Table of contents:
- Sacred trees and how to behave with them
- What is the king-tree and why during a thunderstorm it is impossible to hide under a lonely tree
- Cemetery guardians of souls and drunken trees not to be disturbed
- Named trees as a guarantor of good luck and the ability to follow fate
- Medicinal trees, rowan and apples
Video: What trees in Russia they tried not to cut down, and why
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Trees in Russia were treated with respect. After all, they are capable of a lot - to protect the house, to save from the devil, to save from diseases. Many trees were considered sacred, others were used by healers for treatment, and there were some that were not even worth approaching. Read what the king-tree is, how the destiny was followed with the help of the named trees and why it is impossible to climb the cemetery trees.
Sacred trees and how to behave with them
In Russia, it was believed that a tree is a natural staircase, while the roots personified the underworld, the trunk was the real world, and different spirits lived in the crown. It was not recommended to climb a tree, as the spirits (no matter good or evil) did not like it. It was not recommended to tear the leaves and break the branches, shake the tree, and rip off the bark. This could lead to the imposition of a curse on the person and his family.
If you read the works of Constantine Porphyrogenitus (mid-10th century), you can find there a description of a large oak tree, from which "the dew was sacrificed." And ethnographer Nikolai Galkovsky talked about a wedding ceremony that existed in the Voronezh province: after the wedding was over, the young people went to the old oak tree to walk around it three times. As a result, the sacred oak gave a blessing for a happy family life.
At the same time, ancient oaks were called the home of evil spirits. Therefore, it was not recommended to come close to very old trees. But not only the oak has received such an honor. For example, in the northern regions, pine was ranked as sacred. They went to her after the Easter christianity, they considered her a talisman on a successful path. In order not to lose their way, travelers donated small coins or beautiful scraps to the pine tree. Returning, one should say a prayer near the tree and be sure to bring gratitude for the good journey.
What is the king-tree and why during a thunderstorm it is impossible to hide under a lonely tree
Almost everyone knows that you cannot stand under a lone tree during a thunderstorm. And this comes from antiquity, when the ancestors believed that an angry Perun (and then Ilya the prophet) aptly throws burning arrows into a lonely tree to drive away the evil spirits hidden in the crown. At the same time, the arrow could accidentally hit an innocent person who hid from the rain.
Large, age-old trees were called the king-tree. Usually these were pines and oaks, which could not be chopped or climbed. If we consider this prohibition from a modern point of view, it becomes clear why: old trees could be rotten, and the trunk sometimes simply could not support the weight of a person. It’s a little joy to fall from a great height.
Cemetery guardians of souls and drunken trees not to be disturbed
Superstitious fear was caused by strange trees, they tried not to come close to them. We are talking about specimens with bent or twisted trunks, or those that spread along the ground. They said that the tree became so ugly, ugly, because the evil spirits liked it. Of course, it is better to bypass it! People called such strange trees drunk.
It was impossible to climb on it, since the goblin must have hung cradles with his children on the branches of a drunken tree. It was dangerous to disturb them, because in revenge the goblin could have made a person get lost in the forest, wander through it, dying of hunger and fatigue, and as a result drown in a stinking swamp or be eaten by terrible wild animals. In order for the goblin not to commit atrocities, it was necessary to appease him: he should sit on a stump and hack three times.
The trees growing on the graves also inspired fear. The people believed that the souls of the dead live in them. To climb such a tree was to trample on the soul, which is a sin. Therefore, they were treated with caution, did not touch, did not break, did not chop.
Named trees as a guarantor of good luck and the ability to follow fate
But not only the souls of the dead were symbolized by trees. They also personified new life. After the birth of a child in Russia, it was customary to plant a tree in front of the house: male, that is, ash, maple or oak for a boy or female (linden, birch) if a girl was born. These were named trees that played the role of amulets. Parents watched them grow up, trying to find out the fate of their child. In order for the child to be protected from troubles and diseases, it was necessary to take care of the tree, take care of it. Any damage could, according to popular belief, have a bad effect on the health and well-being of the person in whose honor it was planted.
Medicinal trees, rowan and apples
Traditional healers have always used the fruits of trees. For example, mountain ash could relieve a toothache. Or you could just kneel in front of a tree and pray, after which you should kiss the mountain ash and make a promise that you will never harm it (you will not climb on it, break branches, pick berries). If the person broke the promise, then the teeth began to hurt even more.
Another healing tree is the apple tree. It was the personification of a mother and a child, and therefore it was also impossible to climb on it, let alone chop it. In some areas, there was a strict ban related to apples: they could not be eaten before the Transfiguration, so as not to repeat the fate of Eve and Adam, who were expelled from Paradise. There is another opinion: this could not be done because it was after the Transfiguration that the Lord presents apples to dead children. And if on earth their mothers violated the ban, then there will be no treats.
And some non-childish tales are quite instructive and easy to understand. For this reason they are read to children today.
Recommended:
A shameful page in the history of the royal family: Why they tried not to remember about the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich
This representative of the royal family was a very peculiar person, and they tried to delete his name from history. He was declared insane, changed his name and exiled to distant Tashkent. His guilt before the crowned relatives was so great that they preferred not to notice either the successes of Nikolai Konstantinovich in the scientific field, or his contribution to the revitalization of the deserts of Central Asia, or the obvious entrepreneurial gift of the disgraced prince
Why did the Germans want to kidnap Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, and why they did not succeed
The plan to kidnap the leaders of the "Big Three" states could be called an adventure, if not for the punctuality and scale with which the Germans were preparing for the operation. One thing the German leaders did not take into account before the "Long Leap" - the activity and awareness of Soviet intelligence, the coherence and scale of their secret, but effective work. Thanks to the timely detention of SS saboteurs and the arrests of German agents, the USSR special services managed to disrupt the operation already at the first stage it was completed
What is point Nemo, why they could not find it for so long, and when they found it, they were scared
The most surprising fact about this conditional point in the World Ocean is probably the very fact of its existence. It was possible to calculate the ocean pole of this inaccessibility thanks to the calculations of the engineer Hvoja Lukatele from Croatia. According to them, point Nemo is closer to people in orbit than on Earth. It is Lukatele who is considered the discoverer of point Nemo
"Ali Baba and 40 robbers": Why they did not shoot a movie with the top artists of the USSR on a musical hit, although they sold 3 million records
This performance, according to its author, was born as a result of "slovenly skits and a parody of the boring Scheherazade", and as a result it became one of the brightest cultural events of the early 1980s. In the USSR, 3 million records of "Ali Baba" were sold, and the actors, whose voices spoke and sang the heroes of the fairy tale, were recognized on the street: the phrase "Eat an orange!" became among the people as beloved as once "Mulya, don't make me nervous!" After this triumph, Veniamin Smekhov, the author of the cult performance
Why are they not buried in Svalbard, and in the French province they don't dig graves: 8 places on the map where people are forbidden to die
Every country and even every city has its own laws and prohibitions, sometimes quite strange. In China, for example, you can't watch time travel movies, and in Singapore you can't buy chewing gum without a doctor's prescription. But all this is small compared to the fact that in some places it is strictly forbidden by law to die