Folk Orthodoxy

[3] The Russian-language term dvoeverie ("dual faith", двоеверие) appeared during the Middle Ages, used in sermons directed against Christians who continued to worship pagan deities.

So also this so-called "Christian" could not tolerate Christians who double-mindedly live, who believe in Peruna, Khorsa, Mokosh and Simargl, and in fairies, whom the ignorant say, the triune sisters consider them goddesses and offer sacrifices to them and cut chickens, they pray to fire, calling it Svarozhich, they deify garlic, and when one has a feast, then they put it in buckets and bowls, and so they drink, rejoicing in their idols".

"[full citation needed] Folklorist Alexander Panchenko [ru] (1971- ) writes: We do not have many methods for determining the antiquity of certain phenomena of mass (especially oral) culture.

The third component of the worldview of the Russian middle ages was the folk, "non-canonical" culture of Byzantium, the Balkans, and Europe, which arrived in Russia with Christianity in the form of skomorokhs, Foolishness for Christ, and koliada.

[18] The spread of Christian teachings in Russia (especially early on) influenced the people's mythopoetic worldview[2] and folk orthodoxy became part of Russian culture, preserving these traditions.

"[21] The non-canonical culture of the Balkans and Byzantium (which came to Russia with Christianity) was also an influence,[17] as were the Finno-Ugric, Scandinavian, Baltic and Iranian peoples bordering the East Slavs.

[25] According to historian Vladimir Petrukhin: Since both the sermons against pagans and the Russian Primary Chronicle—the Tale of Bygone Years (PVL) were the result of the 'reception' of Byzantine samples—the works of the church fathers (primarily, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom) and Byzantine chronicles (primarily, John Malala and George Amartola)—then the proper Old Russian folklore motives, names of pagan gods, etc.

[26]Another follower of the concept of dual faith, Igor Froyanov noted the more pagan nature of society, especially the peasantry in Russia up to the 14th and 15th centuries, an analysis that relies primarily on the B.

The tenets of Christianity are completely unknown to themAccording to some researchers, folk religious ideas should not be understood as two-faith— "layering and parallel existence of the old and the new," not as a haphazard formation consisting of the pagan cultural layer proper and the later ecclesiastical overlays—and as "people's monotheism," a holistic worldview that does not divide into paganism and Christianity, but forms an integral, though fluid, and, in some cases, somewhat contradictory system.

[41] Ethnography in late-nineteenth-century Ukraine documented a "thorough synthesis of pagan and Christian elements" in Slavic folk religion, a system often called "double belief" (Russian: dvoeverie, Ukrainian: dvovirya).

[44] Bernshtam challenges dualistic notions of dvoeverie and proposes interpreting broader Slavic religiosity as a mnogoverie ("multifaith") continuum, in which a higher layer of Orthodox Christian officialdom is alternated with a variety of "Old Beliefs" among the various strata of the population.

[45] According to Ivanits, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Slavic folk religion's central concern was fertility, propitiated with rites celebrating death and resurrection.

[46] Belief in the holiness of Mat Syra Zemlya ("Damp Mother Earth") is another feature that has persisted into modern Slavic folk religion; up to the twentieth century, Russian peasants practiced a variety of rituals devoted to her and confessed their sins to her in the absence of a priest.

For instance, the Christmas period is marked by the rites of Koliada, characterized by the element of fire, processions and ritual drama, and offerings of food and drink to the ancestors.

This was especially strong in the images of Theotokos, Nicholas the Wonderworker, Elijah the Prophet, George the Victorious, Vlasius, Florus and Laurus, Kasian, Paraskeva Friday, and Saints Cosmas and Damian.

[51] The Mother of God's patronage of women in childbirth is due to the traditional perception of the maternal beginning in her image, which is emphasized by the etymological connection of her name with the word "birth."

The stories and folk legends testify about how St. Nicholas became a "lord": he prayed so devoutly in church that the golden crown itself fell on his head (Ukr.

The Russian ecclesiastical verse, also following the iconographic canon, lists Theodore Tiron (see Tale of the Feodor Tirinin's Feats [ru]) as a serpent-fighter, whom the Eastern and South Slavic traditions also represent as a rider and protector of cattle.

Folk imagination endowed her with demonic features: tall stature, long and loose hair, large breasts that she throws behind her back, and others, which brings her closer to female mythological characters such as Doli, Death, and the Mermaid.

She tangles the threads and she may skin the offending woman, take away her sight, turn her into a frog, or throw forty spindles into the window with orders to strain them until morning, etc.

[68] In bylichka and spiritual verses, Paraskeva Friday complains that she is not honored by not observing the prohibition on Fridays—they prick her with spindles, spin her hair, clog her eyes Kostrakostra.

The Belarusians of Grodno province believed that the day of rest, nyadzel, was given to the people after a man once hid the holy Week from the dogs that pursued it; before that there were only weekdays.

In the Ukrainian legend, a man meets a young woman on the road, who confesses that she is Nedelya, who people "spelt, boiled, fried, scalded, sliced, eaten" (Chigirinskiy uyezd).

In addition, he admitted that some ancient Russian icons reflected folk dual beliefs, including the cult of Mother of the Raw Earth.

These include such common prayers containing apotropaic semantics as "Let God arise, and His enemies are made waste..." (in the East Slavic folk tradition usually referred to as the "Sunday Prayer") and the 90th Psalm "Alive in aid..." (usually rearranged by popular etymology as "Living Helpers"), as well as "Our Father" and "Virgin Mary, Rejoice..." (in the Catholic tradition, "Zdrowiaś, Maria...").

Basil the Great "On you rejoice, Graceful, every creature, the angelic assembly and the human race..." may be read by the master during the driving of the cow to pasture.

The Christian religion clarified what should be believed and established a system of behavior and values in relations between people and with the nascent state, while folk myths and representations (above all the basic layer constituting lower mythology) answered other pressing questions.

While orthodoxy has preserved its norms and traditions, which can be brought back up to date, folk-Christian beliefs and ritual practices have been almost completely lost and forgotten under the influence of atheist propaganda and the country's accelerated modernization policy, and have no chance of revival.

"Paganism," the spread of which some orthodox authors point to in modern society, is not a further development of the ancient religious beliefs of the Eastern Slavs, but a consequence of the primitivization of the mass consciousness, the dissociation of the scientific picture of the world into separate elements, no longer united by any philosophical idea.

To such "paganism" orthodox authors refer a variety of phenomena incompatible with the canons of Abrahamic religions—horoscopes and magic practices, ufology, worship of famous brands, etc.