Folk ideas about the symbolism of mushrooms

Hі, my dear Blurtians !

Today I found and translated for you special information about the mushrooms. I thought that such an amazing creation of nature simply had to have a special place in popular beliefs and folklore. There was not much information, but I still found something interesting.

Mushrooms in popular imagination occupy an intermediate place between plants and animals; they are endowed with demonic properties and are associated with the underworld. It is believed that mushrooms have sacred as well as erotic symbolism. About the origin of mushrooms, one of the legends recorded in Carpathian states says that St. Peter, traveling with Jesus Christ, once really wanted to eat. But when he stealthily bit a piece of bread, the Savior asked him something. In order to answer, Peter had to spit out the bread, and the mushrooms came from it. In another version, St. Peter secretly broke bread from a bag, shaking the crumbs from which mushrooms grew on the ground.

Researchers who have studied the meaning of mushrooms in various cultural and historical traditions claim that in many peoples mushrooms act as a kind of classifier, with the help of which the "profane-sacred" opposition is formed. Profanity is expressed in the etiological connection of mushrooms and bread, and sacredness in the fact that they came from the holy bread of Jesus Christ. Incidentally, let's add that, for example, the Greeks considered mushrooms "food of the gods", and the Aztecs - "God's body".

Depending on the appearance (convex or concave), mushrooms are divided into "male" and "female".

Erotic symbolism is manifested in the plots of the "war" of male and female mushrooms, in wedding and spring songs (a girl brings a fly agaric from the forest and puts it to bed with her); mushrooms in folklore are associated with the motif of adultery and the appearance of illegitimate children. When a girl dreams of a mushroom, it means a groom, and for a woman it means pregnancy. In folk demonology, mushrooms are living beings that can speak and have the ability to transform (into themselves, into demonic beings, into coins and gold).

Mushrooms can be imagined as enchanted witches or dwarfs, be a refuge of the devil, take away strength and health from people. Collecting mushrooms is accompanied by numerous rites and prohibitions: for good luck when collecting mushrooms, roll on the grass or turn over at the first thunder; when picking mushrooms, they do not cross themselves, do not pray, leave the first mushrooms in the hollow of a tree, pronounce orders; some mushrooms cannot be collected by pregnant women, so as not to harm the child, etc. Mushrooms predict the future harvest. Consecrated mushrooms serve as a talisman against evil forces and lessons.

In various localities, the use of boiled or soaked white mushroom in milk in the form of compresses for abscesses and purulent wounds has been recorded. The so-called "mushroom spirit" is known as an effective remedy for rheumatic pains. To do this, amanitas were placed in a closed container in a warm place, and after a while they released juice. The original method of treatment was used by the Belarusian population of Polissia. There, a bottle with amanita mushrooms filled with vodka was baked in a loaf of bread. In addition, Belarusians used fly agaric for malaria.

According to some sources, shamans used fly agaric as a drug. They were eaten raw, washed down with cold water, which often led to serious consequences - madness, and even death.

Source

And of course, it must be said that mushrooms are an integral part of many dishes. Unfortunately I don't go mushroom hunting as often now as I did when I was younger. I take pictures of mushrooms when I walk my dogs but I don't pick them for food anymore. It's too much trouble to cook them afterwards, and I've become too lazy for that. But I often buy mushrooms and even grow them myself from time to time.