, 1870-04-10
ErldnYlm In HusDtn.

hIAh1a - AN4ATa3 AAA44A Nv : A2A2A1HA4Ek7 'AeAA
reference to the observance Of Ffiday in Bus
ais:
Was It By m ere accident that pefos select !.
I'd tho narne Of ''Fziday" for Csusoe's SAT-
sge7 or WAS there Btiu In England some rem
nant OF the mythical reverence for Friday,
other thin tho fancy that It ID an unluekT day1
At al events. in eome othor countries, where
Friday d cyea moro holy than IN England OF
c1nonized by the Church. Prascovia is well
known to I'll - = sort Of typical Russian nAlne,
but it Is 1esa known that the proper slavonie
spelling Is ParaakoTs, day Of preparation, OF
Friday. 1t what time St Parazke1A WAS can.
At the name time NTH s.: Anast.tia Che Greek
Sunday, for In the religious pictures they A:-
pear together. The common appel2tiou Of
St. Pafaskeya among tho Russian people is
Pyatnita, FridaE-ftom pva., dve-M tho
afth daJ ct The wsea @ sad a ths ehq5ches y, aedi
"a, or Petka, is also very familiar TO the Ser
btsns, BulEaEiAns, and al the South SIS
vonians, With 2 Ryatnitza thcro often appears
alAa St. Ansttaeia in another foEIa, As st.
Stdyrla ftho old nAne Of Sunaay-!A- not
tales wo meet with 4 Mother .Sneda, or Tednes-
ds3. In many Of the rural districts Of
Russia, and especially In The Ukraine, extreme
reye7enee Ii paid to FzidAJ, md no work at
N Is dsne On ths. that day; esfding, tI ,,9s, sPia9nins,
n H. L 5. issS ths ha psasrisreh of constsntinople,
fy circular letter to the Russ Lthu1niau
Mshops, forbade the practice OF mixing
Friday ) festival equal to Sunday; and id
spite Of this we find that the peasanss Of tho
rolozs Of Tavrsnsky. from 1see,5ss. nado an
ovens on Fridays Ihero sre legends that
Mother Friday goes nbout In white clothes
| puniehing those women who spin On her day
With blindness, which can bo Ie1ieved only by
| -, =
aa]t;. because the dust and lint arising from.
| spinning arc supposed to got into the cyes Of
] the sslnt. She il rery apt, too %, throw into
! the room Al immense hank, which must be
al spun up in singie nighs- TIM old pro
verbs say, Begin work on Friday, sna it
| asy covera her parents eyce with the lint
| " An old woman haa sevcn Fridays In a week"
On the 2sth Of October, tho Feast OF ST. Pa
raakcva, fax ~ vaahear and tne a1st PORTIONS
patron OF huspandrJ, and fzuiin arc offered mp
10 her image, prayers arc addressed to hoF for
| good harvest and her pictures, decorated with
flowers and nbbons, arc carried into tho aalds
in procession. phraskey2-PyatnitzA ia Ike
wise considered the protsctor OF marriage, md
| ally belong to tho Virgin. On the Feast Of the
1nterression OF tho Virgin, which tho RuasiAns
! call SolroL the yeil-from the vef Of the Tir-
gin sprcia over Constantinoplo IN tho reign Of
The Emperor Leo to protect 1t from tho Sara
cens-the girls Who Niah 70 get married e1ng
"INotheI Tyatnitza-Paraskeva, cover me qui-
efly!" Tho married women have their hair
I always covered with kerchiet, whence tho
cong means Find me husband" Tho same
PRAYER is often addressed - the Virgin.
These and many other points in tho cult OF
ryatnitza identify her with the slavouic god
dess PIN, known rs LadA and Eira-Lith.
ss1ra, lin Carniola, Ffi.lsy is called Shine dan)
who presided over lore, marriage, and
spring. Trina is the same asthe German and
Scandinavian fteya or FRgga, from whom
FRIDAY is named and we find many Of the
samo snpersttions and legends connccted with
Friday in the GermAn as in.the 6laronc coun-
TIES. This Is tho case About spinning and
weaving. which in Germany Is also forbidden
on Thursday evenings, not go much because
Thursday was the g1eat holr day, as because it
was the eve of the day eGnscctatcd TO FteyA-
We know thst the week was introduced into
Zone and Egypt in the fourth contur::, and
that the days wore named after the phaots &C
corling 10 peculiar syrtem Of intervals. II
l,as been supposed, BY MAnnharlt, among 9th.
CIR, that tho German and English namcs OF
in the case Of Tuesday, "wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday, the gods Ifu,. WolAn. Thor,
and FEeya being thonght 70 core
rpond to Mars, Mercury, Jove, and
! Venus. These names Of heather gods recur'
ring weakly, induced tho Germans, who had
serve in particular ways the days consecrated
to their old gods, and hence tho vencraGon fol
Thurtday and Friday. Now, what Is strange i
thAt *a ece the eatnc obServanccs on FUdAs,
and to sorac extent On Ihu1sdAy, In S1aTonic
countries, where the names Of tho dAys have
no refercncc to old gods, but are chiefly M.
meric1 designations. These observAnees arr
al evidently Pagan, and can In no way be
traced to any Christian belief OK tradition,
Neither can wc suppoee that these obse1v arces
we're derived from the Gefnan ones, for They
differ in epruc rcapects, and exist wharo nc
Western influence has ever ptnetrated. It L
curious that besides the actual connection al
the diviniies who preside over Friday, thoss
to whon, Sunday IS dedicated Aso fcninine
amonS both tho s1aTon}c and German pee
male in German, is feminine In the 1eN
[ Sl2vonic legends which speak Of her.
We eecu, therefore, led 70 the concluaiot
thattho reverence paid to Friday in RuasiA i
ewing to the fact that the dAys Of the weeI
were known before The introduction OF Chris
tianitv. II is possible, indeed that during the
century between the coming Of Rurik and The
conversion Of S.. y1adinir the Gefmans, whe
even then bid some commercial 1elatiou1 With
Sosgorod, may hayo introduced the notation
| BY weeks, and eYea tho uxnes Of tho d1y1
But it is conceivable thst the weak NAY have
I been use In both RusaiA md GetmAny Icing
prior to the introduction Of Christianity Il
there any proof that It uas not brought to hs
northern nations direct from the East. without
passing through Grcece and Romeo It woule
be interesting to know il there exist In Eng
land among tho lower clAsses anY legends a. t
tho origin Of The counedou between Frila,
1 md Gtluck.