George's Day in Autumn

Saint George's day
Icon of Saint George
Date November 16
Next time 16 November 2018 (2018-11-16)
Frequency annual
Yuri's Day in the Autumn. A Peasant Leaving His Landlord on Yuri's Day, painting by Sergey Ivanov

Saint George's Day (Russian: Егорий Осенний, Egoriy Osenniy, "George's [day] in autumn", also just Юрьев день, Yuriev den' , "George's day"; Serbian: Ђурђиц/Đurđic) is one of two feasts of Saint George, celebrated on 16 November by the Russian Orthodox Church (26 November Julian Calendar) and Serbian Orthodox Church (3 November Julian Calendar), the other being Saint George's Day of Spring (6 May) in Gregorian calendar.

Yuri's Day in the Autumn, celebrated at the time when the agricultural year is over and the harvest is in, had a special significance on the calendar of Russian peasants during the centuries when the system of Russian serfdom was established. The Sudebnik of 1497 established the two weeks' period around the Autumn Yuri's Day (one week before the feast and one week after it), as the only time of the year when the Russian peasants were free to move from one landowner to another. A century later, Boris Godunov's administration interdicted the movement of peasants on Yuri's day, thus finalizing the evolution of Russian serfdom.

A popular Russian expression harking back to that unfortunate event still survives (“вот тебе, бабушка, и Юрьев день”, roughly translated, “so much for Yuri’s Day, Granny”, referring to a broken promise or, more generally, to any failed expectation). The world “объегорить” (meaning to deceive or fool someone, literally, “to Egor around”, with Egor also being one of the variants of the name George) has the same origin.

It is one of major Serbian Slava patron saint days.

References

  • Alexander Panchenko, Review of the book by Laura Stark, Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises: Ritual and Supernatural in Orthodox Karelian Folk Religion

See also

Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.

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