"Elul days" from Khaim Shoys, Dos Yontef Bukh (1933).
Life goes on in the shtetl as usual. Yet, at the same time it is clear to anyone looking that people are trying to be more pious. They are careful not to commit transgressions which, at any other time of year, they don’t even think about. They pray more slowly and with greater fervour, and those who have enough time stick around in the beys-midresh after praying to rattle off a few psalms or study a quick chapter of Mishnah or something along those lines. Because, as they say in the shtetl, in the days of Elul even a fish in water would shake with anxiety.
More than anywhere else, the days of Elul are most pronounced in the cemetery, as this is the time when people go to visit their ancestors’ graves. Most noticeable are the many women who come to the cemetery to pour out their bitter hearts over their nearests and dearests who lie there under the stone and wooden headstones. Some just stand and cry quietly, but many women scream and wail in loud, hysterical voices that can be heard in all the nearby fields and gardens.
When visiting relatives’ graves, prayers are said from the mayne-loshn – a prayer book composed specially for this purpose. But most of the women don’t know what to say or how to say it. There are therefore always a couple of learned women in the shtetl who, during Elul, wait in the cemetery to read from the mayne-loshn with every woman who comes to visit her relatives’ graves. Obviously, they are paid something for this. There are also a few particularly religious women in town, for whom it is not enough just to visit their relatives graves during Elul, but who also measure the cemetery. They walk around and around the cemetery with a ball of thread in hand. They then take this ball of thread to the candle maker, who uses it to make candles that are gifted to the synagogue ….
…. [On Yom Kippur] The synagogue is full of people. Countless candles burn on the tables, covering all the available space. Tens of lamps and chandeliers pour their light over the tightly packed crowd. Their shine falls on the men as they sway in their white shrouds and prayer shawls, crying and lamenting and beating themselves on the heart, screaming over the cries and wails which can be heard from the women’s section.
In the following section, on Sukes (succot), Shoys, mentions cemetery measuring again in his discussion of “hakofes” – the circular processions made around the synagogue during that festival. Discussing also other customs of ritual encirclement – such as the circling of the bridegroom by the bride under the wedding canopy – Shoys argues that, while some of them were later given rabbinic explanations or justifications, all of these examples of hakofes have their origins in ancient, primitive beliefs in the power of circles as a form of protection magic.
Cite this source : "Elul days" from Khaim Shoys, Dos yom-tov-bukh : di geshikhte fun di Yidishe yom-toyvim vi zey zaynen oyfgekumen un vi zey zaynen gefayert gevorn fun di eltste tsayt biz tsu hayntikn tog, (The Festival Book: the history of Jewish festivals, how they emerged and how they were celebrated from the earliest times until the present day), New York, 1933. Trans. Annabel Gottfried Cohen. https://www.pullingatthreads.com/post/there-are-few-particularly-religious-women-in-town-who-also-measure-the-cemetery
Thank you. I find Shoys' argument that hakafot/circles are ancient protective devices especially interesting.