Do you like mysticism? This means that you should appreciate today’s article, as it is imbued with terrible intrigue! Make yourself comfortable, I open the curtain, which emanates mystery.
Bath for the night? Shhh! Well, that's it. Probably, the ancestors, watching their descendants from Heaven, are in wild horror. Why? Because our ancestors would never have gone to the steam room at night in their right mind. Because of which? Not because of what, but because of whom! The cause of chilling fear is the horned evil spirit. Nonsense? Well, I wouldn't make such hasty conclusions.
So, dear readers, in order to find out whether it is possible to take a steam bath at night, we will take an unforgettable journey into the past and, of course, interpret the information received in a modern manner.
Folk signs: what not to do in the bathhouse (8 photos)
You cannot enter without the banner's permission
Before entering the bathhouse, you need to knock and ask permission: “Bannik-bannik, I ask you to come to your house, I will protect myself from evil. I know your rules, I conjure them! Receive the guest according to rank and according to conscience, you have found not troubles, but goodness!” Then the bannik will not get angry, but will receive you as a dear guest.
You can't shower after midnight
It is believed that after 12 o'clock at night it is dangerous to wash in the bathhouse - this is the time for the bathhouse and he may be dissatisfied with your arrival. It can release carbon monoxide if you disobey. And at this time other evil spirits come to him - do you need them? He also does not like guests on Mondays. But on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday the bannik is in a welcoming mood and while you are steaming, he will drive away all the evil spirits from you.
You can't steam drunk
The Bath Brownie does not approve of this. And so much so that it can pour boiling water over you, burn you with steam and, according to superstitious legends, tear off your skin. But even if nothing bad happens to you in the bathhouse itself, you will definitely be sick for a week afterwards.
You can't go to the bathhouse after women
At the request of the evil spirit, men should go to the bathhouse first, and “unclean” women should go second. If you break this rule, the bannik will cause trouble and illness.
You can't go to the bathhouse on your third visit.
Otherwise, a naked old man with a leaf in his place can strangle you with his clawed paws. After all, he himself loves the “third steam” and believes that it is his turn to wash.
You can't spit on stones
If you spit on stones in a bathhouse, the brownie will spit boiling water in response. You probably won't like it, so don't try it. But splashing some water on the stones and letting them steam is sacred! The bannik is always very happy about this.
You can't leave dirt behind
The bathhouse must be kept clean - then the bathhouse will be happy. You definitely need to leave him a new piece of soap somewhere in a corner and some water in a basin once a month. And, of course, knit a small bath broom for the brownie. In general, show your respect in every possible way.
You can't use someone else's broom
According to ancient bath customs, everyone should have their own bath broom, and its manufacture must be treated with the utmost care - choose the right tree and knit the broom only on the full moon. But the most important thing is not to give your broom to anyone and not to use someone else’s, otherwise you will transfer other people’s diseases to yourself.
True facts of antiquity
- In some areas of the Vologda province, baths were not installed at all. They did not want to encroach on pagan possessions.
Where did people wash then, you ask? They washed and steamed in the oven - this is a historical fact.
My friend’s grandmother lives in the Vologda region. As a child, she was washed like this herself. When Lena told me her story, I was very surprised. Her story pushed me, I began to collect information on this topic. This is how my article “Is it possible to wash and steam in an oven” was born.
- According to Vepsian beliefs (Finno-Ugric people who live in Karelia, Vologda and Leningrad regions), having cut down a bathhouse, you must immediately agree on how many shifts people will go to steam.
On the third and fourth couples, at night, the bath spirit itself and the entire gathering of pagan deities come to wash.
Initially, the spirit of the bathhouse was not considered an unclean and harmful force. Therefore, amulets against evil spirits were left outside the threshold of the bathhouse...
- The attributes and symbolism of Christianity are alien and hostile to the pagan deity. The bathhouse never had anything to do with the sign of the cross, prayers, icons and the church.
For this reason, icons are not hung in the bathhouse and people are not baptized. Anyone who enters into the possession of a pagan deity must renounce his Christian affiliation. In the old days, a peasant entered the bathhouse without amulets, showing his trust in the true owner.
Don't raise the temperature
It seems that the bannik is still female, because he cannot tolerate alcohol. Of course, you can increase the temperature in a bathhouse, but only the temperature. From those who liked to “knock over” in the bathhouse, and more than one at a time, the bathhouse, it was believed, could tear off the skin and pull it onto the ceiling. However, this superstition has quite understandable explanations. A drunk person can perform such “miracles” in a bathhouse: douse himself with boiling water, fall on hot coals, or even “pass out.” Then, of course, you can say that this is the work of the bannik, but such an explanation will not make the burns hurt any less.
Where did superstition come from and what does it mean?
In those days, people did not have bathrooms or showers; they washed exclusively in baths, and tried to do it before dark. Then such a legend was born. The people believed that after midnight, representatives of the “dark side” came to the bathhouse - demons, devils (Bannik’s relatives). Many even claimed that they met them during water procedures: the unclean one came to the bathhouse in human form, washed and steamed, and after leaving there were traces of hooves. Therefore, people tried to take bath procedures before darkness came.
Each person gets a broom
Bath brooms are such a serious attribute that their choice should be approached with special trepidation and excitement. You can knit brooms only during the full moon, and you should consider whether you are plucking twigs from a burnt tree and whether two trunks are growing from the root of this tree. And when you mercilessly break the branches of an oak or birch, constantly pray to the tree for forgiveness. And under no circumstances should you use a broom in the bathhouse after someone else. It is believed that with someone else's broom you will transfer all the ailments, worries and troubles of its owner onto yourself. So everyone who takes a steam bath gets a personal broom!
True facts of our days
A person enters the bathhouse naked, leaving behind the threshold his last protection, his clothes. We seem to say to the owner of the bathhouse: “Here I am, calm and defenseless. I have come to your domain, asking for some light steam.”
In our village, bath time is still set from five o'clock to nine o'clock in the evening. This unspoken rule is observed by everyone, a kind of bath law. To tell the truth, our bathhouses are modest and have nothing to do with modern bathhouse mansions.
We do everything the old fashioned way. We do not organize endless noisy parties, drunken gatherings in bathhouses with songs and loud music. We honor the unwritten ancient bathhouse laws and do not go to the bathhouse at night. In my youth, I never dared to tell fortunes in the bathhouse, the fear of the unknown was so great.
I believe that the bathhouse is the border of the worlds. In the old days, baths were placed near a river or lake, next to water. I think that water is a kind of conductor in the sauna portal.
No matter how great my curiosity is, I will not violate bath prohibitions. I don’t go to the bathhouse at night and I don’t advise you to. As they say: “God protects those who are careful.”
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That's why you can't go to the bathhouse after 12 o'clock
Depending on the day of the week, which came after 12 o'clock, you can understand what foreshadows such an act as washing in a bathhouse at night.
They say you can’t go to the bathhouse after 12 o’clock. Depending on the day of the week, which came after 12 o'clock, you can understand what foreshadows such an act as washing in a bathhouse at night.
- On Monday - to quick disappointment in the second half. It turns out that the partners overestimated the positive qualities of each other, without paying attention to the negative character traits, because of this, feelings will cool down, which will lead to a breakup.
- As the signs say, taking a bath after 12 on Tuesday means receiving unpleasant news from a friend. The information will concern mutual friends. In order to help those in trouble, you will have to neglect your own affairs and spend energy, time and money on friends.
- A long-term lack of motivation to work is the reason why you can’t take a bath on Wednesday. A person will not be able to cope with responsibilities in a short period of time, as a result of which his professional status will deteriorate.
- Washing in a bathhouse on Thursday is an omen of an unpleasant conversation with a stranger. An unexpected meeting and conversation will entail discussions about controversial issues. A dispute will flare up, after which both parties will have a negative opinion of each other.
- According to signs, going to the bathhouse on Friday after 12 at night means losing self-respect after a blunder; troubles at work and workload will negatively affect a person’s performance, which is why he will not be able to cope well with the instructions of his superiors.
- Washing in a bathhouse on Saturday means attracting the attention of devils to your own family. Each of the relatives will have minor problems that will require effort and time to solve. A series of failures will negatively affect the mood in the house. Spending time together and having a heart-to-heart conversation will help get rid of despondency and discontent.
- If a person goes to the bathhouse on Sunday night, then a financial crisis awaits him. Problems with money will lead to a desire to work more, which will lead to new responsibilities. A gradual transition to a busy work schedule will allow you to increase your budget.
Rational explanation
Medicine is developing every day, and now everyone knows that taking a steam bath at night is very harmful to health. At night, the human body must rest, and going to the bathhouse is a huge burden. This can lead to the development of diseases and poor health. People didn’t know this then, but they knew how to listen to their bodies. After visiting the steam room at night, the general condition and well-being could indeed deteriorate significantly. There have been cases when people did not return from the bathhouse because they neglected safety rules. That's why people came up with the owner Bannik and the dark force that carries out bathing procedures at night.
Nowadays, people find logical explanations for almost every sign, but some remain faithful to the rules of their ancestors. Some people have transferred this legend to the modern world, avoiding visiting not only bathhouses, but also modern bathrooms at night.
Sources
- https://cyrillitsa.ru/tradition/101736-pochemu-na-rusi-nelzya-bylo-khodit-v-ban.html
- https://santatrade.ru/pochemu-noch-yu-nel-zya-prinimat-vannu/
- https://BlogoBane.ru/pochemu-nelzya-hodit-v-banyu-nochyu/
- https://delhimodi.com/voprosy/mozhno-li-mytsya-nochyu.html
- https://PrimetyTut.ru/bytovye/pochemu-posle-12-nelzya-hodit-v-banyu
- https://rsute.ru/914862-pochemu-nashi-predki-strogo-soblyudali-vse-poverya-svyazannye-s-russkoj-banej.html
- https://vse-o-bane1.ru/banya-nochyu/
- https://BlogoBane.ru/pochemu-nelzya-mytsya-v-bane-nochyu/
Baennik
The entire bath space belongs entirely to the baennik. He doesn't like uninvited guests in the bathhouse at night.
And the point here is far from being that he is an evil spirit, and the night is his time. Everything is a little more complicated...
The pagans imagined the world as a living being, just like them. Therefore, everything in nature was animated, things and phenomena were personified. This attitude helped explain why this or that event occurs in nature. Spirits and gods were born who ruled the world of people.
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Each pagan deity had its own element. Each of the spirits was responsible for one natural process.
The efforts of Christianity were not in vain and the baennik was discredited and reduced to the level of evil spirits. And all because he was responsible for the transition from one dimension to another.
The bathhouse combined all four elements. In ancient beliefs, a person in a bathhouse finds himself simultaneously in two dimensions, two worlds.
One foot in the otherworldly, irrational, mystical bath space. The other leg is outside this space. The boundary of the sacred world is the threshold.
Each pagan deity had its own appointed hour. The time of the spirit of the bathhouse is night, so you cannot go to the bathhouse at night. Baennik jealously guards the borders of the two worlds.
Why can't you wash at night?
The oldest Russian traditions, beliefs and signs are distinguished by incredible mysticism, which was inherent in our ancestors, and to some extent passed on to us, people of the twenty-first century. Much of our culture is literally saturated with secrets, legends and sometimes frightening supernatural features.
Even such an elementary and, one might say, everyday phenomenon as a bathhouse, at first glance, turns out to be overflowing with various beliefs. It would seem that what could be so special about a bathhouse? After all, this is nothing more than a place where a person can wash himself after a hard day or week, and be able to properly rest and relax. A bathhouse is simply the great-grandmother of a bathroom, many will say. And they will be wrong, because a huge number of beliefs and signs are associated with the traditional Russian bathhouse.
Steam room during pregnancy
Expectant mothers also want to warm up, but is this possible? Yes, it is possible, but only if the pregnant woman has no problems with her health and bearing a child. What can happen?
- If you have a short cervix or a poorly closed cervix, this heat and temperature changes can sometimes cause miscarriages. Usually this becomes known after an ultrasound; the doctor will tell you how well the cervix is closed, whether there is tone;
- In the later stages the situation is the same, the fetus is already large, the uterus is ripe, you risk provoking labor, and the heart may also suffer, since now the body is in a very difficult time;
- These procedures are contraindicated in case of pressure surges and severe toxicosis.
Talk to your doctor to see if he gives permission, but even if he does, be as attentive as possible to the process in your situation, listen to your body.
Beliefs about soap
A sick person and a healthy person should not use the same soap so that the disease does not pass on. Especially if it is an unfamiliar person. By reading the plot to yourself, you can transfer the illness to soap.
You cannot use soap. Instead of feeling good, you will get a bad mood. If the bannik is in a bad mood, he might get sick. Now the remnants are thrown away, in the old days they were buried in the ground so that sorcerers would not get them. A love spell or damage can be cast on the soap that a specific person has used. A piece made from soap remnants is only suitable as a gift to an enemy.
The soap broke into two parts - to separation from your loved one. If it fell to the floor from a shelf or from your hands - to troubles, collapse of plans and quarrels. Girls tell fortunes using soap. Exactly - the husband will be rich. On the one hand, the piece has become smaller; family life will pass in need.
Why can't you wash at night?
Let's start with the fact that the bathhouse itself in Slavic mythology was considered a difficult, but mystical place. On the one hand, people sacredly believed that in the bath they cleansed not only their mortal body from dirt, but also their immortal soul from the sins that had accumulated in it. On the other hand, it was believed that an evil spirit lived in the bathhouse, and therefore every trip there was accompanied by certain rituals aimed at pleasing this force and incurring its wrath.
This evil spirit was far from faceless, and was called Bannik. Usually he was presented as a short old man with a beard who lived behind the stove or under a bench, so we can say with confidence that Bannik is a kind of analogue of the well-known Domovoy.
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Therefore, it is not at all surprising that a lot of prohibitions were associated with visiting the bathhouse. For example, it was strictly forbidden to pray in it. Even the pectoral cross had to be removed before going to the bathhouse, and on church holidays it was not heated at all. Under no circumstances was it possible to visit the bathhouse alone, or leave a child in it, since it was believed that Bannik would definitely replace him. It was forbidden to even drink water! And, of course, one had to behave quietly and as politely as possible in the bathhouse, so as not to anger the owner.
One of the most important rules of Bannik was that men should always wash first. Women must wait patiently for their turn, because if a representative of the fair sex enters the bathhouse first, all her sins will inevitably be transferred to the one who follows her. So the order in this matter was observed more than strictly. First - men, then - women, and after them the bathhouse had to be left empty, because old man Bannik also needed to wash his body and soul. It was strictly forbidden to interfere with him; people firmly believed that Bannik could take revenge for this. Therefore, especially for him, pieces of soap, brooms and some water in a ladle were left in an empty bathhouse.
Explanation of why you can’t take a bath at night
Another strict rule of the bathhouse is not to wash after midnight. Why can't you shower after 12 midnight? Here everything was explained simply - at night various evil spirits come to visit Bannik, which he washes. And if you interfere with this action, old Bannik can steam an unwary person to death. Therefore, one should not be surprised that this rule was observed religiously.
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But for the same reasons why people followed all these rules and were afraid to somehow anger the evil spirits, the bathhouse has always been a favorite place for various fortune-telling and divination. It was believed that if you behave correctly, Bannik will not only not get angry, but will also protect you from evil spirits.
Of course, these days the bathhouse has ceased to be such a mystical place, and people have not been afraid of evil spirits for a long time. Still, it’s better to be careful, because no one knows for sure what lies dormant in the dark corners of ancient Russian baths. Now you know why you can’t go to the bathhouse at night , as well as other signs related to this.
3 comments
A very interesting article about ancient customs. Well, what about modern people, why don’t we wash ourselves at night? Well, a man walked home from work at night, there are different jobs, and what, he goes to bed dirty? All these are old superstitions that some still believe in Well, of course, you need to remove the cross in the bathhouse, it gets so hot that it can cause a burn.
You mentioned the Slavs in the story, but the Slavs were pagans and did not wear crosses. And they didn’t even honor church days.
You can’t stay alone in the steam room, because you’ll feel bad, and there’s no one to help. It’s the same with a child, suddenly he can’t open the door. Speak loudly and politely - so as not to quarrel or get involved in a fight, after all, the stones are hot, the bodies are naked. I thought for a long time why men go first... the version with sins is bullshit for me. I think this is related to the temperature; men go when it is higher in the bathhouse. And here I don’t know whether the women are too hot and have trouble eating, or whether they have to look after their unreasonable husbands: “Well, they should come back already, where are they?” I was waiting for an answer to the main question: “Why can’t you wash at night?” Did not find. Apparently, you can fall asleep and evaporate until you have a heart attack, or maybe the load on the heart is great, but the body still needs to rest at night...
Useful tips
Tip #1
Make sure there are no contraindications:
- tendency to hypertensive crises;
- thrombosis;
- tuberculosis;
- oncological processes;
- urolithiasis disease;
- cirrhosis, hepatitis;
- any infections and inflammatory processes in acute form;
- increased body temperature;
- skin diseases (eczema, fungal infection, psoriasis, scleroderma, purulent rashes, erythroderma, etc.);
- acute rheumatism;
- traumatic injuries;
- epilepsy, Parkinson's disease.
Tip #2
The first run should last no more than 10 minutes, you should choose the bottom shelf, and do not use brooms.
Tip #3
Cover your head with a scarf or hat. Monitor the uniformity of breathing and general well-being.
Health benefits of bathing procedures
There are many types of steam rooms, depending on the principle of operation and structure. We will provide general information, because they have almost the same effect on the body.
Previously, the bathhouse was an integral part of people's everyday life; they washed and treated themselves in it. Today it is visited more for “moral relaxation”, but still it is very useful:
- Men can improve their health here - a sharp change in temperature brings the whole body into tone;
- The vessels dilate - blood circulation improves, tissues receive more oxygen;
- Pores open, sweating increases - waste and toxins come out of subcutaneous deposits. In addition, dead skin cells fall off, it becomes smooth and fresh;
- Pain in joints and muscles disappears, radiculitis goes away;
- The Russian steam room is the hottest, it allows you to defeat colds, at this temperature pathogenic microorganisms die. The immune system is strengthened with regular visits due to getting used to sudden temperature fluctuations.
