Mowing is a delicate matter

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The definition of mowing came to us from past centuries. In general, it has two meanings, but both are similar to each other in meaning. Mowing is both the time of hay harvesting and the place of mowing (meadow, field).

The best time for mowing is mid-July. Herbs are gaining strength, matinees are still warm. It's time to make hay for the cattle.

The grass is freshly green on the hayfields

In the old days, mowing was a special, significant affair for peasants. It was carefully prepared for in advance. Washed white shirts, dresses, scarves. We got up at dawn, when the grass was still covered with thick dew and the fog swirled over the fields. In the morning the grass is softer and the work is easier until the sun beats down mercilessly.

Several men got up one after another and walked rhythmically waving their scythes. Everyone tried to keep a larger grip so that the swath turned out wider. They had some kind of competition. The women raked the grass to make it dry faster. By evening or before the rain, the grass was raked and piled up. The next day, the mop was broken up, and the hay was again scattered to dry.

If the field was far fromat home, stayed there to spend the night, so as not to waste time on the way there and back. They made huts in the shade of trees, but they didn’t sleep there, but kept supplies. They all dined together. The food was sure to be hearty, because this work is physically very hard.

Mowing was not only work, but also a holiday, fun. While working, young guys and girls sang songs and showed off in front of each other. And in the evening, while the parents were resting: they picked berries, swam in the river, danced round dances.

Adults sometimes went home - old people and small children remained in the village. The youth did not leave the mowing even on Sundays.

Mowing nowadays

These days hay is also cut. But now, mowing is not a joint work and a holiday, but simply a necessary work that is carried out by means of a gasoline trimmer or lawn mower. And only a few know how to mow with a hand scythe, and even more so to properly recapture and sharpen it.

Years and centuries pass, old traditions and rituals disappear, new ones appear. But sometimes it becomes a pity that together with our ancestors, that direct relationship to ordinary life, which warmed the souls, has gone away.