It all started with the fact that one morning I found a pin under my door. Did someone drop it? Hmm ... on the other hand is also a needle. Masha-confused held? My superstitious brain thought of something else. But why? What prompted a taker act?
Why did pagan beliefs in Gods and Evil Spirits appear in Russia? Because in the caves where people lived, there was no electricity, there were no iron doors and the police streets did not patrol their forest streets. They also did not have encyclopedias and the Internet, having looked into that, they would be able to find out the reasons for the incomprehensible howling in the pipe, the squeak of trees and luminous cat eyes. They had no choice but to betray all the scientifically explainable phenomena, an inexplicable mythological meaning.
Let's go back to the present. Tell me, how long have you been in the province? Especially in the off season. And in such a remote province, where on the street - two dim lanterns? Houses, sheds and fences were shabby and grayed out from time to time, crowds of hungry, lame, emaciated dogs and cats run around the streets and everywhere there are unpleasant-looking, slouched over the distraught gaze of the grandmother in the rags. Be sure to listen to the noise of the night wind and the howling of stray dogs, the clank of a tin on the roof and the cries of drunks coming from everywhere. Finding yourself in such places, believing in otherworldly forces is much easier than you could have imagined.
The ancients, remaining in the subcortex of consciousness, beliefs are the first cause of the spread of superstition in the vast Russian expanses.
The second reason for the superstitiousness of the provincial people is poverty. Together with her legal insecurity, jealousy, loneliness, a hazy present and a ghostly future. What nonsense - you say! Nonsense is nonsense, but not unreasonable. Why exactly ubiquitous poverty is the basis of people's passion in various conspiracies, damage and love spells? When a person’s brain, for whatever reason, cannot provide a logical explanation for what is happening, it searches for “higher” solutions to the problem. But why poverty is the cause of obscurantism? After all, people with wealth, too, can do this?
Because in our days, almost all the rich provincials are from the people. This "elite" also knew poverty, therefore, and now they feel their precarious position and are suspicious of the successful neighbor Uncle Vasya, suddenly take over the familiar throne? Based on this, Uncle Petit’s wife, Uncle Vasya’s competitor, has every reason to throw dead mice in the garden of Uncle Vasya’s wife. Of course, not all provincial residents need to build inquisitorial bonfires, but most believe in it. Every little thing can be the cause of malice and envy, any difference is for the better: the neighbor car is more expensive, the house is taller, the roses are brighter, the husband is richer, the children are smarter, the milk cow gives more, the chickens rush more often, there are no Colorado beetles, etc.
Have you ever listened to the provincial squabbles of your neighbors? Not? In vain, entertaining stories. No enemies meaner than hostile village neighbors! For the fact that someone's dog ate someone's chicken - a barn can be set on fire here, not to mention damage and the evil eye. If the survey "choked off" an extra meter from the garden, then a war is declared, and not some quarrels. Moreover, the neighbors will be involved in the hostilities and such loud “babskie” squabbles will begin that any philologist will rejoice by replenishing his luggage with at least a dozen new obscene words.
* civilized form of hostility towards neighbors in civilized countries 🙂
A special situation in the province is enjoyed by men: young, not drinking and, in the long term, successful. That's who you need to wear some amulet - from a love spell. I sometimes get into the society of the ladies "party" and have heard a lot about all the girlish refinements in attracting, or keeping, the vending man. Of course, this is all done in secret, under the pretext: "I will tell you, but do not tell anyone else." In the end, everyone knows. And if “in the village” it happens that the husband has thrown some aunt, and even with the children - then everything will surely be a love spell! How could it be otherwise, he could not himself throw the family and chase the other skirt. Could not. There is no awareness that he has fallen in love / out of love - there is only a deep-rooted faith in the intervention of dark forces. By the way, once I read that an unsuccessful spell makes an alcoholic out of a man: this is why we have so many drinkers - they did not succumb! I get to sleep, but I will not love kikimoru!
* love spell on the photo 🙂 Provincial ladies in the know ...
What is the result? Unconscious faith in the remnants of paganism is complemented by intractable economic and social difficulties. Helping the authorities, doctors, social services wait a long time, and the people go to gypsies, fortune-tellers, etc. Maybe better to church? But with her "advice" has already tried, so that, in popular opinion, the grandmother - safer.
PS: I didn’t know who put the pin on me, and I didn’t try to find out much. Contradictory attitude to such things. But my mood was spoiled. Why? ... I guess my cat is thicker!
