Harvest Prediction by Residents of Ukrainian Polissia: аn Agrometeorological Experience

Abstract

Scientists of various fields of knowledge are always interested in the traditional experience of people in order to involve it in practical activities. All peoples have many signs by which they determine whether the year will be fruitful or not. This can be considered most consistently on the example of studying folk meteorology. The purpose of the publication is to identify general regional features and local peculiarities of crop forecasting by residents of Ukrainian Polissia as per weather phenomena, based on field materials collected during 2002–2019 in the northern districts of Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, and Chernihiv regions and from emigrants from the Chornobyl exclusion zone using the author’s questionnaire. The methodology of the publication is based on general scientific principles and basic requirements that are put forward to works of historical and ethnological direction. To achieve the set goal, rational and irrational signs are used as predictors of the peasant’s well-being, in particular, observations of the first thunder, snow, hoarfrost, and icicles. An important criterion for prediction was the day of the week when snow or frost first fell. Attention is drawn to the Christmas holidays, which were a certain nodal point for predicting the next year’s harvest by inhabitants of Polissia. Phonetic coincidences of word forms when predicting the harvest are noticed. Since agriculture was the main form of livelihood for Ukrainians in Polissia, many meteorological signs aimed at predicting the future harvest with minor local features within the region have been preserved in folk practice. In this way, the practical possibility of using folk experience as indicators of the terms of field work and various agrotechnical measures is confirmed. The use of the positive experience of traditional agrometeorology (after appropriate verification by specialists) can be useful in modern agricultural practice, considering their general regional and local features.