Every year on Pentecost, when people in the Village of Papšyčy celebrate Zialionyja Sviontki, the day of appearance of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, they get together to carry a namiotka. This Rite has been performed continuously since its beginning.
The Rite starts with the participants’ singing a special song ‘Krуlu nieba wysokiego’ (The King of the High Sky), after which a procession is formed and people unfold a namiotka, a cloth 5—6 meters long, which is carried by the youngest people of the community, preferably children.
Local people gather at the village cross, where the Rite begins, and put their sacrifices onto the namiotka. Today, they sacrifice money. Then people carry the namiotka over young children and their parents, which is thought to improve their health and well-being. Then the singing procession marches through the village towards the chapel at the cemetery. It is a long distance to go, and on the way to the destination the procession is joined by other Papšyčy residents.
Once the namiotka is delivered to the cemetery, it is consecrated and the Holy Mass starts, during which people keep the namiotka spread. Everyone, who has come to the cemetery and walked in the procession, puts his or her sacrifice on it. After the Mass, the namiotka is donated to the Catholic Church in the Village of Udzela.
The villagers believe in the power of the Rite, ‘Well, nothing has ever happened in the village, nothing special. No suicides, nothing at all.’
Spring rite "Yurauski karagod" performed by the villagers of Pogost, Zhitkovichi district, Gomel region on holiday "St. George", which is among the most respected and wealthy in his ceremonial filling of Belarusian folk calendar holidays. It has a fixed date for: the Orthodox calendar notes May 6th day of St. George. Syncretic image of St. George (George, Yagorya) is widely reflected in the folklore, folk and professional art, literature and sculpture. According to folk beliefs St. George - "God's steward," as he had the keys, which he closes the winter and the spring opens, releasing the dew on the field, blesses everything: land, people, animals. In the popular imagination Belarusians St. George - guard the livestock and agriculture, herds of wild animals fr om the defender. It largely depended on the success of a peasant in these activities and in the end his well-being. In the village churchyard is a celebration accompanied by a detailed ceremonial complex, which includes a variety of ceremonial activities, songs, games, features and beliefs. Traditionally, the ceremony on the Yure holiday as if divided into two equivalent cycles. The first takes place in the courtyard, wh ere compliance with a series of magical acts (treat animals ceremonial bread in the shape of a cross, consecrated tree branches) is derived from an animal barn. This day is connected to the first pasture cattle in the field after the winter. Magical actions are preventive in nature and aimed at ensuring the fertility and its protection from the wolves and the "evil eye." The second cycle is associated with the agricultural tradition and focused on field crops and the man himself.
Ritual dance on the feast of St. George helps to preserve the cultural identity of villages and educate new generations respect for the customs of their ancestors. It is a form of collective memory, which translates the experience of establishing harmony between man and nature, it reflects the emotional evaluation of the practice by the local community. To this day, it performs the function of the transfer of knowledge, skills and creative achievements (local song and dance tradition) from the older generation younger, consolidates society through forms of joint activities
