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MICE DAYS - FOREST MEMORIAL
According to the old beliefs of Slavs and other Indo-European peoples, mice can represent the souls of ancestors. Among the Slavs, for example, Christmas Eve is a feast in honor of the souls of the deceased. On Christmas Eve, the Czechs give the mice crumbs from the table, they also throw peas to the mice in the four corners of the room because they believe that some ancestor appears to them in the form of a mouse. It is known that, according to old beliefs, the souls of ancestors like to linger in the corners of rooms. We have a similar belief in Serbia when the host throws nuts into the corners of the room on Christmas Eve. Similarly, among the Slavic peoples there is a belief that the soul can leave the body only through the mouth. Therefore, one should not fall asleep thirsty because the soul can leave the body and look for water. One story says that three friends were walking through the forest and they became thirsty from the long walk. Two continue to look for the source, and one stays to take a nap. When they returned, a white mouse came out of the mouth of the one who remained, and went to the spring to drink water, and then returned through the mouth to the body. This belief probably existed among all Slavic peoples. In our country, the vampire comes out of the grave in the form of a mouse, and turns into a mouse when he is being chased and every time he tries to get out of trouble. In our nation, there is a custom when a child chokes on something and wants to drown, they tell him: mouse, mouse, mouse! That cry was originally magical and meant to keep the soul from leaving the body.
When we accept the fact that a human soul can live in a mouse, it will be easier to understand some folk customs and holidays, such as: mouse Saturday, mouse days, Mitrovdan and Michaelmas funerals.
We have mouse days in the forest fall (October) and in the month of Cut (February). Mouse days are related to the cult of ancestors and are dedicated to the souls of the dead. As a rule, Saturday or "nameless day" is the day of the All Souls' Day and the beginning of this custom that lasted for five days. In this 7530th (2022) year, memorial service begins on October 22. The mouse days were best described by the ethnologist Veselin Čajkanović in the book "On Magic and Religion":
"...After what we said about the mouse as a shadowy animal, it is clear that the feast of mice is the same as the feast of souls. About that holiday in the distant past there was a cult of mice in which the souls of ancestors and the deceased in general were incarnated, just as on other occasions a sacrifice was made to the souls of ancestors who were imagined in the form of birds or in the form of various wild or tame animals..."
"...The mouse holiday in Serbian paganism lasted, as can be seen from the Homolje custom, for five days, of which, as can be concluded from the Teteven custom, the last day was "rasturnjak".
Rasturnjak is a day that exists in all multi-day holidays dedicated to ancestors. The souls of the dead feasted, ate and drank, and on the last day they had to be dispersed.
According to Čajkanović, the Mitrovdan and Miholjdan funeral homes have pre-Christian origins:"...The Orthodox Church knows nothing about these memorial services - they are, therefore, a purely national holiday."
In the 19th century, Savatije M. Grbić wrote about the "mouse day" that was celebrated around Mitrovdan in the Boljevac region:"The day after Mitrov's Day, Misolj Day or Mishija Day is celebrated. Neither women nor girls do any of the women's work on this day. On this day, women will not even search household items for their lives. On that day, people must not touch the baskets and barns with grain again. All this is taken care of, so that the mice don't do any harm."
It used to be a matter of memorial services that were divided by accepting Christianity and tying to different Christian holidays. The common name Mišoljdan has been preserved in today's Miholjdan (Mi'oljdan). In the eastern and central regions inhabited by Serbs, the majority opted for the Mitrovdan memorial services, while in the western areas, the Miholjdan memorial services were celebrated the most. Mitrovdanska memorial services are probably older due to the multitude of cult actions, prohibitions and various customs, while Michaelmas memorial services are poorer in terms of folk customs and are hardly known today. The end of the forest fall (October) can be said to be the most suitable month for making sacrifices to mice, because then, due to the arrival of colder days, the mice move from the fields to the village.
"...After all this, it is clear that here, in fact, we have memorial services, which, according to the well-known rule that periodical customs from the old faith are linked to some specific church holiday, were placed in one case on Michaelmas Day, in the other on Mitrovdan. "Autumn memorial services, whether related to Michaelmas in September or Mitrovdan, are a remnant from the old faith."V. Čajkanović, On magic and religion, p. 185
Mouse days were especially marked by women because during that period they did not do any of the "women's work". The men did not touch the grain barns so that the mice would not eat their gifts. Also, nothing is done with the wool, and the shears are kept closed.
The last Friday in the fall (October) is Mokosha's Day, the Saturday before Mokosha's Day is the beginning of Mice Days. Other Mouse days, ie. Seček memorial services fall on the first Saturday nine Tuesdays after the traditional Christmas - Svarožić.
Many Slavic religious communities celebrate memorial services at the end of the month of forest fall (October), but the dates differ in some places.
Author of the text URS "Staroslavci"Podrži
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