Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-10-23
THE RUSSIAN GRABBING FEAST.
A Custom Pointing Back 60 q Mythio
slayonIan God

A Custom Pointing Back TO q Mythio
slavonIan God
A strange religious custom is prao-
ticed by the Russian peasants OF
Olonetsk and in adjoining districts OF
Southern Archangel and 0ther gov
ernments, says the New York Sun.
A few days before the calendar day OF
Elijah the proDhet (Aug. ~ the peas-
ants bring cattle TO the courtyard Of
their churches, each according to his
circumstances. If they are poor they
throw their donations together and
buy one or two head OF cattle for the
whole village. After the morning
services of Eliiah's day tho priest
comes out of the church in his Official
vestments and sprinkles holy water on
the cattle. During the noon services
the cattle are killed and boiled M
large kettles kept around the church
from year TO year for the purpose
The priest again comes out and sprln-
kles holy water on the meal. As soon
as this is done all the villagers fall 70
and try to grab each as much OF tho
meat as he can.
Every peasant then distributes the
meat among the members OF his fam.
lily or his nearest relatives, who con-
sumo it ON the spot Many sturdy
villager gets his clothes torn or bis
face scratched in the general scramble
for meat. But they do not mind this;
they consider it necessary auxiliary
to the time hOnored celebration. Tho
celebration is called the grabbing feast
-"Knvatovstchina."
The clergy have tried to modify this
semi-savage ceremony. In some places
they have transferred it to the day Of
the ascension of the Holy Virgin (Aug.
Pr, and cause the cattle offered by
the peasants to be sold in the interests
OF the church. In other places they
have the meat distributed in regular
order, SO as to avoid the savage scenes
that ensue at the general grabbing"
scramble. But such changes are not
always acceptable. In many places
where they have been made the peo-
pie within few years abandoned theh
and returned TO the original usage Of
grabbing" They assert that when
the ceremony was not performed m
the right manner on Elijah's day their
cattle were in that year destroyed by
hailstorm and lightning and by wild
beasts.
From the stories which the people
tell nothing can be learned Of the ORR
gin of the feast as there is not per-
son living who remembers when it was
not celebrated. Students OF ethnO-
graphy. having made diligent inquiries
about the subject all over the vast fe-
gion were informed by the Oldest peas
ants that they had inherited the ira
ditions Of the feast from their grand
sires. All the popular stories Of the
feast tend merely to show the belief
prevailing that if the feast is not
rightly celebrated calamities are i'm
minent by storm. thunder and light
ming or the ravages of wild animals.
The clergy OF the whole region ascribe
those beliefs TO the yeneration OF tho
people for ''the holy prophet Elijah"
who is esteemed more highly by tho
Slovenian people than any saint in tho
Greek calendar. In connection with
this it must be remembered that the
belief in that prophet prevails not only
among the Russian Slavs, but also
among the Ruthenians, Bohemians,
Bulgarians and other. They say that
thunder ensues when Eli abs chariot
is rolling in heaven, and pray that the
prophet may not drive about so fire.
quently.
TO the students of ethnology, on the
other hand it appears that the prefer
ence which the Slavs have for the
Hebrew prophet shows that to them he
represents divinity worshiped before
they accepted Christianity.