You age is counted by the number of summers, as winters are considered ‘dead time’ in more ways than one. ‘Burning in Hell’ was a difficult sell to the Slavs, who consider all forms of warmth good, which is why they always used the funeral pyre, rather than burial. They didn’t see how putting someone in the ground, closer to Hell, was a good idea. In the early days of Christianity local priests were told that a fire was needed to thaw the ground in the cemetery, which was true, but they burned the body and buried a coffin filled with dirt.
Slavs hope for the best, but believe that things will probably get worse.
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