Why in the North do they place a basin filled with water on the threshold of a house?

If you ever visit the villages of the Yamal tundra, you may be surprised by many things, because life in the North sometimes passes without any benefits of civilization. However, the first thing that will catch your eye is the basins of water near the entrance to the house. Sometimes there are even pipe cleaners nearby. True, all this is not explained by the peculiarities of everyday life or some kind of superstition. It's all about the urgent need faced by the population of the tundra.

By the way, the residents themselves will almost never tell you the truth, but will only shrug it off and joke: “For good luck!” At the same time, they themselves are perplexed why there is such curiosity and excitement around their basins.

It's about cleanliness!

The presence of a basin of water at the entrance to the house has a completely rational and practical explanation. People wash their feet in them, or more precisely, their shoes. And they do this before entering the house.

When we enter our apartment, we wipe our feet on the door mat. In the North they do the same thing, essentially, only using a different principle - with water.

A huge problem for residents of villages is a lot of sand, which is present almost everywhere. Settlements here were built on the banks of the Ob River, along the Ob Bay. There is nothing surprising, because the Ob is the main transport artery.

The terrain of some Yamal villages is very sandy, and sand, as you know, is even more difficult to get rid of than, for example, clay. That’s why people have found an effective way to avoid dragging grains of sand into the house.

Placing basins of water on the threshold helps solve the problem of dirt.Before entering, a person cleans his shoes, and if the sand does not “give up” so easily, then brushes are used.

In general, when I learned about such a system for cleaning shoes, the first thing I thought about was how high-quality and durable shoes should be in order to “survive” such abuse. After all, whatever one may say, even natural leather will not like contact with moisture. Perhaps rubber boots are considered the most popular shoes there... If so, then this method of cleaning has a right to life and is even, strictly speaking, the most effective of all known. In any case, in the North, one might say, they specifically approached this issue and solved the problem of dirt in the house.