The following is translated from Oleksa Voropay, “Folk Customs of Our People,” page 14-16.

Winter has arrived.  The first snow has fallen, the frosts have come, and the rivers are covered by ice.  In the village all the farm work is finished.  The hospodars put away their farm implements,  mend their sleighs, go to the mill and prepare for the Christmas holidays ...

The women spin.  Girls embroider, and each morning wash themselves with the “first snow”  and dry themselves with a red cloth – “so that their face may be rosy.” Young men help their fathers, and in their spare time interfere with the girl’s embroidering.

The time for guessing what will be in the coming year approaches, and along with this comes the time for the traditional entertainments of village youth – entertainment full of the earliest poetry of our people.

Ancient Ukrainian traditions, that were once tied to the new year of our early ancestors, were later transferred to the Christian holidays.  One part of them went to the modern New Year, and another – to the holiday of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, aka The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (December 4 by the new calendar).  This holiday is commonly called the “Vedinnia (Введiння or Введення).”

The beginning of a new agricultural year in Vedinnia beliefs is quite clear. The first person to come to the house on this morning will be the first "polaznyk" for this new farming year. According to popular belief, the first polaznyk brings happiness or failure to the home.

If the first visitor is a handsome young man, and even better, a wealthy one – this is a good sign: all year everyone in the household will be healthy, and money will come into the house.  If the first visitor is a feeble old man, and even worse, a poor one – this is a bad sign: everyone in the household will be sick, and poverty will take root.  The worst outcome is to have an old woman enter the house first: “don’t expect any good…” For that reason old and poor people avoid entering the homes of strangers on Vedinnia, as they do on Rizdvo and Velykden.  It is also a bad sign if a stranger comes to borrow something on this day. 

In the eastern regions of Ukraine, until recently, there was a strange custom among the "sorceress girls" to consecrate water on the eve of Vedinnia.

This is how an eyewitness, S.H., described it:

I was once in Kursk, there are still many of our people there – entire Ukrainian villages. There, my friend was ... "You know," he says, "that our sorceress-girls will be blessing water on this night." "But why," I ask, "at night, is there not day enough for them?" "Well," he says, “these are spells, and they can only be cast at night; for, when the sun is in heaven, the sorceresses lose their power. If you want, then come with me, and you'll see. " I agreed and we went ... Once there, I saw how the girls gathered in such a place, where three waters joined together – three streams merged into one channel. The girls took a jug of water, lit two sticks on fire, and when the fire was burning well, they held them over an earthenware bowl and poured the water so that it passed between the two flames. They whispered something, but what exactly – did not hear ... “1

I came to hear about such "sacred" water in the Uman region, too, and in other places of central Ukraine (Prydniprovia). It was said that such "sacred" water is useful for "attracting" a young man to a girl.

"... In our village, Psiarivtsi 2, there were once women who at midnight on Vedinnia  sat naked on the doorstep of the entrance hall door and spun “self-sown” hemp, so that “the hemp would go into the hand..."

In Podillia, on Vedinnia morning, young married women would sprinkle the family cows with hemp seeds 3 and lubricated their udders with butter - “so that they will give a lot of milk." In the village of Kordyshivtsia 4, they burned the bark of fragrant herbs while saying spells so that no one would take away the “poultry". They cooked a thick kysil from flour and gave it to the cows “so that the sour cream would be thick."

In many villages of Ukraine they told fortunes using various signs, to learn how good the harvest would be next year. Some of the signs were turned into sayings, like these: "However much water (rain?) there is on Vedinnia, that much grass there will be on Yuria," “If there is rain on Vedinnia, there will be milk in the bowl,” "As on Vedinnia the bridges are paved, and as Mykola hammers tacks, so cold will winter be.”

Once our people knew “rules of life" related to Vedinnia – what can and cannot be done: "Before Vvedeniya you can dig a shovel of the earth, but from Vedinnia to the Annunciation you  cannot, because the earth is resting and building up its strength for the summer"; "From Vedinnia until the Ninth Thursday 5 it is not advisable to beat your laundry on the water with a washing paddle, because it will harm your farm fields and cause a storm to fly into your field"; "Hemp must be scutched before Vedinnia, and anyone who scutches afterward calls out a storm to his fields, and contempt on himself from people."

"... When I was a young woman," says Horpyna S., “then we, girls, were very vigilant that the hemp would be scutched before Vedinnia; some even scutched at night, because they were afraid. Still!  It could spoil a girl’s reputation and have an unwanted effect on the wedding ... “

In Sloboda the villagers say that, on this day, God allows righteous souls to see themselves in the flesh: “The soul sees (vydyt’) its own flesh, thus it is called Vydinnia (sic).”6

In various places this holiday is celebrated in many different ways, but everywhere there is a tendency to try and attract riches and wealth for the coming year.

Three days after Vvedinnia — is the day of St. Catherine.

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1 Transcribed from S.H. In the city of Voznesnesk in 1939 –– O.V.
2 The village of Psiarivka in the Uman region. The story was transcribed from Maria S —O.V.

3 Hemp seeds (Cannabis). –– O.V.

4 Vinnytsia region, Podillia –– O.V.

5 The ninth Thursday after Christmas

6 This is a well-known example of folk etymology.  Vedinnia there they call Vydinnia. ––O.V.