Baptism ritual in War and Peace

[Misha Angelovskiy]

This is a very common ritual, I even remember it from my own baptism, done sometime in the 1980's. 

A bit of hair is cut off the person's head, rolled into a small ball with wax and thrown into the font.  If the ball floats, the child will have a happy life, if it drowns, the superstition dictates death or illness to the baptised.  I am sure people often choose to take this seriously, but only as seriously as one would believe in other superstitions.  Father Oleg Shamaev also points out that a ball of wax simply cannot drown, discrediting the practice: 

http://www.baby.kpv.ru/view/text.shtml?665

(scroll towards the end of the page, Gore ot primet.)

Hope this helps,

misha angelovskiy

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