How to guess on the eve of Epiphany

With the holiday of Epiphany there is a lot to dobeliefs about the fate of man. If someone is baptized this day - to be to him the happiest person for life. A good omen is also considered, if on that day they agree about a future wedding. "Epiphany hand-knitting is for a happy family," the people said.

According to popular beliefs, the eve of Epiphany, the evening of 18January, the famous "Epiphany Evening", is the time of evil spirits. She strives to enter the house of a werewolf in any guise. To protect the dwelling from penetrating into the house of evil force, put chalk marks on all the doors and window frames of the cross, which is considered a reliable protection against all demons. Do not put a cross on the Epiphany Christmas Eve on the door - be a trouble, counted in the old days.

If you do not protect your house on time and "let in"unclean force, get rid of her prose as follows. In the floor of the house a knot is found, which does not necessarily have to protrude above the floor, but can be simply indicated in the parquet board. The anointed finger of the right hand encircles the branch with a triangle, then they step on it with the left foot and say: "Christ is risen, and not you, demon Amen."

Especially dangerous in the Epiphany night werewolf"Fiery Serpent", which is a girl in the form of a beautiful young man. They say that if the "Fiery Serpent" loves a girl, this love is unachievable forever. "Do not love, fall in love, do not praise, praise," - warn old girls of young girls about the appearance of a handsome man. "He can frostbite, he is a villain, a soul, he can speak, he will play, ruthless, with a girl's heart, he will stifle a girl in hot embraces." "Without him, the girl sits in anguish, without him she dries herself." You can save yourself from visiting a werewolf-handsome by drawing a cross on the door or pouring it onto the stove of the snow collected on Epiphany.

But for lack of furnace zagnotok in modernapartments, we advise you in the morning on the day of Baptism to wash with snow water: according to the sign, from this "without whitewashed white come, without rouge ruddy." You can not limit yourself to washing, but try to swim in the hole. It has long been customary in Russia to swim in a hole in Baptism, despite the fact that the Epiphany frosts were considered to be the most cruel.

Those who wondered on New Year's Eve, Christmas Eve and Baptism, bathed or showered with water: thus they washed away the sin, because divination was always considered a collusion with the evil forces.

One of the most common types of EpiphanyDivination was the custom of throwing a slipper on Baptism. The girls went out of the outskirts and threw a slipper from their left foot in front of them. We looked in which direction the toe of the shoe points - from there the bridegroom will come and in that direction the girl will leave her home. If the toe of the shoe pointed back to the village, it meant that the girl this year will not marry.

On a clear moonlit Epiphany evening, the girls went todoors of the locked church and listened to silence: some of them seemed either a wedding choir or a funeral service - something that promised them a new year. The same symbolism had the sound of a bell (marriage), and a thud (an early death).

There was a custom that with pleasureperformed and the boys and girls: ask the name of passers-by women's men's, men's women's. According to the people's will, they will call the future bridegroom and, accordingly, the bride.

Those girls who have not yet waited theirgroom, went out at night on Epiphany and hailed conned. If a girl gets caught up in front of a young guy - a good omen, if the old man - an evil omen.