On the Feast of the Annunciation, there is a custom to let loose forest birds. In fact, tradition turns into the death of thousands of birds caught by poachers for profit.
Each nation has distinctive customs and traditions, many of which originate from the depths of centuries. If you look, even things absurd from our point of view carried a rational kernel, time just changed, the life of people changed and the custom, so to speak, became outdated.
A similar story happened with one system of Russian folk tradition. It is still customary here for the Annunciation (April 7) to release wild birds in the wild. Everything seems to be fine – birds are released, but not so simple!
In the old days, people often kept birds at home, enjoying the winter evenings with cheerful trills of bullfinches, tapas, finches, carduelis, and, of course, nightingales. Then there was no electricity, which means that all the usual household attributes that we are familiar with – radio, TV, and even the most daring dreamers could not even think about the Internet. The farmer ran out of suffering, harvested and long winter evenings you can do needlework, and for the mood, a warm little bird sings in a cage about the warm summer. In the spring again, a lot of things to do. And you can release the bird to the brothers who returned from wintering.
So it was before, and now a few weeks before the Annunciation, capture begins in the forests of tits, bullfinches, sparrows, carduelis and other birds. Then they are sold wholesale and retail, so that people observe the old tradition and release them into the wild. True, not everyone will fall into the wild – the majority will simply not live up to this happy moment. Each year, the holiday is accompanied by the death of thousands of birds – during catching, keeping, and even after release from experienced stress. So the old tradition in our time has transformed into a destructive business for nature.
We urge – do not buy birds from merchants, follow traditions, but do not forget about common sense!
