Thread: Warding off evil ...question

I know this may sound really strange ... but well I am curious.

Do the Russians have a charm or something physical that they believe wards off evil?

Like for instance I have several Greek friends and they all carry around this thing called the evil eye. (a disk that has an outer white ring, a middle ring of blue, and a black dot in it's center, thus looking like an eye) They carry it to keep evil away from them.

SO .... I was wondering if the Russian culture has something like this? Especially because I know that superstitions are taken pretty seriously.

Thanks
C

There are superstitions, of course, but since there are only 150 or so cultures present in Russia, and nearly every possible confession, they vary from place to place even among the ethnic Russians, not to mention other nationalities. I doubt there are 'universal' ones.

The Russian Orthodox Church maintains a very strong grip on its subjects, so the most universal one would be the sign of Cross. (Strictly speaking this is the only thing a Christian person person can do). As for the rest - they use everything the World offers. )))

I don't know if people got these in Turkey or somewhere but when I was in Russia, I saw a fair few folk with the exact same evil eye charms you're talking about.

Originally Posted by Niamh

I don't know if people got these in Turkey or somewhere but when I was in Russia, I saw a fair few folk with the exact same evil eye charms you're talking about.

Yeah, but this only speaks of the fact that the souvenir industry works perfectly everywhere. I think I've got this 'eye' somewhere too. If Emeralseyez was asking about genuine Russian rituals for warding off evil this is not the case.

Not sure whether this is quite what you are looking for, but my neighbours who are from Kazakhstan originally told me the following story:

Their son (born here in Germany already) turned out to be sickly as a baby. Doctors didn't achieve much. They asked an old, wise woman for help, and she transferred the sickness into an egg by ritual, then told them to throw the egg out of the window of their car at some intersection without looking back. They did, and they both say they heard a loud crack behind them and never turned around. The son became healthy.

Well, if you ask me, I have some idea about what kind of noise you might hear behind you if you throw an egg behind you out of a car going down the highway without looking, but that's what they told me.

Which is not meant to make a blanket statement about Russians of course, just an example for personal superstition.

Robin

Try these articles:

http://www.swarog.ru/o/oberegi8.php

http://www.swarog.ru/k/kurinyjbog0.php