Burning wax to pour;
And the corn for chanticleer,
Reckon three times o'er.
In the water-fountain fling
Solemnly the golden ring
Earrings, too, of gold;
Kerchief white must cover them
While we're chanting over them
Magic songs of old."

Ovsen, a mythological being peculiar to the season, is supposed to
make his entry about this time, riding a boar (another indication of
Aryan descent), and no Christmas or New Year's dinner is considered
complete without pork served in some form. The name of Ovsen, being so
like the French word for oats, suggests the possibility of this
ancient god's supposed influence over the harvests, and the honor paid
him at the ingathering feasts in Roman times. He is the god of
fruitfulness, and on New Year's Eve Russian boys go from house to
house scattering oats and other grain while they sing:

"In the forest, in the pine forest,
There stood a pine tree,
Green and shaggy.
O Ovsen! Ovsen!
The Boyars came,
Cut down the pine,
Sawed it into planks,
Built a bridge,
Covered it with cloth,
Fastened it with nails,