a question about a russian custom

[chirashi-don.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if this custom is meant to be taken literally:

Если вы собираетесь в путешествие, перед тем как выйти из дома, надо присесть перед дорогой.

If you meet in travel before you leaving the house, you need to sit down in front of the road.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Hahaha

It is not "in front of the road", it is (literally) "before the road", which just means "before you leave home". And this teaches us once again about the dangers of word-to-word translation.
:-)

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. By the way, "Если вы собираетесь в путешествие" is not "If you meet in travel" - it is "if you are going to travel". Собираться means to be going, intending to do smth.

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

In this case "дорога" is used as an action or event, not a thing.
"Перед" can be used as "before" in time or "before/in front of" in space. Here it's used as before in time, before an event. In English "before" can be used for both things.
I don't know the origin of this custom or its full meaning, but yeah, we do have it and my family practices it. Whenever one of us or all of us are going far away (e.g. abroad), before leaving home we all sit down for about a minute and then leave. It's supposed to make the trip safe.

[kart.livejournal.com]

Yup. Make sure your feet are touching the ground for maximum effectiveness.

If you forget something on longer trips that require this procedure, merely looking in the mirror isn't enough. It's probably better just to continue on without the forgotten item.

[noser.livejournal.com]

:) This brings up an image of grim Russians sitting in front of the road, their mysterious culture impervious to a Westerner's curious gaze.

I've heard that the short silence before setting out was to say a prayer. Not confirmed, though.

[friendlic.livejournal.com]

The custom is called "присесть на дорожку". Funny literal translation :)

[dmitry-oo.livejournal.com]

Ok...
перед here means not "in front of", but "before"
дорога means not "the road", but "the journey"
that's it)
just means to seat and think a liitle before you start your journey

[vakhitov.livejournal.com]

Well I can confirm this. My father says a Muslim prayer during this short period of silence (he is Tatar).

[arenhaime.livejournal.com]

Don't forget about another funny possibility.
Присесть на дорожку in figurative sense could mean "to visit a bathroom" ^_^

[katiroma.livejournal.com]

We (in my family) usually don't just sit down for a minute, but also ask ourselves (loud) if we haven't forgotten the most important things: documents, money, airplane tickets, keys, etc.

[kegarawashii.livejournal.com]

others say it's to check in one's mind if everything is packed. that's a variant for atheists.)

[phineus892.livejournal.com]

:) Awesome custom! Look forward to it everytime we go somewhere, well on a major trip that is.

[leonya.livejournal.com]

One of my friends recently came up with a joke on this expression. Carl Lewis says to Ben Johnson: "Prisyadem na dorozhku". Here, of course, the reference is to "begovaya drozhka"- the running track.