Many celebrate Maslenitsa, at the very least remember Ivan Kupala and a couple of other holidays, but often this is where knowledge of the original culture of their ancestors ends. Meanwhile, each month of the year is remarkable for something, interesting traditions are associated with it. How did our ancestors live in February and why did women arrange a «sabbath»?
Stay alive
In Russia, February (aka “cut”, “snow” and “bokogrey”) was called “fierce” — for severe frosts and winds. “Blizzards, blizzards flew in February,” the people said. This month was also called the wedding month: it was customary to celebrate winter weddings in the period from Epiphany to Maslenitsa.
Despite the abundance of holidays, February was among the most difficult months, especially in leap years. Among the Little Russians, for example, February Fridays were considered the most bitter. These days, men were forbidden to work in the field, and women were forbidden to spin — everyone took care of both strength and supplies, which were coming to an end.
On Vlasyev Day, the “cow holiday”, special rye bread was baked for livestock, consecrated with Epiphany water and fed to animals so that they were healthy. The main task in February was to survive it. “Father-February has come, and the peasant has outgrown the winter!” they said in the villages.
Sabbath against death
In early February, after the Candlemas, the Cow’s Death, or the death of cattle, ran through the villages. This often happened at the end of winter. Among the people, she was represented as an ugly old woman who had «hands with a rake.» It was believed that she herself did not come to the village herself, but was brought in by passing people.
To calculate the witch, which could also cause animal diseases, they tried in the villages, forcing women to jump over the fire. Refused to jump — the witch is.
However, the main way to deal with the misfortune was the rite of «plowing», especially common in the Volga region. In the evening, the “old woman-messenger” ran around all the yards and called the women to work (only women could participate in the ceremony). Men were punished to sit in the huts, otherwise trouble. Cattle were locked in barns, dogs were put on a leash.
The action started at midnight. The hanger, in a shirt worn over warm clothes, went out to the outskirts and beat into the frying pan. Women, also in shirts and with loose hair, gathered around her with «weapons» in their hands: tongs, stove dampers, cast iron, pokers, scythes and sickles. Who is riding a broom, who is with a club.
The messenger was harnessed to a plow. With torch beams lit, making a terrible noise and singing ritual songs, the women circled the village three times. If a dog or a cat came across on the way of the procession, then they could well be beaten and even torn to pieces: the participants in the rite believed that Cow Death itself could hide in the guise of the creatures they met (even men).
Ethnographers noted: «The women go berserk and rush at everything that comes in their way, and random passers-by are beaten to a pulp.» To look from the outside is a real coven, but in essence it is a powerful ritual that helped people to live through grief together.
COVID-19: will rituals help?
Real our ancestors represented the Cow Death or not, but this ritual psychologically helped them to tune in to a better outcome and survive hard times together.
The script of the ceremony itself was composed wisely. First of all, it was necessary to discover that embodiment of the «alien» that brought misfortune — a visiting person or a witch. Then update and strengthen the border between your world, safe and reliable, and someone else’s — the one behind the harrow. This is exactly what the ploughing-up has done: a new strong frontier beyond which Death is driven.
Of course, death was cast out symbolically. But the impact of the ritual was truly healing: there was faith in the best. And this faith was backed up by concrete actions, a collective ritual, the powerful energy of people united by one idea.
Today, when not one village, but the whole world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic, maybe it’s time to remember the experience of our ancestors? Of course, in order to drive out the plague, it is not necessary to walk around cities and villages with a plow.
Modern rituals may be different. The main thing is not to isolate yourself and not try to cope alone (after all, the number of mental illnesses is growing day by day, and this makes the trouble even greater), but to live through common hardships together. And together we believe that everything will work out.