Motley week

Russian Meatless week ^[1] , Bryansk. Memorial week ^[2] , Pockmarked week, Oil conspiracy, Srechensky grandfathers ^[3] ; Ukrainian All tijden, Pockmarked tijden ^[4] ; woodland. Wasting Day, Grandfather Week, Memorial Day ^[5] .

The name of the week is due to the fact that, unlike the previous one , fasting was observed on Wednesday and Friday, that is, “variegation” was obtained - the days of eating meat alternate with fasting days. In Russian, the concept of “motley”, like in Belarusian “slaves” (pockmarked), is endowed with negative properties - heterogeneous, unreliable, unstable. This led to some prohibitions, negative assessments of the actions committed at this time ^[3] .

On Saturday, the dead were commemorated (see Meat Saturday ) with a visit to the cemetery and a memorial table at home. Sunday before Maslenitsa was called "Meat". On this day, it was customary to visit relatives, friends, neighbors and invite to Shrovetide. They said: “I am drawn to cheese and butter” ^[3] .

In the motley week, the wedding period ^[6] ending with the Winter Wedding is ending.

The motley week was also called the week after the Holy . According to popular opinion, anyone who marries these weeks will live poorly, or, as the people say, motley ^[7] .

Belarusians considered Thursday and Friday this week as memorial days. These days, they tried not to work, “kab not shkodzіts dead souls”, in the morning they heated the stove, whitened in the house, cleaned, covered the table with a fresh tablecloth, hung new rushnyks - “chakalі gassey - dzyadoў”. After the ritual dinner, everything was left on the table - “gassam pachastavazza” ^[3] .

In Belarus and in some places in Russia on Saturday before Maslenitsa, Parents' Day was celebrated, the first of this year. On this day, the deceased parents were commemorated. Pancakes were specially baked for them - and the first pancake was placed on the deity , dormer window or roof, left on the graves in the cemetery ^[8] , and they also handed out pancakes to children, beggars and nuns with a request to remember such and such.

In the morning and in the evening, sitting down at the table, they necessarily invited to share a family meal consisting of beef, boiled pork, fried lamb, relatives who died in the house. “Do not remove from the table”: the remains of the evening meal are left on the table until morning with the dishes and spoons, covering it all with the ends of the tablecloth (d. Shchepikhino, Kaluga region ) ^[9] .

And now the peasants are convinced that for the conspiracy, especially the Pancake week, before Lent, it is necessary to leave food for the ancestors of the dead. That is why they do not remove anything from the table for supper after dinner, do not wash cups and spoons, even put pots with the remaining food on the table. All the undernourished is left to the “parents”, who, under the cover of night darkness, leave the stove and eat ^[10] .

The last Sunday before Maslenitsa was called "Meat" ^[3] or "Meat Sunday" ^[11] , in the Voronezh province - "Meat zagovanie" ^[12] . On Sunday they said: “Now 12 times shti (cabbage soup) slurp, 12 times they eat meat” ^[9] .

In Vologda villages, they went to visit relatives, neighbors, friends and invited to visit Maslenitsa. This Sunday the father-in-law called the son-in-law "to finish the ram." “I dare to eat cheese and butter,” they said on the evening before Maslenitsa ^[13] .

In Ukraine, pigs or a pig were slaughtered the day before, and jellied pork legs were cooked in the Meat Zagovinie, which is why they called it “Leg Feeding, Nozhko’s” ( Ukrainian: Nizhkov’s Forest, Nizhkovo ). Wed “Pig Monday” among Croats ( Croat. Prašći pundeljak ) - Monday before Pancake Week ( Meat and Paste ) ^[14] .

In the Kharkov province, it was believed that on the last night of a meat-empty week, a husband should not sleep with his wife, otherwise the wolves would eat all of them piglets ^[15] .

Croats, Bulgarians, and Macedonians at the Meat Plot, like on the last day of Meat Pust , pricked and ate chicken, and drew crosses on the forehead of children with their blood, in connection with which the Meat Plot was called a dia. bulg. Kokosheni stubbornness, Kokoshkini stub, Kokosha stub , dial. Maced. Kokoshkini baggage . The Croats in Varosha about this custom said that “Shrovetide should be sprinkled with blood” ( Croatian moraje se Poklade okrvit, da živat ne gini ) ^[16] .

• To marry Pestroy (week) - to intermarry with misfortune ^[17] .
• That’s why the woman is a motley that went to Pestroy to marry ^[17] .
• To marry Pestroy is nothing but a misfortune ^[17] .

• Shrovetide / Meat Pust
• Omnivore or Week of the Publican and Pharisee

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