Russian Christmastide, or Svyatki (also spelled Sviatki), is celebrated
between Orthodox Christmas (January 7) and the Epiphany (January 19th).
Like other traditional celebrations, Russian Christmastide fell out of
favor with authorities during the 20th century, but Svyatki has
returned, along with other notable ancient festivals that are a part of Russian culture, like Maslenitsa.
When you travel in Russia during this two-week period, you may notice
the practice of customs associated with Svyatki. For example, Russian Winter Festivals in Moscow may showcase Russian Christmastide and winter traditions.
Sviatki Traditions
Sviatki is marked by the observance of special traditions, some which
predate Christianity's appearance in Russia. Old Slavic traditions
included lighting fires, a practice which made sense in any case due to
the fact that Sviatki occurs in the depth of winter.
Svyatki fortune telling may still be done today (though mostly
for fun). There were many ways Russians told fortunes in times of old.
For example, melting wax then pouring it quickly into cold water or snow
was believed to predict events surrounding the fortune teller or those
close to her.
The Russian Christmastide tradition of caroling is not unique to
Russia – carols are a part of the holiday traditions in other Eastern
European countries, too. The koliadki, as they are called, are sung
during Svyatki. The carolers, or mummers, may dress up in costume.
Evidence of this tradition can be found in Russian literature, even if
Svyatki is not mentioned by name. Two well-known examples include
Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, in which fortune telling is referenced before “Twelfth Night” and Tolstoy's War and Peace, in which costumed carolers are described during a Christmastime scene.
Epiphany in Russia
January 19, the last day of Svyatki, marks Epiphany. On this day, brave
or very devout individuals take a dip in the icy waters of rivers and
lakes. Epiphany, marking the baptism of Jesus, is said to imbue water
with special powers that will protect those who bathe in it on this day.
We call the twelve days after Christmas to Epiphany the Svyatki, that is, holy days; the coming of the Saviour of the world sanctifies them. The Church began to celebrate these special days in ancient times. In the 6th century, in the canons, St Sabbas wrote that during the Svyatki we are not supposed to prostrate ourselves or perform weddings. The Second Council of Truro in 567 proclaimed all the days from Christmas to Epiphany as holidays. In the beginning of the Svyatki, traditionally, we take presents and gifts and visit neighbours, relatives, and friends, in memory of the gifts brought by the Magi to the God-Infant (Богомладенцу). Housewives beautifully cover the tables; they prepare delicious special foods. We also take care to remember the poor, the sick, and the needy. We visit children’s homes, orphanages, hospitals, and prisons. In ancient times, during the Svyatki, kings would disguise themselves as common people so that they could visit the prisons and gave alms to the prisoners.
ReplyDeleteA special tradition of the Svyatki in Russia was kolyadovanie (carolling), or, some called it slavlenie (literally, “glorying”, idiomatically, “praising”). Teens and kids dressed up, they went from house to house with a big homemade star, singing church hymns such as the Tropar and Kondak of the feast, and they sang spiritual songs, kolyadki (carols), about Christmas. Just about everybody had the custom of kolyadovanie, but every region did it just a little bit differently. In some areas of Russia, a “cave” replaced the star. It was a kind of puppet theatre, depicting the scene of the Nativity of Christ. Our folkloric and literary creativity draws much inspiration from the festival of the Svyatki. The days of Christmas become, in the words of the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “days that bring the family together”, they are days of mercy and reconciliation. Stories about the good and wonderful things that happen to people at Christmas are called Svyatki stories.
ReplyDeleteIn olden days, Svyatki was also a time when young girls tried to guess who their future husband would be, and when they would get married. This is still a very popular tradition in Russia, especially during Svyatki, as tradition says that during this time, there are angels here to help guide us and tell us our future.
ReplyDeleteThere are many customary ways for girls to guess who their husband will be... She can look in the mirror with candles after midnight and wait until she sees her future husband in the mirror; she can put a selection of items under her pillow at night before sleeping, and on waking in the morning, whichever item she takes first is said to hold a clue about her future marriage; or she can go to the end of the village, throw her boot or shoe into the air and see where it lands. Tradition says the direction it points will also point to where she will meet her future husband.
Svyatki is a very joyful part of Russian Christmas celebrations.
It was once common practice, on Christmas Eve, for groups of people masquerading as manger animals to travel from house to house, having themselves a rousing good time, and singing songs known as kolyadki . Some kolyadki were pastoral carols to the baby Jesus, while others were homages to the ancient solar goddess Kolyada, who brings the lengthening days of sunlight through the winter. In return for their songs, the singers were offered food and coins, which they gladly accepted, moving on to the next home.
ReplyDeleteSviatki or Sviata Vechera
ReplyDeleteTranslated as "Holy Days," this was celebrated in Russia, Ukraine, and other Slavic countries on Jan. 6 for at least the last 500 years and likely much longer. It is roughly equivalent to Christmas Eve.
Rather than a recognition of Christ's birth, Sviatki was a day of rituals and divination to guard against evil spirits and misfortune, and to bring good health and good fortune to the family for the year.
A traditional Russian household could range from 50 to 200 people, considering the three or four generations, servants, etc. In preparation for this meal, the household would fast all day. The Domestroi emphasizes a neat, orderly house for such celebrations. Although the tone of the event was more of dignity than celebration, everyone wore their most festive clothing. The tables were strewn with hay, to encourage fertility, and sheaves of wheat were displayed, to signify an abundant harvest.
There were several standard ceremonies. The first consisted of the children sighting the first star of the evening. Then the male head of the house would offer kut'ia (a porridge or flummery of wheat kernels, honey, and poppyseeds) to the dead ancestors and to the forces of nature and ask them to protect the family for the next year. Next would be the communal sharing of the kolach, a rich egg bread; the head of the household would offer a piece of this bread, along with honey and salt, to each person in the household. After the meal, he would offer the remaining kut'ia to the barn animals and ask for their protection and health.
There were numerous other rituals of singing and dancing, most to insure a good harvest or to divine who the young girls should marry.
The menu differed regionally. There were generally 12 dishes served, but there was no set order of presentation. Many of the dishes were believed to have magical or religious significance. Beverages were generally tea with tea with lemon, orange, cloves, and cinnamon, horilka, or vodka. Dishes included numerous roasted animals and birds, vushka (pies with meat filling), vareyky or piroshki (dumplings with mushroom filling), buckwheat pancakes, sausage, marinated/dried/steamed/pickled fish, cabbage, beet soup, nuts, dried fruit, pashka (cheesecake), and doughnuts.
The period after Christmas Day until the 18th of January is known as Svyatki, and it is interesting to see how this has become a traditional part of Russian Christmas celebrations.
ReplyDeleteThis holiday dates back before Orthodox Christianity, to the times when Russia was a pagan society. The custom was to dress up in the skin of different animals and sing songs in worship of the main god - the Sun. The celebration was called Kolyada. On the first night of Kolyada, people lit a big fire which was kept burning for 12 days, as a symbol of new life. On hills, people rolled a big burning wheel as a symbol of the Sun. All gathered together in the biggest house in the village, and listened to stories and songs, and dressed in new, white clothes, to call on good luck and a rich harvest.
When Russia adopted Orthodox Christianity, the meaning of these twelve holiday days changed, and the Orthodox church forbade pagan rituals and celebrations. However, the highly popular custom of dressing in animal skins and masks remained, and continues even to this day!
In olden days, Svyatki was also a time when young girls tried to guess who their future husband would be, and when they would get married. This is still a very popular tradition in Russia, especially during Svyatki, as tradition says that during this time, there are angels here to help guide us and tell us our future.
There are many customary ways for girls to guess who their husband will be... She can look in the mirror with candles after midnight and wait until she sees her future husband in the mirror; she can put a selection of items under her pillow at night before sleeping, and on waking in the morning, whichever item she takes first is said to hold a clue about her future marriage; or she can go to the end of the village, throw her boot or shoe into the air and see where it lands. Tradition says the direction it points will also point to where she will meet her future husband.
Svyatki is a very joyful part of Russian Christmas celebrations.
Many Russians, particularly adolescent girls in rural Russia, go in for the “Svyatki” traditions in a sometimes quite serious way, even today. Of course, they are all treated as a bit of a joke, like party tricks but not by all. Here are a few Svyatki traditions that you might have missed this year.
ReplyDeleteJanuary in Russia is a most magical and joyful time, full of hopes and expectations. At all times it has been treated as a border zone between the Old and the New, between winter and spring. The ancient belief goes that unearthly powers, spirits, become available for contact during this time. Our ancestors tried to use this opportunity to foretell the future by interpreting secret signs. This was carried out during the Svyatki celebrations: the two-week period straight after the Russian Christmas until Epiphany Day. Fortune-telling traditions during these days have regained their popularity, especially in small Russian towns and villages, though now it is done mostly for fun.
The most popular time for divination comes on the first Svyatki night around midnight. Fortune-telling has always been of interest mainly for young women and teenage girls. They would usually choose dark, non-residential premises, often a bath house or “banya”. There they let their hair down, took off their necklaces, rings and bracelets opening themselves up to the spirits. Basically all of the maidens were usually interested in one thing: if they were going to get married any time soon, and who to. Other typical questions for fortune- telling are related to life and death, illnesses, weather and the harvest, wealth and family well-being.
ReplyDeleteIt is almost impossible to list all of the known fortune-telling methods. During Svyatki even the most ordinary things acquire a special connotation; nothing seemed accidental, any detail could become a sign, a messenger of something from the future.
Girls burn equally long threads of string and the owner of the fastest burning thread is supposed to be the first one to get married. Another traditional technique is quite satiating: one can tell the future by eating vareniki (stuffed dumplings). A few small meaningful objects are put into the vareniki whilst being cooked. A coin means money and future wealth, tomatoes foretell love, and a thread predicts future travel. Another variation is to hide copper, silver and golden rings into a pile of grain. Each girl takes a handful of it and if she gets a ring, she will get married in the coming year. The type of the metal reveals whether a future husband is going to be rich or poor
ReplyDeleteTo find out more about their future husbands, a rooster is used: plates with different fillings in them are put in front of the rooster, and whichever plate the roost picks, characterizes the future spouse. For example, if the rooster picks a plate with grain or money in it, the husband will be rich; if a plate with water, a drunkard; a plate with a mirror on it, someone handsome and tender. Another simple and wide-spread fortune-telling tradition is throwing a boot over the gate: by the direction the boot points, the girls learned where a future husband would come from. To complete “husband profiles,” the girls go outside and ask the first person they meet for their names, believing that those would be the names of their future spouses.
To get an idea of what their marriage would be like, the girls lean against neighbours’ windows and listen in on any conversation. Depending on whether the conversation they overhear is joyful or sad, the girls can establish what they should expect in their family life. If they heard such words as “Don’t hurry, wait, sit down, it’s still early”, it means that a marriage will definitely not happen that coming year. But if the neighbours say something like “It’s time to go”, this is accepted as a positive sign about an upcoming marriage.
A special preparation is required if a girl wants to see the image of her future husband. One way is to see a prophetic dream: to ensure she sees one, a girl would put a branch from a fir tree under her pillow and repeat the following words: “I go to sleep on Monday, put a branch from a fir tree under my head, let me see the one who thinks about me.”
ReplyDeleteThe most famous (and most scary!) divination is fortunetelling with a candle and mirror, which is placed on a table in a dark room a little before midnight. A girl stares intently into the mirror and at the stroke of midnight she is supposed to see a man looking over her shoulder. This man is believed to be her future husband. To make it even scarier (but certainly more effective!) you have to put two mirrors on the table facing each other and look at the gallery of reflections. This activity requires being alone or with a few close girlfriends and total silence. Weak-nerved and very emotional ladies are warned to avoid such fortune-telling experiment.
Also, if you want to know if a man and a woman should be together, all you have to do is to burn matches: put a couple of them on each side of a matchbox and set fire to them. If the burned down heads of the matches turn to each other, that meant a positive outcome for lovers.
If a girl has a broader outlook and wants to go beyond marital questions, she can utilize some other fortune-telling techniques which require a rich imagination: predicting the future by analysing melted wax shapes (a house-like shape means that you will have your own household soon; trees with upward branches signify some joy in the future) or looking at the shadows of charred paper. Participants in this ritual take a blank piece of paper, crumple it, put it in a dish and set fire to it. When it is almost completely burned, the girls put a candle behind them and look at their shadows on the wall. Most of these methods don’t tell you your future directly, but leave you responsible for the gaps. All you have to do is to trust your own feelings and senses.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that these traditions have not, naturally, gone unnoticed by artists, writers and musicians. The curious and impatient characters of such young ladies have inspired some of the famous Russian artists, including Kramskoy, Makovsky, Brullov and others to develop this topic in their paintings. Tchaikovsky’s composition “Svyatki” also reproduces the atmosphere and mood of this joyful and exciting time. Fortune-telling traditions were depicted in great detail by Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Bestuzhev, Bulgakov, Pushkin and, perhaps by the greatest master of all in depicting such Russian traditions, Gogol. For me the most thrilling poem devoted to fortune- telling is the ballad “Svetlana” written by Zhukovksy and translated into English by Sir John Bowring:
St. Silvester’s evening hour
Calls the maidens round:
Shoes to throw behind the door,
Delve the snowy ground.
Peep behind the window there,
Burning wax to pour;
And the corn for chanticleer
Reckon three times o’er.
In the water-fountain fling
Solemnly the golden ring,
Earrings too of gold;
Kerchief white must cover them
While we are chanting over them
Magic songs of old.
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