Dur s’os’kik is the cleaning of houses. Dur is the house.
The word s’os’kik comes from s’os’kik and s’as’koni which mean to sweep and
sweeper respectively.
On this day, all houses and objects
must be cleaned and purified so that the entire village can acquire auspicious
properties to welcome Bal’ima’n’in. The solar deity comes from Tsiam, the
mythical place of origin of the Kalash. From morning to evening, the following
tasks and ceremonies are performed:
-General cleaning of the houses and
washing of all clothing and household objects.
-Cleaning of the ceilings and a
"saras" purification ceremony next to the ku’mba’pur, at the opening
that allows the smoke of the hearth to exit the house. In Brun village only
Saifulah Jann house has ku’mba’pur. The young boys of the family are designated
as the leaders of the ceremony. The ku’mba’pur is the point from which spirits
supervise the actions of the householders and intervene in the solution of
their problems.
-Purification baths for women in the
river and for men in the sacred springs
-Purification of the houses with the
smoke of burning cedar branches. Little boys carry the onjes’t’a fire around the
house and then around all the streets and paths of the village.
-Purification of the village, the
path that surrounds the village, with burning cedar branches by a virgin
teenager. In this way, an invisible onjes’t’a shield of protection against any
real evil is created around the village. While the teenager runs around the
village with the burning cedar branches, he loudly repeats the word "suc".
"Suc" comes from the verb "sucek" which means "I purify in a ritual way”.
-Making "kushuruk", small
pastries for the dead. The women place them in baskets with other food and go
to the cemetery grounds. A funeral meal follows, commemorating the spirits of
the ancestors.
-Children play with fresh dough “hsara
birayak” dough animals that were made three days ago.
-Purification of the watermills in
the evening hours with the “saras” ceremony. The ceremony takes place first on
the roof and then inside the mill. After the purification and during the
grinding, men and women dance around the millstones to the rhythms of the
Chawmmos songs.
Grinding of wheat onjes’t’a for the
manufacture of sacred breads that will be offered in the following days on the
altars in honor of Bal’ima’n’in.
-Offerings of flour or wheat upon
the entrance of the Bal’ima’n’in to the kalasandesh. The members of each family
wait for him, seated around the hearth in the central room. The head of the
family stands up and throws a handful of wheat or flour onto the flames. This
is a gesture of welcoming the solar deity.
After the purification ceremonies on
the day of welcoming Bal’ima’n’in and until the 21st of the month, the day of
his farewell, the Kalash settlements do not receive visits from strangers and
especially Muslims. Also, Kalash don’t leave their settlement. Couples avoid
contact. The men usually spend the morning and evening in the pens. The
continuous purifications that have been carried out and those that will follow
in the following days will strengthen them with high-level energetic energy
that will facilitate their communication with the god of light. Any exit from
the village and any contact with individuals outside the village will affect
them with pragata energy. In such a case, their participation in the rituals of
the following days, the holiest of their mystical and religious tradition, will
bring many problems to themselves and to the tribe. Only a bloody sacrifice can
neutralize the pragata burden they will acquire. In this Chawmos, six European
citizens remained in the valley settlements, three women from Switzerland,
Belgium and Greece and three men from France, Switzerland and Greece. A
necessary condition is their purification, which will follow the next day.
