August 14 is one of the clearest examples of syncretism, the overlapping or fusion of different traditions, in the Belarusian cycle of the year.
Orthodox Christians celebrate the date as Mjadovy Spas (Мядовы Спас), the Honey-Blessing Festival, or Makauje (Макаўе), the Maccabee Festival. Makauje illustrates how the Church chose a similar-sounding name to absorb the pre-Christian practice of sprinkling poppy seeds (мак – “mak”) in the home and stables to ward off evil spirits.
These photos chronicle the Makauje celebration in 2001 in the southeastern Belarusian village of Rudnja Bartalamjejeuskaja, very near the Chernobyl Zone. Deaths of some of the more elderly women since then have deprived the village of continuity with its ancient tradition and the celebration is reportedly no longer held there. Here local women, lacking a priest, read from the liturgy and organize the washing of faces and eyes (for divine protection and insight) in water from the holy well.
Makauje, Rudnja Bartalamjejeuskaja 2001/Макаўе, Рудня Барталамееўская 2001 год
