Ritual songs are a type of folklore that accompanied calendar and family holidays, as well as the work of the farmer during the economic year.
Calendar ritual songs are a kind of ritual songs that are associated with holidays, with natural phenomena and the work of peasants in different times of the year. All calendar rituals are also associated with the solar cycle - solstices and equinoxes.
Folklore is oral folk art; a set of beliefs, customs, rituals, songs, fairy tales, and other phenomena of the life of peoples. The most important feature of folklore is the orientation towards the oral way of transmitting information. The carriers were usually the villagers.
A rite is a ceremony, a series of actions strictly defined by custom, accompanying and formalizing the commission of acts of a predominantly cult nature.
There are 4 cycles of calendar-ritual poetry: winter, spring, summer, autumn.
carols
Among the winter calendar and ritual songs great place took carols. Carols were called festive detours of the huts with the singing of songs - carols. The mummers went from house to house and wished for a rich harvest, livestock offspring, happiness in seed life and health. In conclusion, they asked for a reward for their work.
Carol, carol!
And sometimes carols
On Christmas Eve
Kolyada has come
Brought Christmas.
You will give us
We will praise
And you won't give
We will reproach!
Carol, carol!
Give me the pie!
Shrovetide calendar - ritual songs
Maslenitsa symbolizes the onset of spring and the departure of winter. This fun party with pancakes, treats and round dance. It is celebrated for seven days. It ends with the burning of an effigy of Maslenitsa. The ritual burning of the doll had deep meaning: destroying the symbol of winter is necessary to resurrect its power in the spring.
Maslenitsa closes the winter,
Spring invites Krasna!
Oh, Zimushka-Winter!
Go to sleep, rest!
Spring Red!
Come to us again!
Stand in a circle, all the people!
Harmonist, ring dance!
They came to you with good news,
Fun, joy brought!
Winter is ending
Carnival begins!
Have fun people
Maslenka is visiting
With pies and pancakes, -
Leading spring by the hand!
Let's sing, walk, -
Meet Mother Spring!
ride on a sleigh,
indulge in pancakes!
Spring calendar and ritual songs
To bring closer the arrival of spring, the performance of ritual songs of the Vesnyanok was called upon. They were called, climbing onto the roofs or hillocks, calling for spring. The arrival of birds meant the arrival of spring, so an integral part of the spring rituals were appeals to birds, larks:
Larks, larks!
Fly to us
Bring us a warm summer
Take the cold winter away from us.
US Cold winter got bored
Hands, feet frostbitten.
Spring! Spring is red!
Warm sun!
Come quickly
Warm up the kids!
Come join us with joy!
With great mercy!
With high flax!
Deep rooted!
With rich bread!
One of the biggest spring holidays Slavs - Egory Veshny(St. George's Day), they performed the ceremony of the first pasture of cattle to pasture. Cattle were decorated with ribbons, flowers, they sang about the coming of summer. Since ancient times, St. George's Day was perceived by the people as one of the borders between winter and summer, an important date in the agricultural calendar, and therefore a lot of work was timed to coincide with it, accompanied by various rituals.
We walked around the field
Yegorya called,
Macarius was called:
“Egoriy, you are our brave,
Reverend Macarius!
You save our cattle
In the field and beyond the field
In the forest and beyond the forest
Under the bright moon
Under the red sun
From the ravenous wolf
From a fierce bear
From the evil beast!
Yuri, good evening!
Yuri, give me the keys,
Yuri, unlock the earth,
Yuri, let the grass!
- Yuri, what is grass for?
- Grass for horses!
- Yuriy, why dew?
- Dew for wolves!
Summer ritual songs
The most famous summer rituals are associated with the Trinity and Ivan Kupala holidays. On Trinity, houses were decorated with birch trees. It marked the end of spring and the beginning of summer. The customs of ancient times are based on the renewal of life - this is the time when the first leaves appear on the trees, flowers bloom.
Until now, there is a rite of curling birch. During the process, the girls wished good health to their mother and other relatives. Or, during the curling of the birches, they thought about the young man they fell in love with - thus tying his thoughts and thoughts to themselves.
Early dew was collected on Trinity - it was considered a strong medicine against ailments and ailments. Such rituals existed among our ancestors. Some of them can be found even today.
birch, birch,
Curly, curly!
The girls came to you
Red came to you
Pie brought
With scrambled eggs!
The ritual song conjured dense shoots, rain, growth and a rich harvest of rye.
Where did the girls go
There's a lot of rye here!
Where did the women go
Wet there!
Where did the men go?
She grew up there!
Where did the boys go?
Got up there!
Where did the godfather go
There the oats sprouted
Where did the godfather go
The rye has risen!
Ivan Kupala (Midsummer Day, Kupala Night) - folk holiday Eastern Slavs dedicated to the summer solstice and the highest flowering of nature.
The song announced the coming of the holiday of Ivan Kupala.
Today, girls, Kupala,
Today, girls, Kupala!
And who did what - gone
And who did what - gone!
The song conjured a rich harvest.
Maria Ivana,
Maria Ivana
Called to life
Called to life:
- Let's go, Ivan,
Let's go Ivan
Zhito look,
Live to look!
Whose life
Whose life
Best of all
Best of all?
Our life
Our life
Best of all
Best of all!
Kolistosto,
Kolistosto,
vigorously,
vigorously,
Core in a bucket
Core in a bucket.
Ear in a log,
Ear in a log!
While mowing they say:
Kosi scythe,
While the dew
Down with dew -
Kosa home.
Kosa loves a spatula
Shovel - sand,
Kosets - pie,
Another pot of porridge
Oatmeal sack for him
More trousers on Filippovka,
Another radish tail
To a great post!
Autumn ritual songs
These are calendar-ritual songs associated with the harvest. Ritual songs of the harvest accompanied the beginning of the harvest, were performed during work and expressed the joy of the end of autumn work in the field.
We're sorry, we're sorry
Sorry, reaped:
Reap the young
Golden sickles...
Oh and whose field is this
Turned yellow while standing?
Ivanovo field
Yellowed, standing:
The reapers are young
Golden sickles!
The song tells about the performance of the rite of "curling the beard" - especially for ears that are not compressed for this purpose.
Already we weave-weave a beard
Vasily on the field,
Curling a beard
At our Ivanovich,
On the great field
On the wide strip!
When rye is harvested in the field, the children say:
The sun is red
Sit down quickly
Have pity on us orphans!
After the rye reaper, they roll on the reaping and say:
harvest, harvest,
Give me power
More spring stubble!
The meaning of the term "oral folk art". The narrow and broad meaning of the term "folklore". Genre-species composition of early traditional, classical (ritual and non-ritual) and late traditional oral folk art.
The international term "folklore" appeared in England in mid-nineteenth v. It comes from English. folk-lore (" folk lore"," folk wisdom ") and denotes folk spiritual culture in different volume its types.
Folklore- the subject of study of various sciences. folk music musicologists study folk dances - choreographers, rituals and other spectacular forms of folk art - theater critics, folk decorative - applied art- art historians. Linguists, historians, psychologists, sociologists and other scientists turn to folklore. Each science sees in folklore what interests it. Particularly significant is the role of ethnology (from the Greek ethnos: "people" + logos: "word, teaching") - a science that pays much attention to folk life.
For philologists, folklore is important as the art of the word. Philological folklore studies the totality of oral works of art of different genres, created by many generations of the people.
Folk verbal creativity was kept in the memory of people; in the process of communication, works passed from one to another and were not recorded. For this reason, folklorists should be engaged in so-called "field work" - go on folklore expeditions to identify performers and record folklore from them. Recorded texts of oral folk works (as well as photographs, tape recordings, collectors' diary notes, etc.) are stored in folklore archives. Archival materials can be published, for example, in the form of folklore collections.
When a folklorist is engaged in the theoretical study of folklore, he uses both published and archival records of folk works.
The specificity of folklore. Tradition, syncretism of folklore. Collective and individual in oral folk art; authorship and anonymity, variability and improvisation. The concepts of variant and version.
SPECIFICITY OF FOLKLORE
Folklore has its own artistic laws. Oral form of creation, distribution and existence of works - that main feature, which gives rise to the specifics of folklore, causes its difference from literature.
traditional
Folklore is mass creativity. Works of literature have an author, works of folklore are anonymous, their author is the people. In literature there are writers and readers, in folklore there are performers and listeners.
Oral works were created according to already known patterns, even including direct borrowings. The speech style used constant epithets, symbols, comparisons and other traditional poetic means. The works with a plot were characterized by a set of typical narrative elements, their usual compositional combination. In the images of folklore characters, the typical also prevailed over the individual. The tradition demanded an ideological orientation of the works: they taught goodness, contained the rules of human behavior in life.
Common in folklore is the main thing. Storytellers (performers of fairy tales), songwriters (performers of songs), storytellers (performers of epics), wailers (performers of lamentations) sought, first of all, to convey to the listeners what corresponded to the tradition. The repeatability of the oral text allowed for its changes, and this allowed an individual talented person to express himself. There was a multiple creative act, co-creation, in which any representative of the people could be a participant.
The development of folklore was promoted by the most talented people endowed with artistic memory and creative gift. They were well known and appreciated by those around them (remember the story of I. S. Turgenev "Singers"). The oral art tradition was common fund. Each person could choose for himself what he needed.
Not everything newly created was preserved in oral existence. Repeatedly repeated fairy tales, songs, epics, proverbs and other works passed "from mouth to mouth, from generation to generation." Along the way, they lost what bore the stamp of individuality, but at the same time revealed and deepened what could satisfy everyone. The new was born only on a traditional basis, while it had to not just copy the tradition, but supplement it.
Folklore appeared in its regional modifications: the folklore of central Russia, the Russian North, the folklore of Siberia, the Don folklore, etc. etc. However, local specificity has always had a subordinate position in relation to the general Russian properties of folklore.
In folklore, constantly leaked creative process who supported and developed the artistic tradition.
With the advent of written literature, folklore entered into interaction with it. Gradually, the influence of literature on folklore increased more and more.
In the oral creativity of the people, its psychology (mentality, mentality) is embodied. Russian folklore is related to the folklore of the Slavic peoples.
The national is part of the universal. Folklore contacts arose between peoples. Russian folklore interacted with the folklore of neighboring peoples - the Volga region, Siberia, Central Asia, the Baltics, the Caucasus, and so on.
Calendar ritual folklore. Calendar rites, their economic, magical and ritual-game significance.
Russian calendar rites
The very name of these rituals is associated with the calendar. Agricultural calendar folklore occupies a leading place in Russian folk art. From a combination of the dates of the beginning and end of certain work in the field and at home, agrarian and family rituals and holidays, the pre-Christian agricultural calendar was formed. The adoption of Christianity had a huge impact on him. Orthodox Church, seeking to transform the pagan essence of the festivities, she imposed a church calendar on the folk calendar months, or saints, in which the days of commemoration of saints were located in calendar order, events from the history of the church. As a result of such an overlay, a folk calendar arose, in which pagan and Christian elements were symbiotically intertwined. The Russian agricultural calendar and the Christian calendar converged with each other.
All 365 days of the year turned out to be devoted to some holy saint or an important gospel episode. Every day of the year has become a holiday - large (non-working) or small (working). The names of all pagan gods disappeared from the folk calendar. They were replaced by the names of Christian saints, who turned into good helpers in rural work and family life.
The pre-Christian agricultural calendar was oriented by the sun, while the church calendar was oriented by the moon. As a result of this combination, two types of holidays arose. The first - permanent, non-transitory - were celebrated annually at the same time. Others - passing - coped in different days. These include Easter and Trinity.
The folk calendar begins on the first of January, although this date has nothing to do with the agricultural year. Its beginning is either the arrival of spring (preparation for sowing) or autumn (the end of the harvest). V Ancient Russia(until 1348) The New Year was officially celebrated on March 1, and from 1348 to 1699 - on September 1, and only Peter I, by his decree, established the celebration of the New Year according to the European model. one
New Year's ritual began the circle of calendar folklore. The Russian peasant considered the beginning of the New Year the time of the winter solstice, when the sun, as it were, woke up from hibernation, the days became longer. The period of the meeting of the New Year was called Christmas time. They lasted two weeks Christmas before christening(December 25 - January 6, old style). Christmas comes before Christmas Eve. It starts with him Christmas time. In the view of the peasants, according to the signs of Christmas night, the future harvest was determined, magical rites were performed. Before the meal, the host took a pot of kutya in his hands and walked around the hut with it three times. Returning, he threw a few spoons of kutia out the door, into the yard, treating the spirits. Opening the door, he invited "frost" to the kutya and asked him not to destroy the crops in the spring. This game ritual was perceived as the beginning of the holidays. Spells and beliefs were an indispensable part of them: women wound tight balls of yarn so that large cabbages would be born in summer. The girls went to the locked doors of the church at midnight and eavesdropped. The one who thought the ringing of a bell was waiting imminent marriage, and a dull thud meant the grave. 2
The culture of the Russian people is rich in traditions that are passed down from generation to generation. That is why ancient traditions and customs have been preserved. The majority of the Russian people adhere to the Christian faith of their Orthodox denomination, the values of which are reflected in folk art. The whole life of the Russian people is subject to the unshakable traditions and customs of their people.
Folklore is oral folk art, which is formed from the rites and customs of any people. In folklore, religious and everyday, everyday customs and beliefs of the people are intertwined.
Baptism
Baptism - traditions
This is a mandatory rite in Orthodoxy, according to which it is customary to baptize, that is, to accept all newborn children into the bosom of the church. At the rite of baptism, in addition to the parents, the godmother and father should be present, whose duty was to spiritually guide the child as he grows up. The child's mother prepared the baptismal shirt ahead of time and pectoral cross, a godmother gave the child an icon depicting the patron saint. According to the Orthodox custom, the child at baptism was called the name of the saint, which was in the Saints on the day the child was baptized.
christening gifts
The guests invited to the christening gave the child memorable gifts, and the parents prepared a table with a rich treat. The mother of the child kept the baptismal shirt, and it happened that all subsequent children in the family were baptized in this baptismal shirt. When a child turns one year old, the godmother gives him a silver or gold spoon "for a tooth", which was kept in the family as a family heirloom.
Advice
If you are baptized, then for all questions regarding the observance of customs and traditions, contact your confessor.
How to observe household ritual traditions?
Modern young people seek and find the origins folk customs and traditions. Even people who are far from knowledge of customs, when celebrating calendar or household holidays, try to observe ritual traditions. Just go to the original sources.
Russian wedding traditions
Wedding festivities usually took place between fasts, mainly in the fall after the end of the harvest in the fields or in the winter at the so-called "wedding party" - the time from Christmas to Maslenitsa. After the couple from the future bride and groom had already been determined, according to tradition, a Conspiracy was held, at which the parents of the bride and groom agreed on all the conditions for the conclusion marriage union. Parents agreed that they would give the young to set up their own farm, where the young would live. The ceremony of marriage took place only through a wedding in the church. Only those who were baptized and of only one religion could get married. If one of the future spouses professed a different faith, then an indispensable condition was his transition and baptism into Orthodoxy.
Important!!!
Future spouses before the altar take an oath to the Lord God himself, so the divorce of married couples was almost impossible.
Before the wedding
Before the wedding, the bride and groom had to fast for 7 days, and on the day of the wedding they had to perform the sacrament of communion. The icons of the Savior and the Mother of God were used in the wedding ceremony. Parents of the young for the wedding had to prepare candles, a towel and wedding rings. The wedding was attended by the groom's best man, and from the bride's side by her bridesmaids.
After the wedding
After the wedding, on the threshold of the house, already young, the parents met with bread and salt and vigilantly watched which of the young would break larger piece from the loaf. It is believed that the one who breaks off a larger piece will dominate the family.
walk
A generous treat is prepared for the invited guests, and before being seated at the table, the guests were led to show the bride's dowry, which was the pride and symbol of the rich bride. The more linen, dishes in the dowry, the richer the bride is considered and the more favorably the daughter-in-law is accepted into the husband's family. Walking at Russian weddings can last from three days to a week.
Customs and rituals in Russian folklore
Knowledge and adherence to national customs give a Russian person a sense of belonging to their roots, which is very much appreciated in traditional Russian culture. Particularly revered Russian folklore traditions are most clearly manifested in holidays: Maslenitsa, Easter, Christmas, Christmas time, Ivan Kupaly's day are especially revered holidays that belong to calendar holidays. Baptism, weddings and funerals are part of everyday ritual traditions.
Conclusion:
The Church most firmly and traditionally observes all the customs and traditions inherent in the Orthodox denomination. Modern young people seek and find the origins of folk customs and traditions. Even people who are far from knowledge of customs, when celebrating calendar or household holidays, try to observe ritual traditions.
History of Russian folklore
Ritual folklore consisted of verbal-musical, dramatic, game, choreographic genres, which were part of traditional folk rituals.
Rituals played an important role in the life of the people. They evolved from century to century, gradually accumulating the diverse experience of many generations. The rituals had a ritual and magical significance, they contained the rules of human behavior in everyday life and work. They are usually divided into labor (agricultural) and family. Russian rituals are genetically related to the rituals of other Slavic peoples and have a typological similarity with the rituals of many peoples of the world.
Ritual poetry interacted with folk rituals and contained elements of a dramatic game. It had a ritual and magical significance, and also performed psychological and poetic functions.
Ritual folklore is syncretic in its essence, so it is advisable to consider it as part of the corresponding rituals. At the same time, we note the possibility of a different, strictly philological approach. Yu. G. Kruglov distinguishes three types of works in ritual poetry: sentences, songs and lamentations. Each type is a group of genres1.
Songs are especially important - the oldest layer of musical and poetic folklore. In many ceremonies, they occupied
the best place, combining magical, utilitarian-practical and artistic functions. The songs were sung in chorus. Ritual songs reflected the rite itself, contributed to its formation and implementation. Incantation songs were a magical appeal to the forces of nature in order to gain well-being in the household and family. In the songs of praise, the participants of the ritual were poetically idealized, glorified: real people or mythological images (Kolyada, Maslenitsa, etc.). Opposite to the laudatory were reproachful songs that ridiculed the participants in the ritual, often in a grotesque form; their content was humorous or satirical. Game songs were performed during various youth games; they described and accompanied by imitation of field work, played out family scenes (for example, matchmaking). Lyrical songs are the latest occurrence in the rite. Their main purpose is to express thoughts, feelings and moods. Thanks to lyrical songs, a certain emotional flavor was created, and traditional ethics were established.
CALENDAR RITES AND THEIR POETRY
Russians, like other Slavic peoples, were farmers. Already in ancient times, the Slavs celebrated the solstice and the changes in nature associated with it. These observations have developed into a system of mythological beliefs and practical labor skills, enshrined in rituals, omens, and proverbs. Gradually, the rites formed an annual (calendar) cycle. The most important holidays were timed to coincide with the winter and summer solstices.
The time from the Nativity of Christ (December 25) to Epiphany (January 6) was called Christmas time. Winter Christmas time was divided into holy evenings(December 25 to January 1) and scary evenings (with January 1 to January 6), they were separated by Vasiliev Day (January 1, to church calendar- Basil of Caesarea). V holy evenings they praised Christ, caroled, calling for the well-being of every yard. The second half of Christmas time was filled with games, dressing up, gatherings.
Christ was praised throughout the Christmas week. Christopher boys carried on a pole made of multi-colored paper Bethlehem star, singing religious festive
songs (poetry). The birth of Christ was depicted in a folk puppet theater - a nativity scene. The nativity scene was a box without a front wall, inside which pictures were played.
The ancient meaning of the New Year festivities was to celebrate the resurgent sun. In many places, the pagan custom has been preserved on the night before Christmas in the middle of the village street in front of each house to light bonfires - a symbol of the sun. There was also a show O supernatural properties of water, later absorbed by the church rite of blessing water. At Epiphany on the river they made "Jordan": they arranged something like an altar at the hole, they went here with procession, sanctified the water, and some even swam in the hole.
The revival of the sun meant the beginning of a new year, and people had a desire to predict the future, to influence fate. To this end, various actions were taken that were designed to ensure a good harvest, successful hunting, livestock offspring, and an increase in the family.
A lot was being prepared tasty food. Baked from dough goats: cows, bulls, sheep, birds, roosters - it was customary to give them. An indispensable Christmas treat was Caesarean piglet.
In New Year's magic, bread, grain, and straw played an important role: straw was laid on the floor in the hut, and sheaves were brought into the hut. grains sowed (sowed, sowed) huts - throwing a handful, they said: "To health- cow, sheep, human "; or: "On the floor of the calves, under the bench of the lambs, on the bench - the children!"
On the night before Christmas and on New Year's Eve, they performed the ceremony caroling. Teenagers and young people gathered, dressed someone in a twisted sheepskin coat, gave a stick and a bag into their hands, where food was later added. The carolers approached each hut and shouted out greatness to the owners under the windows, and for this they were served refreshments.
Bypass songs (performed during the ritual bypass of courtyards) during caroling had different name: carols(on South), oats(in the central regions), grapes(in the northern regions). The names come from the choruses "Kolyada, carol!", "Bye, avsen, bai, avsen!"\>1 "Grapes, grapes, red-green!" Otherwise, these songs were close. Compositionally, they consisted of good wishes and demands for alms. Especially frequent was the wish for abundance, which was depicted in incantatory songs with the help of hyperbole:
Give me God to that,
Who is in this house!
The rye is thick for him.
Dinner rye!
Him with an ear of octopus,
From the grain of his carpet,
From half-grain - a pie.
In addition to the spell on the harvest, the wish was expressed for longevity, happiness, and numerous offspring. They could sing praises to individual family members. Desirable, ideal was drawn as real. A rich, fantastically beautiful courtyard and house were described, the owner was compared with the moon, the hostess with the sun, and their children with frequent asterisks:
Young bright month - then our master,
The red sun is the hostess,
Grapes, grapes, red-green.
Asterisks are frequent - children are small.
The stingy owners sang a song:
Don't give me a pie -
We are the cow by the horns.
Not give intestine<колбасу> -
We are a pig by the temple.
Do not give a pancake -
We are the host in Pinka.
It was customary to tell fortunes before the New Year, as well as from the New Year to Epiphany. Once fortune-telling had an agrarian character (about the future harvest), but since the 18th century. mostly girls guessed about their fate. Were distributed subservient divination with songs. Forms and methods of divination are known to several hundred.
At Christmas time, there was always dressing up. In ancient times, zoomorphic masks had magical significance. (bull, horse, goat) as well as archaic anthropomorphic ones: an old man with an old woman, a dead man. Travestism had deep roots: dressing women in men's suits, men - in women's. Later they began to dress up in soldier, gentleman, gypsy and so on. Dressing turned into a masquerade, a folklore theater was born: buffoons and dramatic scenes were played. Their cheerful, unbridled, and sometimes obscene nature was associated with obligatory laughter. Ritu-
laughter (for example, over deceased) had a productive value. V. Ya. Propp wrote: "Laughter is a magical means of creating life"1.
Celebrated at the end of winter - beginning of spring Maslenitsa. At its core, it was a pagan holiday dedicated to seeing off the outgoing winter and the arrival of the warmth of the sun, the awakening of the mother-bearing power of the earth. Christianity only influenced the timing of the Maslenitsa, which fluctuated depending on Easter: it was preceded by a seven-week Great Lent, the Maslenitsa was celebrated on the eighth week before Easter.
I.P. Sakharov wrote: "All the days of the butter week have their own special names: meeting - Monday, for and gry -sh and - Tuesday, gourmet - Wednesday, revelry, turning point, wide Thursday - Thursday, mother-in-law evenings - Friday , sister-in-law gatherings - Saturday, seeing off, farewell, forgiveness day - Sunday "2. The week itself was called cheese, cheesecake, which speaks of it as a holiday of "white" food: milk, butter, sour cream, cheese. Pancakes as an obligatory treat, which quite late turned into an attribute of Shrovetide, were primarily a memorial meal (depicting the sun, pancakes symbolized the afterlife, which, according to the ancient ideas of the Slavs, had a solar nature). Maslenitsa was notable for its especially wide hospitality, ritual eating, drinking strong drinks and even revelry. The abundance of fatty ("oily") food gave the name to the holiday.
Started Thursday (or Friday) wide carnival. skated with ice mountains and later on horseback. Festive a train in honor of Shrovetide (a string of sledges with horses harnessed to them) in some places reached several hundred sledges. In ancient times, skating had a special meaning: it was supposed to help the movement of the sun.
Maslenitsa is a celebration of young married couples. According to r, they were welcome everywhere: they went to visit their father-in-law and mother-in-law, showed themselves to the people in their best clothes (for this they stood in rows on both sides of the village street). They were forced to do business in front of everyone. The young had to communicate their generative power to the earth, to “wake up” its maternal principle. So
in many places, newlyweds, and sometimes marriageable girls, were buried with ritual laughter in the snow, in straw, or rolled in the snow.
Maslenitsa was famous for fisticuffs. Among the Cossacks, the game "capture of the snow fortress", which was held on the river, was popular.
Mummers walked through the streets at Shrovetide bear, goat, men dressed as "women" and vice versa; even horses were dressed in ports or skirts. Maslenitsa itself was represented by a straw effigy, usually in women's clothing. At the beginning of the week, he was "greeted", that is, put on a sledge, they drove around the village with songs. These songs had the appearance of greatness: they sang wide honest Maslenitsa, carnival meals and entertainment. True, the magnification was ironic. Maslenitsa was called dear guest-coy and portrayed as a young elegant woman (Avdotyushka Izotevna, Akulina Savvishna).
The holiday everywhere ended with "seeing off" - the burning of Maslenitsa. The scarecrow was taken outside the village and burned (sometimes thrown into the river or torn apart and scattered across the field). At the same time, they sang reproachful songs (and later ditties), in which Maslenitsa was reproached for the fact that Great Lent was coming. She was given offensive nicknames: wettail, wryneck, polyzuha, pancake food. They could perform parodic funeral lamentations.
In some places there was no scarecrow, instead they burned bonfires, but at the same time they still said that burn Shrovetide. The custom of burning Maslenitsa shows that it personified darkness, winter, death, and cold. With the onset of spring, it was necessary to get rid of it so that it would not harm the reviving nature. The arrival of solar heat should have been helped by bonfires, which were laid out on a high place, and in the middle of them a wheel was fixed on a pole - when it lit up, it seemed to be an image of the sun.
Day of seeing off Shrovetide - Forgiveness Sunday. On the evening of that day, the fun stopped and that was it. said goodbye that is, they asked for forgiveness from relatives and friends for their sins in the past year. The godchildren visited the godfather and mother. People seemed to be cleansed of resentment and filth. And on Clean Monday (the first day of Great Lent), they washed dishes from fast food, washed themselves in baths in order to prepare cleanly for fasting.
Spring Rites
In March took place rite of welcome of spring. On Evdokia the dropper (March 1) and on Gerasim the rooker (March 4) they baked rooks-
rooks. On the magpies(Forty Martyrs Day, March 9 - the vernal equinox) baked everywhere larks. The children ran out into the street with them, threw them up and shouted out short songs - stoneflies. Stoneflies retained the echoes of ancient spell songs in which people called for Spring. Migratory birds, or ardent bee,"closed" the winter and "opened" the summer.
In the western regions, an archaic form has been preserved: gurgling, gurgling. Vesnyanki were performed by girls and young women - on a hill, above spilled water. It was designed for a natural natural response - an echo. A ritual exclamation was woven into the song fabric "Goo-hoo-hoo, which, when repeated many times, caused a resonance effect. It seemed to those who sang that Spring itself responded to them.
The middle of Great Lent was called middle cross(Wednesday of the fourth Holy Week) and fell on one of the days of March. On this day, pastries in the form of crosses were served for breakfast. There was a custom to "shout crosses". Children and teenagers, bypassing the yards, shouted out songs in which it was reported that half of the fast had passed. (shit):
Half shit breaks
Bread and radish are being transferred.
For this, the singers received baked crosses and other rewards.
On April 23, on the day of St. George the Victorious, the first pasture. St. George was popularly called Egory vernal, green Yuri, and April 23 - Egoriev (Yuriev) in the afternoon. Egory merged with the ancient Russian Yarila. In his power was the earth, wild animals (especially wolves), he could protect the herd from the beast and from other misfortunes. In songs, Yegoriy was called unlock the earth and release heat.
Cattle were driven out with a willow consecrated on Palm Sunday, early in the morning (on this day, dew was considered healing). The herd went around three times with the icon of St. George the Victorious.
V Kostroma region young men went around the yards and before each hut they performed special incantatory songs in which father brave Egory and Reverend Macarius(St. Macarius of Unzhensky) should have save the cattle in the field and beyond the field, in the forest and beyond the forest, beyond the steep mountains.
Egoriev's day was the day of the shepherds, they were treated and presented with presents. They uttered conspiracies, performed various magical actions in order to save the herd during the summer. For example, the shepherd went around the herd in a circle, carrying a key and a lock in his hands, then he locked the lock, and threw the key into the river.
The main holiday of Orthodox Christianity is Easter. It is preceded by Palm Sunday- original Russian holiday.
There were ideas among the people about the fruit-bearing, healing and protective-magical properties of willow branches with fluffy buds. On Palm Sunday, these branches were consecrated in the church, and then it was customary to lightly whip children and pets with them - for health and growth, saying: "Willow whip, beat to tears!"
Palm week changed Passionate filled with preparations for Easter.
On Easter day, people broke their fast with ceremonial bread (Easter cake) and colored eggs. This food is associated with pagan ideas and customs. Bread is consecrated by many rituals as the most sacred food, a symbol of prosperity and wealth. The egg, the obligatory food of spring rituals, symbolized fertility, new life, the awakening of nature, the earth and the sun. There were games associated with rolling eggs from a hill or from specially made wooden trays ("egg paddock"); beat an egg on an egg - whose will be broken.
On the first day of Easter, rounds of courtyards were made in the western regions drawers - groups of men performing drawing songs. main meaning consisted in song refrains (for example: "Christ is risen to the whole world!"). Preserving the ancient calling-incantation and notification function, these songs announced the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which corresponded to the onset of the warm season and the awakening of nature. Singers were presented with festive supplies, treated.
On Saturday or Sunday of the first post-Easter week, in many places another detour was made - congratulations to the newlyweds on the first spring of their marriage. So called hailed sang windy songs. They called young spouses (vyun-ia and vyunyiu), their symbol family happiness was the image of a nest. For the performance, the singers demanded gifts (for example, painted eggs).
The cult of ancestors organically entered the spring rituals, since, according to pagan ideas, the souls of the dead awakened along with the plant nature. Cemetery by
visited at Easter; on the rainbow(Tuesday, and in some places Monday of the first post-Easter week); Thursday, Saturday and Sunday of Trinity week. They brought food to the cemetery (kutya, pancakes, pies, colored eggs), as well as beer, mash. They spread canvases on the graves, ate, drank, commemorating the dead. The women wailed. Food was crumbled on the graves and drinks were poured on them. Part of the provisions were distributed to the poor. At the end, sadness was replaced by joy ( "They plow on Radunitsa in the morning, cry in the afternoon, and jump in the evening").
Funeral rites were an independent annual cycle of rituals. Annual general memorial days: Saturday before Shrovetide week (meat-fare), "parental" Saturdays - in Great Lent (weeks 2, 3 and 4), Radunitsa, Trinity Saturday and - in the fall - Dmitrievskaya Saturday (before October 26). The dead were mourned at the graves also on temple holidays. The commemoration of the dead corresponded to the religious ideas of the people about the soul and the afterlife. It corresponded to folk ethics, preserved the spiritual connection of generations.
The first Sunday after Easter, and sometimes the entire post-Easter week, was called Red hill. From that time on, youth entertainment began: swings, games, round dances, which continued intermittently until Intercession (October 1).
Swings - one of the favorite folk entertainments - were once part of agrarian magic. As V. K. Sokolova wrote, “lifting up, throwing something up, bouncing, etc. are the most ancient magical actions found among different peoples. Their purpose was to stimulate the growth of vegetation, primarily crops, to help them rise”1. During the spring holidays, Russians repeated such rites more than once. So, in order to get a good harvest of rye and flax, ritual meals were arranged on the green fields, and at the end it was considered useful to throw up spoons or eggs painted yellow. Especially such actions were timed to coincide with the day of the Ascension of the Lord (on the 40th day after Easter).
A round dance is an ancient syncretic action that connects a song, a dance, a game. Round dances included various combinations of moving figures, but most often the movement took place in a solar circle. This is due to the fact that once round dances were dedicated to the cult of mountains and hills, the cult of the sun. Initial-
but these were spring rites in honor of the sun (Khors) and were accompanied by the lighting of fires.
Round dances are associated with many calendar holidays. V. I. Dal listed the following round dances (according to the calendar): Radunitsky, Trinity, All Saints, Petrovsky, Pyatnitsky, Nikolsky, Ivanovo, Ilyinsky, Uspensky, Semeninsky, Kapustinsky, Pokrovskaya.
Round dance songs according to their role in the round dance are divided into typesetting(started with them) tunneling and collapsible(they finished). Each song was an independent game, a complete work of art. The connection with the ancient incantation rites determined the thematic orientation of the round dance songs: they contain motifs of an agrarian (or commercial) nature and love-marriage. Often they teamed up "You sowed millet, sowed ...", "My hop, hoppy ...", "Hare, walk along the hay, walk ...").
Gradually round dances lost their magical character, their poetry expanded with lyrical songs, they began to be perceived only as entertainment.
In late spring - early summer, on the seventh post-Easter week, they celebrated green Christmas time (Trinity-Semitsk rites). They are called "green" because it was a holiday of plant nature, "Trinity" - because they coincided with a church holiday in the name of the Trinity, and "Semitsky" - because an important day of ritual actions was semik - Thursday, and the whole week was sometimes called Semitskaya.
Yards and huts outside and inside were decorated with birch branches, the floor was sprinkled with grass, young felled trees were placed near the huts. The cult of blooming, growing vegetation was combined with pronounced female rituals (men were not allowed to participate in them). These rites dated back to the most important initiation of the pagan Slavs - the adoption of matured girls into the family as its new mothers.
In Semik curled birch. Girls with songs went to the forest (sometimes accompanied by an elderly woman - the manager of the ceremony). They chose two young birch trees and tied their tops, bending them to the ground. Birches were decorated with ribbons, wreaths were woven from branches, branches were woven into the grass. In other places, one birch was decorated (sometimes a straw doll was planted under a birch - Maren). They sang songs, danced round dances, ate the food they brought with them (fried eggs were obligatory).
At curling birch girls kumilis - Kissed Through the birch branches - and exchanged rings or handkerchiefs. Friend
they called a friend godmother. This rite, not connected with Christian ideas about nepotism, was explained by A. N. Veselovsky as a custom of sisterhood (in ancient times, all girls of the same kind were indeed sisters)1. They also, as it were, accepted the birch into their kindred circle, sang ritual and glorious songs about it:
Let's have fun, godfather, let's have fun
We will try the Semitskaya birch.
Oh Did Lado! Honest Semik.
Oh Did Lado! My birch.
On Trinity Day we went to the forest develop a birch and raskumlya-fox. Having put on the wreaths, the girls walked in them, and then they threw them into the river and guessed their fate: if the wreath floats along the river, the girl will get married; if he is washed ashore, he will remain for another year in his parents' house; a sunken wreath foreshadowed death. A ritual song was sung about this:
Red girls
The wreaths curled
Luli-luli,
The wreaths curled. ...
Thrown into the river
Fate is foretold...
fast river
Guessed fate...
Which girls
Marry to go ...,
Which girls
Century to age ...,
And to whom the unfortunate
Lie in the damp earth.
There was also such a kind of ceremony: they decorated (and sometimes dressed up in women's clothing) felled birch. Until Trinity Day, she was carried around the village with songs, called, "treated" her in the huts. On Sunday they were carried to the river, unloaded and thrown into the water under lamentations. This rite retained the echoes of very archaic human sacrifices, the birch tree became a substitute sacrifice. Later, throwing it into the river was considered as a rite of making rain.
A ritual synonym for birch could be cuckoo. In some southern provinces, "cuckoo's tears" were not made from grass: they dressed in a small shirt, a sundress and a scarf (sometimes - in a bride's costume) - and went into the forest. Here the girls cumulative with each other and with cuckoo, then they put it in a coffin and buried it. On Trinity Day cuckoo dug up and planted on branches. This version of the rite clearly conveys the idea of dying and subsequent resurrection, i.e., initiation. Once upon a time, according to the ideas of the ancients, initiated girls "died" - women were "born".
Trinity week was sometimes called Rusal, since at this time, according to popular belief, in the water and on the trees appeared mermaids - usually girls who died before marriage. Rusal week could not coincide with Trinity.
Belonging to world of the dead, mermaids were perceived as dangerous spirits that haunt people and can even kill them. Mermaids allegedly asked women and girls for clothes, so shirts were left for them on the trees. The stay of mermaids in a rye or hemp field contributed to flowering and harvest. On the last day of the Mermaid Week, the mermaids left the earth and returned to that world therefore, in the southern Russian regions, a ceremony was performed mermaid wires. Mermaid a living girl could portray, but more often it was a straw effigy, which they carried into the field with songs and dances, burned there, danced around the fire and jumped over the fire.
This type of ritual has also been preserved: two people dressed up as a horse, which was also called mermaid. The mermaid-horse was led by the bridle into the field, and after her the youth led round dances with farewell songs. It was called spend spring.
Summer Rites
After the Trinity, both girls and boys, as well as all the inhabitants of a village or village, took part in the rites. The summer period is a time of hard agricultural labor, so the holidays were short.
Nativity of John the Baptist, or The day of Ivan(24 \\ June, the period of the summer solstice) was widely observed among most European peoples. Slavs Ivan Kupala was associated with the summer fertility of nature. The word "kupala" has no distinct etymology. According to N. N. Veletskaya, it "could be very capacious and combine several meanings:
fire, cauldron; water; ritual public meeting at a ritual place.
On the Kupala night, people were cleansed by fire and water: they jumped over fires, swam in the river. They danced and sang Kupala songs, which are characterized by love motives: the riot and beauty of summer nature artistically correlated with the world of feelings and experiences of young people. They arranged games between villages with remnants of sexual freedom, which was associated with ancient exogamy - a ban marital relations within the same genus (from the Greek echo - "outside, outside" + gamos - "marriage").
There were widespread beliefs about healing power flowers and herbs, about their magical properties. Healers, sorcerers, soothsayers, and even ordinary people went to collect herbs, so Ivan Kupalu was also called Ivan the herbalist. They believed that on the night before Ivan Kupala, flowers talk to each other, and also that each flower burns in its own way. At midnight, a fiery fern flower bloomed for one minute - whoever finds it can become invisible or, according to another version, dig up a treasure in this place. bundle Kupala herbs the girls put it under the pillow and made a dream about their narrowed-disguised. As on the Trinity, on the Kupala night they divined on wreaths, throwing them into the river (sometimes burning candles were inserted into the wreaths).
It was believed that on this night devilry especially dangerous, therefore, in the Kupala bonfire, the symbolic destruction of witches was carried out: ritual objects symbolizing them (a stuffed animal, a horse skull, etc.) were burned. There were various methods of recognizing "witches" among fellow villagers.
Among the Russians, the Kupala rites were less developed than among the Ukrainians and Belarusians. In the central Russian provinces, numerous information about Yarilin day. Yarilo is the god of the sun, sensual love, the giver of life and fertility (words with the root "jar" mean "bright, sultry, passionate").
Voronezh in the second half of the 18th century. folk games were known, called Yarilo: a costumed man, hung with flowers, ribbons and bells, danced in the square and pestered women with obscene jokes, and they, in turn, did not lag behind the mummers, making fun of him. In the first half of the XIX century. in Kostroma, a effigy of Yarila with pronounced male attributes was buried. At the end of the XIX century. in the Zaraisky district of the Ryazan province converged on a night walk on
hill Yarilina is bald. There were elements of the Kupala game: fires, "unbridled" nature of the game behavior. To the question of the collector, who was Yarilo, they answered: "He very much approved of love."
Yarilin day coincided with the holiday of Ivan Kupala and was celebrated where Kupala was not celebrated. V. K. Sokolova wrote: “It is almost certain to put an equal sign between Kupala and Yarila. Kupala is a later name that appeared among the Eastern Slavs, when the holiday, like other Christian peoples, was timed to coincide with the day of John the Baptist. There where this holiday did not take root (probably because it fell on a post), it was preserved in places ancient name Yarilin day. He coped before the post. It was a celebration of the summer sun and the ripening of fruits ... ".
After Ivan Kupala, before Peter's Day, funeral of Kostroma. Kostroma - most often a stuffed animal made of straw and matting, dressed in a woman's dress (one of the participants in the ceremony could also play this role). They decorated Kostroma, put it in a trough and, imitating a funeral, carried it to the river. Some of the mourners wept and wailed, while others continued their work with rude witticisms. At the river, the scarecrow was undressed and thrown into the water. At the same time, they sang songs dedicated to Kostroma. Then they drank and had fun.
The word "Kostroma" comes from "bonfire, campfire" - a shaggy top of herbs and ears, ripening seeds. Apparently, the rite was supposed to help the ripening of the crop.
Summer festivities, youth festivities and fun ended on Petrov day(June 29). His rituals and beliefs were connected with the sun. They believed in the unusual burning of the sun. They said that the sun "plays", i.e. is divided into numerous multi-colored circles (such beliefs were also timed to coincide with Easter). On Peter's night, no one slept: guarded the sun. A crowd of dressed-up youth made noise, shouted, banged with scythes, dampers, sticks, bells, danced and sang to the harmonica and carried away from the owners everything that lies badly(ploughs, harrows, sledges). It was piled up somewhere outside the village. The sun was waiting for the dawn.
Petrov day opened mowing (C Peter's day red summer, green mowing).
Researchers suggest that summer holidays (Ivan Kupala, Yarilin Day, the funeral of Kostroma and Peter's Day) go back to a common source - the great pagan holiday of the apogee of summer and preparation for harvesting. Perhaps among the ancient Slavs it was one holiday in honor of Yarila and lasted from Ivanov to Peter's day.
Autumn rites
The circle of agricultural holidays was closed harvest rites and songs. Their content was not connected with love-marriage relations, they were of an economic nature. It was important to preserve the crop-bearing power of the grain field and restore the spent health of the reapers.
Honors were given to the first and last sheaf. The first sheaf was called birthday, with songs they carried it to the threshing floor (threshing was started from it, and the grains were kept until a new sowing). At the end of the harvest, the last sheaf was also solemnly brought to the hut, where it stood until the Intercession or Christmas. Then it was fed to cattle: it was believed that it had healing properties.
Women have always been praised in harvest songs, since the harvest was harvested with sickles and this work was female. The images of the reapers were idealized. They were depicted in unity with the surrounding nature: the moon, the sun, the wind, the dawn and, of course, the cornfield. The motif of the harvest spell sounded:
Cops in the field<копнами>,
Haystacks on the threshing floor!..
In the cage bins!..
In the oven with pies!
Almost everywhere they left the last bunch of ears uncompressed - on the beard mythical image (goat, field worker, owner, Volos, Yegoriy, God, Christ, Elijah the Prophet, Nicholas and etc.). Ears curled different ways. For example, they tied a bunch from above and below, bent the ears, straightened the bent stems in a circle. Then beard decorated with ribbons and flowers, and in the middle they put a piece of bread with salt, poured honey. This rite was based on ideas about the spirit of the field - a goat-like the owner of the field hiding in the last uncompressed ears. Like other nations, goat - the personification of fertility, they tried to appease him so that the strength of the earth would not be impoverished. At the same time, they sang a song in which they ironically called goat (""The goat walked along the boundary ...").
In many places, women, after finishing the harvest, rolled through the stubble, saying: "Nyvka, Nyvka, give me my snare, I sting you, I lost my strength." The magical touch to the ground was supposed to "give away the strength." The end of the harvest was celebrated with a hearty dinner with fattening pie. In the villages, clubbing, brotherhoods were arranged, beer was brewed.
There were funny customs in autumn exile insects. For example, in the Moscow province they arranged fly funeral - they made coffins from carrots, beets, turnips, put flies in them and buried them. In the Kostroma province, flies were driven out of the hut with the last sheaf, and then they put it to the icons.
From Pokrov, weddings began in the villages and the girls said: "Pokrov, Pokrov, cover the earth with a snowball, and me with a fiance!"
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What is ritual folklore? First of all, it is folk art, collective or individual, oral, less often written. The folklore style of communication between people usually did not involve emotions. It expressed thoughts and desires associated with certain events and timed to coincide with them. Therefore, the rites mainly consist of songs, lamentations, family stories, lullabies, wedding praises. Occasional conspiracies, spells and incantations, counting rhymes and slander are considered a separate category.
What is ritual folklore in a broader sense
These are works of art of a small form associated with traditions, customs, religious and ethnographic genres. It should be noted that in all cases the rites bear signs of a folk character. At the same time, modernity seems to be blurred. ancient traditions Customs fit best in the past tense.
The range of folklore rituals is quite wide. This is village choreography, choral singing in nature, during field work, haymaking or grazing. Since traditional customs were present in life ordinary people constantly, the ritual folklore of the Russian people has been and remains an integral part of their existence. The emergence of customs is always associated with long-term circumstances. The incessant drought that threatens the harvest can be an occasion for people to turn to God for help. Any natural phenomena, dangerous for a person, also make him look for a way out of this situation. And most often these are prayers and requests, candles and notes in churches.
Many rituals and ritual folklore in general have a ritual and magical significance. They underlie behavioral norms in society, and sometimes even acquire features national character. This fact testifies to the depth of folklore values, which means that
Folklore rituals are divided into labor, holiday, family and love rituals. Russians are closely intertwined with the folklore of other Slavic peoples. And besides, they are often associated typologically with the population of some countries located on the other side of the world. The interrelationship of seemingly different cultures is often due to a historically established analogy.
Feast of Ivan Kupala
Ritual folklore in Russia has always been self-sufficient and did not need to be fed from outside. The originality of Russian traditions and customs not only passed from generation to generation, but also grew with new rituals, often exotic ones. The most notable folklore rite is This rite has pagan roots. On the night of Ivan Kupala, high bonfires were lit, and each of those present had to jump over the fire. This was not always possible, there was a danger of falling and getting burned.
At night on Ivan Kupala, it was customary to commit ritual atrocities, steal livestock from neighbors, destroy beehives, trample gardens and firmly prop up the doors in the huts with sticks so that the tenants could not get out. The motives for all these actions are still unclear. The next day, the outrageous fellow villagers again became balanced citizens.
Song ritual
A significant place in Russian ritual folklore is occupied by poetry, which can be conditionally divided into song (spells, reproachful, laudatory songs) and magic (love spells, sentences, lamentations).
Songs-spells turned to nature, asked for well-being in the economy and family affairs. Magnificent sang at Maslenitsa, carols and other celebrations. The reprimanding chants were of a mocking nature.
Rites and calendar
Along with others, in Russia there was a ritual folklore of the calendar type, which was directly related to agricultural work in the very broad sense. Calendar and ritual songs are the most ancient folk art, historically formed over the long years of peasant labor in the field and in haymaking.
The agricultural calendar, the schedule of field work according to the seasons - this is a kind of program of the song genre. Melodies are all folk, born behind the plow, harrow and weeding. The words are simple, but this song poetry contained the whole gamut of human experiences, hope for good luck, anxious expectations, uncertainty, replaced by glee. Nothing brings people together like a common goal for all, whether it's harvesting or singing in a choir. Social values inevitably take some form. V this case this is folklore and with it Russian customs.
Folklore by seasons
The songs of the spring ritual repertoire sounded cheerful. They look like jokes, reckless and daring. The tunes of the summer months seemed deeper, they were sung with a sense of accomplishment, but as if with a hidden expectation of a miracle - a good harvest. In the autumn, harvest time, ritual songs rang like a stretched string. People did not relax even for a minute, otherwise you would not have time to collect everything before the rains.
Reason for fun
And when the bins were full, then folk fun began, ditties, round dances, dances and weddings. Ritual folklore of the calendar phase of hard work smoothly turned into festivities and free life with feasts. The youth looked closely at each other, made new acquaintances. And here the traditional customs were not forgotten, the ritual folklore of the Russian people "rose to its full height." In the huts, fortune-telling began on the betrothed, the mummers, the girls burned candles for hours and swayed rings on thin threads. Boots and felt boots were thrown over the shoulder, a whisper was heard in the upper room.
Christmas carols
What is ritual folklore in terms of religion? The holiday of the Nativity of Christ is considered one of the most traditional in Russia. It follows immediately after the New Year. It is generally accepted that how you spend this holiday, so the whole year will be. Christmas is considered by some to be the beginning of a new year. This is the main Russian religious event. On January 6, on Christmas Eve, caroling began. These are festive rounds of houses and apartments with songs and bags full of grain. Children usually go caroling. Everyone wants to receive a pie or a handful of sweets from the owners of the house in response to congratulations on the holiday.
The eldest in the procession of carolers usually carries on a pole the "Star of Bethlehem", which appeared in the sky when Jesus Christ was born. The hosts, to whom they came with carols, should not skimp on gifts for children, otherwise they will have to listen to the comic reproaches of the children.
Main night of the year
A few days after Christmas, the New Year began (today we call it the Old New Year), which was also accompanied by folklore rites. People wished each other happiness, long life and every success in business. Congratulations were presented in the form of short carols. The folk rite was also "observant" songs that accompanied divination after midnight. That's what ritual folklore is on New Year's Eve!
And when winter is running out, it's time to see her off - and the people take to the streets to celebrate Maslenitsa. This is the time of cheerful folklore winter rites with skating in troikas, with races on squeaky sledges, with games on skates with clubs. The fun continues until dark, and late in the evening the whole family sits down by the stove and remembers the past holiday. During such gatherings, they sang songs, sang ditties, played games. This is also the ritual family folklore of the Russian people. It includes family stories, wedding songs, lullabies, lamentations, and much more.
