Folk Omens Help Gardeners

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The omens are true - not superstitious

Try to observe the various signs.

Shepherd and agriculture in infant summer, looked up to heaven, on the western shadow

Are able to really foretold and wind, and a clear day, and the May rains, youthful joy fields …"

Pushkin

Our whole life is inextricably linked with the weather (or, perhaps, it would be more correct to say, with Nature). Life has become such that we are all in a hurry, afraid to be late. Or maybe it's worth slowing down, looking around and taking a closer look at the phenomena of Nature. After all, everyone is interested to know what awaits us tomorrow: in summer - rain or hot dry weather, in winter - thaw or severe frost? Being on our personal plot, we do not always manage to find out the weather forecast in order to rationally plan tomorrow.

For example, during the growing season, every gardener or gardener wants to be more clear about what agricultural business can be done the next day, or maybe go fishing, go to the forest for mushrooms and berries, or just go on a long hike. And another time - in winter - when visiting a summer cottage, you want to plan in advance tomorrow's ski trip so that it does not turn out to be "smeared" by a strong thaw. A forecast for many days ahead (for the next month or even a season) can help us choose the most optimal timing for planting crops, carry out measures to protect plants from pests, diseases and frost, and even calculate the future harvest.

The Slavs, who have been engaged in agriculture from time immemorial, were very dependent on the whims of nature, therefore they tried to notice even its insignificant fluctuations, patterns and relationships with the development and harvest of plants. This was important for the farmer, since his well-being depended on what kind of harvest Nature would answer him. His desire to look into the future to determine what awaits him there is quite understandable.

In their labor activity, people for many hundreds of years accumulated experience, compared causes and effects, generalized their observations, knowledge and skills, which were passed on from generation to generation, until everything collected acquired a completely finished meaning and greatly facilitated the struggle for existence.

The practical wisdom of the masses was reflected in many reliable signs-observations about the weather, which contained predictions of weather and harvest both for a specific day, month or season, and for the whole year ahead. According to the famous Russian historian V. O. Klyuchevsky, "they covered all the characteristic, often subtle phenomena of the annual turnover of our nature, noted its various accidents (climatic and economic), outlining the entire annual life of the peasant economy."

In the world folklore literature, more than 100 thousand signs have been published, there are about 6100 various Russian signs. For better memorization, many signs of the oral folk calendar-folklore - peasants tied to the names of saints, clothed them in jokes and proverbs, often in poetic form.

You can even say that calendar signs are a memorable book of observations over Nature, a diary of the thoughts of a Russian person over his life - being, a kind of folk encyclopedia of a farmer. In the folk calendar, the smallest fluctuations of nature were noted (the timing of flowering and ripening of many cultivated and forest trees, the arrival and departure of birds, seasonal phenomena and much more).

The history of observing the weather, its predictions for the future harvest, are rooted in antiquity, when since primitive times people watched the rising and setting of the sun, the starry sky, and the winds. So, in the Kiev State Historical Museum there is an ancient Slavic calendar, applied to an earthen jug of the 4th century, where the most important dates for the farmer are marked - the days of the beginning of sowing and harvesting.

By the way, by the time of the adoption of Christianity, Ancient Russia was using a lunisolar calendar, and the year itself began on March 1, when they started agricultural work. The richest material of centuries-old observations, thanks to the observation and experience of people of different generations, allowed them to determine the weather for tomorrow and choose the best timing for planting crops, rationally plan and spend their time.

Of course, signs can help us in solving many life issues related to the weather, but they may not always come true. According to experts, the so-called calendar signs - dates (Christmas, Tatyana's day, etc.) are less objective, the results of observations of heavenly bodies, physical phenomena of inanimate nature (rainbow, fog, lightning, etc.) and for the behavior of the flora and fauna, giving clearer predictions. First of all, one must remember that one should not be guided by only one omen. The more signs (it is necessary to take at least 4-5) show a specific nature of the weather change, the higher our forecast will be. If these indications are still somewhat contradictory, the forecast is made according to most of the similar signs.

And although on radio and television we daily hear the opinion of weather forecasters about the weather for two, three days, a week in advance, let's take a closer look at the folk signs, the interest in which is still unabated. We add that we are probably still very lucky that we live at latitudes where four wonderful and incomparable seasons are so clearly expressed - winter, spring, summer and autumn, each of which has its own characteristics and signs. By the way, I have acquaintances who have been keeping almost daily records of weather and temperature for more than a dozen years, so those who are interested in the last moment should bear in mind that such observations should be carried out regularly, preferably focusing on the same area.