Светцы

Svettsy
Many antique items for modern people are somehow incomprehensible and even mysterious. Therefore, it is interesting to recall the objects that used to exist in every hut, but now they can only be seen in the museum.
The most ancient and widespread way of lighting housing is a torch. Hardwood was used more for home lighting. Birch, aspen or pine were used for the manufacture. For smooth burning, well-dried wood was used, and the chips themselves should be as smooth as possible. Gorenje In order for the splinter not to fall, it was fixed in a special device, which was called svetets. Svetets is a forged iron stand for kindling, made by village blacksmiths. For many years, svetets was the only type of lighting for a peasant house. Such things were usually done for local use. The lights were used not only in peasant huts, but even in temples. 
This simple device was initially a small forged fork, between the teeth of which a splinter was inserted. On the opposite side, the fork had a pointed end, with which the light could be fixed. Later, the number of "forks" began to increase. Over time, the svetz had a wooden base, which could be high enough, and in this case the svetz was placed on the floor, or lower to put the svetz with a splinter on the table. At first simple in its form, over the centuries svetets turns into an artistic product, the elegance and complexity of which depended only on the imagination of the blacksmith. For example, the grips of the "forks" were curled into stripes, decorated with a forged pattern
There are 21 svetets in the collection of the Belozersky Museum, called "Metal". The items date from the end of the XIX – mid-XX centuries, most of the items are represented by the end of the XIX-early XX centuries. The basis of this collection consists of samples from the collection of the local history circle of secondary school No. 2 in Belozersk. In addition, the samples were donated by local residents as a result of various museum expeditions on the territory of the village councils of the Belozersky district: Sholsky, Paninsky, Vizmensky and Georgievsky.  
There are many varieties of light fixtures, but the main types are floor (mounted), table, plug-in and suspended. The museum's collection includes the following varieties of svetz: 
• suspended - hung from the ceiling or wall. Most of the items (13 items) belong to this variety: BOKM-622 M-98, BOKM-623 M-99, BOKM-624 M-100, BOKM-625 M-101, BOKM-626 M-102, BOKM-627 M-103, BOKM-2464 M-248, BOKM-2955 M-379, BOKM-3026 M-406, BOKM-3344 M-503, BOKM-3507 M-509, BOKM-5590/6 M-663, BOKM-5597/2 M-669.
• floor (mounted) – such doors can be easily moved from place to place. This includes such items as: BOKM-244 M-59, BOKM-245 M-60, BOKM-246 M-61, BOKM-2596 M-301, BOKM-239 M-904, BOKM-3506 M-907.
• plug-in (plug-in) - they were driven into a wooden post, and then attached to a bench or bench, they could also be driven into the wall. This type includes: BOKM-6198 M-761 and BOKM-6742 M-831.
Floor lights in the form of a long stem on a round metal stand are of interest. Often such trees resembled a slender tree with branching tendrils and looked very beautiful. For safety reasons, a trough with water or sand was placed under the light, where embers from a burning splinter fell. Such subjects include BOKM-245 M-60 and BOKM-246 M-61, handed over by the local history circle of secondary school No. 2. 
To this day, the Svettsy are exhibited in our museum expositions and at various exhibitions, representing the blacksmithing industry in the territory of the Belozersky Region and being one of the important attributes of life at that time.