“April is hoarse and blowing, the woman promises warmth, and the man looks: there will be something else!” – said in the old days in the villages. And for good reason: the heat is changeable this month, and clear days alternate with rainy ones. What, besides capricious weather, April Fool’s Day and Palm Sunday, is April famous for?
The modern name of April is not originally Russian, but Byzantine. Aprilis is translated from Latin as “opening”, “warmed by the sun” or “Aphrodite’s month”. In Russia, it was called a fly-by, birch-zole and flowering.
drown the horse
Nature wakes up in April: the bear leaves the lair, the foxes change their holes, the first swallows arrive. Whereas a Russian peasant buys the worst horse … and goes to the river at night to drown it. Such was the common custom among fishermen – “to treat the Waterman”.
It was believed that Vodyanoy slept soundly at the bottom all winter. On April 1, he wakes up, so angry with hunger that he breaks the ice, buzzes and groans, torturing small fish to death. And the big one, out of fear, swims into other rivers. Therefore, Vodyanoy had to be appeased with a gift – a live horse. If the fishermen do not keep up with their gift, then he will exterminate all the fish, and even, what good, he will move (that is, swim) to live with his neighbors. The scale of a possible disaster is threatening: the entire village, eating fish, will be left without food!
Rituals helped people gain confidence in the future
So, three days before the action, the fishermen went to the gypsies and, without bargaining, bought the most worthless horse. They fed her well and on the last evening they prepared her for the ritual: they smeared her head with honey and salt, woven ribbons into her mane, tangled her legs with ropes, and tied two old millstones around her neck. Exactly at midnight, a smart mare was sent to the river. Her fate depended on the state of the ice: if there was still ice on the river, then the poor fellow was lowered into the hole, and if it had already passed, then she was led to the middle of the river and drowned there.
“Here you are, grandfather, a housewarming present. Love and favor our family,” said the fishermen. They believed that after such an offering, Vodyanoy remains to guard the fish, lures a large catch to the river and saves the village from storms and floods. Joyful, they returned home afterward and arranged festivities.
It seems like a terrible practice. But we can hardly judge those who, centuries ago, built their entire lives around ritual. It was the most effective way to survive the most difficult and most important situations in life. Rituals helped people gain confidence in the future: appeasing the Waterman means that the fish will not disappear. And all will be well.
Hailing parents
According to the folk calendar, on April 20, it was customary to “call out” to parents. If a modern person were on that day in a cemetery, it would seem to him that half the village died in some kind of terrible disaster and they were burying everyone at once. From early morning, heart-rending cries were heard over the graves – women lamented over the graves of their relatives. So, and in no other way it was supposed to commemorate the ancestors in the spring. The dead must hear everything!
The remarks were very touching. Here is one of them:
“Our dear fathers! Do not plant your zealous heart, do not grind your white face, do not close your eyes with a burning tear. Ali you, dear ones, didn’t have bread and salt, didn’t have enough colored dresses? Did you, dear ones, yearn for your father and mother, for lovely children, for affectionate daughters-in-law? And you, our dear ones, get up, wake up, look at us, at your children, how miserable we are in this wide world. Without you, our dear ones, the high tower was empty, the wide yard died out; without you, dear ones, azure flowers do not bloom in a wide field, oaks do not grow red in oak forests. You, our relatives, look at us, orphans, from your houses and amuse yourself with a kind word.
This custom partly echoes the Orthodox holiday of Radonitsa, which, for example, in the Krasnodar Territory is officially declared a non-working day: residents go to the cemetery to commemorate their relatives, but no longer call them in a heart-rending voice. In modern cemeteries, only birds are heard. Death in general has become quiet and imperceptible in our time. But that’s a completely different story.
Healing birches
April was a terrible month not only for stricken horses, but also for birch trees, since at that time there was birch sap – “birch tree”. I remember how in the spring I followed him with my grandfather into the forest. Grandfather made cuts in a white birch trunk and substituted a mug. It seemed to me that the tree was crying, and I felt sorry for it. But the juice was sweet, delicious! They drank right there and filled it in a bottle: the juice quickly ferments, and earlier in the villages they made an intoxicating drink from it.
“Birch trees for a penny, and you will exhaust the forest for a ruble!” they said in the old days. They understood, nevertheless, that it was not the business of spoiling the birches. However, rather than out of love for trees, but out of pragmatic considerations: logging was used as fuel.
Birch sap, however, was not just a delicacy or intoxicating drink: it was a medicine that healers gave to patients with “spring fever”. They waited for a warm, clear day and first bathed the “patient” in rainwater (or even worse – dipped in March snow), and then gave birch sap to drink.
After water procedures, an amulet was put on the neck of the afflicted, which superstitious old women “drank” at the crossroads with the life-giving April wind. People believed that in this way the sick person gains health. And indeed, he did. After all, the main remedy for the disease is confidence in the correctness of the chosen treatment.
In general, the month of April itself seems to be healing. Winter is finally retreating, nature is waking up and we are with it. The sun shines brighter, the birds sing louder, flowers bloom – this is life! I want to rejoice, laugh, hug and kiss my loved ones. And for a moment it seems that we feel the meaning of life more acutely. Maybe that’s how it is?