Липован – это образ жизни.
Lipovan – is a way of life

   Dear guests, the word “Lipovans” can often be found on our web site. As you already know from other sections of site, this euphonious word is used for calling Orthodox Old Believers. Administration of a “Safe harbor” provides an interesting cognitive information concerning origin of the word “Lipovans”; it is necessary for understanding what social environment you are going to rest at.
   First let’s make a proviso concerning the word “Lipovans” which originated in Vylkove and spread throughout the Danube delta, as well as territory of Romania, Moldova and Bukovina, i.e. in the Romanian-speaking environment, in other places the representatives of such religion are called “Old Believers.” Thus, the roots of the word “Lipovans” must be sought not in the ethnic confession of people called Lipovans but in their social life and natural-geographic habitat. The word “Lipovans” is a nickname, and the nickname, as you know, is given by some distinctive feature. In literature, this word is spelled with “o” – Lipovans, but Old Believers of Vylkove call themselves Lipavans with “a”, and say, “We do not know, who can tell why it is spelled with “o”; we were and we are Lipavans”.

   So, why Orthodox Old Believers who live in Vylkove became known as Lipovans?
   Modern Vylkove is no more the city as it was 100-200 years ago. In order to learn about Vylkove you need to visit old channel area of the city, to see covered with water, channelled areas surrounded by rush bank. Huge masses of impassable reeds, floating islands (quagmires), spreading willows, frogs, water snakes, wild birds, as well as cloud of mosquitoes and black flies – that was at the place of the modern Vylkove city. Escape Old Believers came and began to reclaim such wild wetlands of the Danube mouth. Survival in harsh environmental conditions required tremendous will, self-belief and a titanic toil for territories improving. A land plot designated for housing was cleared of reeds and manually mucked out; the shallow channels were formed in the place of silt used for paving (raising) land plot. In such a way the area both for housing and vegetable garden has been paved. Therefore, areas intended for housing were paved one and a half or two meters above the water level.
   Just imagine: to pave a land plot of six acres, more than one thousand cubic meters of silt should be mucked out and laid! Every year the shallow channels were silted up, they were mucked out once more, the Old Believers laid silt on the vegetable garden or continued to pave reclaiming from the Reed bed the sacred meters of ground elevated above the water level. When children grew up a new seedbed was provided for their independent life, and again the ground was cleared, the area both for housing and vegetable garden has been paved. In this manner and thanks to the toil, Vylkove city was found; streets-channels were created and improved in the same way.

   Walachian fishermen that lived along the mainland shore of the Danube delta watched in amazement the settlers, who paved of sludge their housing area like swallows. Nobody before these settlers has never arranged their sunny place as they did; as far as the Danube delta contained a number of lands composing strong soil where such refugees – Old Believers settled. But only this settlers decided to settle down in such a remote place. Everyday work on paving lands differentiated this community from all other Old Believer communities of the lower Danube. The Walachian citizens said about these settlers, “they pave”, “they cobble”, “they lay”. There is an archaic verb pava in Romanian language, which means in Russian “to pave”, “to cobble”, “to stack”, “to lay”.
   «Li» in Romanian is a Russian pronoun “they.” Li pava means “they pave”, “they cobble”, “they lay”. Sooner or later the phrase «li pava» transformed into a proper name LIPAVANE. This word has become naturalized in the spoken language not only of Walachian, but also of Russian Old Believers, because the word “lipavane” positively characterized them, reflecting their work.

   Most significantly this word originated in the late XVII century, when spoken Latin dominated in the Walachian language. Therefore it is improper to consider the origin of the word “lipavane” in terms of the modern Romanian language. Spelling of verb pava in the XVII century differed from the modern one, as well as the spoken language of modern Russians differs from Moscow citizens talk in the XVII century.
   “To pave a housing area”, “to pave a vegetable garden”, “to make laying”, “to lay a shallow channel” – these words are used in everyday life of Vylkove citizens, they still mean much for Lipovans.