Consultation for parents.
Folk wisdom in pdonkeysOhand sayingOh.
Sayings and proverbs are short sayings containing a conclusion from observations of others. They are more understandable to elders. children - six to seven years old... In a saying, a proverb, their content is important. They were formed on the basis of vast life experience. Proverb - belonging to the speech of adults. Children can hardly use it yet and are only being brought up to this form of folklore. However, certain proverbs addressed to children can instill in them some rules of behavior, for example: "In a hurry, you will make people laugh." It is more correct to use proverbs and sayings at a time when circumstances clearly illustrate a proverb.
In adults, a stock of proverbs and sayings is usually created as a result of listening and reading fairy tales, folk epics, fiction, under the influence of the speech of others. It is bad if they will "plan" in advance the use of proverbs and sayings. Folk expressions are alive only when they are spoken at the right time and place. From children in no case should not be sought so that they use these expressions, or worse, memorize them. It is good if children in the speech of an adult catch humor, and understand the edification in a proverb. If a proverb or a separate expression taken from a fairy tale or from the speech of an adult occasionally flashes in a child's speech, this will be a reward for the work, but you should not deliberately call the child to this.
Life is given for good deeds.
Wormwood does not grow without a root.
Take care of your dress again, and honor from your youth.
Wear a dress - don't take it off, endure grief - don't tell it.
It will be dashing, it will be quiet.
The spark of the carcass before the fire, ward off the trouble before the blow.
Grandmother said in two: either rain, or snow, or there will be or not.
God, God, and don't be bad yourself.
To be afraid of misfortune is not to see happiness.
Or the chest in crosses, or the head in the bushes.
You will go through the whole world crooked, but you will not turn back.
Youth is a bird, and old age is a turtle.
The Russian does not joke with either a sword or a roll.
Whoever eats quickly works quickly.
Everyone is a blacksmith of his own happiness.
See the tree in fruit, and the man in deeds.
To plow is not to play a tune.
Trying is not torture, and demand is not a problem.
Darn the hole while it's small.
Without grabbing an ax, you cannot cut down a hut.
As a master, such is the point.
Where there is desire, there is skill.
I knew how to start, and know how to finish.
The end is the crown of the work.
What is the spinner, so is the shirt.
Leni's too lazy to take a spoon, but Leni is not too lazy to dine.
"Shark, why don't you sew on the floor?" -
"And I, mother, will still flog!"
Knocked it down, knocked it together, here's a wheel!
Sat down and went - oh, good!
I looked back - some knitting needles were lying.
Stupid and lazy - does one thing twice.
A big talker is a bad worker.
If you don't have a friend, look for it, but if you find it, take care of it.
The wolf does not accept a willing herd.
Amicably - not overweight, but apart - at least give it up.
For a dear friend and an earring from the ear.
For a friend, even seven miles is not a outskirts.
Where there is a way, there is a treasure.
You will not get to know your friend without trouble.
A bird has wings, and a person has a mind.
And the power is inferior to the mind.
You will not be clever with someone else's mind.
Don't ask the old, ask the experienced.
In a smart conversation, to be - to buy the mind, and in a stupid conversation - and to lose your own.
Take your time to answer, hurry up to listen.
A long rope is good, but speech is short.
Do not rush with your tongue, hurry with deeds.
To brag is not to mow, the back does not hurt.
Empty vessels make the greatest sound.
Don't teach fish to swim.
In the absence of people, Thomas is a nobleman.
There is a large chunk in the wrong hands.
Sinking - the ax promised, but pulled out - and it's a pity for the axes.
Slander that coal: it will not burn, so it will stain.
Every song has its end.
Where love is, there is God.
Good feelings are neighbors of love.
Love wins over everything.
Love and advice, and there is no grief.
Lovers and God loves.
The beauty is not famous, but who likes what.
Love us black, and everyone will love white.
With love, there is space everywhere, with evil everywhere cramped.
The mind is enlightened by the truth, the heart is warmed by love.
5. Aphorisms and quotes
Love is a reward without merit. Ricarda Huh
Love is all. And that's all we know about her. Emily Dickinson
To love is to stop comparing. Bernard Grasse
Love is the most proven way to overcome shame. Sigmund Freud
When people do not agree on the main thing, they disagree over trifles. Don Aminado
The measure of love is love without measure. Modified Francis of Salez
It's so easy to be loved, it's so hard to love. Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Love should forgive all sins, but not a sin against love. Oscar Wilde
6. Works of art (literature, cinema, theater, painting)
Marc Chagall "Above the City"
Anton Viktorov - paintings with the word Love. Illustration - "Picture of Happiness"
Leonid Baranov Old age in love
7. Love and enterprise management
If lovers work together, they are distracted from work.
If they do not work together, they talk to each other on the phone at work time, take time off to solve this problem. problems.
Some companies encourage the formation of families within the enterprise in order to reduce employee turnover, to make the business "family", successive from generation to generation (this applies to both managers and employees).
Faces of Russia. "Living together while remaining different"
The multimedia project "Faces of Russia" has existed since 2006, telling about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together, while remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for the countries of the entire post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, within the framework of the project, we have created 60 documentaries about representatives of different Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs "Music and Songs of the Peoples of Russia" were created - more than 40 programs. In support of the first series of films, illustrated almanacs were released. Now we are halfway to the creation of a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a snapshot that will allow the people of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a legacy of what they were like for their descendants.
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Faces of Russia". Karaites. “Karaites. Readers ", 2011
On this topic:
General information
CARA'IMY, people. They live in the cities of Ukraine (in Crimea - 1404 people), in Lithuania (289 people) and in Russia, mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg (680 people). The total number in the countries of the former USSR is 2602 people (1989). Small groups of Karaites in Poland and France; the largest number (about 25 thousand) was concentrated in Israel by the mid-1980s. They speak the Karaite language of the Turkic group of the Altai family, dialects: Crimean, Trakai (northern), Galich (southern). The religion of the Karaites is Karaimism based on the Old Testament.
According to the 2002 census, the number of Karaites living in Russia is 400 people, according to the 2010 census. - 1 thousand 927 people.
The ethnonym Karaim (Hebrew, literally "reading") goes back to the Jewish sect that emerged in Baghdad at the beginning of the 8th century, the doctrine of which is based on the recognition of the only source of faith in the Bible and the denial of the rabbinical-Talmudic tradition. In the 13th century, a significant number of Karaites settled in the Crimea, mainly from the Byzantine Empire. In the capital of the Crimean khans, Solkhat (modern Old Crimea), the Karaim community existed in the 14th century. Many legends are associated with the origin of the Karaim community in the city of Chufut-Kale (which the Karaites called the "Jewish rock") (in the 19th century, the population of Chufut-Kale consisted mainly of Karaims). According to Karaite legends, the Lithuanian prince Vitovt, having defeated the Crimean Tatars in 1392, drove off prisoners, among whom were several Karaite families. They were settled in Troki (Trakai, near Vilnius), in Lutsk, Galich, near Lvov (Krasny Ostrov), later they began to settle in other cities of Lithuania, Volyn, and Podolia. During the Jewish pogrom of 1648 in Ukraine, most of the Karaims shared the fate of the Jewish rabbis, and (until the end of the 18th century) the administrative authorities of various countries, as a rule, did not distinguish between the Karaites and the Jewish communities. In 1495, the Karaites were expelled from Lithuania.
With the inclusion of Crimea (1783) and Vilna (1795) in the Russian Empire, the position of the Karaites changed. In 1795, Catherine II freed the Karaims (whose number reached 2,400 in Russia) from paying a double tax imposed on the Jews of Russia, and allowed them to acquire land property. The Karaites were farmers who owned tobacco and fruit plantations and salt mines. In 1837, in the Tauride province, the Karaites received the rights of religious self-government (like the Crimean Muslim clergy). The residence of the gakham (haham, the head of the Karaite clergy) was Yevpatoria, there was a Karaite printing house. In 1863, the Karaites were fully equal in rights with the inhabitants of Russia.
After 1917, part of the Crimean Karaites emigrated from Russia to Poland, France, Germany, and Turkey. The number of Crimean and Polish-Lithuanian Karaites decreased as a result of assimilation. In 1926, 9 thousand lived in the USSR, 5 thousand outside its borders; in 1932 - in the USSR (mainly in the Crimea) about 10 thousand and 2 thousand - mainly in Poland and Lithuania, as well as in Turkey (Istanbul), Egypt (Cairo), Iraq. After World War II, the process of assimilation of the Karaites in Russia continued. If in 1897 the total number of Karaites in Russia was 12.9 thousand people, then in 1959 - 5.7 thousand, in 1970 - 4.6 thousand, in 1979 - 3.3 thousand (16% of them indicated Karaite language as native). In 1989 - 10.3% of the Karaites indicated the Karaite language as their native language (within the former Soviet Union - 19.3%).
Essays
And in family albums - the history of a whole nation ...
Family albums ... Many of us keep them for years or even decades. And if we want to tell about the history of our family family, then family albums will help us with this.
Do other nations have family albums as well? Of course have. For example, mejuma. These are handwritten family collections. The Karaites (Karaites) have an ancient tradition of keeping such albums.
Legends and fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, songs, riddles, facts of family life in the form of a chronicle were entered into the mejuma.
In majuma, you can find references to unusual natural phenomena (earthquakes, eclipses of the sun and moon), as well as significant historical events. It is important to note that the majuma have been passed down from generation to generation. Often, Karaite families had several collections that made up a single chronological series.
Along with the Old Testament, the Majuma Bibles belonged to the most valuable family heirlooms. Before the Great Patriotic War, they were present in almost all families of Karaites (Karaites) in the Crimea. Nowadays, only a few copies have survived. Entries in the majuma were written in the Karai language, mainly in "Karaite italics" - cursive writing based on the square Aramaic script. Sometimes they used Arabic graphics. In some of the mejuma of the early 20th century, there are Cyrillic records in the Karai (Karaite) language.
Majuma - an inexhaustible storehouse of folk wisdom - are written monuments of folk art not only of the Crimean Karaites. In addition to the Karai language itself, they contain ancient Turkic material, folklore common to the related indigenous peoples of the peninsula, and works that were used by different peoples of the Crimea.
The Majuma Karai have not been systematically researched. The content of one collection was cited by Academician Vasily Radlov in “Samples of folk literature of the northern Turkic tribes”. In this work, 470 proverbs and sayings, 343 songs of different genres, 200 riddles, 105 omens-fortune-telling by trembling of body parts, 20 fairy tales and legends are published.
We will listen to one of the fairy tales right now, or, more precisely, we will read it.
How happiness and power were argued
This tale is interesting in many aspects, including the fact that it contains, as it were, two groups of heroes. There are concrete heroes and ... abstract ones. On the one hand, abstract heroes are happiness and power, and on the other, the poor man, who became the object of the application of forces in this fundamental dispute.
Once, happiness and power met. Power speaks to happiness:
- I am stronger than you. If I want, I will give the person a lot of property.
Happiness answered him:
- No, I am stronger than you. True, you give property, but if I do not help, then the property given by you will not be useful - it will be lost.
And they made a bet among themselves.
They went together to the bazaar, they look - in one corner there is a poor man selling old things.
We went up to him. Power and says to the poor: "What is the use of this old thing to you?" The junk dealer replies:
- What should I do? If I give up this occupation, we will all die of hunger. And I can’t do anything else.
Power takes out one hundred gold and gives them to the poor man:
Go and live in peace.
The beggar took one hundred gold pieces, the joyful one got into the boat and drove home. But the boat capsized, and one hundred gold pieces fell into the water along with the purse.
The poor man went home with ahah-sighs.
Morning came and he went to sell old things again.
Once again, happiness with power came to visit him, they look - the poor man again sells old things.
Power and says to the beggar:
- Do you sell old things again?
And he answered:
- And so it happened, gold fell into the sea.
Power again gave him one hundred gold pieces with parting words:
- Keep them well!
The poor man took the gold home.
One tree grew in his yard. He took out a wallet with gold and hid it in this tree.
When the poor man left, a crow flew out of the hollow of the tree, grabbed a purse of gold and flew away.
In the morning, going to the market, the poor man came to the tree to look at his gold coins. Lo and behold, there is no gold.
Ahaya-sighing, the poor man went back to the market to sell old things.
And again happiness comes with power. Happiness says to the poor:
- Why are you selling old things again? What have you done with one hundred gold pieces?
The poor man told everything how it was. Power this time gave him one hundred gold pieces.
The beggar took the gold and went home. So that his wife would not know anything, he hid the money in a salt shaker.
Meanwhile, a neighbor came with a request to give him salt. The poor man's wife, suspecting nothing, gave her neighbor a salt shaker with gold coins, saying at the same time:
- Take as much as you want!
A neighbor took a salt shaker, brought it home, looks - and at the bottom is a purse with gold. He kept the gold for himself, exclaiming: "God gave!", And returned the salt shaker back to her mistress.
The poor man decided to see how his gold was there. He sees that there is nothing in the salt shaker. He immediately asked his wife:
- There were one hundred gold coins in the salt shaker. Where are they? And the wife replies:
- I gave the salt shaker to the neighbors. They probably took it. The poor man went to the neighbors and asked if they had found any gold coins.
- No, they did not see, - they say.
What is the poor man to do?
In the morning I went to the market again to sell old things.
Once again, happiness came with power.
Power asked:
- What happened this time? Why are you selling old things again?
The poor man told everything how it was. Happiness is power and says:
- Now you see that I am stronger than you?
Then the power answers him:
- Well, let's unite and together we will help that poor man.
And so they did. And the beggar became rich.
Fathers' words for all occasions
Folk wisdom played no less a role in the life of the Karaites than the prescriptions of religion. She served as a guide in relationships, helped in difficult times. A special place was occupied by proverbs and sayings ("words of the fathers"). There were many sayings, for all occasions. They often had a poetic form with rhyme and rhythm.
“The words of the fathers” reflect the attitude of the Karaites to their native land, friendship, work, and neighbor. There are many edifications and aphoristic sayings, often with humor, unexpected epithets, comparisons. Typical examples:
The foreign country is clay, and the Motherland is gold.
The giver is pleasing to God.
Let your word correspond to the donated amount.
Little is given from the heart, a lot - from wealth.
God willing - pray, but it won't bring you home - work.
Like pearls and lal (ruby) the words of a sage, only the word of a fool will hurt.
Be a lion with a lion, be a lamb with a lamb, but do not be a donkey with a donkey.
You are a khan, I am a khan, and there is no one to give hay to the horses.
He who exalts himself to heaven will fall to the ground.
The back is bare, and on the head is a bunch of cornflowers.
A fool will harness a horse, but a clever wind harnessed.
Your soul is a soul, and my eggplant, or what?
In the past, the Karaites had a curious game. Its members exchanged proverbs and sayings in turn. Anyone who could not remember the proverb dropped out of the game. Verbal battles continued well into the night. It is interesting that the winner of such a competition was honored and respected.
Karaites often competed in the improvisation of songs. Songs like ditties (ranks) and more voluminous yyrs were successful. These songs were quickly created and quickly forgotten. More complex and longer living songs of the “Turku” genre, including ritual and heroic songs (dastans), have been passed down by generations. Of the oldest songs, a lullaby about the beast Butahamor standing on the ice, about the sun that melted the ice, about a cloud that covered the sun has been preserved ...
The folk calendar of the Karaites is also interesting, especially if we compare it with the calendar that we use now.
The month of adding days, it is cold or thin - March-April. Haymaking month is April-May. The month of heading of crops is May-June. The summer month is July-August. The month of the lambs is August-September. Rotten (rainy) month - September-October. Harvest month - October-November. The autumn month is November-December. Month of cutting (slaughter) of livestock and preparation of meat - December-January. The winter month is January-February. The month of difficult (black, snowy) winter is February-March. The joyful month is March-April. There is also an additional (thirteenth) month in the Karaite calendar ("artykh-ai").
As we were able to notice, the calendar of the Karaites is quite regulated. It clearly shows when and what to do.
And if a girl or a guy decided to arrange their life, in the sense of being legally married, what was required for this? What conditions had to be met?
I take my mind and get married!
Marriage required: majority, mutual consent, general ethnicity, absence of forbidden kinship. They tried to marry representatives of distant clans. In the past, intercourse with close blood Turkic tribes was allowed, subject to the acceptance of the faith. The marriage was preceded by an engagement. Interestingly, after the betrothal, the bride was not allowed to pronounce the groom's name. This was followed by the preliminary gifts (honja) and the evening of cutting the dowry at the bride's house. (Toy's) wedding lasted seven days. This also included a bachelorette party in the bride's house and a bachelor party with the groom. As well as bathing the bride, visiting the bathhouse by the groom; drawing up a marriage contract; dressing the bride and groom. And the wedding itself.
The groom and his friends shaved their heads. Hair and nails were painted with henna for the bride, curls (zilif) were laid out, which distinguished the wife from the girl and the widow. The ceremonies were accompanied by music, songs, food, fundraising for the poor. On the seventh day after the wedding, on the evening of gifts, the young husband kissed his mother's hand and gave her a fur coat.
In the departure of the groom to the bathhouse on horseback, returning in combat formation with shooting and racing, echoes of the ancient rite of “abducting the bride” are visible.
By our time, the wedding has become simpler. True, the custom has survived to put the young on their skins and sprinkle them with coins and grain.
There were hundreds of superstitions
How were the Karaites doing with superstition? We know custom is something to be followed and superstition is something to be wary of.
Once upon a time hundreds of superstitions existed among the Karaites. Dozens are actively living nowadays. As a rule, this or that ritual is associated with this or that superstition.
To protect yourself from enemies in the house, at the threshold, you need to stick a dagger into the floor. A knife with a black handle, buried in front of the house, also protects from the enemy.
Sneezing at the mention of the deceased should be hit on the shoulder three times.
If a dog howls, turn men's shoes face down - this wards off trouble.
In the kitchen in the house they keep a horse shoe for good luck, but not a new one, but a found one.
The broom is placed with the handle down only when they want the uninvited guest to leave as soon as possible.
Even the enemy should be treated in the house, if he has already wandered ... But you cannot eat with him. After leaving the house of the enemy, they threw a pebble after him with the words: Yoly tash bolsyn - Let your road be like a stone!
Previously, it was believed that most diseases are from the evil eye and fear. They burned a carnation (karanvilil - patlama) from the evil eye, and smeared the forehead with the remaining ash from the disease.
Thinking to do something, they added the proverb Kysmet bolsa - If fate pleases. It is interesting that this saying echoes the famous abbreviation of Leo Tolstoy EBZH (if I am alive). The writer often ended his letters with this short turn.
In fulfillment of desires, one must promise to do something for the poor and fulfill the promise.
You can’t sew or sew anything on a person, and if you have to, you must name the seven widows; spit or urinate on fire, water, ash. You cannot put a glass or glass on a plate (you can only at a commemoration). You cannot beat someone with a broom; scatter clipped nails (you need to bury it imperceptibly); throw combed hair (must be wrapped in paper and burned in the oven); discard and turn the bread with the bottom crust up.
You cannot throw away bread crumbs (you need to eat or give to the birds). You cannot give a dagger or other sharp things without taking a symbolic payment for them, at least a penny. You can not sew and buy new things for the patient; sit at the feet of the patient's bed; something to give and take over the threshold.
Part of any profit should be given to the poor.
It is imperative to fulfill the wishes of the person who gave a terrible vow: Olum ila, karam kyi - Mourn my death and mourn for me. These words were uttered only as a last resort, when the rest of the arguments were exhausted, and the request did not find a response.
The one who has started to sweep the garbage must remove it himself. The business you have begun should be completed yourself, otherwise others will interfere in your fate.
Recently lost parents should not spin, sew, or process threads from Friday evening until the end of Saturday, as this may prevent the souls of the departed from flying off and praying.
Let's talk in more detail about the burial ritual.
"As you came in the flesh, you will have to leave"
Karaites are buried in a wooden coffin. The arms of the deceased should be extended along the body. Following the words “as you came in the flesh, you will have to leave”, no valuables were placed in the coffin.
At night, candles were burning at the coffin. They sung with a closed coffin. The relatives did not touch the deceased. At home and in the cemetery, the gazzan (clergyman) sang mourning songs (kyna) and the funeral prayer in his native (Karaite) language. All were with their heads covered.
The Karaite grave is oriented from north to south. On its sides, stakes (kazyk) were hammered, an analogy to which we find among other Turkic and Mongolian peoples. On the day of the funeral and during the subsequent visit to the cemetery, stones were placed on the grave at the feet.
At the commemoration, men and women were seated separately. Obligatory memorial dishes: funeral kara-halva, baked eggs with pepper, pies with cheese, raisins, vodka. Only at the commemoration did they put the glasses on the plates. The closest ones did not participate in the meal, and after the guests left, they performed the ayak-ichmek (drinking from a cup) ceremony and plunged into deep mourning. The priest stood on black felt or skin, the rest were located around according to the degree of kinship according to the movement of the sun. After the blessing of those present, they walked around the goblet of wine and bread according to the movement of the sun.
For seven days they did not eat meat and did not take anything out of the house. The repeated ritual on black felt ended a deep mourning. This is followed by the rite of et-ashi (meat dish) and daily food is allowed. On the 40th day, Khazar consolation halva is served. After 11 months, mourning ends with the last commemoration with white halva.
Those buried in a foreign land were erected a graveless monument - yolji-tash (stone to the traveler).
An ancient custom prescribed dismounting from a horse at the graves of rulers as a sign of deep respect for their memory.
Kyrk Yera Gardens
Talking about the Karaites, their deeds and customs, I would like to recall the main hobby of the Karaites - gardening. Until recently, the favorite pastime of the Karaites in Crimea was gardening, and in the western provinces, gardening.
Karai gardens were located in places of traditional residence, in the Kyrk Yera district (between the Alma and Kachi rivers). These lands are marked in the labels of the Crimean khans and in ancient times belonged to the inhabitants of Calais. Gardeners also lived in Tarkhanlar, Khanyshkoe, Kodzhak-Eli, Golyumbey, Duvankoye, Shuryu, Topchikoye, Aksheikha, Tatarkoye, Tostop, Kosh-Kermen, Bi-Eli, Azek, Aisunki and other villages in the river basins of the southwestern Crimea, near Bakhchisarai ...
With a total number of less than 0.5% of the total population of Crimea, Karaites made up about ten percent of full members of the Simferopol department of the Imperial Russian Society of Gardeners and at the anniversary exhibition in 1908 they received twenty percent of all awards.
Solomon Crimea, Avraham Pastak, Saduk Shakai and other specialists made a significant contribution to the development of horticulture, including industrial. We have created exemplary farms and fruit nurseries. They proposed new methods of storage and fire-drying of fruits, pest control, recommended the advanced methods of caring for gardens at that time.
Alas, after the 1917 revolution, gardening ceased to be one of the main occupations of the Crimean Karaites, as the people were deprived of their property and gardens, cultivated by many generations of their ancestors.
Even under these conditions, many karai made a significant contribution to the development of horticulture. Among them are Kalfa, Kiskachi, Bakkal. Abraham Pastak, one of the best agricultural chemists in France, holder of the Legion of Honor and other top awards, achieved great success abroad. By the way, while still living in Russia, Avraam Isaakovich Pastak became famous all over the world for his fruit nursery, which was located in the territory of the village of Mirnoe near Simferopol. The fruits from this nursery received gold medals at exhibitions in Paris and Turin and were awarded the Persian Order of the Lion and the Sun.
And our fatherland is Crimea ...
Karaites are one of the few peoples for whom Crimea is the only Fatherland. And therefore, it is not by chance, but quite natural, that it is in Crimea that the International Karaite Labor Camp has been working every summer (for 15 years now). The main goal of the camp is the preservation and revival of the ethnocultural heritage of the Karaites, the acquaintance and communication of Karaites from different regions of Ukraine and other countries on the basis of the “family nest” of the Karaites - the fortress city of Kyrk-Er (Chufut Kale).
What do the young people who come to this camp do? They study the history and culture of the Crimean Karaites, clean up the Balta Tiimez cemetery-sanctuary, monitor the preservation of monuments and the state of the cemetery. They are putting things in order in hydraulic structures, cleaning wells and streams in the district. They also work on the improvement of Chufut Kale. It is interesting that the transfer of knowledge from the older generation to the younger occurs in a playful way (conversations, contests, quizzes, competitions).
The number of camp participants is growing from year to year. For example, in 1997, 30 people gathered for the first time, and in recent years (2011) - about 150. Karaites from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Lithuania, Poland and even far abroad come to the labor camp. Up to 30 children rest in the camp. The age of the participants is from one to 83 years old. A school for teaching the mother tongue has been operating since 2008. In fact, the Karaite labor camp is the only opportunity for the younger generation to learn their native language, culture and history from primary sources.
The "Krymkarailar" association and its constituent national-cultural societies, individual citizens and organizations render great assistance in organizing the camp. Thanks to their contribution to the common cause, many cultural and historical values of the Karaite people have been preserved and appreciated. Financial and technical support for the camp is also provided by the management of the Bakhchisarai Reserve.
- To read about the Karaites: * Karaite Confession - Karaism
Folklore
The most important component of the spiritual culture of the Karais is their folklore, the origins of which have deep roots and date back to the time of the Crimean Khazaria. At the same time, folk art preserved both the mention of the Khazars and the plots very similar to those that exist among the Turks living in Altai.
The tradition of keeping a majum helped the Karaites to preserve their folklore, the presentation of family collections from them, in which folk legends, songs, as well as proverbs and sayings were recorded ... Such collections were available in almost every family and, along with the Old Testament, were considered the most valuable family relics ...
Folk wisdom played no less a role than the prescriptions of religion, served as a guide in relationships, and helped in difficult times. A special place was occupied by proverbs and sayings, these "words of the fathers." There were many sayings, for all occasions. They often had a poetic form with rhyme and rhythm.
"The words of the fathers" say that customs and justice are half of the faith, reflect the attitude towards the native land, friendship, work, neighbor. There are many edifications and aphoristic sayings, often with humor, unexpected epithets, comparisons. Typical examples:
The foreign country is clay, and the Motherland is gold.
The giver is pleasing to God.
Let your word correspond to the donated amount.
God willing - pray, but it won't bring you home - work.
Like pearls and barked the words of a sage, only the word of a fool will hurt.
Be a lion with a lion, be a lamb with a lamb, but do not be a donkey with a donkey.
You are a khan, I am a khan, and there is no one to give hay to the horses.
He who exalts himself to heaven will fall to the ground.
A fool will harness a horse, but a clever wind harnessed.
In the past, there was a curious game. Its members exchanged proverbs and sayings in turn. The one who missed the turn was eliminated from the game. The verbal battles continued into the night. The winner was honored and respected.
They often competed in the improvisation of songs. Songs such as ditties - ranks and more voluminous yyrs - were successful. These songs were quickly created and forgotten. More complex and longer living songs of the Turku genre, including ritual and heroic songs - dastans, were passed down by generations. Of the most ancient songs, a lullaby about the beast butahamor has been preserved, which is close in plot to the one known in Altai.
The folk calendar is interesting. The names suyunch-ai - a joyful month (February-March), einekun - a day of great purity (Friday) and yuhkun - a holy day (Sunday), sounded the same among the Polovtsians. The word yukhkun is close to the names of the Karachais and Balkars, and the name Cancun - blood day (Wednesday) - is used by the Chuvashes and Bashkirs.
Classes. Life.
The ancient professions of the Karai: gardening, viticulture, cattle breeding, military affairs, carriage, crafts, small trade.
Like the Khazars, the Karaites led a seasonal lifestyle. In the spring they went to orchards and vineyards, migrated with herds to the steppes and mountains. In the fall, they returned to their permanent settlements, were engaged in handicrafts. The surnames reflect the professions: shepherd, hunter, hunter of wild animals, gardener, beekeeper, milkman, buznik, baker, cheesemaker, carter, standard-bearer, chumak, locksmith, saddler, coin minter, tanner, leather embroiderer, cooper, woodcutter, gatekeeper, porter, herald, teacher, etc.
The Karaims were ranked among the best gardeners. Gardens and vineyards were located in the valleys of Alma, Kachi, Salgir, Karasu. There was a saying: "Work hard - the garden meets, too lazy - it runs wild." The gardens of S. Crimea, A. Babovich, Prika were once famous. Their owners received awards from All-Russian exhibitions.
Tanners were very famous.
The Karai were especially fond of horses. Hence the sayings: "A good horse is strength for a Karaite," "Without a horse, as without hands," and others. On horses and oxen, the Karaite Chumaks went from the Crimea to their fellow tribesmen in Galicia and Lithuania. From the word "chomacha" - fetters, yoke - comes the Karaite surname Chomak.
Military professions were held in high esteem. The Karaites of the Kyrk-Yer fortress were assigned to the military aristocracy - the Tarkhans. In Lithuania, the Karai were part of the personal guard of Prince Vitovt. In 1914, 700 Karaites served in the Russian army, of which 500 were officers.
The Karaites led a lifestyle characteristic of the Turkic peoples. They were distinguished by their patriarchy and unquestioning obedience to the head of the house. National characteristics were manifested in the architecture of houses, details of the furnishings, clothing, and cuisine. Adherence to black color and low dark astrakhan hats - Karaites, as they were called in Crimea, are characteristic. From the objects of ancient life - a device for kneading dough and processing leather - talki, similar to the one known with a similar name among the Karachais and Altaians. Karaite embroideries with geometric and floral patterns and with a characteristic closed rhythm find the closest analogy among the Kirghiz.
