GREAT DAY
GREAT DAY is a ritual celebration in summer. It was a New Year holiday in ancient times. Traditionally it came on Wednesday after Maslenitsa. The holiday could last for approx. a fortnight. Later, Christians started to call Or thodox Easter a G.D. and celebrate the holiday starting from the Easter Sunday (see Easter).
Houses, yards and streets were clean, and beer was brewed until the beginning of the cel ebration. Chuvashes had a tradition to draw a protecting circle around the houses the day be fore the celebration and at the end of the holiday as a symbol against evil spirits. They also used to smudge their gardens and hopgardens, to shoot into the air with a rifle, to light a fire in the hills etc.; Udmurts used to perform the ritual called a game with pussy-willow. It was forbid den to do household chores and needlework during the holidays. In the evening people used to go to the banya (cleaning ritual). The following day peo ple would wear festive clothes; women would cook ritual dish es: scrambled eggs, pancakes etc. The head of the family would pray in his yard over the first pancakes, then the family would start having the meal. Children and the elderly people would make games with col ored eggs (see Ethnic games). Chuvashes would have their first guest seated on a pillow: it was considered to influence the sex of future cattle offspring. If the guest sat calm on a pillow, others would decide that poul try would bring many off spring. The adults would gather in the house of the elder relative and conduct the commemoration ritual; Udmurts would pit the rowan branches, make the amulets, steam in the banya, commemorating the dead; early in the morning the next day they would make new fire. People used to cook porridge and goose meat for lunch (a goose for the G.d. had to be slaughtered in autumn according to a special ritual). Then they would visit patrilineal rela tives. Three men would come to the yard and pray: first with the porridge, then with baked shanga, then with beer: after praying every body would start their meal; they would gather around the table, putting a caftan on their shoul ders or upper clothes. People also prayed in kualas. On the fourth day people would drink beer brewed according to a special recipe, in cluding rye malt and hops (oshorog). On Satur day people would bring looms and weave a canvas. On Sunday people would sendoff the G.d.: they would bake pancakes and pray in the yard, visit together.
I.G. Petrov, R.R. Sadikov
