Magpies, Larks (22/03)

On Zhavoronki they measure day and night. Winter is ending, spring is beginning. This is one of the spring holidays, which was dedicated to the celebration of the Spring Equinox, which was almost the main event in the life of the Slavs.

In Rus' there was a belief that on this day forty different birds fly in from warm countries, and the first of them is — larks.

Larks were usually baked with «larks», in most cases with outstretched wings, as if flying, and with crests. The birds were distributed to the children, and they ran with screams and loud laughter to call out the larks, and with them spring.

Baked larks were placed on long sticks and ran out with them onto hills or mounted birds on poles, on wattle sticks and, huddled together, shouted:

«Larks, come, Take away the cold winter, Bring warm spring: We're tired of winter, We ate all our bread!»

After the baked birds, they were usually eaten, and their heads were given to the cattle or given to the mother with the words: «Like a lark flew high, so that your flax would be high. What a head my lark has, so that the loggerhead is ».

With the help of such birds, a family seeder was chosen for the Larks. To do this, a coin, a splint, etc. was baked into the lark, and the men, regardless of age, pulled out a baked bird for themselves. To whom the lot fell, he scattered the first handfuls of grains during the start of sowing.

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