Halloween is not among the traditionally and massively celebrated holidays in Russia. More precisely, this day is not even a holiday at all.
For traditional Russian society, it is associated not with the Evening of All Saints, but with the rampage of evil spirits. In any case, the most massive religions in Russia — the Orthodox Church and Muslim organizations – adhere to this opinion. This day is usually celebrated by young people who are always happy with any crazy fun, especially if it contradicts the established public perception. But it is not very massively.
However in Russia there is an analogue of Halloween, repeating its main motives. These are the so-called “The Horrible evenings”, the second week of Christmastide, twelve days after the feast of the Christmas day before the feast of the Epiphany (Baptism of Jesus). According to the modern calendar, this time is from January 13 to January 19 (recall that in Russia Christmas is celebrated on January 7).
According to ancient beliefs, in the days of the Holy days “heaven opens”, on these days the Lord releases the souls of the dead to earth and allows them to stay with their relatives until the Baptism of Jesus. At the same time, the evil spirits are also activated, which creates dirty tricks and can even take people to the Otherworld. Therefore, during The Horrible evenings, the ancestors not only did not go out into the street without great necessity, but did not do anything without prayer and the sign of the cross, thus driving away evil spirits. It was considered dangerous even to look out the window in the evening. To save livestock from evil spirits, it was customary to light candles over barns, and in houses they painted crosses on windows and doors, and, of course, in attics.
At the same time, it was customary (especially among young people) to walk around the village, carrying in front of him on a pole either a lighted lantern in the form of a star, or a house cut out of cardboard with a burning candle inside and sing religious verses praising Christ. It was also customary to stop in those houses where the light was on, to enter the house or yard and praise the owners and his family with songs, for which they received food as a reward. There were also songs with threats, for example: “Who will not give a pie – Give the cow by the horns, Who will not give ham – Let’s chop his cast iron …”. They sang, of course, as a joke, but sometimes mischievous youth carried out their threats.
If the owners were particularly disrespectful, they dismantled the woodpile at night and stacked all the firewood on the front porch, swamped the paths with snow or made an ice slide on the porch, froze the gate … Sometimes they tied potatoes on a long rope to the door, and knocked on the door from a distance. The owner will open the door and look: there is nobody… but when the doors are closed, the knock is repeated again. In these days a lot things was allowed, and mischief was considered just naughtiness.
Those who preferred to spend their evenings in mischief organized a kind of carnival: they changed into fur-coats inside out, smeared their faces with soot, tied a washcloth to their chin, attached a mustache, put on horns, inserted teeth cut out of turnips … Men changed into women and vice versa, dressed as bears , wolves, bulls and roosters, gypsies, millers and blacksmiths. They were called differently, for example, “shalikun”, from the word “shalit” — “to make naughty”. Revelers wandered the streets, from one house to another, started games and dances, made everyone laugh and frightened. People tried to guess who was hiding under what guise. And the exposed mummer was obliged to take off his mask.
