As a rule, when the topic of folk beliefs and customs in Sloboda Ukraine comes up, images immediately come to mind associated with traditions surrounding Christmas, Easter, Ivan Kupala, or at least weddings. Virtually every aspect of our ancestors’ lives was, to one degree or another, steeped in superstition. Today’s story will focus on a rather sensitive topic, namely, the beliefs and customs associated with childbirth. This is all the more relevant given that, prior to 1917, ethnographers had collected a great deal of material on this subject.
For example, in our region, it was believed that a child conceived on the eve of a religious holiday would be born deformed. A child conceived “during menstruation,” on the other hand, would be beautiful.
In simple peasant families in Sloboda Ukraine, a woman was not exempt from performing any daily household chores during her pregnancy. That is, they milked cows, worked in the garden, and so on. Incidentally, there was a superstition on this subject: when carrying water from the well, a pregnant woman should not let anyone drink from both buckets at the same time, or else she would give birth to twins. It was also believed that, to ensure an easy delivery, a woman should sleep on a sheepskin coat and, during the final stages of pregnancy, wear an icon of the Great Martyr Barbara. Another very curious belief is connected with the performance of everyday peasant duties: “Whatever work she is doing when she first feels the baby’s movements, that is the line of work in which the child will find success in life. For example, if it happens while feeding the livestock, it portends good fortune in livestock farming; if it happens by the river, the child will be a successful fisherman, sailor, or fish merchant.” In principle, for hereditary peasants, such a belief—which a priori excludes any occupation other than agriculture—is entirely justified. But I’m curious: if a woman was chopping wood with an axe, felt her baby’s first flutter, and then gave birth to a girl, what explanations were there for that?
A pregnant woman from Slobozhanshchina was expected to work, but there was a fairly long list of taboos regarding certain activities. Thus, for the sake of her health and the appearance of her unborn child, a pregnant woman from Sloboda Ukraine was not allowed to:
— Steal—because the baby would have a dark birthmark on its body in the shape of the stolen item.
— Cross the road while a deceased person was being carried, as the child would develop birthmarks. It was also believed that this could cause the child to be born sick.
— Sew on herself or sew anything onto herself. Otherwise, at birth, the child would have a body part that was “sewn on.”
— Kick cats, dogs, or pigs, so that the child would not be born with boils on its body or a bad back.
— Stepping over a rope, otherwise the child will be born with a twisted umbilical cord.
— If frightened by a fire, covering one’s face with a hand, otherwise the child will have a birthmark on its face.
— When passing by carrion, hold your nose so that the child will not have bad breath later.
— Step over a rocker arm, or else the infant will have boils on its legs. If such a thing did happen, the following remedy was recommended: “Apply clay mixed with water—water in which laundry bearing traces of a young woman’s first menstrual period had been washed—to the boils.”
— Throw firewood into the stove, “or else the sleepy one will drop the baby.”
— Splash water over the threshold, or else the child will suffer from vomiting.
— Climb into the stove and “shake out” the soot, or else the newborn will suffer from suffocation.
— To smear the stove—the same applies.
— To drink water from a bucket, or else the child will suffer from heartburn.
Furthermore, a pregnant woman could be dangerous to those around her. Therefore, it was believed that she must not:
— Cross anyone’s path, or else boils would afflict them. “This will inevitably happen if the pregnant woman is not a virtuous wife, but a young girl.”
— Step over a horse’s collar or saddle, lest the horse later suffer greatly.
— Be present while a well was being cleaned, or else the water in it would go bad.
Childbirth itself, which took place at home, was not always easy. To ease the suffering of the woman in labor, midwives practiced the following:
— They removed the expectant mother’s earrings and rings from her fingers. They untied all knots. They unlocked the chests and opened all the doors.
— They would remove a blessed icon, wash it with water, and then give the woman in labor this water to drink.
— They would have the woman step over an empty sack or belt laid on the floor. They would make her step over her husband’s underwear, and sometimes even over him.
I don’t know how much any of this actually helped, but what’s done is done. Our ancestors also paid attention to the specific day on which a person came into this world. For example, it was believed that those born on the night of a major holiday (Christmas, Epiphany) would not be happy. It was also believed that they might become disabled or be lacking in intelligence. Those born on Sundays were said to be sensual and lustful. Those born on Mondays were said to be sorcerers (though only if they fasted on that day in the future). Being born on a Thursday promised considerable wealth in the future.
The topic of breastfeeding is also reflected in folk superstitions. Apparently, before starting to breastfeed a child, one was supposed to give the child “juice from red wine grapes” so that the child would not grow up to be a drunkard. There was another belief on this same topic in our lands: “If a mother, after weaning her child, begins to breastfeed him again, that child will eventually grow up to be a great thief.”
In Sloboda Ukraine, however, the umbilical cord used to be cut with an axe in many villages. For boys, this was done on a log—“so he’d grow up to be a skilled craftsman.” For girls, it was done on a comb—“so she would be a good spinner.” Although researchers note that by the early 20th century, more and more peasants had stopped practicing this gruesome custom and simply cut the umbilical cord with scissors.
It was customary not to take anything out of the house where a newborn had arrived, nor to give anything away. And during the first 40 days, the following customs were observed as much as possible:
1) They closed the windows at night in the room where the baby was, so that the devil would not peer in and send “screamers” to the child.
2) They did not take diapers out of the house and washed them there instead of in the river. This was done, again, “so that the devil wouldn’t steal the diapers.”
3) An upside-down pot or a jug of water was placed under the bed of a woman who had just given birth to prevent her from developing milk fever.
Of course, they tried to baptize the child on the very day it was born, to minimize the influence of evil spirits. On the third day after the baptism, a special ritual called “zlyvky” (Ukrainian: зlyvky, zlyshchyny) was performed. Its main purpose was to cleanse the mother of sins and ensure that she would always have enough milk. The ritual was described in detail in an 1897 study by the distinguished ethnographer of our region, Pyotr Vasilyevich Ivanov. Thus, in the villages of the Kupyansk District, on the third day before sunrise, the midwife who had delivered the baby would go to the well and draw “unbroken water” from it. While carrying it to the house where the child was born, she was not allowed to look back; otherwise, misfortune might befall the newborn.
Back at home, she would add a little “Jordan water” (that is, water consecrated on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord) to the water she had brought, saying: “Holy water of the Jordan, created by God! You, Lord, fill the springs in the river; fill also the breasts of Your servant (name of the woman in labor)!” Hemp seeds and hops were also sprinkled into the water that had been brought in. Then the woman in labor would place her right bare foot on an axe resting on a broom made of dry twigs, while the midwife poured water onto her hands. Ivanov goes on to write: “First, she pours three times onto the right hand, and the woman in labor catches the water running down from her right elbow with her left hand and drinks it, chewing any seeds that come along with it. Then, in the same way, the midwife pours water three times onto the new mother’s left hand, and she catches the water running down her left elbow with her right hand and drinks it again.” Next, the new mother pours water onto the midwife’s hands; the midwife washes her hands and says: “You cleanse my hands; cleanse, O Lord, your little soul in this world and the next! May water be added to the well: may it be added to the breast of the baptized, prayerful servant (name) to nourish the infant!” Afterward, the grandmother makes the sign of the cross with her wet hands on the new mother’s face, chest, and back. Then they pray together to God and ask each other for forgiveness, repeating the following words three times: “Forgive me, Grandmother! Perhaps I said something hurtful to you? — I forgive you, and God will forgive you, both in this life and the next. Do not judge me either for how I treated you here.” This “washing of the hands” was performed that day not only for the new mother but also for all the women present at the birth. Then, as a token of gratitude, the young mother would present the midwife with a loaf of bread topped with a heap of salt and a piece of arshin-length cloth. Sometimes, in addition to this, they might also give a handkerchief and a bar of soap. But the ceremony did not end there. Immediately afterward, the new mother took her child in her arms, and they began to walk around the table. The midwife led the way, followed by the new mother, who held onto the end of the cloth the midwife was carrying. Behind them came all the women who had come to the “zlyvka,” and a dialogue took place between them and the midwife:
“Grandma! Where are you going?
” “To heaven!
” “May God be with you! Please take us with you!
” “Come with us, then.”
In this manner and with these words, the small procession circled the table bearing the feast three times, after which they sat down, saying, “May the Kingdom of Heaven be with our parents.” There is nothing surprising about this—at christenings and “zlyvshchiny” in Sloboda Ukraine, the deceased were always commemorated, since not every peasant could afford to hold a separate meal in honor of the departed. And christenings and “zlyvshchiny” were always held, no matter how meager the means. The first glass of vodka was, of course, sent by the new mother to the midwife. After the feast, the assembled women would take the midwife to the tavern to “drink away the umbilical cord”—that is, to drink at the midwife’s expense.
Naturally, there could have been various forms of “zlyvoks” in the settlements of Sloboda Ukraine. As an example, I will cite descriptions of how they took place, for instance, in the Starobelsk District:
On the second or third day after the baby’s birth, the midwife boils cornflowers and hops in a pot, pours the decoction into a plate, and places it on a chair; she arranges the cornflowers in the shape of a cross near the chair and presses them down with an axe. Once everything is ready, she places the new mother on the axe and pours the decoction onto her palms so that it runs down to her elbow; from there, the midwife catches it in her own palm and gives it to the new mother to drink. This is repeated three times for each hand. Afterward, the midwife and the new mother ask each other for forgiveness for any insults they may have caused one another. The new mother gives the midwife soap, a piece of linen for a shirt—under the pretense of wiping her hands—and money.
Of course, this is by no means everything that was collected by ethnographers of the 19th and early 20th centuries in the lands of beautiful Sloboda Ukraine. Quite a few legends were recorded about those same midwives as well. However, that’s a whole different story. So, to be continued.
