Rabosh

Rabosh (rabush), also known as chetula, calendar stick or calendar crutch, is a specially carved wooden stick that represents a unique perpetual calendar. Through specially carved incisions in the form of dashes, dots, crosses, etc. days, weeks, months and holidays are noted. Relying on the signs is difficult for an untrained person, therefore the slaves themselves are made by craftsmen who know the church calendar and the traditional customary-ritual system very well. In this connection, the expression "He understands as much as a donkey from a slave" is also used for an ignorant person.

With most slave calendars, the year begins on September 1 - Simeonovden, the beginning of the new church year, and according to folk beliefs - the beginning of the economic year. Then the autumn plowing and sowing, the burning and gathering of the walnuts begin, and the day is also known as "Simeon the ploughman", "Simeon the sickle", "Simeon the brulee".

In addition to a perpetual calendar, raboshis are also made for settling commercial and credit relations (products, order, loan, version). In these slaves, the rod is wider, often in the form of a batten. This is necessary because it splits in two and each takes one part. The "mother" remains with the giver or seller, and the "puppy" (meaning puppy) remains with the taker or buyer. The quantity of the goods or the number of money is written on the two parts placed side by side, and then each takes his part from the slave. When settling accounts, the two pieces are brought together, the signs are looked at, and if everything is in order, the "documents" are thrown into the fire as the end of the deal.

The ownership of the livestock or the size of the herd is also noted on the rabosh.
Calendar raboshes are made of hard wood, usually beech, so that they can be used for a longer time, while the latter use soft wood so that it can split more easily and not break.
The reliability of the slave is indisputable and people believed in it, which is also judged by the expression "Didn't God write it on the slave?".

A similar type of wooden calendars are known throughout the Balkan Peninsula, as well as in other European countries. In Bulgaria, raboshes were widely used until the end of the 1897th century, and in some places in the country until the middle of the XNUMXth century. In the photo, rabosh-calendar from XNUMX, made of beech, in the shape of a rectangular stick. Found in the area south of Plovdiv and donated to NIM by Asen Georgiev Lukov.