"Yurievsky Karagod": for the wealth of the earth.

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The village of Pogost (Zhitkovichi district of the Gomel region) will celebrate its 500th anniversary in 2020! In 2010, the village fell into the rating of the most suitable places for the New Year and Christmas celebrations, compiled by the American television company CNN. Pogost took the honorable third place after Reykjavik and Nuremberg. Belarussian traditions and authentic colorful rituals are honored in this village. Annually in the village of Pogost people held the ancient rite "Yurievsky Karagod", which was the first in Belarus to receive the status of an immaterial historical and cultural value of national importance in 2005. The word "Karagod" consists of two bases: "karv" (bull) and "vadzits" (conduct). The bull is a sacrificial animal, which the ancient inhabitants of the earth brought as a gift to the solar deity.

First of all, people bake lavish bread from some wheat flour, and decorated it with three spikes of dough and three branches of a flowering fruit tree, each of which has three appendages - nine in all. They symbolize the nine months of the cow's gestation and the woman's pregnancy. This bread replaced the wild bull tur (which extinct in the 17th century). Now women and girls of any age can be participants of the rite. Many years ago, only those who reached puberty and ready to start a family and continue the genus were allowed to participate. After the ceremony, they could wear aprons - amulets of the female womb. Therefore, they went in the field with a green apron, and from the field - with a red one. It is assumed that the green apron is a symbol of virginity, chastity, and red symbolizes the loss of chastity.

The main magical action on Yuria takes place in a field where winter crops grow and the earth born a harvest. That's why some moisture is needed. Therefore, people call St. Yuri, he should let out the rain... Then people walk around in a circle with a ritual song. After they performed the main rite in the field, the participants of the "Yuryevsky karagod" begin to bypass the village with songs, receiving refreshments and words of gratitude from the neighbors. The main gifts are some eggs and pies - for the harvest. Everyone is healthy and happy, and the fields and vegetable gardens will give a rich harvest!

Photo by Alfred MIKUS

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