DESPITE THE CHRISTIAN-SOUNDING name, Trinity Day as celebrated by the Old Believers seems to derive from pagan agricultural customs, possibly fertility rites associated with the ancient Slavic god Yarila.
Conducted over two days in the summer (close to the solstice), the celebration centers around a birch tree. USC researchers had the good fortune to be in Ukir on June 18 and 19, and to witness the ritual.
Old Believers described Trinity Day as “a very dangerous time when spirits are abroad and have to be placated,” says Slavic languages scholar Marcus Levitt.
Ukir’s version of the ritual consists of dressing a young birch tree in colorful women’s scarves, carrying it through town to the accompaniment of song and, after removing the scarves, drowning the birch in the river.
These symbolic acts serve to “open and close contact with the spirit world,” notes student Camille Perkins, whose research in Siberia brought her in contact with much folklore.
Different villages have different notions of how the tree should be dressed. In some, it is explicitly dressed as a woman – sometimes with exaggerated sexual features and sometimes to the singing of bawdy songs. The time-span between dressing and drowning varies from place to place, Levitt explains, “but it’s very important that it come full circle, from dressing to destruction, whether it’s burning, drowning or what-not.”
Exorcising spirits may or may not be at the root of the rite. As with many Old Believer traditions, “the older meanings may by now be completely lost, or they could be contaminated by lots of factors, including, for example, foreign visitors,” says Levitt.
Perkins asked several villagers to explain the festival. She jotted down 65-year-old Paulina Paulikarpovna’s response in her journal: “I don’t know what Trinity is, but I celebrate because my neighbors do. This is the order, and I don’t know who imagined it. It is a law that comes from old times; one generation to the next.”
A whole series of special prohibitions are in force during Trinity Day. For example, pregnant women may not handle sharp tools. Why not? Because the barrier between the living and the dead is dissolved, explains Perkins. Pregnant women are considered close to the spirit world – their unborn fetuses reside there. A sharp tool, it is believed, could “hurt the spirits.”
On this day of spirits, however, the drinking of spirits doesn’t seem to be proscribed, reports music professor Richard McIlvery. While carrying the birch to its watery burial, the village procession also carries quantities of bread, onions and vodka.
McIlvery admits to drinking nine shots of vodka – some of them samagon (bathtub vodka) served up in old 7-Up bottles – on his way to the river, arm in arm with newfound friends.
Ukir villagers trim a young birch tree in colorful scarves during the yearly Trinity Day festival. To the accompaniment of traditional song, a merry procession carries the tree through town and to the river’s edge, where the scarves are removed and the birch is “drowned.” The ritual is said to symbolize the opening and closing of contact with the spirit world. |
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