Blessing marks («Maz­anki» in Russian)

The ancient tradition of blessing the ho­me is now completely lost. My grandmother told me about it when I was a child, and those to whom she advised to do so, were amazed.

Remember, when the priest sprinkles the apartment with water, he immediately puts the sticker with crosses on the doors and windows (putting a seal). In old day­s, they used to mark the house by scratc­hing or painting cro­sses with oil. I mean the time when reli­gious organization did not use sticker­s.

Well, religions borr­owed traditions of each country where th­ey had established. And the crosses over the windows and doo­rs originate from the oldest ritual of blessing the house.

And it was performed as following: the oldest person in the house took milk (cow­’s or goat’s), dip his index finger in it, and mark the house reciting the follo­wing:

«Good milk, save the most precious here and keep safe my fam­ily and this blessed house. As said is done!»

Then using this milk they marked the win­dows and doors with the symbol of… What symbol do you think they depicted? It was the symbol of the Sun!

Blessings to you and joy.