The practice of bathing in dew has its roots in the distant pagan past, while remaining a common practice in the twenty-first century. "Living water" from Russian fairy tales - revitalizing, restoring strength - is not just a part of Russian folklore, many peoples believed in its magical and protective properties, but it was available before dawn on some spring and summer days.
The beginning of summer and Egoriy Veshniy
Morning dew is a popular at all times means of healing and rejuvenation. It is a symbol of early morning, freshness and vitality, performing the functions of beneficial water treatments. They wash their face with dew, walk on it with bare feet, they even bathe in it - just like many centuries ago, when it was all not just fashionable and pleasant entertainment, but also part of our ancestors' ideas about the structure of the world.
Dew drops contain, according to experts, healing substances.
The rituals associated with bathing in the morning dew, once upon a time were aimed not only at improving health, especially health in the now familiar sense of the word. The main purpose of the rituals was primarily associated with an attempt to "come to terms" with the forces of nature - about a good harvest, about the well-being of the village, about protecting livestock from disease and mortality - and about a happy arrangement of one's own life.
V. Prushkovsky. Meeting the morning dawn.
Dew is water droplets that appear on plants at night, due to a drop in temperature. She is a constant companion of the beginning of a summer day, sunrise. The sun in the culture of any people is an object of worship and deification. All rituals associated with dew were carried out until dawn, when it was still "unpopulated."
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The Slavs paid special attention to the rituals of St. George's Day, or Yegor Veshny - a holiday that began on April 23 according to the old style (May 6 - in a new style). That is how - Yuri or Yegoriy - in the folk tradition they called St. George the Victorious. Egoriy Veshniy opened the summer period, the "warm" part of the year, on this day they asked for fertility and abundance. They performed ceremonies associated with the first pasture of cattle. According to ethnographers, in Russia this day became a kind of "professional" holiday for shepherds. In addition to grazing, they collected medicinal herbs, made fires, carried out ceremonies for the harvest - and bathed in Yegoryevskaya, or Yuryevskaya, dew.
Yegor Veshny was celebrated on the day of St. George the Victorious.
"Yuri unlocks the earth, releases dew", "St. George's dew from seven ailments" - due to the moisture that the earth gave, they believed as in the power of the sun itself. And the earth was considered not just one of the four elements, but also a living being - it was worshiped, sung, there was even a tradition of confession to the earth - without the participation of a priest.
Contact with the first dew - on St. George's Day - was considered magical, miraculous. "Be healthy as St. George's dew" - they wished each other. Dew was collected for future use - for this they used a clean linen tablecloth, thoroughly dried it the day before in the sun, and in the early morning they carried it through the dewy grasses and squeezed the moisture into clay containers. The collected dew was used as a medicine - it was believed that it relieves many ailments.
Summer bathing in dew and Midsummer's day
Bathing in dew was considered “clean”, because the water, which the Slavs washed, was “heavenly”, unlike the one with which rivers, lakes and other bodies of water were filled - there, according to legend, various evil spirits lived, which they feared. Only for a short time did mermaids and mermaids leave their habitual habitats and lose the opportunity to harm bathers - from the holiday of Ivan Kupala to Ilyin's day. However, bathing in the dew during these summer weeks continued, the ritual acquired even greater value and significance.
I. Kramskoy. Mermaids.
But on May 25 (June 7 according to the new style), when Ivan Medvyanie Dew came, everything was different. Dew during this period became sweet, with a honey flavor - hence the name. It was believed that it harms both plants and people, and pestilence leads to cattle. On May 25, they celebrated the church holiday of the finding of the head of John the Baptist.
I. Sokolov. Night at Ivan Kupala.
The main Slavic holiday of summer - Ivan Kupala - did not go without bathing in the dew. It was celebrated on June 24 (July 7, new style). According to the church calendar, this day falls on the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist.
More precisely, the beginning of the rituals and festivities fell on the day before Ivan Kupala - on the eve they celebrated Agrafena Kupalnitsa. From Yesenin's poem - "Mother walked through the woods in a bathing suit, she wandered barefoot with tricks in the dew" - women who had already been married followed barefoot to walk in the dew.
G. Semiradsky. Night at Ivan Kupala.
It was possible to start swimming on Agrafena - the evil spirits, according to legends, disappeared from the reservoirs, and the water became quite warm. There were many ceremonies and rituals on the night of June 23-24: round dances around the fire (fire for it was often produced in an ancient way - by friction), and jumping over it, and searching for a fern flower, and rolling in the dew. The girls plunged into the dew so that the “guys chased”, washed their face and hands with it, so that the skin was clean and did not age for a long time.
On June 29 (July 12), Peter's day was celebrated - the end of the Kupala rites. Together with Ivanov's Day, this holiday was dedicated to the flowering of the forces of nature and fertility.
The epic about Ilya Muromets directly indicated the magical properties of dew:
V. Vasnetsov. Heroic skok. The third time the horses were bathed in dew on Ilyin's day - July 20 (August 2).
"Living Water"?
Like other pagan rituals, rituals with bathing and washing with dew are familiar not only to the Slavs. Morning living water was worshiped by other tribes and peoples - Western Slavs, inhabitants of other European lands - the ancestors of modern Austrians, Spaniards, French, Scandinavians. Dew was collected and used by oriental healers Apparently, all Indo-European peoples were familiar with the ritual of bathing in dew and washing with dew.
Christian preachers also relied on these beliefs, explaining to the pagan Slavs the essence of the new faith. Washing with “heavenly moisture” - dew - was akin to the rite of baptism with holy water. Yes, and for Judea, with its deserts, dew was a salvation and a blessed source of moisture - during the night there was such an amount of life-giving moisture that it replaced the rain, which is rare in those parts. Even the Old Testament contains descriptions of miracles associated with dew.
G. Myasoedov. In field.
The rather meager number of recorded rituals with bathing in dew is most likely due to the fact that the rituals for which the same Ivan Kupala was famous were sharply condemned by the church - although, despite this, they were stubbornly supported by the people. “Sloshing and dancing”, and then “seduction and fall” - this is how the churchmen described what was happening, and this generally corresponded to reality - the theme of fertility gave rise to consequences that were really contrary to Christian morality. True, only from the standpoint of clergy - for the common people, the confusion of pagan beliefs and the Orthodox faith was absolutely natural and did not need any prohibitions and restrictions.
