The period from January 7 to January 18 is called "holy days or holy days", "Christmas time". In the old days, Christmas and Baptism were celebrated at the same time.
Later, a small gap was introduced, which is considered to be a single long day full of joy, fun, happiness, since Jesus was born at that time.
The Christian canons of Christmas and Epiphany did not prohibit pagan rites at Christmas time. These are carols, masquerades, and, of course, the divination is holy.
Fortune-telling is an attempt to find out about your future.
The first seven days of Christmas time, from January 7 to January 13, are called “holy week” or “holy, holy evenings,” and the second week, from January 14 to January 5, is called “terrible evenings”.
In the first hollow week, all youth caroled. Girls and boys under the windows sang and danced in carols, praised the holy festival, wished the owners wealth, prosperity and, of course, health. They were treated to sweets for their labors.
The owners gave carols from the windows different sweets, for this special cookies were baked - “roe-deer”. According to signs, these sweets contributed to a rich offspring of cattle. Many different dishes were prepared from meat, especially from pork, it was a symbol of fertility and wealth in ancient Russia. In general, these days there were no food bans.
It was customary on the holy days to dress up and ride horses. Men dressed in women's dresses, painted. Women dressed in men, let down their mustaches and beards. Among the mummers was always a bear - a man dressed in an inverted sheepskin coat. People played, fooled, joked with their neighbors, mischievous and mischievous. For example, they propped up the doors, plugged the pipes, or dragged the sled from the yard.
And, of course, fortune-telling at the Christmas time was the most entertaining moment, everyone wondered! The head of the family wondered if the year would be fruitful, whether the weather would be good for sowing, or if the grain would be sufficiently degraded. The mistress of fortune-telling spent on Christmas time in order to learn about children, diseases, and wealth. The girls wanted to know the answer to the main question about marriage this year.
Fortune-telling was carried out at midnight or before sunrise. All types and methods of divine fortune-telling cannot be listed. We will describe the most common ones that have survived to this day.
The best fortune-telling fortunes:
On melt water.
1. You need to bring a piece of ice or a ball of snow into the house from the street and wait a bit until it melts. Next, you need to look at the specks caught in melt water. If you get hair, then the groom will be rich; sticks, slivers, sawdust - with your own home; leaflet - will be a scientist; paper - then there will be a military.
2. Hot wax is poured into a glass with spring water, egg white can be used . If they flow to the bottom and, like a pancake, spread, then this year the girl is not in danger of getting married. If the shape will resemble a candle or a ring - soon the wedding.
3. At night, you need to go to the river to the ice hole, in which you can either see the face of the groom, or hear a crack and a knock, according to signs indicating that this year the girl will not marry.
4. Pour into a glass of water, throw a ring there and put on the street overnight. By the number of mounds on the ice surface, one can judge the number of sons, and by the number of pits - the number of daughters.
On the mirrors.
1. Late at night, you need to lock yourself in the room, put on the table in front of you a mirror, two candles in front of him. If you look very closely at the mirror, it is quite possible to see your future. After fortune telling, the mirror must be quickly crossed so that the evil spirits do not kill the fortuneteller.
2. Just as in the above embodiment, fortune-telling is carried out in complete solitude. Two mirrors are placed opposite to reflect a long, narrow corridor. They light two candles, place them so that they are reflected in the mirrors and create the appearance of lighting the corridor. You need to look into this corridor for a long time and you can see different events from your own future.