This is one of those posts that will hardly be of interest to anyone but myself, but I’ve spent all morning untangling this knot of names, and by gad I’m going to set it down for posterity (meaning primarily me in the future, when I will have forgotten it all). Those not interested in obscure dialect forms of bygone village harvest festivals with Orthodox religious overtones can skip it with no FOMO.
When I first learned of the existence of Vasily Ivanovich Aksyonov, I was intensely irritated. If he was going to be named Vasily Aksyonov, couldn’t he have gone into some other line of work than writing? And if he insisted on being a writer, couldn’t he have taken a pseudonym, say Vasily Yalansky (since he was born in the Siberian town of Yalan and often writes about it)? As it is, he’s easily confused with the famous Vasily Aksyonov, and I had to go through my Chronology of Russian Prose Literature and change all the Aksyonovs to “V.P. Aksyonov” and add a set of “V.I. Aksyonov” entries. But eventually I got used to it; after all, there’s A.K. Tolstoy and A.N. Tolstoy (not to mention the famous Leo) and A.P. Tsvetkov and A.V. Tsvetkov and all sorts of Ivanovs and Leonovs and Kazakovs and Rybakovs, so why not two Vasily Aksyonovs? And he sounded interesting, not to mention the complete opposite of his famous namesake: Siberian and village-prose and religious and traditional where V.P. was Petersburg and city-prose and irreligious and experimental. So I started looking into him.
And looking at his story Таха (Takha, the name of a Siberian river) I saw it started with the one-line paragraph “Аспожинки,” followed by a Pushkin quote about autumn (“Унылая пора! Очей очарованье!“). Naturally, I wondered about the unknown word aspozhinki: what did it mean, and where was the stress? So I fell down a rabbit hole. I quickly discovered that Aksyonov has also written a book Оспожинки [Ospozhinki], which had to be another spelling of the same word. Google quickly told me it was the name of a harvest festival; the Russian Wikipedia article has an impressive list of names:
Осенние оспожинки, Осенины, Богородицкая, Поднесеньев день, Праздник рожаниц, Спожа, Богáч, Праздник урожая, День благословения хлебов, Матушка-осенина, Огородичен день, Малая Пречистая, «Друга Пречиста» (укр.), «Мати Пречиста» (укр.), «Засідкi» (белорус.), Вторая встреча осени, Луков день (Яросл., Вологод.), Пасиков день (Пенз., Сарат.), Пасеков день, Аспосов день, Спосов день (Рязан.), Рождество Богородицы.
At the end of the article there’s a “See also” section which refers you to Обжинки [Obzhinki], another name for the harvest festival, which has an even longer list of names:
рус. Дожинки, Спожинки, Досевки, Оспожинки, Госпожинки, Госпожин день (летопис.), Спожиницы (торж.), Вспожинки, Спасов день, Дежень, Овсяница, Оложиницы, Засидки, Складчины, Осенины, Земля-именинница, Большая пречистая, Успенщина, Успение, Успенькин день; белор. Талака, Спажá, Сплине, Вспленье; укр. Перша Пречиста; болг. Голяма Бугройца; польск. Plon, Pepek (Пупок), Święto Matki Boskiej Zielnej, Matka Boża Owocowa, Matka Boska Wniebowzięta; чеш. Maria Kořenná na nebe vzeti, чеш. и словацк. Dožinky, Obžinky, Dožata, Homola.
And it also sends you to Рождество Богородицы в славянской традиции [The birthday of the Virgin Mary in Slavic tradition], which has a still longer list of names:
рус. Вторые осенины, Оспожинки, Госпожинки, Праздник урожая, Малая Пречистая, Вторая Пречистая, Вторая встреча осени, Богородицын день, Пасекин день, Пасиков день (Пенз., Сарат.), Луков день (Яросл., Вологод.), Аспосов день, Вторые осенины, Спосов день (рязан.), Аспожка, Аспасов день, Спасова, Женское Рождество (прикам.), Праздник Рожаниц; белор. Багач, Багатнік, Багатуха, Малая Прачистая, Спожка, Другі святок, Богáч; укр. Друга Пречиста, Мати Пречиста, Різдво богородиці, Сватання, Заручини; польск. Bogarodzica, Dzień Narodzin Najswiqtszej Panny Siewnej, Gruszki, Gruszkowy odpust, Jablka, Jabłkowy odpust, Matka Boska Siewna, Matka Boska Żytosiewna, Matki Boskiej Siewnej, Narodzenie Maryi, Narodzenie Najświętszej Marii Panny, Odpust Matki Boskiej Siewnej, Siewna, Węgorzowy odpust; морав. и чеш. Narození Panny Marie, Panenka Márie, Matka Bozi (Semenná); словацк. Zelinová Раnna Maria, Set’ová Panna Maria, Vel’ká Mara, Mala Mara; серб. Мала Госпоjина, Мала Госпоине; макед. Мала Богороица; болг. Малка Богородица (Богройца), Мала Госпа, Малка черква (чорква); хорв. sveta Marija mala; словен. mali šmaren, mala maša, mala gospojnica, Marijino rojstvo.
Note that two of these lists include Малая Пречистая, which is the name of yet another Aksyonov book. I do not understand why there need to be three articles about what is apparently the same holiday, or why the lists share some but not all of their names; perhaps someone more familiar than I with Russian Wikipedia, Orthodox holidays, and harvest festivals can do some consolidating and/or disambiguating. As it is, it looks like полный хаос, беспорядок, неразбериха, and бардак (a total mess). However, I decided to leave it at that and try to figure out the word I’d started with, аспожинки/оспожинки. I’ll spare you the thorny path I trod and present you with what I found in a clearing at the end, the relevant Vasmer entry, which turns out to be for the shorter спожинки [spozhinki]:
спожи́нки мн. “двухнедельный пост перед успением” (15 августа), южн., зап. (Даль), тверск. (РФВ 71, 345). Под влиянием спожи́н (см.) преобразовано из госпожи́нки от госпожа́ в знач. “богородица” (ср. выше). Ср. др.-русск. госпожино говѣино “успенский пост” (Афан. Никит.); см. Преобр. II, 366. Сюда же спо́жка “народн. название двух поминальных дней богородицы – успения (15 августа) и рождества (8 сентября)” из *госпожька от госпожа́.
So it’s ultimately from госпожа́ ‘lady’ (i.e., Our Lady, the Virgin Mary), but mixed up with the very similar спожи́н [spozhin] ‘harvest festival,’ made up of the prefixes съ- and по- + *жинъ from the verb жать [zhat′] ‘to reap’ (1 sg. жну [zhnu], as opposed to жать ‘to press, squeeze,’ 1 sg. жму [zhmu] — Russian isn’t for wimps!). The stress is presumably the same, which is to say penultimate. And there I leave you to contemplate the meaning of it all. (“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”)
Just looking at the three Russian wiki articles with the aid of google translate, they seem to be:
1) addressing “harvest festivals” sort of generically and making mention of similar celebrations in other cultures, such as U.S. Thanksgiving Day.
2) addressing East-Slavic harvest festivals associated with the church feast day of August 15 (Dormition of the Theotokos), which is later in New-Calendar August for those keeping the Old Calendar.
3) addressing East-Slavic harvest festivals associated with the church feast day of September 8 (Nativity of the Theotokos), which is later in New-Calendar September for those keeping the Old Calendar.
I take it there was/is some regional variation (perhaps associated with when the local crops were ready to harvest …) as to which of the two different Marian feasts the local harvest festival was associated with.
There is a custom in some U.S. Orthodox parishes of blessing freshly-cut flowers at the end of the Liturgy on August 15. I don’t know if that’s specifically Slavic, or if Greek/Romanian/Arabic/etc parishes do it too. And I don’t know if the flowers are a synecdoche for crops more generally.
Ah, that makes sense; thanks for sorting it out.
“Vasily Aksonovs”?
@Y, perhaps pluralize the first component instead, so “Vasilies Aksyonov”?
“Vasily Aksonovs”?
Woops! Fixed, thanks. I read the post through several times, but with all those names…
Then there’s Yuri Testakov…always problematic.
Those not interested in obscure dialect forms of bygone village harvest festivals with Orthodox religious overtones
Surely those must be vanishingly few. Drawing the line at Orthodox seems entirely arbitrary.
Vanishingly few harvest festivals, religious overtones, or interested parties?
Those not interested.
I was just reading an article about religious festivals of Western Buryats.
It turns out, they also have a harvest festival called – believe it or not – Pokhroob tailgan (celebrated on old calendar October 1 – Orthodox feast of Intercession of the Theotokos).
Other Buryat festivals borrowed from Russian Orthodox tradition include egdokhi (March 1 – feast of Saint Eudokia of Heliopolis), lagabeeshen (March 25 – feast of the Annunciation), mikhuula burkhan (May 9 – feast of Saint Nicholas), semuuneb (September 1 – feast of the Saint Simeon Stylites).
And of course, ordistoboo (Christmas).
“Огородичен”
This one is surprising. Pronunciation ‘ospodi! instead of ɦospodi (ɦ for a range of fricative articulations, not [ɦ] as such, ‘ for the lenited sound and its effect on the following vowel) happens, particularly here. But why drop /b-/?
@drasvi
I think Ogorodichen is not about [b]og + rodit’, but about harvesting. I don’t know why the Russian date is so early, although there are wine festivals in Germany in this time. The idea is to drink last year’s wine so that there is storage room for this year’s wine.
Huh. What happened to December 6?
(Or is this because Saint Nicholas as traditionally understood at least in the west is a mixture of two saints of the same name?)
Translation of the relics of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra to Bari
Russian WP also describes this as a comeptition between Bari and Venice. Venice is also mentioned here (Saint_Nicholas#Relics).
Why exactly Russians celebrate it when western [Greeks? ] took relics from eastern Greeks i do not know.
Because Nicholas is an unusually high-profile saint for Eastern Slavs (and arguably for Eastern Orthodox in general), there was probably a social need and/or subconsciously-felt desire for him to have more than one feast day per annum, even if the relics-getting-stolen-by-the-Franks one might seem a suboptimal candidate to fill that gap in the calendar. Having the backup feast day fall at a different time of year (and not, unlike Dec. 6, during a fasting period) is probably also an advantage. I can also see the angle that the Byzantines might have in subsequent centuries resented the Venetians more than generic Franks, so you could spin a rival group of Italians (or southern Italians who could be characterized as kinda/sorta Greeks themselves) getting the relics instead of the Venetians in a glass-half-full kind of way.
This ж[zh] is for a reason
Why exactly Russians celebrate it when western [Greeks? ] took relics from eastern Greeks i do not know.
Perhaps they celebrate it as an act of Providence that kept his remains from falling into the hands of the Turks.
Besides, a feast for the translation of a saint’s relics is not unusual. Among others I see that there is Feast of the Translation of Relics of St. Vincent de Paul : https://daughters-of-charity.com/feast-of-translation-of-relics-of-st/. I assume this is as true in the East as it is in the West. The Wikipedia article on Translation (relic)* mentions an Eastern feast for the translation of the relics of St. John Chrysostom to Constantinople.
Or is this because Saint Nicholas as traditionally understood at least in the west is a mixture of two saints of the same name?
I wasn’t aware that two St Nicks were mixed up in the West. There is St Nicholas of Myra (AKA Santa Claus who allegedly punched Arius**) and St Nicholas of Tolentino but I haven’t known people to confuse them. Might you be thinking of St. Valentine?
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_(relic)
**
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/who-is-st-nicholas/stories-legends/traditional-stories/life-of-nicholas/bishop-nicholas-loses-his-cool
The above link says St Nick slapped Arius but I learned the story as he punching him.
I see.
IIRC, the one of Myra is already a mixture of two (never to the experts, but to most other people).
Pancho, a modern person sees it in a context of a historical event: the schism. From Wiki: “In 1053, the first step in the process which led to a formal schism was taken: the Greek churches in southern Italy were forced to conform to Latin practices and if any of them did not, they were forced to close.[8][9][10] In retaliation, Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople ordered the closure of all Latin churches in Constantinople.“.
Also: “The Basilica di San Nicola was founded in 1087 to receive the relics of this saint, which were surreptitiously brought from Myra in Lycia, in Byzantine territory. The saint began his development from Saint Nicholas of Myra into Saint Nicholas of Bari and began to attract pilgrims, whose encouragement and care became central to the economy of Bari. … In October 1098, Urban II, who had consecrated the Basilica in 1089, convened the Council of Bari, one of a series of synods convoked with the intention of reconciling the Greeks and Latins on the question of the filioque clause in the Creed, which Anselm ably defended, seated at the pope’s side. The Greeks were not brought over to the Latin way of thinking, and the Great Schism was inevitable. ”
The article about the council questions this interpretation (“intention of reconsiling”) and points at that the Greeks in the council could be locals, but what I mean is that a naïve modern reader like me tries to interpret the holyday in the context of some grand political game (where Russia sided with the East).
This is one of those posts that will hardly be of interest to anyone but myself
It was of great interest to me! Like the post on гурий “cairn”, although in the end no-one could find a satisfactory etymology for that, alas.
Good to know!
Hat was just testing us, really.
It is good that we proved worthy.
You don’t want to wind up in the cornfield!
There’s a link to a comic:
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/how-to-celebrate/resources/stories-poems/stories/comics/nicholas-vs-arius#page/4/mode/2up
Where N punches A, then kicks A in the face, then flings A through the air so that he lands on his face, then kicks A again while he’s down.
Jesus Fucking Christ.
Comic Sans Merci.
Reminds me that scene from the Acts of Council of Chalcedon:
170. The most devout Egyptian bishops and those with them exclaimed: ‘Let no one separate the indivisible. No one says that the one Son is two.’
171. The most devout Oriental bishops and those with them exclaimed: ‘Anathema to those who divide! Anathema to those who separate!’
172. Basil the most devout bishop of Seleucia in Isauria said: ‘Anathema to those who divide, anathema to those who separate, the two natures after the union! Anathema also to those who do not recognize the distinctive properties of the natures!’
173. The most devout Egyptian bishops and those with them exclaimed: ‘As he was begotten, so he suffered. [Report] our words to the emperor. One Lord, one faith! No one says that the one Lord is two. This was what Nestorius held. That is what Nestorius proclaimed.’
174. The most devout Oriental bishops and those with them exclaimed: ‘Anathema to Nestorius and Eutyches!’
175. The most devout Egyptian bishops and those with them exclaimed: ‘Do not divide the Lord of glory. Do not divide the indivisible.’
176. … Then all the Egyptians and the monks accompanying Barsaumas and the whole crowd rose up and began saying, “He who says two natures should be cut in two!”
…
491. The holy council said: ‘Destroy and burn Eusebius. Let him be burnt alive. Let him be cut in two. As he has divided, let him be divided.’