Since ancient times, the Slavs used baths for washing bodies and for ritual actions. Therefore, there are many traditions and customs associated with the Russian bath.
The bath has become a symbol of Russia along with vodka and matryoshka. Foreigners are still amazed when they see how Russian men are steaming, torturing themselves with brooms in a hot steam room. And then they throw themselves into a snowdrift or douse themselves with ice water. From ancient times, the Slavs were famous for their heroic health and strength, because they had one healer for all ailments - a bathhouse.
The history of the Russian bath - when the first baths appeared.
The history of the bath goes back far into the past. No one will say when the first baths appeared, but they have existed since ancient times. And for the first time, a description of the Russian steam room can be found in the annals of the monk Nestor in the 10th century. Three types of Russian baths can be distinguished: a black bath, a white bath and a stove. The black bath was the very first in the history of the Russian bath, and is considered the most healing of all varieties. In a wooden hut with low ceilings, a stove was heated, which did not have a chimney. All the smoke went into the room, when the fumes came out, and the coals burned out, it was possible to take a steam bath in the bath. With this method, the heat was maintained for a long time. It was possible to build such a bathhouse in a few days.
Baths in white require a more thorough approach to construction. The stove here with a chimney was heated with wood, and stones were laid on top, with the help of which the heat and steam in the bath were regulated. Such baths are still the most common and very popular.
It was also possible to arrange a steam room in the Russian stove. After heating, coals were taken out of the wide mouth of the furnace, a bowl of water, a broom and other bath accessories were installed there. And the person could easily wash himself. This method is practically not used anymore, becoming the history of the bath.
When cities began to grow, then a public bath appeared.
Russian bath, traditions and rules of construction and flooding
To build and flood the bath was a whole ritual. For the construction of walls and shelves, certain types of wood were used so that there would always be a healthy spirit in the bathhouse. Smoothly hewn logs were carefully fitted. And the cracks were caulked with moss and clay so that the healing heat would not evaporate. Traditionally, the Russian banya was heated and prepared for several hours. They heated the stove, spread fragrant hay with fragrant herbs and leaves on the shelves and the floor of the bath, it gave a healing aroma and had a massage effect. Brooms were prepared from thin branches of various tree species, each of which was used for a special occasion. Brooms were steamed in herbal infusions or kvass. Also, the housewives prepared kvass for the bath with the addition of berries, herbs, and honey. Soap in those days cost a lot of money, and therefore, special compositions made from flour and honey or from soaked ash were used for washing. These products perfectly cleansed the skin of impurities, while not causing irritation, and did not poison the area around the bath.
Bath traditions in Russia
The Russian banya is surrounded by traditions and customs. Bath, oddly enough, was considered an unclean place, the abode of evil spirits. In order not to mention any evil spirits among the Russian people, the expression “Go to the bath!” appeared. It was believed that a relative of the brownie bannik with his large family lives in the bathhouse. The spirit of the bath was coaxed. According to the tradition of the Russian bath in Russia, after the construction of the bath, a sacrifice was made to him by burying a carcass of a black chicken under the threshold of the bath. When visiting the bath, they asked the spirit for permission, and brought him gifts, and, leaving, thanked him.
Christianity not only did not eradicate these pagan beliefs, but also issued official orders that were observed until the beginning of the twentieth century. When visiting a Russian bath, traditions and rules were observed. So, it was forbidden to hang icons in the bathhouse, and even crosses were recommended to be removed before going to the steam room. Bath utensils were not allowed to be brought into the house. And after washing, it was necessary to douse with water or bathe in the snow. On the bathing day, they did not go to the temple. Therefore, it was impossible to wash on holidays and Sundays. Saturday and Thursday were allocated for the bath.
Rites and traditions in the bath
Many rituals are associated with the bath. So, before the wedding, the bride went with her friends to the bathhouse, and on the second day after the wedding, the newlyweds went to the steam room together. According to tradition and rules, a trip to the Russian bath was accompanied by chants, rituals and special treats. It was believed that the observance of all the nuances would give the young a strong family, many children and health.
They couldn’t do without a bath and Christmas divination when the girls were guessing at the betrothed. With the help of special rituals in the bath, it was possible to bewitch a guy. In the bath, women gave birth to their children. Men during this period were strictly forbidden to enter the bathhouse, only if it was not a doctor called in in case of complications. After death, the deceased was washed in the bathhouse before burial. Bath traditions accompanied Russian people throughout their lives.
Bath for a Russian person is more than just a room for ablution. This is a place where a person is cleansed of spiritual and bodily dirt, leaving from there as if a newly born person.
The history of the bath goes back to ancient times. So, the Egyptians already about 6 thousand years ago gave great value cleanliness of the body and used baths everywhere. Egyptian priests washed themselves four times during the day: twice during the day and twice at night. Because everywhere there were beautifully arranged baths available to everyone. Adherence to the bath and massage, moderation in food allowed the Egyptians to maintain a slender figure and helped to successfully fight premature aging. Egyptian doctors of that time were considered the best in the world, and their art in the treatment of various diseases almost did not do without water procedures, that is, without a bath.
For 1.5 thousand years BC, the bath was widely used for hygienic and therapeutic purpose in India.
AT Ancient Greece baths first appeared among the Spartans. They represented a round room with a stone open hearth in the center.
Baths were especially popular among the ancient Romans. The cult of the bath literally existed here. Even greeting at a meeting, the Romans instead of greeting asked: “How are you sweating?” The Romans simply could not imagine life without a bath. “Bath, love and joy, we are together until old age,” such an inscription has survived to this day on the wall of one ancient building.
In the bath, the Romans not only washed, but also talked, drew, read poetry, sang, and arranged feasts. At the baths there were massage rooms, platforms for exercise and sports, libraries. Wealthy Romans visited the bath twice a day.
Both private and public Roman baths (terms) were distinguished by exceptional luxury - precious marble pools, silver and gold washstands. By the end of the 1st century BC e. 150 public baths were built in Rome.
It is curious to note that the rooms for sweating were warmed up in the same way as in modern Russian baths and Finnish saunas: in the corner there was a brazier, on a bronze grate there were stones over hot coals. There were also rooms with dry and wet steam.
AT Ancient Rome baths were also valued as a remedy for many diseases. In particular, the outstanding Roman physician Asclepiades (128-56 BC) was even nicknamed the “bather” for his commitment to bath hydrotherapy. Asklepiad believed that cleanliness of the body, moderate gymnastics, sweating in the bath, massage, diet and walks in the fresh air were necessary to cure the patient. “The most important thing,” Asclepiad argued, “is to capture the attention of the patient, destroy his blues, restore healthy ideas and an optimistic attitude to life.” It was the bath that created such sensations in the patient.
The steam bath in Russia (soap, movnya, mov, vlaznya) was already known among the Slavs in the 5th-6th centuries. Everyone used the bathhouse: both princes, and noble people, and ordinary people. In addition to its purely functional purpose, the bathhouse played an important role in various rituals. For example, a bath was considered necessary on the eve of the wedding and on the next day of the wedding, and visiting the bath was accompanied by a special ceremony.
Many foreign travelers wrote about Russian baths.
Olearius (German scientist 1603-1671), who traveled to Muscovy and Persia in 1633-1639, wrote that the Russians firmly adhere to the custom of washing in a bathhouse ... and therefore in all cities and villages they have many public and private bathhouses . Olearius, by the way, mentions that the Russians came to the conclusion that False Dmitry was a stranger because he did not like baths. “The Russians,” reports Olearii, “can endure intense heat, from which they turn everything red and become exhausted before that; that they are no longer able to stay in the bathhouse, they run out naked into the street, both men and women, and douse themselves with cold water; go to the bath again.
The construction of baths was allowed to anyone who had enough land. The decree of 1649 ordered "soap houses to be built in vegetable gardens and in hollow places not close to the choir." Home baths were heated only once a week, on Saturdays, and therefore Saturdays were considered bathing days and even government offices did not work on them. Usually, whole families bathed in home baths at the same time, men and women steamed together. However, in public (“commercial”) baths, people of all ages and sex also steamed and washed together, however, women on one side, men on the other. And only in 1743, by a Senate decree, c. "commercial" baths for men to wash together with women and for the male sex over 7 years old to enter the women's bath, and female gender the same age - respectively in the male.
As written in an ancient treatise, washing gives ten benefits: clarity of mind, freshness, vigor, health, strength, beauty, youth, purity, pleasant skin color and attention. beautiful women. Note that the one who understands the steam bath, goes to the bathhouse not so much to wash, but to warm up and sweat.
Warming up leads to a beneficial change functional state organs and systems of the body, increased metabolism, promotes the development of protective and compensatory mechanisms. This is explained by the beneficial effects of heat and sweat on the cardiovascular, respiratory, thermoregulatory and endocrine systems in most people. Bath soothes nervous system, restores vigor, increases mental abilities.
Look at what the Portuguese Sanchez wrote about the Russian steam bath back in 1778, the doctor of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (this treatise can be found in Moscow in the Lenin Library): “I do not hope that such a doctor would be found who would not recognize it as useful steam bath. Everyone clearly sees how happy society would be if it had an easy, harmless and so effective way so that they could not only maintain health, but heal or tame the diseases that so often happen. For my part, I consider only one Russian bath, properly prepared, to be capable of bringing such a great benefit to a person. When I think about the multitude of medicines from pharmacies and from chemical laboratories, coming out and brought from all over the world, how many times I wanted to see that half or three-quarters of these buildings, built everywhere at great expense, would turn into Russian baths, for the benefit of society. And at the end of his life, having left Russia, Sanchez contributed to the opening of Russian steam baths in all the capitals of Europe.
For the first time, the Russian bath is mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. This is the 10th century. But some historians believe that the banya appeared in Russia much earlier, in the 5th-6th centuries.
Since ancient times, it was considered a sacred place where four elements simultaneously dominate: water, fire, earth and air. They cleanse a person not only physically, but also spiritually.
The Russian bath is fundamentally different from European and Asian ones - high temperature heat and such an integral attribute - like a birch broom. The Russian bathing ritual shocked visiting foreigners, who called the ongoing action torture and self-torture.
When the British came to Russia through the North, they noted that these barbarians stoked the huts "in a black way", then bathed in them with their families, torturing each other with twigs, and then rushed into a river or pond with a whoop.
The first Russian baths were vlazni in a black way. The oven was without a chimney. Smoke and soot came directly into the steam room. The walls and ceiling instantly became smoky, black - which gave the name to such baths.
Steamed in them only after they are well ventilated. All windows and doors were opened to let the smoke out. Later they began to install stoves with a chimney. And such baths were called white. Steamed in Russia and in ordinary home ovens. They had spacious mouths - almost one and a half meters deep and about half a meter high. After cooking, the ashes were removed from the warm oven, the soot was washed off, and the straw was laid. They put a tub of hot water to spray the roof of the stove, climbed inside, lay down and steamed.
In Russia, everyone used the banya: both princes, and noble people, and ordinary people.
Not a single celebration was complete without a bath. So, after the birth of a child, this event had to be “washed” in a bathhouse. The wedding ceremony could not do without it. On the eve of the wedding, the bride and her friends went to the bathhouse. Accordingly, the groom and his friends visited the steam room. The next day after the wedding, the newlyweds also went to the bathhouse. Upon leaving it, the matchmaker met them and treated them to fried poultry and "bannik" - bread, with which the mother of the bride blessed the young for the crown.
Foreigners were struck by the fact that Russians prefer the banya as a place of communication. As Yakov Reitenfels, a native of Courland, wrote, "Russians consider it impossible to conclude friendship without inviting them to a bath and then eating at the same table."
Almost every house in Russia had its own bathhouse, which was heated once a week. Saturday was considered a bathing day. Even government offices did not work. The construction of baths was allowed to anyone who had enough land. A decree of 1649 ordered that 'soap houses be built in vegetable gardens and in hollow places not close to the mansion' in order to avoid fires. In home baths, the whole family washed.
Olearius (German scientist 1603-1671), who made a trip to Muscovy and Persia in 1633-1639, wrote that "Russians can endure intense heat, from which they become all red and exhausted to the point that they are no longer able to stay in the bath, they run out naked into the street, both men and women, and douse themselves with cold water, but in winter, having run out of the bath into the yard, they wallow in the snow, rub their body with it, as if with soap, and then go back to the bath" .
However, the nobles and rich people preferred not home, but large public baths, where people of all ages and sex also steamed and washed together. Many "enlighteners" and "moralists" of that time called the common baths the main center of debauchery. Although in Europe at that time the joint washing of men and women was common.
But the freedom of morals and relations that reigned in Russian baths surprised foreigners. In their opinion, the Russians were completely devoid of false modesty, inherent - as they said - to every civilized (that is, European) person. Families with small children came to the baths. Here, in the common room, walking girls, called rubbing women, worked. For wealthy clients of all classes, there were specially separate rooms and nooks and crannies.
Only after the Decree of Catherine the Great, joint "washing" was prohibited. In 1743, the baths were divided into women's and men's. To XIX century in major cities expensive, richly furnished baths appeared with good servants and excellent buffets.
But the most famous and luxurious were the Sandunovsky baths in Moscow. In this bath palace there was all color Russian nobility and where foreigners began to go with pleasure.
In 1992, Sanduny was declared an architectural monument and taken under state protection. Russian steam baths did not take root abroad. But sometimes in Europe you can see a sign with the name of the place bearing the word banya.
Favorite tradition of every Russian
Russian bath in black
The bath has always been and is for a Russian person not just a place where you can take hygiene procedures and cleanse your body of pollution, but a special, almost sacred structure, where cleansing takes place not only on the physical, but also on spiritual level. After all, it is not for nothing that those who visited the bathhouse, describing their own feelings, say:
How he was born again into the world, rejuvenated by 10 years and cleansed his body and soul.
The concept of the Russian bath, the history of appearance
The Russian bath is a specially equipped room, which is designed for taking water hygiene and thermal procedures in order to prevent and improve the whole body.
Today it is difficult to judge what prompted the ancient man to think about creating a bath. Perhaps these were random drops that fell on a red-hot domestic hearth and created small puffs of steam. Perhaps this discovery was made intentionally, and the person immediately appreciated the power of steam. But the fact that the culture of steam baths has been known to mankind for a very long time is confirmed by numerous archaeological excavations and written sources.
So, according to the ancient Greek historian-chronicler Herodotus The first bath appeared in the era of tribal communities. And having visited in the 5th century. BC. the territory of the tribes that inhabited the Northern Black Sea region, he described in detail the bathhouse, which resembled a hut-hut, with a vat installed in it, where they threw red-hot stones.
Unwashed Europe and clean Russia
Already later sources indicate that the bathing culture also existed in Ancient Rome, whose rulers spread it to the conquered territories of Western Europe. However, after the fall of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, both the bath and the ablution as such were forgotten. A ban was established on bathing culture, which was explained, among other things, by wholesale deforestation, and, as a result, a lack of firewood. After all, in order to build a solid bath and heat it well, you need to cut down a lot of trees. A certain role was played by medieval Catholic ethics, which taught that the exposure of the body, even for washing, is a sinful act.
The fall in hygienic requirements led to the fact that for many centuries Europe was mired not only in its own sewage, but also in diseases. Monstrous epidemics of cholera and plague only for the period from 1347 to 1350. claimed the lives of more than 25,000,000 Europeans!
Bath culture in Western European countries was completely forgotten, as evidenced by numerous written sources. So, according to the recognition of the Queen of Spain, Isabella of Castile, she washed herself only twice in her life: when she was born and when she got married. No less sad fate befell the King of Spain, Philip II, who died in terrible agony, consumed by scabies and gout. Scabies completely tortured and brought Pope Clement VII to the grave, while his predecessor Clement V died of dysentery, which he contracted because he never washed his hands. It is no coincidence, by the way, already in the 19th and 20th centuries, dysentery began to be called the "disease of dirty hands".
Around the same period, Russian ambassadors regularly reported to Moscow that the king of France stinks unbearably, and one of the French princesses was simply eaten lice, which the Catholic Church called God's pearls, thereby justifying its senseless ban on baths and the culture of accepting elementary hygiene procedures.
No less curious and at the same time repulsive are the archaeological finds of medieval Europe, which today can be seen in museums around the world. Eloquently testifying to the widespread dirt, stench and uncleanliness, exhibits are on display for visitors - combs, flea traps and saucers for crushing fleas, which were placed directly on the dining table.
Flea catcher - devices for catching and neutralizing fleas; in the old days integral element wardrobe Today, it is already proven that French perfumers invented perfumes not to smell better, but to simply hide the smell of a body unwashed for years under the fragrance of floral aromas.
And it remains only to sympathize with the daughter of the Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise, - Anna, which, after marriage to the French king Henry I wrote to the father at home, they say:
Why did I anger you so much, and why do you hate me so much that you sent me to this dirty France, where I really can’t even wash my face?!
But what about in Russia?
And in Russia, the bath has always existed, at least according to the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea who are still in the 500s. wrote that the culture of ablution accompanies the ancient Slavs throughout their lives.
According to ancient descriptions, the bath was a log building with a hearth, on the hot coals of which water was poured from time to time, which turned into steam. According to folk beliefs, the keeper of the bathhouse and its soul is a bathhouse - an absolutely naked old man, whose body is covered with leaves from a broom. Bannik was supposed to be appeased from time to time, treating him with bread and salt, which once again emphasizes respectful attitude Slavs to the bath itself and its "essence", which they literally idolized.
Having appeared on the territory of Russia back in the days of paganism, when people worshiped the cult of fire and water, both the bathhouse and the hearth were deeply revered by the Slavs, which is noted in their works by researchers of Russian life I. Zabelin and A. Afanasiev. The bath was not just a place where you could cleanse your body of dirt and take hygiene procedures, but also a kind of medical institution where people of the ancient medical specialty could put any sick person on their feet.
In turn, the chronicles of the X-XIII centuries. point to the widespread distribution of the bath among the Eastern Slavs, starting from the 5th-6th centuries, when it was affectionately called movnitsa, mov, soap and vlaznya. And even with the baptism of Russia, when the church began an active struggle against folk healers and all sorts of superstitions, the bathhouse did not cease to exist, but only strengthened its influence, as it became a place for mandatory attendance before performing the most important church rituals - baptism, weddings, communion and others.
“Heat me a bathhouse in white!”
The bath in white, as V. Vysotsky sings about in his song, appeared in Russia much later than the bath in black, gradually replacing the latter. At first, the Slavs built baths without a chimney, in a black way, and a periodically opening door was used as natural ventilation. In a black sauna, smoke does not go into the chimney, but into the sauna room itself, from where it exits through an open door, as well as through a special hole in the ceiling or wall (the so-called "pipe"). After the firebox is finished and the coals are completely burned out, the door closes, the pipe is stopped up, and the shelves, benches and floor are washed with plenty of water from soot and the bath is kept for about 15 minutes before use, so that it dries and gains heat. Then the remains of the coals are raked out, and the first steam is released so that it takes the soot from the stones with it. After that, you can steam. A black bath is more difficult to heat and cannot be heated during washing (like a white bath), but due to the fact that the smoke eats up all the old smells, the black bath has its own charm, unattainable in a white bath.
Later, they began to build baths in white, where a stove-heater with a chimney acted as a source of heat and steam.
In addition, at that time there was another interesting and unusual way to steam right in the Russian stove. To do this, it was carefully heated, and the bottom was covered with straw. Then a person climbed inside the oven, taking with him water, beer or kvass, with which he poured over the red-hot walls of the hearth and took a steam bath, after which he went out and doused himself with cold water. Even the infirm and the elderly did not deny themselves such an unusual pleasure, who were simply pushed into the oven on a special board, and then climbed healthy man to wash and steam the weak, as it should be.
Bath for a Russian is more than love!
Bath accompanied every Russian person from birth to death. In no other culture of the world did she become as widespread as in Russia, where her visit was elevated to an obligatory cult and had to take place regularly.
Not a single celebration could do without it, and, meeting even a random guest, the owner first of all offered him to visit the bathhouse, and then taste the treat and spend the night. It is no coincidence that in Russian fairy tales, in addition to shelter and dinner, travelers are always offered a bathhouse.
Bachelorette and bachelor parties, as they would say today, necessarily ended with a visit to the bathhouse, and the young themselves, having become spouses, were obliged to take it regularly, each time after marital intimacy, if they went to church the next morning. It was supposed to go to the bath with almost any ailment, especially if it was a cold, runny nose, cough and joint diseases.
The therapeutic effect of this simple and pleasant procedure is comparable to the strongest effect on the entire human body. When every cell of the body receives an unimaginable charge of energy, forcing it to work in a new way, thereby restarting the natural processes of regeneration and self-renewal. And the alternation of high temperatures with cold, when after visiting the bath it is customary to jump into the snow, an ice hole, into a river or simply pour ice water over yourself - this is the best way to harden and strengthen the immune system.
As for the special love of Russians for the bath, it has found its embodiment not only in folklore, but also reflected in historical documents. So, the Russian historian and researcher of the customs and life of the Russian people N.I. Kostomarov repeatedly notes in his works that people went to the bathhouse very often in order to wash, heal and just for fun. According to him, for a Russian person, visiting a bath is a natural need and a kind of rite, which neither adults, nor children, nor the rich, nor the poor can violate.
In turn, foreigners who visited Russia were surprised to note the habit of the Russian people very often and for a long time to wash, which they did not meet either in their homeland or in other countries. In fact, as a rule, they bathed once a week, on Saturdays. But for foreigners who almost never bathed, it seemed "very often." So, for example, the German traveler Adam Olearius once wrote that in Russia it is impossible to find a single city or even a poor village where there would be no bathhouse. They are here just at every step, and they are visited at every opportunity, especially during periods of illness. And as if summarizing, in his writings he noted that, perhaps, such a love for the bath is not devoid of practical meaning, and the Russian people themselves are so strong in spirit and healthy.
As for Europe, for the revival of the custom of bathing and bathing regularly, she should be grateful to Peter I and the Russian soldiers, who, terrifying the same French and Dutch, steamed in the erected on hastily bath, and then jumped into the icy water, despite the frost that reigned outside. And the order given in 1718 by Peter I to build a bathhouse on the banks of the Seine completely horrified the Parisians, and the construction process itself gathered onlookers from all over Paris.
Instead of a conclusion
According to many researchers of the culture and life of the Russian people, the secret of the Russian bath is simple: it cleanses and heals at the same time. And the architectural solution of the building itself is uncomplicated and is an ordinary room with a stove-heater, which allows a person of any income and position to have it.
As for the special love for the bath and the popularity of the bath ritual throughout history, this once again emphasizes the desire of every Russian person for cleanliness, neatness, health, clarity of thought and decency. The bathing tradition, despite the fact that outwardly remains an everyday phenomenon, is an important element of culture, which is reverently preserved, passed down from generation to generation, and remains an important sign of belonging to the Russian people. Thus, as long as the Russian people exist, so long will the banya exist.
It would seem that a bath - what could be more ordinary? From time immemorial, the inhabitants of our country regularly visit this place: they bathe, wash, communicate with friends. But not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance. After all, a bathhouse is not only a separate building for water procedures; in the old days, magic rituals were performed here, sacrifices were made to spirits, and even people were executed. The birth of a person, marriage and funeral rituals - all this is directly related to the bath.
pagan sanctuary
For pagans, any place where all four meet natural elements- fire, water, earth and air - is special. From ancient times in Russia, baths played the role of family sanctuaries, they were revered as a place where the world of the living (reality) meets the world of the dead (nav). It was believed that the spirits of the deceased ancestors lived here.
It is far from accidental that the fabulous Baba Yaga should first evaporate the good fellow in the bath, and only then ask questions. After all, it is through ritual ablution that a person’s transition from reality to nav is made.
Andrey Dachnik, a researcher of ancient traditions, in his book “Bath. Essays on Ethnography and Medicine, which was published in 2015 in St. Petersburg, wrote that after the adoption of Christianity in Russia, icons firmly settled in people's homes, and it was the bathhouse that began to play the role of the center of pagan forces. Gradually, people began to perceive this stand-alone building as a habitat for devils and performing witchcraft rituals. [S-BLOCK]
Therefore, many ritual prohibitions are associated with the bath, among them:
You can’t wash alone who does this - that sorcerer or witch. Before entering the bath, you need to cross yourself; you cannot be baptized in the bath itself. Icons are not brought into the bath. You can not wash in the bath during Orthodox holidays, it is better to do it the day before. Bath utensils (basins, ladles, pokers, etc.) are never brought into the hut. It is forbidden to build a house on the site of the bath. You can not wash in the baths at night.
Even the expression "Went to the bath!" means an offer to a person to cleanse his thoughts from all filth, which is done in a pagan sanctuary. According to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, one could acquire magical abilities in the bath if one went there at midnight and loudly renounced God, removing the Orthodox cross from oneself.
Who is a bannik?
Pagans always spiritualized not only their houses, but also other buildings. If a brownie lived in the house, a barn lived in a barn, then a bannik lived in a bathhouse. Sometimes he was also called "grandfather", which is associated with the veneration of the cult of ancestors. So the bannik could be both the spirit of the place and one of the respected ancestors of a particular family.
Since physical and spiritual purification are inseparable in the people's minds, rituals were carried out in the baths aimed at freeing people from various negativity, problems, debts, damage and the evil eye. Before the start of witchcraft, the healer or witch was sure to ask the spirit of this place to help.
Sometimes the bath was heated, but no one washed in it. This was done during pagan holidays to please the bannik. For him, they specially left water in a bowl and a broom.
As a rule, Russian peasants were afraid of the spirits living in the bathhouse. After all, a bannik offended by disrespect could kill a person, according to popular beliefs. And a certain woman-raiser, in general, was able to peel off all the skin from a living person if he remained in the bath alone and fell asleep. This is how people explained the numerous accidents that occurred in this place.
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Now in Russia baths are heated in white. In the XVII - XVIII centuries these rooms were massively equipped with special pipes through which smoke escapes. And more than a thousand years before that, the baths were heated in black. Smoke just poured out of all the cracks of these log buildings with stone hearths and the walls and ceiling were heavily smoked.
According to safety standards, such a bath must be ventilated frequently by opening the door. But many people valued warmth too much, neglected the rules. As a result, baths created an atmosphere with a low oxygen content, and carbon monoxide, combined with high temperature and humidity, could easily lead to death. People with diseases of the lungs and cardiovascular system were at risk. [S-BLOCK]
A characteristic sign of carbon monoxide poisoning is ruddy, rosy skin. The peasants believed that this angry bannik had steamed the unfortunate people to death. If we take into account that about 50-60 people die in modern Finnish saunas every year, then we can assume how many accidents happened in Russia.
Sometimes the combination of carbon monoxide and heat shock did not lead to death, but caused people to hallucinate. It was then that they saw devils in the baths, hairy wives, and all sorts of other evil spirits. Sometimes hallucinogenic herbs (for example, henbane) were deliberately burned in stoves to enter an altered state of consciousness. This technique was used by healers.
Birth of a child
Russian peasant women traditionally gave birth in a bathhouse, because it was this place that was the gate from Navi to reality. The newborn and his mother needed to be cleansed of the influence of otherworldly forces, and this was done by the midwife, who spoke the water.
After the birth of a child and reading special prayers over him, the baby was taken to the house, and his mother had to live in the bathhouse for some more time: from three days to a week. By this, she paid tribute to the spirits of her ancestors. People believed that they had a good attitude towards the process of childbirth, rejoiced at this event.
The purpose of the rituals performed on a woman in a bath was the birth healthy baby who would grow up strong and calm. And if the newborn died, which happened quite often, or he was found to have injuries, defects in development, then all these misfortunes were explained by the actions of an angry bannik. People said that a woman in labor or a midwife was angry with something evil spirit or were not attentive to the child, so the bannik punished them.
Sometimes peasant women themselves could strangle an unwanted child, blaming everything on the devil. In the bath, some women got rid of pregnancy, artificially inducing premature birth.
Executions and murders
As is known from The Tale of Bygone Years, a monument of ancient Russian literature from the beginning of the 12th century, the legendary Princess Olga (circa 920-969) executed two groups of ambassadors in turn. They were representatives of the Drevlyans tribe, who arrived to woo her for their ruler, whose name was Mal. It was already after the death of her husband - Prince Igor Rurikovich.
The first embassy of the Drevlyans was buried alive, and the second one was burned in a bathhouse. The tradition of using this building for the execution of objectionable people existed in Russia since ancient times. This place was very convenient for murder: it was enough just to heat the stove hotter, and from the outside to fasten the door with something heavy. In the morning there will be corpses that do not even need to be washed.
Even in the 18th century, historians recorded cases of people being executed in baths. The first Irkutsk governor Karl Lvovich von Frauendorf (circa 1710-1767) became famous for such actions. This tsarist official, as the military engineer and ethnographer Ivan Grigoryevich Andreev wrote about him, in 1762 "... causing many cruelties to various honest people and torturing one soldier in his presence in a hot bathhouse."
Since people not only were born and prepared for the wedding in the baths, but also went to another world through this mystical room, Russians strongly associated it with death. Sometimes an old or sick person was hovered in a bathhouse and left there to die, having previously dismantled part of the roof so that it would be easier for the soul to go to heaven. It happened that after the murder of the deceased, they buried it right there, because in winter the other land was frozen, and it is very difficult to dig a grave in it.
sacrifices
Before the construction of a new bathhouse, it was necessary to make a ritual sacrifice to the spirits. As a rule, for this purpose they killed a black hen or a rooster, which was buried in the ground under the threshold of the future premises.
Sometimes other living creatures acted as a victim: a crow, a cat, a small dog. It happened that they were buried alive in order to get great support from the spirits, who should help the builders and approve the construction of a bath in the other world.
True, some pagans did not stop there. Sometimes, during excavations, human bones are found on the site of old, collapsed baths. It could be both relatives buried here, and random guests, who, according to custom, were supposed to drink, feed, and evaporate in a bathhouse. Killing such strangers in the baths it also played the role of a sacrifice to the spirits. Police reports from the 19th century preserved numerous complaints from people who managed to escape from such pagans who tried to kill them in a bathhouse.