Month: August 2012

Apple-Blessing Feast, Azdamichy 2011.  Яблычны Спас, Аздамічы 2011 год. Many families at the celebration of the Apple-Blessing feast in Azdamichy are represented by three generations. Once the apples are blessed, children tuck in.

Apple-Blessing Feast, Azdamichy 2011.  Яблычны Спас, Аздамічы 2011 год. At the Apple-Blessing feast one sees clearly how devotedly grandparents transmit their faith and traditions to their grandchildren.

Apple-Blessing Feast (Feast of the Transfiguration), Azdamichy 2011.  Яблычны Спас (Ператварэньне), Аздамічы 2011 год. The Orthodox feast of the Transfiguration (August 19) is a classic example of syncretism in the expression of Christian faith in Belarus.  While the Orthodox church places the emphasis on the celebration of Christ’s transfiguration, parishioners eagerly await the blessing of… Continue reading Photo of the Day for August 19, 2012: Apple-Blessing Feast / Яблычны Спас

Apple-Blessing Feast, Azdamichy 2011.  Яблычны Спас, Аздамічы 2011 год. Apple-Blessing is an early harvest rite, observed on August 19, Transfiguration Day in the Orthodox calendar.  In memory of children who have died young, people avoid eating new apples or other newly-ripe fruit before the blessing.  It is a traditional Belarusan belief that deferring the eating… Continue reading Photo of the Day for August 18, 2012: Apple-Blessing Feast / Яблычны Спас

Lowing at the Gate, Tsjerablichy 2012.  У нецярплівым чаканьні каля брамкі, Цераблічы 2012 год. The Pjetrusjevichs’ cow had recently calved, and her udder was painfully full after a day in the meadows.  While the rest of the family was tied up with other evening chores, I heard the cow lowing impatiently at the gate and… Continue reading Photo of the Day for August 17, 2012

Bringing the cows home, Tsjerablichy 2012.  Каровы дадому, Цераблічы 2012 год. The cows know their own way home and, mooing loudly that her udder is full, each cow peels off when she reaches her gate.

Feast of the Assumption, Dudy 2010.  Унебаўзяцьце, Дуды 2010 год.

Maccabees Festival (Makauje), August 14.  Макаўе. August 14 is one of the clearest examples of syncretism, the overlapping or fusion of different traditions, in the Belarusian cycle of the year. From pre-Christian times, Belarusians have traditionally seen August 14 as marking the transition from the summer to the autumn cultivation cycle.  Rain on August 14… Continue reading Photo of the Day for August 14, 2012

The Bench (part X), Rubjel’ 2012.  Лаўка (частка Х), Рубель 2012 год. What can seem more prosaic than the plain wooden bench in front of almost every village house in Belarus?  And yet the bench is the pivot of social life, the gathering place of generations on a summer’s eve, the village agora, the permanent… Continue reading Photo of the Day for August 13, 2012: The Bench X / Лаўка Х

Light in August.  Жнівеньскае асьвятленьне. Psuja 2007.  Псуя 2007 год.