LOTD: A Deadly Draft
Mike over at the Glory of Carniola reminds me of a particular set of Eastern European superstitions that annoy almost all visitors:
I can’t believe how many people are terrified of the cold, or drafts from open windows, or wet hair. The false idea that cold causes colds is fairly widespread everywhere, but here it’s almost like orthodoxy.
There are various related permutations:
- Going outside with wet hair will make you sick
- Sitting on a bench in the cold will give women problems with their ovaries, leading to sterilization
- Walking around the house barefoot will make you sick - You must wear “tapochki” (slippers)
- Never drink water from the refrigerator, even in summer
- Try not to drink juice from the refrigerator
- Don’t open windows in moving vehicles
And the mother of all:
- Opening a window and door at the same time will absolutely cause you to fall ill, and may leave you paralyzed
Most of these superstitions affect only the person taking the action, so we foreigners can ignore them and suffer only verbal harassment. (However, if you’re female and sit on a bench, the babushki will lay into you pretty heavily) I’ve spent most of my life in the American South and South-West, and one of the first words I learned was “cross-breeze.” When you live without air conditioning, opening both a door and a window to get some air moving is the only thing that makes life bearable. Try it in Eastern Europe at your own risk. I have had very well educated, intelligent people tell me with a straight face that sitting in a cross-breeze can make you paralyzed. At the very least, you’ll catch a cold. This extends to driving in vehicles. It’s not nice to be stuck standing in a crowded marshrutka, in summer, with all the windows closed.
I hate being in a stuffy room. Russians have a word for stuffy, душно (dushno), and they sometimes even complain about it. It seems, however, that on balance they’d rather sit in a stuffy room than open themselves up to the possibility of becoming caught in a draft. This is especially a problem in winter. Even though it routinely gets below -20 Celsius, being in a Russian apartment in winter can be downright uncomfortable. Soviet apartments are incredibly tiny and cramped. The rooms are small and filled with stuff (хлам, khlam) such as china display cabinets, huge plants, enormous chest-sized radios, rugs on the wall, etc. Add to this physical lack of space the typical overcrowding in a Soviet Apartment (two plus people living per room) and working heating, and a Russian apartment in winter can be quite a suffocating experience. Upon entering, you immediately walk into a wall of stale air. At my place, I would often have the window open to get some fresh air, but you can’t do that at someone else’s - people look at you like you’re insane. I used to rue having to stay at someone else’s place when traveling because I have problems sleeping in a hot and stuffy room.
These superstitions about cold are deeply ingrained into the minds of people all around Eastern Europe. It’s not just confined to Slavs, Romanians were just as vehemently convinced of the deadly draft. Where do these beliefs come from? And why do they seem to be prevalent only in Eastern, not Western Europe?
One week ago the first “Blog-Carnival Russian media” was started. Today already eight articles are registered - but all these articles are from German or Swiss based authors. Where are the authors of English Russia-Blogs?
More informations about the ”Blog-Carnival Russian media”
Comment by Krusenstern — May 18, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
For what it’s worth, prolonged exposure to cold temperatures without adequate gear (for example, walking naked in the snow) will probably give you pneumonia, preceded shortly by hypothermia. That’s what they call “dying of exposure”. I just wanted to point it out, since your post made it seem as though you believe cold to be completely harmless.
That said, consider yourself lucky to live in apartments where it gets hot in winter. The opposite is quite often the case.
Comment by Bugmaster — May 18, 2007 @ 11:34 pm
Hypothermia is one thing, getting a cold because I drink my water cold is something else entirely. Unfortunately, I have had both experiences in Russia, warm and cold apartments.
You bring up an interesting point. Russians freak out if there’s a cross-breeze in an apartment or vehicle, but they’ll gladly run naked in the snow after vodka and banya!
Comment by Owen — May 19, 2007 @ 2:06 am
Owen: I also grew up in the American south and took it for granted that drafts were a normal cooling mechanism. It took me a while to realize that people here were scared of them. At first, I just thought it was strange that everyone was always commenting on it. They would walk in and say:
“There’s a draft in here.”
“Uh, yes,” I’d reply.
And then they’d shut one door or window and end it. I was baffled.
Thanks for the link; it’s nice to see you again. I thought you were out of commission.
Also: you can’t get pneumonia from the cold. It’s a viral or bacterial infection. You can get hypothermia, but then again you can also get heatstroke. But you don’t see people panicking about putting a hat on whenever the sun is shining. Or warning people not to go outside if the sun is out…
Comment by Michael M. — May 19, 2007 @ 2:09 am
Actually, people do tell you to put on a hat when the sun is shining (the hat increases the albedo of your head, making it less hot, unless you choose a black bowler hat for some reason); and they do warn you to not go outside when it’s too hot; or, if you absolutely have to go outside, they tell you which precautions to take. This happens quite often in desert areas, such as Death Valley, Israel, or even the Grand Canyon.
AFAIK, Russians delegate the “running around naked” part to the “Morzhi” (plural of “Morzh”, walrus); i.e., people whose hobby it is to bathe in zero-temperature water. To each his own, I suppose.
As to pneumonia, it usually occurs due to damage to the alveoli; an excellent way to damage your alveoli is to expose them to thermal shock, such as one that occurs after going from room-temperature air to -20 deg C air. Additionally, if you are susceptible to rheumatism, you can really help it along by over-cooling your joints; there are many other health problems (besides outright hypothermia) which can occur due to thermal shock, or prolonged exposure to cold environments.
I’m not saying that a draft will kill you, I’m just saying that it’s somewhat disingenuous to imply that a cold environment is harmless, as you seem to be doing.
Comment by Bugmaster — May 19, 2007 @ 3:42 am
Drafts make you ill, but hey, let’s smoke like chimneys!
Comment by pickax — May 26, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
Yes. Everyone knows smoke is good for you. It blocks up the lungs so drafts can’t get in
Comment by Bugmaster — May 31, 2007 @ 2:36 am
Pretty funny stuff :). I’m a Serb and we joke that “‘Promaja’ (Draft) is the #1 Killer of Serbian People”.
Comment by Hehehe — June 10, 2008 @ 8:43 pm