''Christmastide Divination'' (russian: "Святочное гадание") is a painting by Russian artist

Konstantin Makovsky Konstantin Yegorovich Makovsky (russian: Константи́н Его́рович Мако́вский; (20 June o.c.) 2 July n.c. 1839 – 17 o.c. (30 n.c.) September 1915) was an influential Russian painter, affiliated with the " Peredvizhni ...

from around 1905. The painting shows a moonlit Russian folk divination during

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

Christmastide (''svyatki'') in a rural

log house A log house, or log building, is a structure built with horizontal logs interlocked at the corners by notching. Logs may be round, squared or hewn to other shapes, either handcrafted or milled. The term " log cabin" generally refers to a sm ...

('' izba''). Five out of seven depicted women gathered around a rooster pecking the grain, the

alectryomancy Alectryomancy (also called alectoromancy or alectromancy; derivation comes from the and ) is a form of divination in which the diviner observes a bird, several birds, or most preferably a white rooster or cockerel pecking at grain (such as wheat) ...

which foretells a marriage in the near future. The girls count the grains pecked by the rooster, watching if he did not peck more than twelve. If the number of remaining grains would be even, then the marriage will happen soon, and if odd, then it will be in the next year. A sleeping elder woman is depicted sitting on a bench to the left. The upper left part of the painting shows a candlelit icon corner.

References

{{20C-painting-stub Divination 1905 paintings Genre paintings Paintings by Konstantin Makovsky Paintings in Saint Petersburg Women in art Christmastide