Flips

July 21, according to the national calendar, is the day of Procopius the Harvest, the jitters.Ginki is one of the oldest agricultural festivals. According to some sources, it was celebrated on July 21 on the day of Prokofiy the Reaper (Prokop the Reaper). It was believed that “Summer Prokop is a reaper and a harvester, the harvest begins.” According to others, on July 29, the day of the memory of the Hieromartyr Athenogenes, Bishop of Pidakhvia. The people believed that at Afinogen (Finogen) birds think (shut up). Summer has passed a sultry age. If this day is warm and with light, you clean up in advance with reaping, and if it is rainy, the bread in the sheaf will sprout. From about this period, according to popular signs, hot days end, the nights become colder.

Traditionally, the beginning and end of the harvest was celebrated both by the rural community and in every family. It was believed that what will be the jigs, such are the jigs.

The harvest summed up all the peasant’s many-day labor. By the beginning of the harvest, they were preparing for a great feast. The hostess washed the house, the owner cleaned the yard, hummingly. The table was covered with a white tablecloth. Before the harvest, each hostess or owner went to inspect their fields, whether the spike had ripened, whether it was time to reap. In some places, the rite of “paakryvanie of the field” was carried out.

They were either in the morning before sunrise or at dusk. The very first compressed pebble of ears was put not in a sheaf, but separately on the field along with bread and cheese. Then they began to press the first sheaf – “gaspadok”. He was considered a birthday boy. He was usually caught by the older woman in the family. It was decorated with flowers, carried into the house with songs and put in the red corner under the icons. With it, the threshing begins in the autumn, and straw was fed to sick cattle. The grains of the first sheaf were considered healing for humans and birds.

In the evening, each family arranged a festive dinner, which was sure to have food brought from the field. They sang special songs.

In modern Belarus, the exact date of the jigs do not have and are celebrated on the day of the harvesting campaign.