Stars in world views of тurkmen

Abstract

Stars, constellations and star space represent the least studied area of Turkmen traditional culture. The first references to celestial stars and constellations, astronomy and local observatories are found in medieval historical and literary sources.

In the people, there were many superstitions associated with the stars. Labor and religious holidays cope strictly according to the national calendar, taking into account the so-called “successful” and “unsuccessful” days, which corresponded to: “happy” and “unpleasant (nameless)” stars. The star could determine the fate of man. About the happy man, they said that he was with a star. The expression “having found a star”, in the Turkmen language, means to take root, to settle firmly on the ground. If a person was unsuccessful, he was called a starless.

The study of the star space had more practical applications. In the past, when there were no hours, the distribution of watering lines for land was determined in various ways: during the day — by the movement of the sun, at night — by the stars. The ability to read on the stars was preserved at a later time. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, local astrologers practiced in the Turkmen villages, who could accurately predict the weather by the stars.