10 August 2020

"Fortunetelling at Christmastide"

 Mykola Kornylovych Pymonenko, Fortune-Telling on Christmastide. 1888

I found the image above in the Carpathian folk tumblr (where there are lots of interesting pix).  At the artist's Wikipedia entry I found that the painting is at the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.

The young girls are shadowcasting by candlelight, holding something (a coin?) in the other hand.  Are any readers familiar with this custom and able to shed some light on the process or its history?

Reposted from 2015 to accompany the updated post from earlier today about Russian art.

11 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 12, 2015 at 10:20 AM

    they may be holding a piece of wax. melted wax would poured into water and the resulting shape would then be used to foretell the future. there are many such carpathian mountain traditions associated with christmas time. it is a magical time, and not just because of christmas.

    thanks for the tumblr link!

    I-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. nolanddaJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:09 AM

    I believe they are practicing molybdomancy, a form of "divination" using molten metal (typically lead or tin).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nolanddaJanuary 13, 2015 at 1:48 PM

      a video of Bleigießen (i.e. molybdomancy. literally "lead pouring") as it is practiced today.

      I also found an English language list of interpretations.

      Delete
    2. nolanddaAugust 10, 2020 at 2:30 PM

      Note that in the video (around t=0:43) the practitioners place the quenched lead blob from the water bowl between the candle and the wall in order to use the shadow to better determine what "shape" the blob most resembles which then allows them to lookup the divinatory meaning of that shape. This is why it looks like shadow casting.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:39 AM

    first time i have heard of the term 'molybdomancy', but i like it!

    from what i know, in the carpathians, they use melted wax, beeswax to be specific. i have not heard of it being done with melted metal, but i will check.

    I-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 10:52 AM

    here is the wax method, which is what those girls would be doing.

    https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/folklorica/article/viewFile/3744/3583

    I-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MinnesotastanJanuary 13, 2015 at 11:49 AM

      excellent link, anon. When I get a chance I'll update the post with the info from your link and the one provided by nolandda.

      Delete
  5. MinnesotastanJanuary 13, 2015 at 1:05 PM

    Divination by means of wax is called "carromancy."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carromancy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousJanuary 13, 2015 at 1:14 PM

      thanks for that wiki link!

      :-) i was going to invent a word for the wax version of 'molybdomancy', but you did, and you created a wiki page for it as well! :-)

      I-)

      Delete
  6. RickAugust 10, 2020 at 12:30 PM

    The young girls are shadowcasting by candlelight, holding something (a coin?) in the other hand. Are any readers familiar with this custom and able to shed some light on the process or its history?

    Was "shed some light" on "shadowcasting" intentional?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MinnesotastanAugust 10, 2020 at 1:03 PM

      Must be my 50-years-ago English major tendencies creeping in.

      Delete