* WORKDAYS AND HOLIDAYS SCHEDULE *

 "Sleep is the foundation of everything" - say lazy people, justifying their own carelessness. "Sleep is a brother of the death "- thinks a too zealous worker after he makes himself wake up too early. The folk custom did not encourage either one.

 First went to sleep, children. Bring and unfold for them on the floor wide, stuffed with straw mattresses, skin coat or down quilts, pillows from the frost into the house. After some horse-playing, kids climb in some linen pants and shirts under the blankets. On the edge of them added one of the elders. If in the house for any reason is cold, the bed is made on the bunk, there's really adults lie on both sides so that none of the children wouldn't drop off in sleep.

The proverb "Drunks and the little ones God is watching" is not always justified, but falls from the stove or from the bunk for sleepy children often ended without any injuries.

 On the stove, behind the oven and on the bunk slept elderly. Husband and wife - on the bed, behind the cupboard, adult bachelors were content sometimes with just benches. The gates were not locked until the return of young people from social events, the last person was obliged to lock up, but sometimes it was not required since the lady of the house got up very early.

An infant was asleep in the cradle; screamers were rocked the whole night in turn by mother or grandmother. Thus, no matter how big the family, all slept in one hut in winter. However, there was also something good and necessary; the family got together and rallied. Adults and children are learned about each other, identified fraught with quarrels ambiguity. Members of the family as if overgrown with the virus of estrangement, gaining over winter the strength of kindness and tolerance.

Summer place of sleeping dispersed throughout the house. The girls moved into their tiny rooms and home workshops. For adults and children were Also, people slept in the barn and closets, and in late summer - in the attic.
 It is hard to describe, and even a small fraction of all the sounds, smells, and sensations that accompany dreams of summer sleep outdoors, whether it is a sensitive sleep of an old man, strong of tired person, or soundly of youngsters! A sigh of cows, the smell of sweat and milk, creep into the dreams of sleeping under the canopy. A man hears the cries of crake in the meadow and chirping of the dove family under a roof, muffled bells in a distant pasture, and a mosquito near the ear.

When the elderberry blossoms in the maiden attic gets in a sweet scent, drowning out the smell of clothes and the chest. The aroma of dry hay and dewy hop blows in the morning at the barns, in closets and hay barns. All of these sounds, smells and sensations are continually changing depending on the weather, time of day, and the nature of the field and household work.

The rooster in the house is the main alarm clock, despite the cock stupidity. Not having a rooster means the same as getting up on a neighbour's alarm clock in modern times. First roosters sang at midnight; they were heard by some keen to sounds old men and women. This singing confirmed the night was calm; everything was okay. The second singing forced housewives to get up and check the dough, and the third roosters singing finally made them get up for real. The devout old people rose earlier than the housewives. They made the Morning Prayer before the icon, trying not to wake the children, and went out of the house.

Thus, already mentioned Michael G. from the village Timonikha all his life got up shortly after the second cock singing. He lit the kerosene lantern in winter and chopped down pine needles in the yard, quite loudly chanting psalms. In the summer, it is bright and without a lamp, and there is a lot more any kind of work than in winter.

 After the prayer, women first looked at the dough; for a rare day, they did not put "to walk "bread or cakes. Pancakes and oatmeal were also set to ferment in the evening.

The hostess opens the vent and fires up the stove. Cracks and the smell of a kindled torch are woven into a dream of sleeping children; it made men wake up. A young woman did not immediately master the art of kindle of the stove. Ability, however, stood there in the background; the first was the quality of firewood and kindling. Logs of equal length, thickness and dryness required a half times less than heterogeneous, unevenly dried. Mastery of a burning kindle by an experienced hostess was just a virtuoso. Holding a burning splinter of wood in her mouth, she contrived to carry two full buckets in the barn and the yard, on the stairs and into the pen. The splinter stuck in the wall crevice was burning until the women fed cattle.

In the dark autumn nights and in the cruel, cold night, people would walk from one village to another with a glowing beam of a torch. It was burning actively, evenly and illuminating the way for a long time and protecting from the cold and the beast. While the stove heats up, the man manages to harness a horse and go for the hay, if not far. The hostess warmed yesterday's soup for breakfast; now, it is called soup du jour. A peasant custom to serve soup or borscht for breakfast and dinner is partially preserved in the Russian Navy.

In summer, long before breakfast, people began to mow, plow fallow. The hostess sends children to carry food for the workers or, after changing the clothes, she brings it by herself.

Carpenters during long daylight days also started to work before breakfast. But to imagine peasants squat or making the sideways movement for fitness is impossible. Moves for the sake of exercise, even for the current working peasant look, if not blasphemous, then ridiculous.

While the oven was started, the hostess had time to warm by the fire several large iron pots for the cattle (brewed tops, cabbage leaves, added oil-cake, and bran). She was rolling the dough into loaves or cakes, rolling into the fire-extinguisher place hot coals.

The awakened family, after washing, were wiping with the towel, which was changed during the week. For drying the hands, it was hung a special hand towel. Canvas cloth on the table was even in the most impoverished homes. After crossing herself, the hostess threw the tablecloth on the table and put one big communal dish with the cabbage soup. Each had their place at the table. The master cut bread, put salt in the soup, tame excessively, and encouraged too contemplative. To drop and not lift a piece of bread was considered a sin; to leave him half-eaten, leave the table ahead of time is also not supposed to. Strict order in eating can be waived only during the field harvest. The system of eating correlated with industriousness and order in general. Nobody had the authority to cancel lunch or breakfast. Even during a bread-less time, I mean the usual famine, the family observed the time between breakfast, lunch, before-dinner and dinner. The tablecloth could be unfolded for just a potato dish.

 A good eater rarely has not been a good worker. But he never ate hurriedly and in reserve. Greed was not forgiven even to children. A typical working day after breakfast was attractive because work was to be done. Work before lunch excited the most inveterate idlers, which cannot be confused with slow starters. Sometimes, someone with short legs was lazier than a slow one that delayed the beginning of work in every way but then was reluctant to leave it. Then, there had to be summoned for dinner.

Even during the harvest, lunch was made relatively long, two or even three hours; in wintertime, it was the end of the workday. In summer, workers enjoyed the short afternoon nap in most families, gaining back strength and courage. It was delightful sleeping in the hayloft on the fresh hay during haymaking time. People would curl up somewhere in the barn or in the hayloft at the field and sleep until the horses were fed. At lunch, the whole family got at the table, but in the old days in the North, peasants often gathered at a team lunch, called the feast. Refectories were built close to the wooden churches. During these dinners was, melted accumulated for some time estrangement. At them were solved important military and socio-economic affairs. The soundness of such decisions depended on under which roof they were adopted.

In the short winter days, people were twilighting. Twilighting meant sitting quietly or lying down before dinner and, even after, not lighting the lamp. "Pauzhna" is a relatively light meal between lunch and dinner, later replaced with a five 'o clock teatime. Dinner is arranged just before bedtime. According to the Russian folk, the custom to sleep on an empty stomach is not accepted.

People just come in from the fields; in the winter evenings, even old people went for gatherings…They ended the day with a prayer. Young as they returned from the games, meetings and other festivities, rarely thought of the icon, lit by a tiny flame of the lamp. The religiosity of the youth manifested itself in different qualities and actions.