Is it possible to swim after Ilya's day? Opinions of environmentalists, sanitary doctors and clergy. I wonder why you can’t swim after Elijah’s day

And even to this day, people can hear the saying: “Elya the prophet muddies the waters in the rivers.” Reports podrobnosti.ua

The second version of why swimming after Elijah’s day is undesirable says that it is harmful to health. Since from this time the water in reservoirs begins to bloom, this may not in the best possible way affect the skin. In addition, not many people will enjoy swimming in water that is covered with mud and has an unpleasant odor.

It is popularly believed that on August 2, summer ends; the air temperature at night becomes noticeably lower than during the day. Such changes are also reflected in the water temperature. For this reason, swimming in open water in August can harm your health. Although, there will probably be those who will call this hardening.

Elijah's day

Another reason why people in the old days were afraid to swim after Elijah’s day was wild animals and evil forces. If you believe popular beliefs, then on the night of August 2 people gather near reservoirs. devilry- mermen, mermaids, devils. Allegedly, they begin to rule the rivers and lakes from this moment. Therefore, the risk of drowning is very high - before the swimmer has time to come to his senses, the evil spirits will grab him and drag him along with him.

People believed that by swimming on Elijah's Day and after it, you could bring trouble upon yourself and harm your health.

People also say that on Elijah’s day you can meet wild animals near the reservoir. There is a saying: “On Elijah’s day, the deer swam across the water, you shouldn’t swim.”

Traditions on Elijah's Day

On the feast of Elijah the Prophet, people must wash themselves with spring water. This protects against disease and spoilage. During a thunderstorm or simple rain, you should not be in the water, stand under a tree, make loud noises or have fun. Pine trees with two tips should be especially avoided.

If a thunderstorm occurs, all the doors and windows in the house are closed, and lamps and candles are lit in front of the images. After a thunderstorm they collect rainwater, it is believed that it has healing powers and protects against the evil eye.

On the Feast of Elijah, you cannot work in the garden or field, otherwise the prophet may strike such a person with lightning or burn the hay. The only work that is allowed is the inspection of the hives and the first trimming of the honeycombs in the beehouse. According to legend, the evil force is afraid of bees and will not approach them.

On August 2, the day of the terrible prophet Elijah, all livestock stay at home and are not allowed out to pasture. On the eve of Elijah's Day, you can fumigate your garden, livestock, fields and your own home with incense. This will allow them, as it were, to be “insured” from lightning strikes.

In addition, on Ilya’s Day 2017, they usually carry out spells on seeds: “Father Ilya, bless the seeds.” As a rule, on the day of the Prophet Elijah, August 2, a collective holiday (“brotherhood”) is held, where songs are sung and round dances are performed. As a treat, all guests are offered lamb or bull, and beer is poured.

Signs on Elijah's Day

Since Elijah the Prophet is considered the ruler of thunder, lightning, winds and rain clouds, many folk signs are associated with Elijah’s day.
You can't swim since Ilya's day - Ilya peed in the water.
Since Ilya's day the water has been cold.
The man bathes before Ilya, and says goodbye to the river from Ilya.
Thunder rumbles - then Ilya rides across the sky in his chariot.
Ilya begins the harvest, and ends the summer.
You can’t work in the field on Elijah’s day - it will burn you with heavenly fire
Before Ilya, the clouds move with the wind, and from Ilya they begin to move against the wind.
Before Ilya, the priest will not beg for rain - after Ilya, the woman will catch up with an apron.
After Ilyin's day you won't see a horse in the field - that's how dark the nights are.
From Ilya's day the night is long: the worker gets enough sleep, and the horses get enough to eat.
Since Ilya's day the water has been getting cold.
If it rains with thunder on Ilya, he will have a headache.
Long and continuous thunder means heaviness in the chest.
Anyone who gets caught in the rain on Elijah’s day will be healthy all year.
Whoever counts the hay on Ilya will lose all his goods.
If a fire happens on Elijah’s Day, then milk is poured into the fire before the water so that it does not spread further.

Popular belief says that after Orthodox holiday Elijah the Prophet is not allowed to swim. I decided to figure out whether folk wisdom is relevant today, after human intervention in the climate?

Previously, even on Ilyin’s day itself, August 2, it was forbidden to swim. There are several explanations for this. People believed that evil spirits were hiding from Ilya in the water. Those who dare to enter the river are dragged to the bottom by mermaids and mermen.

The ancestors also believed that swimming on Elijah’s day was fraught with serious illnesses: you could drown due to a cramp or a broken heart, you could get warts, scabs and other ailments.

However, the main reason for the ban on swimming after August 2 is that the weather this month was no longer so warm and hot, and therefore, going to splash in the cold waters, you could get sick. They said that “Ilya and the stone freezes”. Summer was believed to end on August 2: “Before Ilya’s Day, a man bathes, and on Ilya’s Day he bids farewell to the river.” or “For Ilya, before lunch it’s summer, after lunch it’s autumn.”

The ban on swimming was also explained this way: Elijah the prophet rides horses across the sky; from fast running on Elijah’s day, one of the horses loses a horseshoe, which falls into the water, and the water immediately becomes cold: “Elijah the Prophet muddies the waters of the rivers.”

Does the folk sign have an environmental background?

In our time, the ban on swimming after August 2 is explained by the fact that at this time of summer the water begins to actively bloom, mud and duckweed rise. You can still swim, but it’s no longer pleasant. But what do experts think?

To check whether the popular belief has a scientific basis, we contacted the Brest Regional Committee natural resources and environmental protection.

“We are now experiencing a trend towards climate change. The temperature is increasing by an average of 1.5-2 degrees. As a result of this, a 4th climate zone appeared in Belarus, which runs right through the south of the Brest region. And if earlier, perhaps in August, there were some changes in the direction of a sharp decrease in air and water temperatures, respectively, but now the situation has changed to the opposite. Our August is usually hot, there is no dynamics.

Water blooms can begin earlier, as well as summer kills. We are starting to track water bodies, which are characterized by summer frosts, from July 10 to September 10, so we do not draw any analogy with the date August 2", – reported Lyudmila Shevkunova, Head of the Department of State Control over the Protection and Use of Water Resources.

What do the priests say?

“The Orthodox Church, like any Christian movement, treats all these popular beliefs very carefully. Eat folk calendar, and there is a church one. Popular wisdom tries to identify something, to find common ground. Yes, people have such beliefs in relation to the prophet Elijah. And even the most unflattering statements are made about what he did with the water. In fact, it is insulting to God's prophet Elijah, – believes Pavel Romanovich, head of the department for work with youth of the Brest diocese. – Regarding swimming: you should not be guided by this belief, but by common sense. How many people drown because of alcohol intoxication, due to negligence. This is what you need to pay attention to.

As for the environment, I would like people to take care of nature by taking garbage from where they relax. People leave behind bottles, plastic that doesn't decompose. We need to use nature correctly. Otherwise, we have some excesses: here they say that after Ilya you can’t swim, but drinking by the river, leaving garbage - Can.

I would like to remind you about the culture of behavior near the water. We held the “Clean Shore” campaign several times near Lake Lukovskoye in the Malorita region together with Orthodox children. And you know, when you walk halfway along the shore and find a whole tractor trailer of garbage, you feel uneasy. The moral fall of man, or in other words sin, is what leads to environmental disasters.”

Attention! Swimming is prohibited!

From July 21 to July 28, territorial institutions of state sanitary supervision of the Brest region covered 67 (61.5%) recreation areas during monitoring. At one of them, violations of sanitary and epidemiological legislation were revealed. Laboratory studies of selected water samples from reservoirs were carried out for compliance with the requirements of sanitary and epidemiological legislation for microbiological and sanitary-chemical indicators. According to the results of studies of 53 samples, 5 did not meet hygienic standards for microbiological indicators, reports the Brest Regional Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology and Public Health.

From July 26, swimming for children and adults was suspended on the territory of the Central Beach on the left bank of Mukhavets, on the beach of the Rowing Canal on October Revolution Street in Brest, as well as on Lake Motolskoye in the Ivanovo district.

The ban on swimming children and adults on the territory of the Bokhonovo pond in Luninets, introduced on June 6, continues to apply. From July 21, swimming for children was resumed on the territory of the Vostok beach on the Mukhavets River in the regional center, and from the 28th – on Lake Mednyanskoye in the Brest region.

What happens if you give up on the ban?

Residents of coastal cities and towns are lucky: sea ​​water saturated with salts, iodine and other trace elements, kills almost all pathogenic microbes, and it is not easy to pick up an “infection” at sea.

Fresh water from rivers, lakes, ponds and reservoirs in summer time becomes an ideal place for the proliferation of pathogenic microbes. They can cause skin and intestinal diseases, damage to the eyes, mucous membranes; if left untreated, they can cause significant harm to health, and sometimes even cause death, experts warn.

You cannot swim after August 2, as the prophet Elijah cooled the water - this is exactly what the belief says. And to this day, people can still hear the saying: “Elijah the prophet muddies the waters in the rivers.”

The day of veneration of St. Elijah in the Orthodox canon is combined with national holiday, rooted in paganism and associated with the day of Perun - the supreme deity of the Slavs.

He was a warrior god, the lord of heavenly fire and lightning, so he was often called Thunderer. Saint Elijah took over some of his functions; in particular, it was believed that he could punish sinners by striking them with fiery arrows placed in his hand by the Lord. Big interest many modern people evokes the history of the Ilya Day holiday, its signs: why you can’t swim, work, let livestock out into the fields, etc.

It is noteworthy that this saint is revered not only by Christians, but also by Muslims and Jews. And in all religious traditions it has similar functions and abilities. Elijah the Prophet was the first to predict the birth of the savior in the 4th century BC; he was so righteous that the Lord took him to heaven while he was still alive, sending him a chariot of fire. In Rus', the holiday of Elijah's Day came along with the adoption of a new faith from Byzantium. It was celebrated quite widely not only within the framework of church rituals, but also for the most part following folk customs. On the eve of the holiday, housewives baked special cookies, and they were not allowed to work on that day. The peasants prepared in advance for possible thunderstorms and fires: they stocked up water, read special spells and prayers. On Ilya’s Day, it was customary in the villages to organize a collective meal - a fraternity, in which only men took part. However, in the evening this event turned into national festivities with the participation of young people. In some areas it was customary to organize troika rides, almost like on Christmastide.

In addition, in Rus' it was believed that after August 2, nature begins to live according to the autumn calendar: plants, animals and birds prepare for winter, the weather becomes colder. But for Greek Christians, the holiday, on the contrary, coincided with the peak of the heat, so the saint was often asked to send rain. Folk festivities with obligatory jumping over a fire were also common here.

One of the most common signs of the holiday was the ban on swimming in natural bodies of water. Now it seems unnecessary to many, but our ancestors knew exactly what would happen if you bathed after Elijah’s day - a serious illness or death from a lightning strike, because such actions could anger the formidable saint. People have come up with several explanations for the emergence of this superstition. Firstly, according to legend, every time the prophet rides his chariot onto the heavenly road on August 2, one of his horses loses a horseshoe, which, falling into a river or pond, makes the water in it cold. Secondly, the version that “the water is freezing because Ilya peed in the water” sounds somewhat ironic. Thirdly, the peasants believed that on Elijah’s Day and after it, evil spirits, in particular mermaids, become active, and anyone who gets into the water risks becoming their victim.

Church canons about popular superstition respond extremely negatively, considering it a relic of paganism. The clergy urge not to believe in this sinful sign and not to follow it.

But scientists are convinced that folk sign there is a rational grain. To the question of whether it is possible to swim after Ilyin’s day, researchers answer in the affirmative. But a word of caution: you might actually get sick. After August 2, the dawns become very cold, the water does not have time to warm up, so a person can easily catch a cold.

Elijah's day

Another reason why people in the old days were afraid to swim after Elijah’s day was wild animals and evil forces. If you believe popular belief, then on the night of August 2, evil spirits gather near reservoirs- mermen, mermaids, devils. Allegedly, they begin to rule the rivers and lakes from this moment. Therefore, the risk of drowning is very high - before the swimmer has time to come to his senses, the evil spirits will grab him and drag him along with him.

People believed that by swimming on Elijah's Day and after it, you could bring trouble upon yourself and harm your health.

People also say that on Elijah’s day you can meet wild animals near the reservoir. There is a saying: “On Elijah’s day, the deer swam across the water, you shouldn’t swim.”

Elijah the prophet throws an ice cube into the water.

The man bathes before Ilya, and says goodbye to the river from Ilya.

Ilya's days are long, and the water is cold.

Peter and Paul reduced the hour, and Elijah the prophet dragged away two.

From Ilya's day the night is long - the worker gets enough sleep, the horses eat enough.

Nobody works for Elijah - Elijah the prophet will burn the workers with lightning.

For Ilya, it’s summer before lunch, and autumn after lunch.

Before Ilya, the priest will not pray for rain, but after Ilya, even the woman will catch up with an apron.

Before Elijah’s day, clothes even dry under a bush, but after Elijah’s day they don’t even dry on a bush.

If there is a thunderstorm on Elijah’s day, cover the mirrors.

If Ilya is dry, expect forest fires.

On Elijah's Day, mosquitoes stop biting.

It was believed that if Ilya was washed with rainwater, it would help against the evil eye.

The ancient Slavs believed that on this day all evil spirits, fleeing from the fiery lightning of Elijah the Prophet, turn into animals - cats, dogs, foxes, wolves, hares, etc., therefore on this day animals, even domestic ones, are taken to the hut they didn't let me in.

Since ancient times, there has been a belief that after Elijah (August 2) it is undesirable to swim in open water. According to signs, the Prophet, arriving in a chariot, scatters ice over the open water, making the reservoirs cold and unsuitable for swimming.

But is it necessary to follow these instructions? to modern man? To understand this, it is worth analyzing the reasons that gave rise to such a belief.

Water blooms

Indeed, earlier, when the climate was more predictable and the water was cleaner, reservoirs bloomed around this time. But now, when any washing powder contains great amount phosphates, which provoke the development of algae, the reservoirs where all this “chemistry” flows begin to bloom almost from May. After Ilyin’s day, the reservoirs, of course, bloom, but no more or less than the rest of the time.

The water in the reservoirs becomes cold

Climate change has made this rationale questionable. If earlier in August the nights were cold, now at this time the night period is no colder than July. Therefore, the opportunity to swim depends on the weather and latitude of the area. For example, in the Oryol region, located in the south of Russia, the swimming season is open throughout August.

Swimming is harmful because the water changes its properties

In Rus' they believed that after swimming after Ilya, you could get pimples. Indeed, when the bloom of reservoirs began on August 2 and the water suddenly became unpleasantly green, it was very easy to pick up a skin disease.

But now, when the flowering process does not have a clear time frame, this sign is also not relevant. And to keep your skin healthy, you need to swim in a clean body of water.

Therefore, August 2 has long ceased to be the finishing point of the swimming season. So feel free to put your swimsuits in your suitcases and go relax at a camp site in Oryol Polesye. In this ecologically clean natural region, the water in the forest lake is suitable for swimming until the end of the warm summer period.

The day of veneration of St. Elijah in the Orthodox canon is combined with a folk holiday rooted in paganism and associated with the day of Perun, the supreme deity of the Slavs. He was a warrior god, the lord of heavenly fire and lightning, so he was often called Thunderer. Saint Elijah took over some of his functions; in particular, it was believed that he could punish sinners by striking them with fiery arrows placed in his hand by the Lord. Many modern people are of great interest in the history of the holiday of Elijah’s Day, its signs: why you can’t swim, work, let livestock out into the fields, etc.

It is noteworthy that this saint is revered not only by Christians, but also by Muslims and Jews. And in all religious traditions it has similar functions and abilities. Elijah the Prophet was the first to predict the birth of the savior in the 4th century BC; he was so righteous that the Lord took him to heaven while he was still alive, sending him a chariot of fire. The holiday came to Rus' along with the adoption of a new faith from Byzantium. It was celebrated quite widely not only within the framework of church rituals, but also for the most part following folk customs. On the eve of the holiday, housewives baked special cookies, and they were not allowed to work on that day. The peasants prepared in advance for possible thunderstorms and fires: they stocked up water, read special spells and prayers. On Ilya’s Day, it was customary in the villages to organize a collective meal - a fraternity, in which only men took part. However, in the evening this event turned into national festivities with the participation of young people. In some areas, it was customary to organize troika rides, almost like on.

In addition, in Rus' it was believed that after August 2, nature begins to live according to the autumn calendar: plants, animals and birds prepare for winter, the weather becomes colder. But for Greek Christians, the holiday, on the contrary, coincided with the peak of the heat, so the saint was often asked to send rain. Folk festivities with obligatory jumping over a fire were also common here.

Popular interpretation: why can’t you swim after Elijah’s day?

One of the most common signs of the holiday was the ban on swimming in natural bodies of water. Now it seems unnecessary to many, but our ancestors knew exactly what would happen if you bathed after Elijah’s day - a serious illness or death from a lightning strike, because such actions could anger the formidable saint. People have come up with several explanations for the emergence of this superstition. Firstly, according to legend, every time the prophet rides his chariot onto the heavenly road on August 2, one of his horses loses a horseshoe, which, falling into a river or pond, makes the water in it cold. Secondly, the version that “the water is freezing because Ilya peed in the water” sounds somewhat ironic. Thirdly, the peasants believed that on Elijah’s Day and after it, evil spirits, in particular mermaids, become active, and anyone who gets into the water risks becoming their victim.

Is it possible for Orthodox Christians to swim after Elijah’s Day from the point of view of the church?

Church canons speak extremely negatively about popular superstition, considering it a relic of paganism. The clergy urge not to believe in this sinful sign and not to follow it.

Scientific explanation for why people don’t swim after Elijah’s day?

But scientists are convinced that the folk sign has a rational grain. To the question of whether it is possible to swim after Ilyin’s day, researchers answer in the affirmative. But a word of caution: you might actually get sick. After August 2, the dawns become very cold, the water does not have time to warm up, so a person can easily catch a cold.