George's Day in Autumn, or Saint George's Day, is one of two feasts of Saint George, celebrated by the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

(26 November

Julian Calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...

, equivalent to 9 December Gregorian from 1900 to 2099), the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox Church#Constit ...

(3 November

, equivalent to 16 November Gregorian from 1900 to 2099), and the

Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonl ...

(10 November

, equivalent to 23 November Gregorian from 1900 to 2099), the other being

Saint George's Day of Spring George's Day in Spring, or Saint George's Day, is a Slavic religious holiday, the feast of Saint George celebrated on 23 April by the Julian calendar (6 May by the Gregorian calendar). In Croatia and Slovenia, the Roman Catholic version of Sai ...

(23 April Julian, equivalent to 6 May in the Gregorian calendar from 1900 to 2099). Yuri's Day in the Autumn, celebrated after the end of the agricultural year and the gathering of the harvest, had a special significance on the calendar of Russian peasants during the centuries when the system of

Russian serfdom In tsarist Russia, the term ''serf'' () meant an unfree peasant who, unlike a slave, historically could be sold only together with the land to which they were "attached". However, this stopped being a requirement by the 19th century, and serfs wer ...

was becoming established. The ''

Sudebnik The Sudebnik of 1497 (), also known as the Sudebnik of Ivan III (), was a collection of laws introduced by Ivan III in 1497. It played a big part in the centralisation of the Russian state, the creation of all-Russian legislation, and the elimin ...

'' of 1497 defined 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 Russian peasants were free to move from one landowner to another. A century later, in 1597,

Boris Godunov Boris Feodorovich Godunov (; ; ) was the ''de facto'' regent of Russia from 1585 to 1598 and then tsar from 1598 to 1605 following the death of Feodor I, the last of the Rurik dynasty. After the end of Feodor's reign, Russia descended into t ...

's regency forbade 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 Russian word "объегорить" (meaning to deceive or fool someone, literally, "to Yegor around", with ''

Yegor Yegor (, ; ; ) is an East Slavic given name. Other spellings include Egor, Egori, Jegor (a common variant in Slavic countries with a Latin alphabet) and Jegors ( Latvian variant). The name originated as a colloquial form of the name Георги ...

'' ()) also being one of the variants of the name "

George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...

") has the same origin. ''Đurđic'' is one of major Serbian

Slava (patron saint) Slava (, ) is a family's annual ceremony and veneration of their patron saint. The ceremony is found mainly among Orthodox Serbs. Although its origin is unknown, this old tradition is an important ethnic marker of Serbian identity. It is a ...

days.

Notes

Bibliography

* *Alexander Panchenko
Review
of the book by Laura Stark, ''Peasants, Pilgrims, and Sacred Promises: Ritual and Supernatural in Orthodox Karelian Folk Religion'' {{Saint George 15th century in the Grand Principality of Moscow Serfdom * Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Slavic holidays Folk calendar of the East Slavs 1497 in Europe Saint George's Day

See also

Notes

Bibliography