NEW FIRE

NEW FIRE is an Udmurt ritual that took place during the period of preparations and celebration of the Great day. On the calendar New Year’s Eve people used to extinguish the “old” fire in the houses, to commemorate the dead (the Wednesday of the first week was considered to be the day before the dead come; the Thursday - the day when the dead could come). In the early morning men went to the field gate and reached the “new” fire by rubbing the oak stand on a field gate pole. Each man was to bring the fire to their houses and set it on the stove. Then he had to take all the rowan branches-amulets and put them in the N.f. People baked flapjacks and pancakes on the fire to commemorate the Late in the evening, the same fire was used to hold the cleaning rite: people made a small fire and jumped over it, saying, “Make me healthy!”. The hay for the fire was to be prepared the previous day with the neighbors, or it could be collected from other places. The women tried to be the first to bring water from the spring in the early morning. Then they used the water to wash up and cook food. The rituals aimed to protect the clan and family.

T.G. Minniyakhmetova