| Christmastide Divination | |
| Artist: | Konstantin Makovsky |
| Medium: | Oil on canvas |
| Height Metric: | 160 |
| Width Metric: | 232 |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| City: | Saint Petersburg |
| Museum: | State Museum of the History of Religion |
Christmastide Divination (Russian: "Святочное гадание") is a painting by Russian artist Konstantin Makovsky from around 1905. The painting shows a moonlit Russian folk divination during Eastern Orthodox Christmastide (svyatki) in a rural log house (izba). Five out of seven depicted women gathered around a rooster pecking the grain, the alectryomancy which foretells a marriage in the near future.[1] The girls count the grains pecked by the rooster, watching if he did not peck more than twelve.[2] If the number of remaining grains would be even, then the marriage will happen soon, and if odd, then it will be in the next year.[2] A sleeping elder woman is depicted sitting on a bench to the left. The upper left part of the painting shows a candlelit icon corner.