of pleasure and indifference to the fate of other people, but sometimes worries about material well-being. Diamonds prevailing cards indicate financial problems in a person's life. dominant clubs mean that there is a serious, meaningful, crowning period.

The more senior cards in the layout - from dozens to pictures - the more interesting and richer life client. Weak cards - from two to nine - speak of everyday life, boring, gray, inconspicuous.

Interpretation of cards in the Esmeralda layout:

Kings and queens of all stripes- people from the client's environment.

Jacks of all suits- boys and girls. If the jack is facing the suit of spades or diamonds, then it is of the same gender as the client. And if in the other direction, then he is of the opposite sex.

Peaks

Ace- external or internal strength that contributes to a career, as well as material well-being;
Ten- an obstacle;
Eight- getting rid of troubles;
Seven- partial fulfillment of plans and desires;
Six- anxious expectation;
Five- parting,;
Four- cure;
Troika- separation;
deuce- a minor hindrance.

Worms

Ace- stormy well-being in the circle of friends and loved ones;
Ten- good news, optimism;
Nine- unexpected happiness beyond measure;
Eight- a nice gift;
Seven- quarrel of lovers;
Six- the path to be taken to achieve the goal;
Five- tears, disappointment;
Four- work promises good luck;
Troika- errors in assessing the situation;
deuce- good news.

Diamonds

Ace- striving for lofty goals with the use of magical powers and knowledge;
Ten- a golden cage in which the belly is satisfying, but the spirit is bored;
Nine- deceitful, illusory luck;
Eight– harmony of practicality (materialism) and spirituality;
Seven- a problem that the client is concerned about solving;
Six- and comfort;
Five- spiritual discord between close people, whose relationship outwardly may seem prosperous to the wave;
Four- well-deserved success;
Troika- a legal document;
deuce- material surprise.

Baptize

Ace- talent;
Ten- children's card. These can be both descendants of the client, and his affections, feelings from the past, sometimes from childhood and adolescence, as well as all kinds of memories;
Nine- amazing success at work;
Eight- happy contemplation of the world, calmness, confidence;
Seven- a goal for the achievement of which it is necessary to show more efforts than it seems or would be desirable;
Six- party, celebration;
Five- the threat of a quarrel between old friends, colleagues, friends;
Four- the growth of authority in one of the spheres of life;
Troika- gossip, an awkward situation that has received publicity in society;
deuce- invitation.

In fortune-telling "Fortune" a standard deck of thirty-six cards is used. It is very simple in execution technique and easy to remember.

1. You shuffle the deck.

2. You ask the question: “What awaits me in such and such a period of time (in such and such a case)?”.

3. You take off the cards with your left little finger towards you.

4. And then, opening the cards, you say: "Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace."

5. And if at the same time exactly the same cards come out as you name, you put them aside.

6. Having done this with the entire deck, you look at the values ​​​​of the cards that have fallen.

The meaning of the cards in the "Fortune" layout:

suit of hearts

Six- refusal;
Seven- chores;
Eight- road;
Nine– cards, excitement, casino, games;
Ten- expenses, expenses;
Jack- rival (rival) in any business;
Lady – ;
King- loss;
Ace- hindrance.

diamond suit

Six- process;
Seven- betrothal, establishing a long-term love or business contact;
Eight- surprise;
Nine- wine, revelry, party, drunkenness, meeting with friends, celebration;
Ten- income, profitable acquisition;
Jack- fight, showdown;
Lady– acquaintance, flirting, dating, the emergence of new people in the client’s life;
King- win;
Ace- Love.

The suit of the cross

Six- wedding, love, contract, strong relationship;
Seven- guest;
Eight- fear, trouble;
Nine- deception;
Ten- revenge (one's own or someone else's);
Jack- victory;
Lady- christening, the birth of a new one (child, project, business, business), signing any documents;
King – ;
Ace- enemy.

spade suit

Six- order, request;
Seven- death (of a person, business, business), serious illness, destruction of established foundations;
Eight- intrigues, betrayal, clashes, conflicts of interest;
Nine- guests, holiday, gala evening;
Ten- slight annoyance;
Jack- hatred, obsolete love;
Lady- error;
King- lover, new acquaintance, physical attraction, love;
Ace- a disease of the spiritual or physical plane.

Our conversation about fortune-telling on cards will be continued in the final part of the article. I wish you all success in the field of divination!