Labor traditions of the Russian people. Russian traditions, customs. Traditions and customs of the Russian people

The rituals, customs and traditions of the Russian people go back to ancient times. Many of them have changed significantly over time and have lost their sacred meaning. But there are also those that still exist. Let's look at some of them.

The calendar rituals of the Russian people go back to the times of the ancient Slavs. At that time, people cultivated the land and raised livestock, and worshiped pagan idols.

Here are some of the rituals:

1. Sacrificial rituals to the god Veles. He patronized cattle breeders and farmers. Before sowing the crops, people went out into the field, wearing clean clothes. They decorated their heads with wreaths and held flowers in their hands. The oldest resident of the village began to sow and threw the first grain into the ground
2. The harvest was also timed to coincide with the festival. Absolutely all the villagers gathered near the field and sacrificed the largest animal to Veles. The men began to plow the first strip of land, while the women at this time collected grain and gathered it into sheaves. At the end of the harvest, the table was set with generous food and decorated with flowers and ribbons.
3. Maslenitsa is a calendar ritual that has survived to this day. The ancient Slavs turned to the sun god Yaril with a request to send a rich harvest. They baked pancakes, danced in circles, burned the famous Maslenitsa effigy
4. Forgiveness Sunday is the most important day of Maslenitsa. On this day, people asked for forgiveness from loved ones and relatives, and also forgave all insults themselves. After this day, Lent began.

Despite the fact that Maslenitsa has lost its religious meaning, people still happily take part in mass celebrations, bake pancakes and rejoice in the coming spring.

Yuletide Traditions

It is impossible not to talk about Christmas rituals, which remain relevant to this day. They are traditionally held from January 7 to January 19 during the period from Christmas to Epiphany.

Christmas rituals are as follows:

1. Kolyada. Young people and children go from house to house dressed as mummers, and residents treat them with sweets. Nowadays caroling is rare, but the tradition has not yet become obsolete
2. Christmas fortune telling. Young girls and women gather in groups and perform fortune telling. Most often, these are rituals that allow you to find out who will become the betrothed, how many children will be born in the marriage, etc.
3. And on January 6, before Christmas, in Rus' they cooked compote with rice, cooked delicious pastries and slaughtered cattle. It was believed that this tradition helps to attract a rich harvest in the spring and provide the family with material well-being

Nowadays, Christmas rituals have lost their magical mystery and are used mainly for entertainment. Another reason to have fun in the company of girlfriends and friends is to arrange a group fortune-telling for your betrothed, dress up and sing carols on holidays.

Family rituals in Rus'

Family rituals were given great importance. For matchmaking, weddings or baptism of newborns, special rituals were used that were sacredly revered and observed.

Weddings were usually scheduled for a time after a successful harvest or baptism. The week coming after the bright holiday of Easter was also considered a favorable time for the ritual. The newlyweds were married in several stages:

• Matchmaking. In order to match the bride to the groom, all close relatives on both sides gathered together. They discussed the dowry, where the young couple would live, and agreed on wedding gifts.
• After the parents' blessing was received, preparations for the celebration began. The bride and her bridesmaids gathered every evening and prepared the dowry: they sewed, knitted and wove clothes, bed linen, tablecloths and other home textiles. Sang sad songs
• On the first day of the wedding, the bride said goodbye to her girlhood. The girlfriends sang sad ritual songs of the Russian people, farewell laments - after all, from that moment on, the girl found herself completely subordinate to her husband, no one knew how her family life would turn out
• According to custom, on the second day of the wedding, the newly-made husband and his friends went to his mother-in-law for pancakes. We had a wild feast and visited all our new relatives

When a child appeared in a new family, he had to be baptized. The baptism ceremony was performed immediately after birth. It was necessary to choose a reliable godfather - this person bore great responsibility, almost on an equal basis with the parents, for the fate of the baby.

And when the baby turned one year old, a cross was cut on his crown. It was believed that this ritual gives the child protection from evil spirits and the evil eye.

When the child grew up, he was obliged to visit his godparents every year on Christmas Eve with a treat. And they, in turn, gave him gifts and treated him to sweets.

Watch a video about the rituals and customs of the Russian people:

Mixed rites

It is worth mentioning separately such interesting rituals:

• Celebration of Ivan Kupala. It was believed that only from this day onwards it was possible to swim. Also on this day, the fern bloomed - the one who finds the flowering plant will reveal all the hidden secrets. People made fires and jumped over them: it was believed that a couple who jumped over the fire holding hands would be together until death
• The custom of commemorating the dead has also come down from pagan times. There had to be rich food and wine at the funeral table.

Whether to follow ancient traditions or not is everyone’s business. But you can not elevate them to a cult, but pay tribute to your ancestors, their culture, and the history of your country. This applies to religious customs. As for entertainment events, such as Maslenitsa or the celebration of Ivan Kupala, this is another reason to have fun in the company of friends and your significant other.

Tell your fortune for today using the “Card of the Day” Tarot layout!

For correct fortune telling: focus on the subconscious and don’t think about anything for at least 1-2 minutes.

When you are ready, draw a card:

The Russian people carefully honor ancient traditions that appeared during the times of Rus'. These customs reflected paganism and the veneration of idols, which replaced them with Christianity, the ancient way of life. Traditions arose in every household activity of the inhabitants of Rus'. The experience of older generations was passed on to young followers, children learned worldly wisdom from their parents.

The ancient Russian traditions clearly demonstrate such traits of our people as love of nature, hospitality, respect for elders, cheerfulness and breadth of soul. Such customs take root among people; following them is easy and pleasant. They are a reflection of the history of the country and people.

Basic Russian traditions

Russian wedding

The wedding traditions of ancient Rus' go back to pagan times. Weddings within and between tribes were accompanied by the worship of pagan idols, thematic chants and rituals. At that time, the customs of different villages differed from each other. A single ritual originated in Rus' with the advent of Christianity.

Attention was paid to all stages of the event. Acquaintance of families, meeting of the bride and groom, matchmaking and bridesmaids - everything happened according to a strict script, with certain characters. Traditions included baking a wedding loaf, preparing a trousseau, wedding dresses, and a feast.

The wedding was rightfully considered the central event in the wedding celebration. It was this church sacrament that made the marriage valid.

Russian family

From time immemorial, the Russian family has accepted and honored the traditions and family values ​​of its people. And if in past centuries there were strong patriarchal foundations in the family, then by the 19th century such foundations were of a more restrained traditional nature; in the 20th century and at the present time, the Russian family adheres to moderate but familiar traditions of Russian life.

The head of the family is the father, as well as older relatives. In modern Russian families, father and mother are in equal degrees of dominance, equally involved in raising children and organizing and maintaining family life.

Nevertheless, common traditional and Orthodox holidays, as well as national customs, are celebrated in Russian families to this day, such as Christmas, Maslenitsa, Easter, New Year and intra-family traditions of weddings, hospitality and even in some cases tea drinking.

Russian hospitality

Meeting guests in Rus' has always been a joyful, kind event. The traveler, tired from the journey, was greeted with bread and salt, offered rest, taken to the bathhouse, given attention to his horse, and changed into clean clothes. The guest was sincerely interested in how the journey went, where he was going, and whether his journey had good goals. This shows the generosity of the Russian people, their love for their neighbors.

Russian loaf

One of the most famous Russian flour dishes, which was prepared for holidays (for example, for a wedding) exclusively by married women and placed on the table by men, is the loaf, which was considered a symbol of fertility, wealth and family well-being. The loaf is decorated with various dough figures and baked in the oven; it is distinguished by its rich taste and attractive appearance, worthy of being considered a real work of culinary art.

Russian bath

Bathing customs were created by our ancestors with special love. A visit to a bathhouse in ancient Rus' served not only the purpose of cleansing the body, but also a whole ritual. The bathhouse was visited before important events and holidays. It was customary to wash in the bathhouse leisurely, in a good mood, with loved ones and friends. The habit of dousing yourself with cold water after a steam room is another Russian tradition.

Russian tea party

The appearance of tea in Rus' in the seventeenth century not only made this drink a favorite among Russian people, but also marked the beginning of the classical Russian tea tradition. Tea drinking attributes such as a samovar and its decorations make tea drinking feel homely and cozy. Drinking this aromatic drink from saucers, with bagels and pastries, with sawn sugar as a bite - traditions have been passed down from generation to generation and observed in every Russian home.

Russian fair

On traditional holidays, various fun fairs opened their doors in Rus'. What could you not find at the fair: delicious gingerbread cookies, painted handicrafts, folk toys. What could you not see at the fair: buffoons, games and amusements, a carousel and round dances, as well as the folk theater and its main regular presenter - the mischievous Petrushka.

Target. Arouse children's interest in Russian traditions. To consolidate children's knowledge about the name of the country in which they live, about its way of life, some historical events, and culture. To cultivate interest in the native land, its past, to teach to see the beauty of folk rituals, the wisdom of traditions, to cultivate a sense of pride in one’s people and their past. Cultivate interest in national culture, customs and traditions of the Russian people

X od of classes

1.Greeting. Hello my guys. Today I want to talk to you about our country. What is the name of the country we live in? (Russia)

Go beyond the seas - oceans,

You have to fly across the entire earth:

There are different countries in the world,

But you won’t find one like ours.

Our bright waters are deep.

The land is wide and free.

And the factories thunder without ceasing,

And the fields rustle as they bloom.

Every day is like an unexpected gift,

Every day is both good and comely.

Go beyond the seas and oceans,

But you won’t find a richer country.

Russia is a very big and beautiful country. There are a lot of forests in Russia, in which there are many different animals, many berries and mushrooms grow. Many rivers flow through the entire country. One of the largest rivers is the Volga. And there are a lot of different fish in the rivers. There are many mountains in Russia. Various minerals are mined in the mountains - coal, diamonds, iron ore. Yes, our country is very beautiful and rich. It arose a long time ago, it has an ancient and interesting history. Our country - Russia - is very rich in wise traditions and beautiful customs. Today we will take a trip to the old days.

2. Listen. Get ready to listen to the tale

About Russia and about us.

Wooden Rus' - dear lands,

Russian people have lived here for a long time,

They glorify their native homes,

Razdolnye Russian songs are sung.

Previously, there were many principalities in Russia. The princes fought with each other and captured each other's lands. Moscow Prince Yuri was nicknamed Dolgoruky because he annexed other lands to his principality. But when foreign enemies attacked Rus', all the princes united to fight them. And then they decided to unite forever, chose their main prince, and he began to be called the king. And Russia became a large and strong state.

A long time ago in Rus', people built their homes from logs. Such houses are called huts. And everything in the hut was made of wood: the floor, the ceiling, the furniture, and even the dishes (Slide show). Guys, do you know proverbs and sayings about the hut, the house?

Being a guest is good, but being at home is better.

The hut is not red in its corners, but the hut is red in its pies.

Without an owner, a house is an orphan.

Living at home means grieving about everything.

In your own home the porridge is thicker.

In the old days, the stove was very important in the house. They cooked food in the oven and baked bread. She heated the hut. She also treated small children. Having run through the deep snow, they warmed their feet on the stove. These days, stoves are a very rare occurrence. (Slide show).

Every nation has its own traditions. Tradition is not a Russian word, it is translated from Latin as transmission, i.e. tradition is something that is passed on from one generation to another. Traditions are family. What traditions do you have in your family? For example, in almost all families there is a tradition of celebrating the birthday of family members and giving gifts on this day. (Children's answers.) Every person, when he is born, is given a name. Often a child is named after a grandparent. How were name days celebrated in Rus' in the old days? Previously, if a child was born on the birthday of a saint, then he was given his name. It was believed that if the child's name was chosen well, the child would be happy.

In the old days, Russian people had such a custom; they whiled away the winter evenings together and held gatherings. Women and young girls sewed, embroidered, and spun in the evenings, and sang songs while they worked. Some sit at the spinning wheel, some make dishes out of clay, others carve spoons and bowls, sometimes they start singing, sometimes they exchange jokes. This is how their work went smoothly. (Slide show).

After all, people say: “Out of boredom, take matters into your own hands,” but what proverbs and sayings do you know about work?

-“Skillful hands know no boredom”

- “Without labor there is no good”

- “The master’s work is afraid”

- “You can’t even pull a fish out of a pond without difficulty,”

- “Like the spinner, so is the shirt she wears.”

The day until the evening is boring if there is nothing to do.

To live without anything is only to smoke the sky.

In the old days, Russian people loved to welcome guests.

Welcome dear guests! Have fun and joy! Come in, make yourself at home! We have a place and a word for everyone. Are you comfortable, dear guests? Can everyone see, can everyone hear, is there enough space for everyone? In crowded but not mad. Let's sit next to each other and talk well.

The Russian people have always been famous for their songs. And the Russian people also composed very interesting fairy tales. Do you know why these fairy tales are called folk tales? They were invented by the Russian people. They were passed down from grandmothers to grandchildren, from parents to children. Yes, guys, there were no books in the family, and therefore fairy tales were told to small children in the evenings. (Children approach the exhibition of books of Russian folk tales and name their heroes).

There have always been many craftsmen in Rus'. Good craftsmen enjoyed good reputation among the people. They said about a master who was not afraid of any work: “Jack of all trades”, “Master of golden hands”. And admiring a job well done, they said: “It’s not so expensive that it’s red gold, but it’s also expensive because it’s made of good craftsmanship.” How talented the Russian people are! From an ordinary log, craftsmen could cut out a box in which small items were stored. Or they’ll even make a chest of drawers where the clothes were put away. And what would a Russian hut be without the creaking of floorboards, without multi-colored rugs that were woven on a wooden loom or knitted with your own hands? (Slide show).

Our ancestors always revered holidays, but they did not celebrate them exactly as they do now. Usually all holidays began with a solemn service in the church, and continued on the street, in the field, on the lawns. To the music, or even without it, they danced in circles, sang, danced, and started funny games. People dressed up in their best, festive clothes. Delicious treats were prepared. They gave gifts to poor people and gave them free food. The festive ringing of bells could be heard everywhere.

The children celebrated an amazingly beautiful holiday in Rus' in the fall, the holiday of the rowan tree, and they celebrated it on September 23, the day of Saints Peter and Paul. Rowan was considered a talisman tree. She was planted at gates and gates. In the fall, rowan bushes were picked and hung under the roof of the house. Rowan beads protected children from the evil eye and damage. (Slide show).

The greatest and most beloved holiday was Easter. This holiday was always celebrated solemnly and cheerfully. And they celebrated it for a whole week.

Christ is risen!

Everywhere the gospel is buzzing,

People are pouring out of all the churches,

The dawn is already looking from the sky...

Christ is risen! Christ is risen!

Blagovest - good news! On Easter night everyone went to church, only old people and small children remained at home. During the Easter service the following words were always read: “Let the rich and the poor rejoice with each other. Let the diligent and the lazy have fun. Let no one cry, because God has given people forgiveness.” (Slide show).

All seasons were loved in Rus'. But we were especially looking forward to autumn. We loved this time of year because the main work in the fields, orchards, and vegetable gardens was completed. A rich harvest has been collected and stored away. And if the harvest is rich, the peasant’s soul is calm, he is not afraid of the long, harsh winter, he can relax a little and have fun. The first autumn holiday celebrated in Rus' is the Assumption. (Slide show).

It was dedicated to the meeting of autumn, the end of the harvest and the beginning of Indian summer! The Assumption was celebrated on August 28. People congratulated each other on the end of the harvest and thanked God for the fact that they managed to reap a rich harvest on time and without losses. In the fields, they deliberately left several ears of grain unharvested, tied them with a beautiful ribbon and sentenced them.

God grant that there will be a good harvest next summer.

Bread, grow!

Time to fly!

Until the new spring,

Until the new summer,

Until new bread!

With this ritual they hoped to return the land to its productive power; the last sheaf removed was given special honor. They placed him in the front corner, under the icon, next to bread and salt, they bowed low to him!

The harvest was obtained at a difficult price; a lot of human power was invested in it! From dawn to dawn, the peasants worked, sparing neither themselves nor their time, because they knew: the Earth will give you water, the land will feed you, just don’t spare yourself for it.

On October 14, we celebrated the Feast of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is a very revered holiday in Russia. After all, the Mother of God is considered the patroness of the Russian land, our intercessor and helper. Snow often fell on Pokrov, which is why they said: “Before lunch it’s autumn, and after lunch it’s winter!” For Pokrov they tried to insulate the hut. Weddings took place in the village on this day. The village people pour out to admire the newlyweds, the bride and groom. The carriages of the wedding train are festively decorated, the bells are ringing merrily under the arc, the horses are dashing, just touch them and they will gallop away! The wedding ceremony in Rus' is very interesting. In the center of it was the bride. For the first half of the wedding, she had to cry, be sad, saying goodbye to her friends, to her parents, to her free girl life. Gradually, sad, farewell songs were replaced by cheerful, majestic songs. On Pokrov, the harmonica played in the villages until the morning, and boys and girls walked along the streets in a crowd and sang cheerful, daring ditties.

On October 14, the autumn fairs of Pokrovsk began, cheerful, plentiful, bright. Here you could see everything with which the earth thanked people for their hard, painstaking work. There was a brisk trade in vegetables, fruits, bread, honey and other goods. Craftsmen showed their skills

Barkers: Hey? honest gentlemen!

Come join us here!

How do we have containers - bars,

All sorts of different goods...

Come, come...

Look, look. (Children take folk arts and crafts prepared in advance by the teacher.) Tell us about what you bought at the fair. (Children's stories about Dymkovo toys, Khokhloma products, Gorodets painting, etc.) And what fun reigned at the fair! Here they rode on carousels, danced in circles, tried to show their strength, prowess, ingenuity, and played funny games. Everyone, young and old, was looking forward to the fair. Everyone wanted to receive a gift or treat from the fair. (Slide show).

Buffoon : Everyone, hurry up to the fair, hurry up. Come without hesitation. No tickets needed, just show good mood. I brought a lot of different goods, come and buy them. Who needs a whistle, who needs a spoon, who needs a comb, and who needs a pie?

Attention! Attention! Folk festival!

Hurry up, honest people, Maslenitsa is calling everyone!

Let everyone here sing a ditty

And for that he will receive a dry pie or a sweet pie,

Come quickly, my friend!

Come over, don't be shy.

Help yourself to some sweets

There are traditions that arose a long time ago and have survived to this day. Maslenitsa is one of the most beloved holidays of the Russian people. Since ancient times, there has been a custom in Rus' to say goodbye to winter and welcome spring. Pancakes are baked at Maslenitsa - this is the main holiday dish. Pancakes are generously poured with oil. Butter pancake is a symbol of the sun, a good harvest, healthy people. During Maslenitsa, the Russian people had fun: they played games, sang songs and danced in circles, held fist fights, and on holidays men loved to measure their heroic strength. Not a single holiday in Rus' was complete without a round dance. Round dance means movement in a circle, chain, figures of eight or other figures with songs, and sometimes with stage action. (Slide show).

Maslenitsa is one of the most beloved holidays of the Russian people. This is the oldest holiday of seeing off winter and welcoming the sun and spring. It lasts for a whole week. Every day of this week is special.

Monday - Maslenitsa meeting. They bake pancakes that look like the sun.

Tuesday - “Flirting”. They built slides, fortresses, hung swings, and made a scarecrow of Maslenitsa.

Wednesday - "Gourmand". We definitely enjoyed pancakes.

Thursday - “Wide Maslenitsa”. All food is pancake. We baked colorful pancakes (with carrots, beets and nettles, with buckwheat flour).

Friday - "Mother-in-law's evening." The family went to their grandmothers for pancakes.

Saturday - “Sister-in-law's get-togethers” - we went to visit our aunts and uncles.

Sunday - Forgiveness Sunday. On this day people ask each other

In our country there is a tradition of giving flowers and gifts to women on March 8th; in all countries there is a tradition of celebrating the New Year at 12 o'clock at night.

There are also traditions associated with the preparation of various dishes - traditional national cuisine. Different nations always have their own national dish. National cuisine depends on what is grown in a particular country. For example, in China and Japan, rice is grown and therefore many dishes are prepared from rice. What do Russia grow? (Wheat, rye, various vegetables). In Russia, many dishes are prepared from flour. For example, only in Russia are they baked the famous kalachi. (Bread products on the screen). What dishes can you tell me made from flour that your mothers often make? (Pancakes, pancakes, pies).

And in Russia they really love cabbage soup. What is cabbage soup made from? (Potatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots). In order to cook cabbage soup, you definitely need cabbage and other vegetables. The Russian people have a saying: “Shchi and porridge are our food.”

So, what else do they like to cook in Russia? (Porridge). What can you cook porridge from? (From various grains - millet, semolina, buckwheat, oatmeal).

In Russia it is often very cold in winter and hot in summer. What Russian drink quenches thirst well? (Kvass). And they also make it from bread. But in winter, at fairs they sold hot sbiten - this is a drink made from honey, it warmed very well during the frost.

3. Let's talk.

You and I have talked a lot about the talent of the Russian people. How did it manifest itself?

What did the Russian people know how to do well? (Make toys from clay, compose interesting songs, very interesting fairy tales, etc.)

Guys, why is Rus' called wooden? (A long time ago in Rus', people built their homes from logs).

- What holidays were celebrated in Rus'?

What is blagovest?

Guys, what do you know about this feast of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary? (It often snowed on Pokrov, that’s why they said: “Before lunch it’s autumn, and after lunch it’s winter!”, weddings were played)

What holiday do Russian people celebrate at the end of winter and beginning of spring? What kind of tradition is this? (Maslenitsa holiday. This is the oldest holiday of seeing off winter and welcoming the sun and spring).

How did holidays begin in Rus'?

What did people do on holidays?

How did people try to dress?

What kind of treat were you preparing?

What good deeds did you try to do?

What is tradition?

Folk games have survived and survived to this day, incorporating the best national traditions. All folk games are characterized by the Russian person’s love for fun and daring. Games are our childhood, they have been passed down from generation to generation. We know such games as “Traps”, “Ring, ring, go out onto the porch!” Guys, let me check if you know Russian folk games. I'll tell you some riddles now:

I don't see anything, not even my nose. There's a bandage on my face, there's this game

It's called...(Blind Man's Bluff!) I've been sitting in the grass for a long time, I never go out. Let them look, if they’re not too lazy, even for a minute, even all day... (Hide and seek!)

Burn, burn clearly

So that it doesn't go out.

Stay at your hem

Look at the field

Look at the sky

Birds are flying

The bells are ringing...(Burners!)

4. Let's summarize. Guys, today we talked about our country, about the talent of the Russian people, and remembered some traditions. And for our country to remain great, we need to protect our culture, observe the customs and traditions that we inherited from our ancestors.

They don’t choose their homelands.

Starting to see and breathe

They get a homeland in the world

Immutable, like father and mother.

Motherland, Motherland, dear lands,

Cornflower field, nightingale song.

She glows with tenderness and joy,

Motherland, there is only one Motherland on earth.

I love you, my Russia, for the clear light of your eyes,

5. Let's play. And people also said: “When you’ve finished your work, go for a walk safely,” “It’s time for work, it’s time for fun!” Let’s take a little rest and play the Russian folk game “Golden Gate”. Children stand in pairs in a circle, facing each other, joining and raising their hands like gates. Two people run in a circle between a pair of children. Children standing in pairs pronounce words.

Golden Gate

Let me through

I'll go by myself

And I’ll see my friends off

Says goodbye for the first time

Second time is prohibited

And the third time we won’t let you through.”

The couples lower their hands and whoever gets caught in the gate performs something, pays off (song, riddle verse, dance).

6. We create, we draw, we rejoice. Drawing an episode of some Russian folk holiday Painting silhouettes of folk toys

7. Farewell. Today, guys, we talked about our country, about the talent of the Russian people, about different Russian traditions. The Russian people have a lot of traditions. Talk to your parents, find out from them what other Russian traditions they remember. Ask your parents what games they played as children and what the attributes were for those games. If you liked it and found it interesting, then place the silhouettes of folk toys where the sun is, if you didn’t like it, then where the cloud is.

1. Introduction

2. Holidays and rituals

· New Year

Celebrating the New Year in pagan Rus'.

Celebrating the New Year after the Baptism of Rus'

Innovations of Peter I in the celebration of the New Year

New Year under Soviet rule. Change of calendar.

old New Year

New Year in the Orthodox Church

· Christmas post

About the history of the establishment of fasting and its significance

How to eat during the Nativity Fast

· Christmas

Christmas in the first centuries

Victory of the new holiday

How Christmas was celebrated in Rus'

Nativity image

History of spruce decoration

Christmas wreath

Christmas candles

Christmas presents

Christmas on a silver platter

· Maslenitsa

· Christian Easter

· Agrafena Bathing suit and Ivan Kupala

· Wedding ceremony

Variety of Russian weddings

The figurative basis of a Russian wedding

Word and subject environment in a Russian wedding. Wedding poetry

Wedding clothes and accessories

3. Conclusion

4. List of used literature

5. Application

Target:

To study the interaction of pagan and Christian traditions in the worldview of the Russian people

Expand and consolidate your knowledge on this topic

Tasks:

1. Gaining knowledge about the folk calendar and its constituent seasonal holidays and rituals.

2. Systematization of information about Russian holidays.

3. The difference between the traditions and customs of the Russian people and the traditions and customs of other people

Relevance of the topic:

1. Trace the trends in the development of folk culture and its influence on human everyday life.

2. Find out which of the traditions have lost their relevance and disappeared, and which have reached us. Assume further development of existing traditions.

3. Trace how elements of different cultural eras are combined

In the life and culture of any nation there are many phenomena that are complex in their historical origin and functions. One of the most striking and revealing phenomena of this kind are folk customs and traditions. In order to understand their origins, it is necessary, first of all, to study the history of the people, their culture, come into contact with their life and way of life, and try to understand their soul and character. Any customs and traditions fundamentally reflect the life of a particular group of people, and they arise as a result of empirical and spiritual knowledge of the surrounding reality. In other words, customs and traditions are those valuable pearls in the ocean of people’s lives that they have collected over the centuries as a result of practical and spiritual comprehension of reality. Whatever tradition or custom we take, having examined its roots, we, as a rule, come to the conclusion that it is vitally justified and that behind the form, which sometimes seems pretentious and archaic to us, there is a living rational grain. The customs and traditions of any people are their “dowry” when joining the huge family of humanity living on planet Earth.

Each ethnic group enriches and improves it with its existence.

This work will discuss the customs and traditions of the Russian people. Why not all of Russia? The reason is quite understandable: to try to present the traditions of all the peoples of Russia, squeezing all the information into the narrow framework of this work, means to embrace the immensity. Therefore, it would be quite reasonable to consider the culture of the Russian people and, accordingly, explore it more deeply. In this regard, it is very important to familiarize yourself, at least briefly, with the history and geography of a given people and their country, since the historical approach makes it possible to uncover layers in a complex set of folk customs, find the primary core in them, determine its material roots and its original functions. It is thanks to the historical approach that one can determine the real place of religious beliefs and church rituals, the place of magic and superstition in folk customs and traditions. Generally speaking, only from a historical perspective can the essence of any holiday as such be understood.

The topic of customs and traditions of the Russian people, like any people inhabiting the Earth, is unusually broad and multifaceted. But it can also be divided into more specific and narrow topics in order to understand the essence of each separately and thereby present all the material in a more accessible way. These are topics such as New Year, Christmas, Christmastide, Maslenitsa, Ivan Kupala, their connection with the cult of vegetation and the sun; family and marriage customs; modern customs.

So, let's set out to find out how the geography and history of Russia influenced its culture; observe the origins of customs and traditions, what has changed in them over time, and under the influence of which these changes occurred.

Considering the traditions and customs of the Russian people, we can understand what are the features of their culture.

National culture is the national memory of a people, what distinguishes a given people from others, protects a person from depersonalization, allows him to feel the connection of times and generations, receive spiritual support and support in life.

Both the calendar and human life are associated with folk customs, as well as church sacraments, rituals and holidays.

In Rus', the calendar was called a monthly calendar. The month book covered the entire year of peasant life, “describing” day by day, month after month, where each day had its own holidays or weekdays, customs and superstitions, traditions and rituals, natural signs and phenomena.

The folk calendar was an agricultural calendar, which was reflected in the names of the months, folk signs, rituals and customs. Even the determination of the timing and duration of the seasons is associated with real climatic conditions. Hence the discrepancy in the names of the months in different areas.

For example, both October and November can be called leaf fall.

The folk calendar is a kind of encyclopedia of peasant life with its holidays and everyday life. It includes knowledge of nature, agricultural experience, rituals, and norms of social life.

The folk calendar is a fusion of pagan and Christian principles, folk Orthodoxy. With the establishment of Christianity, pagan holidays were prohibited, received a new interpretation, or were moved from their time. In addition to those assigned to certain dates in the calendar, movable holidays of the Easter cycle appeared.

Rituals dedicated to major holidays included a large number of different works of folk art: songs, sentences, round dances, games, dances, dramatic scenes, masks, folk costumes, and unique props.

Every national holiday in Russia is accompanied by rituals and songs. Their origin, content and purpose differ from church celebrations.

Most of the folk holidays arose during the times of the deepest paganism, when various government decrees, trade transactions, etc. were combined with liturgical rites.

Where there was bargaining, there was judgment and reprisal and a solemn holiday. Obviously, these customs can be explained by Germanic influence, where the priests were at the same time judges, and the area that was reserved for the gathering of the people was considered sacred and was always located near the river and roads.

Such communication of pagans at gatherings, where they prayed to the gods, discussed business, settled litigation with the help of priests, was completely forgotten, since it lay at the basis of the life of the people and was preserved in their memory. When Christianity replaced paganism, pagan rituals came to an end.

Many of them, which are not part of direct pagan worship, have survived to this day in the form of entertainment, customs, and festivities. Some of them gradually became an integral part of the Christian rite. The meaning of some holidays over time ceased to be clear, and our famous Russian historians, chronographers and ethnographers found it difficult to determine their nature.

Holidays are an integral part of every person's life.

There are several types of holidays: family, religious, calendar, state.

Family holidays are: birthdays, weddings, housewarmings. On days like these, the whole family gets together.

Calendar or public holidays are New Year, Defender of the Fatherland Day, International Women's Day, World Spring and Labor Day, Victory Day, Children's Day, Russian Independence Day and others.

Religious holidays - Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Maslenitsa and others.

For residents of Russian cities, New Year is the main winter holiday and is celebrated on January 1. However, there are exceptions among city residents who do not celebrate the New Year. A real holiday for a believer is the Nativity of Christ. And before it is the strict Nativity Fast, which lasts 40 days. It begins on November 28 and ends only on January 6, in the evening, with the rising of the first star. There are even villages where all residents do not celebrate the New Year or celebrate it on January 13 (January 1, Julian style), after Lent and Christmas.

Now let's return to the history of New Year celebrations in Rus'

The celebration of the New Year in Rus' has the same complex fate as its history itself. First of all, all changes in the celebration of the new year were associated with the most important historical events that affected the entire state and each person individually. There is no doubt that folk tradition, even after officially introduced changes in the calendar, preserved ancient customs for a long time.

Celebrating the New Year in pagan Rus'.

How the New Year was celebrated in pagan ancient Rus' is one of the unresolved and controversial issues in historical science. No affirmative answer was found at what time the year began.

The beginning of the New Year celebration should be sought in ancient times. Thus, among ancient peoples, the New Year usually coincided with the beginning of the revival of nature and was mainly confined to the month of March.

In Rus' there was a proleta for a long time, i.e. the first three months, and the summer month began in March. In honor of him, they celebrated Ausen, Ovsen or Tusen, which later moved to the new year. Summer itself in ancient times consisted of the current three spring and three summer months - the last six months included winter time. The transition from autumn to winter was blurred like the transition from summer to autumn. Presumably, initially in Rus' the New Year was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox on March 22. Maslenitsa and New Year were celebrated on the same day. Winter has been driven away, which means a new year has arrived.

Celebrating the New Year after the Baptism of Rus'

Together with Christianity in Rus' (988 - Baptism of Rus'), a new chronology appeared - from the creation of the world, as well as a new European calendar - the Julian, with a fixed name for the months. March 1st was considered the beginning of the new year

According to one version, at the end of the 15th century, and according to another in 1348, the Orthodox Church moved the beginning of the year to September 1, which corresponded to the definitions of the Council of Nicaea. The transfer must be put in connection with the growing importance of the Christian Church in the state life of ancient Rus'. The strengthening of Orthodoxy in medieval Rus', the establishment of Christianity as a religious ideology, naturally causes the use of “holy scripture” as a source of reform introduced into the existing calendar. The reform of the calendar system was carried out in Rus' without taking into account the working life of the people, without establishing a connection with agricultural work. The September New Year was approved by the church, following the word of the Holy Scriptures; Having established and substantiated it with a biblical legend, the Russian Orthodox Church has preserved this New Year's date until modern times as an ecclesiastical parallel to the civil New Year. In the Old Testament church, the month of September was celebrated annually, to commemorate peace from all worldly worries.

Thus, the New Year began on the first of September. This day became the feast of Simeon the First Stylite, which is still celebrated by our church and known among the common people under the name Semyon of the Summer Conductor, because on this day summer ended and the new year began. It was a solemn day of celebration for us, and the subject of analysis of urgent conditions, collection of quitrents, taxes and personal courts.

Innovations of Peter I in the celebration of the New Year

In 1699, Peter I issued a decree according to which January 1 was considered the beginning of the year. This was done following the example of all Christian peoples who lived not according to the Julian, but according to the Gregorian calendar. Peter I could not completely transfer Rus' to the new Gregorian calendar, since the church lived according to the Julian calendar. However, the Tsar in Russia changed the calendar. If earlier years were counted from the creation of the world, now chronology starts from the Nativity of Christ. In a personal decree, he announced: “Now the year of Christ is one thousand six hundred and ninety-nine, and from next January, on the 1st day, the new year 1700 and a new century will begin.” It should be noted that the new chronology existed for a long time together with the old one - in the decree of 1699 it was allowed to write two dates in documents - from the Creation of the world and from the Nativity of Christ.

The implementation of this reform of the Great Tsar, which was so important, began with the fact that it was forbidden to celebrate in any way September 1, and on December 15, 1699, the beating of drums announced something important to the people who poured in crowds to Krasnaya square. A high platform was built here, on which the royal clerk loudly read the decree that Peter Vasilyevich commands “from now on, summers should be counted in orders and in all matters and fortresses written from the 1st of January from the Nativity of Christ.”

The Tsar steadily ensured that our New Year holiday was no worse and no poorer than in other European countries.

In Peter's decree it was written: "...On large and thorough streets for noble people and at houses of deliberate spiritual and secular rank in front of the gates, make some decorations from trees and branches of pine and juniper... and for poor people, at least a tree or branch for the gate or place it over your temple..." The decree did not talk specifically about the Christmas tree, but about trees in general. At first they were decorated with nuts, sweets, fruits and even vegetables, and they began to decorate the Christmas tree much later, from the middle of the last century.

The first day of the New Year 1700 began with a parade on Red Square in Moscow. And in the evening the sky lit up with the bright lights of festive fireworks. It was from January 1, 1700 that folk New Year's fun and merriment gained recognition, and the celebration of the New Year began to have a secular (not church) character. As a sign of the national holiday, cannons were fired, and in the evening, multi-colored fireworks, never seen before, flashed in the dark sky. People had fun, sang, danced, congratulated each other and gave New Year's gifts.

New Year under Soviet rule. Change of calendar.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the country's government raised the question of calendar reform, since most European countries had long switched to the Gregorian calendar, adopted by Pope Gregory XIII back in 1582, and Russia still lived according to the Julian calendar.

On January 24, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted the "Decree on the introduction of the Western European calendar in the Russian Republic." Signed V.I. Lenin published the document the next day and came into force on February 1, 1918. It said, in particular: “...The first day after January 31 of this year should not be considered February 1, but February 14, the second day should be considered 15 -m, etc." Thus, Russian Christmas shifted from December 25 to January 7, and the New Year holiday also shifted.

Contradictions immediately arose with Orthodox holidays, because, having changed the dates of civil holidays, the government did not touch church holidays, and Christians continued to live according to the Julian calendar. Now Christmas was celebrated not before, but after the New Year. But this did not bother the new government at all. On the contrary, it was beneficial to destroy the foundations of Christian culture. The new government introduced its own, new, socialist holidays.

In 1929, Christmas was cancelled. With it, the Christmas tree, which was called a “priestly” custom, was also abolished. New Year was cancelled. However, at the end of 1935, an article by Pavel Petrovich Postyshev “Let's organize a good Christmas tree for the children for the New Year!” appeared in the Pravda newspaper. Society, which had not yet forgotten the beautiful and bright holiday, reacted quite quickly - Christmas trees and Christmas tree decorations appeared on sale. Pioneers and Komsomol members took upon themselves the organization and holding of New Year trees in schools, orphanages and clubs. On December 31, 1935, the Christmas tree re-entered the homes of our compatriots and became a holiday of “joyful and happy childhood in our country” - a wonderful New Year’s holiday that continues to delight us today.

old New Year

I would like to return once again to the change of calendars and explain the Old New Year hairdryer in our country.

The very name of this holiday indicates its connection with the old style of the calendar, according to which Russia lived until 1918, and switched to a new style by decree of V.I. Lenin. The so-called Old Style is a calendar introduced by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar (Julian calendar). The new style is a reform of the Julian calendar, undertaken on the initiative of Pope Gregory XIII (Gregorian, or new style). From an astronomical point of view, the Julian calendar was not accurate and allowed for errors that accumulated over the years, resulting in serious deviations of the calendar from the true movement of the Sun. Therefore, the Gregorian reform was to some extent necessary

The difference between the old and new styles in the 20th century was already plus 13 days! Accordingly, the day that was January 1 in the old style became January 14 in the new calendar. And the modern night from January 13 to 14 in pre-revolutionary times was New Year's Eve. Thus, by celebrating the Old New Year, we are, as it were, joining history and making a tribute to time.

New Year in the Orthodox Church

Surprisingly, the Orthodox Church lives according to the Julian calendar.

In 1923, on the initiative of the Patriarch of Constantinople, a meeting of the Orthodox Churches was held, at which a decision was made to correct the Julian calendar. Due to historical circumstances, the Russian Orthodox Church was unable to take part in it.

Having learned about the meeting in Constantinople, Patriarch Tikhon nevertheless issued a decree on the transition to the “New Julian” calendar. But this caused protests and unrest among the church people. Therefore, the resolution was canceled less than a month later.

The Russian Orthodox Church states that at present it does not face the question of changing the calendar style to Gregorian. “The overwhelming majority of believers are committed to preserving the existing calendar. The Julian calendar is dear to our church people and is one of the cultural features of our life,” said Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, secretary for inter-Orthodox relations of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Orthodox New Year is celebrated on September 14 according to today's calendar or September 1 according to the Julian calendar. In honor of the Orthodox New Year, prayer services are held in churches for the New Year.

Thus, the New Year is a family holiday, celebrated by many peoples in accordance with the accepted calendar, which occurs at the moment of transition from the last day of the year to the first day of the next year. It turns out that the New Year holiday is the oldest of all existing holidays. It has entered our everyday life forever, becoming a traditional holiday for all people on earth.

The Nativity Fast is the last multi-day fast of the year. It begins on November 15 (28 according to the new style) and continues until December 25 (January 7), lasts forty days and therefore is called in the Church Charter, like Lent, Lent. Since the beginning of the fast falls on the day of remembrance of St. Apostle Philip (November 14, Art.), then this fast is also called Philip's.

About the history of the establishment of fasting and its significance

The establishment of the Nativity Fast, like other multi-day fasts, dates back to the ancient times of Christianity. Already in the 5th–6th centuries, many Western church writers mentioned it. The core from which the Nativity Fast grew was the fast on the eve of the Feast of Epiphany, which was celebrated in the Church at least from the 3rd century and in the 4th century was divided into the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Epiphany.

Initially, the Nativity Fast lasted seven days for some Christians, and longer for others. As a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy wrote:

I.D. Mansvetov, “a hint of this unequal duration is contained in the ancient Typics themselves, where the Nativity Fast is divided into two periods: until December 6 - more lenient in relation to abstinence... and the other - from December 6 until the holiday itself” ( Op. op. p. 71).

The Nativity fast begins on November 15 (in the XX–XXI centuries - November 28 according to the new style) and lasts until December 25 (in the XX–XXI centuries - January 7 according to the new style), lasts forty days and therefore is called in the Typikon, like Lent , Pentecostal. Since the beginning of the fast falls on the day of remembrance of St. Apostle Philip (November 14, old style), this post is sometimes called Philip's.

According to the blzh. Simeon of Thessalonica, “the fast of the Nativity Pentecost depicts the fast of Moses, who, having fasted for forty days and forty nights, received the words of God inscribed on stone tablets. And we, fasting for forty days, contemplate and accept the living Word from the Virgin, not inscribed on stones, but incarnate and born, and we partake of His Divine flesh.”

The Nativity Fast was established so that on the day of the Nativity of Christ we purify ourselves with repentance, prayer and fasting, so that with a pure heart, soul and body we can reverently meet the Son of God who appeared in the world and so that, in addition to the usual gifts and sacrifices, we offer Him our pure heart and a desire to follow His teaching.

How to eat during the Nativity Fast

The Charter of the Church teaches what one should abstain from during fasting: “All those who fast piously must strictly observe the regulations on the quality of food, that is, abstain during fasting from certain foodstuffs (that is, food, food - Ed.), not as bad (and not this will happen), but as inappropriate for fasting and prohibited by the Church. The foodstuffs that one must abstain from during fasting are: meat, cheese, cow’s butter, milk, eggs, and sometimes fish, depending on the difference in the holy fasts.”

The rules of abstinence prescribed by the Church during the Nativity Fast are as strict as during the Apostolic (Petrov) Fast. In addition, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the Nativity Fast, the charter prohibits fish, wine and oil, and it is allowed to eat food without oil (dry eating) only after Vespers. On other days - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday - it is allowed to eat food with vegetable oil.

During the Nativity Fast, fish is allowed on Saturdays and Sundays and on great holidays, for example, on the Feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on temple holidays and on the days of great saints, if these days fall on Tuesday or Thursday. If holidays fall on Wednesday or Friday, then fasting is permitted only for wine and oil.

From December 20 to December 24 (old style, i.e. - in the 20th–21st centuries - from January 2 to 6 of the new style), fasting intensifies, and on these days, even on Saturday and Sunday, fish are not blessed.

While we fast physically, at the same time we need to fast spiritually. “As we fast, brethren, physically, let us also fast spiritually, let us resolve every union of unrighteousness,” commands the Holy Church.

Physical fasting without spiritual fasting does not bring anything to the salvation of the soul; on the contrary, it can be spiritually harmful if a person, abstaining from food, becomes imbued with the consciousness of his own superiority due to the fact that he is fasting. True fasting is associated with prayer, repentance, abstinence from passions and vices, the eradication of evil deeds, forgiveness of insults, abstinence from married life, the exclusion of entertainment and entertainment events, and watching television. Fasting is not a goal, but a means - a means to humble your flesh and cleanse yourself of sins. Without prayer and repentance, fasting becomes just a diet.

The essence of fasting is expressed in the church hymn: “By fasting from food, my soul, and not being cleansed from passions, you rejoice in vain in not eating, for if you do not have the desire for correction, then you will be hated by God as a liar, and you will become like evil demons, never eating." In other words, the main thing in fasting is not the quality of food, but the fight against passions.

Christmas in the first centuries

In ancient times, it was believed that the date of Christmas was January 6 according to the old style, or the 19th according to the new style. How did the early Christians arrive at this date? We consider Christ as the Son of Man to be the “second Adam.” In the sense that if the first Adam was the culprit of the fall of the human race, then the second became the Redeemer of people, the source of our salvation. At the same time, the Ancient Church came to the conclusion that Christ was born on the same day on which the first Adam was created. That is, on the sixth day of the first month of the year. Now on this day we celebrate the day of Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. In ancient times, this holiday was called Epiphany and included Epiphany-Epiphany and Christmas.

However, over time, many came to the conclusion that the celebration of such an important holiday as Christmas should be assigned to a separate day. Moreover, along with the opinion that the Nativity of Christ falls on the creation of Adam, there has long been a belief in the Church that Christ had to be on earth for the full number of years, as a perfect number. Many holy fathers - Hippolytus of Rome, St. Augustine and, finally, St. John Chrysostom - believed that Christ was conceived on the same day on which he suffered, therefore, on the Jewish Passover, which fell on March 25 in the year of his death. Counting 9 months from here, we get the date for the Nativity of Christ on December 25 (old style).

And although it is impossible to establish the day of Christmas with absolute accuracy, the opinion that Christ spent a full number of years on earth from the moment of conception to the crucifixion is based on a careful study of the Gospel. Firstly, we know when the Angel informed Elder Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist. This happened during Zechariah's ministry in Solomon's Temple. All the priests in Judea were divided by King David into 24 orders, which served in turn. Zechariah belonged to the Avian order, the 8th in a row, the time of service of which was at the end of August - the first half of September. Soon “after these days,” that is, around the end of September, Zechariah conceives John the Baptist. The church celebrates this event on September 23. In the 6th month after this, that is, in March, the Angel of the Lord announced to the Most Holy Theotokos about the immaculate conception of the Son. The Annunciation in the Orthodox Church is celebrated on March 25 (old style). Christmas time, therefore, turns out to be the end of December according to the old style.

At first, this belief apparently prevailed in the West. And there is a special explanation for this. The fact is that in the Roman Empire, on December 25, there was a celebration dedicated to the renewal of the world - the Day of the Sun. On the day when the daylight hours began to increase, the pagans had fun, remembering the god Mithras, and drank themselves into unconsciousness. Christians were also captivated by these celebrations, just as now in Russia few people safely pass the New Year celebrations that fall during Lent. And then the local clergy, wanting to help their flock overcome adherence to this pagan tradition, decided to move Christmas to the Day of the Sun itself. Moreover, in the New Testament Jesus Christ is called the “Sun of Truth.”

Do you want to worship the sun? - Roman saints asked the laity. - So worship, but not the created luminary, but the One who gives us true light and joy - the immortal Sun, Jesus Christ.

Victory of the new holiday

The dream of making Christmas a separate holiday in the Eastern Church became urgent by the middle of the fourth century. At that time, heresies were rampant, which imposed the idea that God did not take a human form, that Christ did not come into the world in flesh and blood, but, like the three angels at the Oak of Mamre, was woven from other, higher energies.

Then the Orthodox realized how little attention they had hitherto paid to the Nativity of Christ. St. John Chrysostom’s heart especially ached about this. In a speech delivered on December 20, 388, he asked the faithful to prepare for the celebration of Christmas on December 25. The saint said that in the West, Christmas has been celebrated for a long time, and it is time for the entire Orthodox world to adopt this good custom. This speech won over the wavering, and over the next half century Christmas triumphed throughout the Christian world. In Jerusalem, for example, on this day the entire community, led by the bishop, went to Bethlehem, prayed in a cave at night, and returned home to celebrate Christmas in the morning. The celebrations lasted eight days.

After the new Gregorian calendar was compiled in the West, Catholics and Protestants began to celebrate Christmas two weeks earlier than the Orthodox. In the 20th century, under the influence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Orthodox Churches of Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt began to celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar. Together with the Russian Church, Christmas in the old style is celebrated by the Jerusalem, Serbian, Georgian Churches and the monasteries of Athos. Fortunately, according to the late Patriarch Diodorus of Jerusalem, “Old Calendarists” make up 4/5 of the total number of Orthodox Christians.

How Christmas was celebrated in Rus'

Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve - was celebrated modestly both in the palaces of Russian emperors and in the huts of peasants. But the next day, the fun and revelry began - Christmastide. Many people mistakenly consider all kinds of fortune-telling and mummers to be among the traditions of celebrating Christmas. Indeed, there were those who told fortunes, dressed up as bears, pigs and various evil spirits, and scared children and girls. To be more convincing, scary masks were made from various materials. But these traditions are pagan relics. The Church has always opposed such phenomena, which have nothing to do with Christianity.

True Christmas traditions include glorification. On the feast of the Nativity of Christ, when the good news for the liturgy was heard, the patriarch himself with the entire spiritual synclite came to glorify Christ and congratulate the sovereign in his chambers; From there everyone went with the cross and holy water to the queen and other members of the royal family. As for the origin of the rite of glorification, we can assume that it dates back to Christian antiquity; its beginning can be seen in those congratulations that at one time were brought to Emperor Constantine the Great by his singers, while singing the kontakion for the Nativity of Christ: “Today a virgin gives birth to the Most Essential.” The tradition of glorification was very widespread among the people. Young people and children walked from house to house or stopped under the windows and glorified the born Christ, and also wished the owners goodness and prosperity in songs and jokes. The hosts gave treats to the participants of such congratulation concerts, competing in generosity and hospitality. It was considered bad manners to refuse food to the praisers, and the artists even took large bags with them to collect sweet trophies.

In the 16th century, the nativity scene became an integral part of worship. This is what the puppet theater was called in the old days, showing the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. The law of the nativity scene prohibited the display of dolls of the Mother of God and the Infant of God; they were always replaced with an icon. But the wise men, shepherds and other characters worshiping the newborn Jesus could be portrayed with the help of dolls and actors.

Nativity image

Over the centuries, legends, folk spiritual poems and traditions have been added to the brief Gospel stories about the Nativity of Christ. It is in this ancient apocryphal literature that a detailed description of the den (cave) in which the Holy Family was located is found, and it speaks of the wretched conditions that accompanied the birth of Jesus Christ.

These folk ideas were reflected in icon painting and in popular popular prints, which depicted not only a manger with the Holy Child, but also animals - an ox and a donkey. In the 9th century, the image of the painting of the Nativity of Christ was finally formed. This painting depicts a cave, in the depths of which there is a manger. In this manger lies the Infant God, Jesus Christ, from whom radiance emanates. The Mother of God reclines not far from the manger. Joseph sits further from the manger, on the other side, dozing or thoughtful.

In the book “Four Menaions” by Dmitry Rostovsky it is reported that an ox and a donkey were tied to the manger. According to apocryphal legends, Joseph of Nazareth brought these animals with him. The Virgin Mary rode a donkey. And Joseph took the ox with him in order to sell it and use the proceeds to pay the royal tax and feed the Holy Family while they were on the road and in Bethlehem. Therefore, very often these animals appear in drawings and icons depicting the Nativity of Christ. They stand next to the manger and with their warm breath warm the Divine Infant from the cold of the winter night. Also, the image of a donkey allegorically symbolizes perseverance and the ability to achieve a goal. And the image of an ox symbolizes humility and hard work.

Here it should be noted that the manger in its original meaning is a feeding trough where feed for livestock was placed. And this word, associated with the birth of the Infant God, has become so ingrained in our language as a symbolic designation of children's institutions for infants that no atheistic propaganda could remove it from use.

History of spruce decoration

The custom of decorating a Christmas tree came to us from Germany. The first written mention of the Christmas tree dates back to the 16th century. In the German city of Strasbourg, both poor people and noble families decorated their spruce trees with colored paper, fruits and sweets in winter. Gradually this tradition spread throughout Europe. In 1699, Peter I ordered to decorate their houses with pine, spruce and juniper branches. And only in the 30s of the 19th century, Christmas trees appeared in the capital in the houses of St. Petersburg Germans. And they began to put up Christmas trees publicly in the capital only in 1852. By the end of the 19th century, Christmas trees became the main decoration of both city and country houses and in the 20th century they were inseparable from the winter holidays. But the history of the Christmas tree in Russia was by no means cloudless. In 1916, the war with Germany had not yet ended, and the Holy Synod banned the Christmas tree as an enemy, German idea. The Bolsheviks who came to power secretly extended this ban. Nothing should have reminded of the great Christian holiday. But in 1935, the custom of decorating the Christmas tree returned to our homes. True, for the majority of non-believing Soviet people, the tree returned not as a Christmas tree, but as a New Year's tree.

Christmas wreath

The Advent wreath is of Lutheran origin. This is an evergreen wreath with four candles. The first candle is lit on Sunday four weeks before Christmas as a symbol of the light that will come into the world with the birth of Christ. Every next Sunday another candle is lit. On the last Sunday before Christmas, all four candles are lit to illuminate the place where the wreath is located, perhaps the altar of a church or the dining table.

Christmas candles

Light was an important component of pagan winter holidays. With the help of candles and fires they drove out the forces of darkness and cold. Wax candles were distributed to the Romans on the holiday of Saturnalia. In Christianity, candles are considered an additional symbol of the importance of Jesus as the Light of the world. In Victorian England, merchants gave candles to their regular customers every year. In many countries, Christmas candles signify the victory of light over darkness. The candles on the tree of heaven gave birth to our all-loved Christmas tree.

Christmas presents

This tradition has many roots. Saint Nicholas is traditionally considered the giver of gifts. In Rome there was a tradition of giving gifts to children on the occasion of Saturnalia. The gift giver can be Jesus himself, Santa Claus, Befana (Italian female Santa Claus), Christmas gnomes, and various saints. According to an old Finnish tradition, gifts are distributed around homes by an invisible man.

Christmas on a silver platter

Christmas Eve is called "Christmas Eve", or "sochechnik", and this word comes from the ritual food eaten on this day - sochiva (or watering). Sochivo - porridge made from red wheat or barley, rye, buckwheat, peas, lentils, mixed with honey and almond and poppy juice; that is, this is kutia - a ritual funeral dish. The number of dishes was also ritual - 12 (according to the number of apostles). The table was prepared in abundance: pancakes, fish dishes, aspic, jelly from pork and beef legs, suckling pig stuffed with porridge, pork head with horseradish, homemade pork sausage, roast. honey gingerbread and, of course, roast goose. Food on Christmas Eve could not be taken until the first star, in memory of the Star of Bethlehem, which announced the Nativity of the Savior to the Magi. And with the onset of dusk, when the first star lit up, they sat down at the table and shared the wafers, wishing each other all the best and brightest. Christmas is a holiday when the whole family gathers together at a common table.

Thus, Christmas is one of the most important Christian holidays, established in honor of the birth in the flesh of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary. It is no coincidence that it is very popular in our country and loved by many residents.

Christmastide, holy evenings, are usually called so in Russia, and not only in our fatherland, but also abroad, days of celebration, days of fun and days of the sacred celebration of the Nativity of Christ, starting on December 25 and usually ending on January 5 of the following year. This celebration corresponds to the holy nights of the Germans (Weihnaechen). In other dialects, simply “Christmas time” (Swatki) means holidays. In Little Russia, Poland, and Belarus, many holidays are known under the name of Christmastide (swiatki), such as Green Christmastide, that is, Trinity Week. Therefore, Professor Snegirev concludes that both the name itself and most of the folk games moved to the north from the south and west of Russia. If we started with Christmastide, it is because there is not a single celebration in Rus' that would be accompanied by such a rich selection of customs, rituals and signs as Christmastide. At Christmastide we meet, or see, a strange mixture of customs from pagan rites, mixed with some Christian memories of the Savior of the World. It is indisputable that pagan rituals, and not otherwise, include: fortune telling, games, dresses, etc., which express their inventive side of celebration, which has absolutely nothing to do with Christian goals and the mood of the spirit, as well as glorification, that is, the walking of children, and sometimes adults with a star, sometimes with races, a nativity scene and similar objects. Meanwhile, the word “Christmastide” itself represents the concept of the meaning of the holiness of days due to the joyful event for Christians. But from ancient times, from the time immemorial of paganism, customs and rituals entered into these solemn days, and at present these customs are not eradicated, but exist in different types and forms, more or less changed. Christmastide, as holidays adopted from the Hellenes (Greeks); we see the same confirmation of Kolyads from the Hellenes in Rule 62 of Stoglav. However, Professor Snegirev testifies that the Holy Fathers, when speaking about the Hellenes, had in mind any pagan peoples, as opposed to the Orthodox Greeks and Jews. History says that this custom existed in the Roman Empire, in Egypt, among the Greeks and Indians. So, for example, Egyptian priests, celebrating the rebirth of Osiris or the New Year, dressed in masks and costumes corresponding to the deities, walked along the streets of the city. Bareilles and hieroglyphs in Memphis and Thebes indicate that such masquerades were performed on the New Year and were considered a sacred rite. In the same way, similar rituals were performed by the Persians on the birthday of Mithra, and by the Indians Perun-Tsongol and Ugada. The Romans called these holidays days of the sun. In vain did Constantine the Great, Tertullian, St. John Chrysostom and Pope Zachary rebelled against Christmas magic and crazy games (kalends) - the customs of fortune telling and straining still remained, although in a rather modified form. Even Emperor Peter I himself, upon returning to Russia from a trip, dressed Zotov as a pope, and his other favorites as cardinals, deacons and masters of ceremonies, and, accompanied by a choir of singers on Christmastide, went with them to the boyars’ houses to glorify them. In the book of the Helmsman, on the basis of Chapter XXII, verse 5 of Deuteronomy, the mentioned re-dressing is prohibited. It is known that Moses, as a legislator, destroyer of paganism and its rituals among the chosen people, prohibiting the worship of idols, also forbade re-dressing, as the Egyptian priests did. Among the Scandinavians (inhabitants of what is now Sweden), Christmastide was known as the Iola, or Yule, holiday, the most important and longest of all. This holiday was celebrated in honor of Thor in Norway in winter, and in Denmark in honor of Odin for the blessed harvest and the speedy return of the sun. The holiday usually began at midnight on January 4, and it lasted for three whole weeks. The first three days were devoted to charity and celebration, then the last days were spent in fun and feasting. Among the ancient Anglo-Saxons, the longest and darkest night preceded the birthday of Freyer, or the Sun, and was called Mother's Night, since this night was revered as the mother of the sun or solar year. At this time, according to the beliefs of the northern peoples, the spirit of Ylevetten appeared in the form of a black-faced youth with a woman's bandage on his head, wrapped in a long black cloak. In this form, it’s as if he appears at home at night, like a betrothed-mummer among Russians at Christmastide, and accepts gifts. This belief has now turned into amusement throughout the north, already devoid of any superstitious meaning. The same role is represented by Phillia in the Germanic north. In England, a few days before the Nativity of Christ, in most cities night singing and music begin in the streets. In Holland, eight nights before the holiday and eight after the holiday, the night watchman, after announcing the morning, adds a funny song, the content of which is advice during the holidays to eat porridge with raisins and add sugar to it to make it sweeter. In general, the Christmas holidays, despite the cold winter season, breathe fun, just like Christmas Eve. However, Christmas Eve in Russia is less fun, because it is a fast day, a day of preparation for the holiday. The common people always have a wealth of funny tales on the occasion of this day, and the night before Christmas witnesses many superstitious observations. In England there is a belief that if you enter a barn at the stroke of midnight, you will find all the cattle on their knees. Many are convinced that on Christmas Eve all the bees sing in the hives, welcoming the day of celebration. This belief is widespread throughout Catholic and Protestant Europe. In the evening, women never leave tows on the spinning wheels, lest the devil decide to sit down to work instead. Young girls give this a different interpretation: they say that if they don’t finish spinning the tow on the eve of Christmas, the spinning wheel will come for them to church at the wedding and their husbands will think that they are God knows what lazy people. In this, the girls salt the unspun tow in order to protect it from the devil’s tricks. If the threads remain on the reel, they are not removed, as usual, but cut. In Scotland, livestock are fed the last handful of compressed bread on Christmas Day to protect them from illness. In England, in the old days, there was a custom: on Christmas Day, serve a boar's head in vinegar and with lemon in the mouth. At the same time, a song befitting a celebration was sung. In Germany, during the so-called sacred nights, in our opinion holy evenings, or Christmastide, they tell fortunes, arrange a Christmas tree for children, try in every way to find out the future for the year and believe that on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, cattle speak. Even earlier, the story of the birth of Jesus Christ was presented there in person. In addition, as has already been said now and has become stronger in our Russia, in the Saxon village of Scholbeck, according to Kranz, men of all ages celebrated Compline of the Nativity of Christ with women in the churchyard of St. Magna in disorderly dances with indecent songs, at least such songs that are not characteristic of such a highly solemn day.

Maslenitsa is an ancient Slavic holiday that came to us from pagan culture and survived after the adoption of Christianity. The Church included Maslenitsa among its holidays, calling it Cheese or Meat Week, since Maslenitsa falls on the week preceding Lent.

According to one version, the name “Maslenitsa” arose because this week, according to Orthodox custom, meat was already excluded from food, and dairy products could still be consumed.

Maslenitsa is the most cheerful and satisfying folk holiday, lasting a whole week. The people always loved him and affectionately called him “killer whale”, “sugar mouth”, “kisser”, “honest Maslenitsa”, “cheerful”, “quail”, “perebukha”, “overeating”, “yasochka”.

An integral part of the holiday was horse riding, on which they put on the best harness. Guys who were getting married bought sleds especially for this ride. All the young couples certainly took part in the skating. Just as widespread as festive horse riding was youth riding from the icy mountains. Among the customs of rural youth on Maslenitsa were also jumping over a fire and taking a snowy town.

In the 18th and 19th centuries. The central place in the celebration was occupied by the peasant Maslenitsa comedy, in which the characters from the mummers took part - “Maslenitsa”, “Voevoda”, etc. The plot for them was Maslenitsa itself, with its abundant treats before the upcoming fast, with its farewells and the promise to return next year . Often some real local events were included in the performance.

Maslenitsa has retained the character of a folk festival for many centuries. All Maslenitsa traditions are aimed at driving away winter and waking up nature from sleep. Maslenitsa was celebrated with majestic songs on the snow slides. The symbol of Maslenitsa was a straw effigy, dressed in women's clothes, with whom they had fun, and then buried or burned at the stake along with a pancake, which the effigy held in its hand.

Pancakes are the main treat and symbol of Maslenitsa. They are baked every day from Monday, but especially many from Thursday to Sunday. The tradition of baking pancakes has been in Rus' since the times of worship of pagan gods. After all, it was the sun god Yarilo who was called upon to drive away winter, and the round, ruddy pancake is very similar to the summer sun.

Each housewife traditionally had her own special recipe for making pancakes, which was passed down from generation to generation through the female line. Pancakes were baked mainly from wheat, buckwheat, oatmeal, and corn flour, adding millet or semolina porridge, potatoes, pumpkin, apples, and cream.

In Rus' there was a custom: the first pancake was always for the repose; it was, as a rule, given to a beggar to remember all the deceased or placed on the window. Pancakes were eaten with sour cream, eggs, caviar and other tasty seasonings from morning to evening, alternating with other dishes.

The whole week of Maslenitsa was called nothing less than “honest, broad, cheerful, noblewoman-Maslenitsa, lady Maslenitsa.” Until now, each day of the week has its own name, which indicates what needs to be done on that day. On the Sunday before Maslenitsa, traditionally, they paid visits to relatives, friends, neighbors, and also invited guests. Since it was forbidden to eat meat during Maslenitsa week, the last Sunday before Maslenitsa was called “meat Sunday,” on which the father-in-law went to call his son-in-law to “finish the meat.”

Monday is the “meeting” of the holiday. On this day, ice slides were set up and rolled out. In the morning, the children made a straw effigy of Maslenitsa, dressed it up and carried it through the streets together. There were swings and tables with sweets.

Tuesday - "flirt". Fun games begin on this day. In the morning, the girls and young men rode on the icy mountains and ate pancakes. The guys were looking for brides, and the girls? grooms (and weddings took place only after Easter).

Wednesday is a “gourmet”. In first place among the treats, of course, are pancakes.

Thursday - "go wild". On this day, to help the sun drive away winter, people traditionally organize horseback riding “in the sun,” that is, clockwise around the village. The main thing for the male half on Thursday is defense or taking the snowy town.

Friday is “mother-in-law’s evening,” when the son-in-law goes “to his mother-in-law for pancakes.”

Saturday - "sister-in-law's get-togethers." On this day they go to visit all their relatives and treat themselves to pancakes.

Sunday is the final “forgiveness day,” when they ask forgiveness from relatives and friends for offenses and after that, as a rule, they sing and dance merrily, thereby seeing off the great Maslenitsa. On this day, a straw effigy is burned on a huge bonfire, personifying the passing winter. They place him in the center of the fire pit and say goodbye to him with jokes, songs, and dances. They scold winter for the frosts and winter hunger and thank them for the fun winter activities. After this, the effigy is set on fire amid cheerful cheers and songs. When winter burns down, the holiday ends with the final fun: young people jump over the fire. This competition in dexterity ends the Maslenitsa holiday. 1 Farewell to Maslenitsa ended on the first day of Lent - Clean Monday, which was considered a day of cleansing from sin and savory food. On Clean Monday they always washed in the bathhouse, and women washed the dishes and “steamed” dairy utensils, cleaning them from fat and remnants of the milk.

Indeed, Maslenitsa has become our favorite holiday since childhood, with which the most pleasant memories are associated. Also, it is no coincidence that many jokes, jokes, songs, proverbs and sayings are associated with the days of Maslenitsa: “It’s not buttery without a pancake,” “Ride in the mountains, roll in pancakes,” “It’s not life, it’s Maslenitsa,” “Maslenitsa is a mess, you save your money.” , “At least pawn everything from yourself, but celebrate Maslenitsa”, “It’s not all Maslenitsa, but there will be Great Lent”, “Maslenitsa is afraid of bitter radishes and steamed turnips.”

The word “Passover” translated from Hebrew means “passing, deliverance.” Jews, celebrating the Old Testament Passover, remembered the liberation of their ancestors from Egyptian slavery. Christians, celebrating Easter of the New Testament, celebrate the deliverance of all humanity through Christ from the power of the devil, victory over death and the granting of us eternal life with God.

According to the importance of the benefits we received through the resurrection of Christ, Easter is the Feast of Feasts and the Triumph of Feasts.

Since ancient times, the bright holiday of Easter has been revered in Rus' as a day of universal equality, love and mercy. Before Easter, they baked Easter cakes, made Easter cakes, washed, cleaned, and cleaned. Young people and children tried to prepare the best and most beautifully painted eggs for the Great Day. At Easter, people greeted each other with the words: “Christ is risen! “Truly he is risen!”, they kissed three times and presented each other with beautiful Easter eggs.

Painted eggs are an inevitable part of the Easter breaking of the fast. There are many legends about the origin of Easter eggs. According to one of them, drops of the blood of the Crucified Christ, falling to the ground, took the form of chicken eggs and became hard as stone. The hot tears of the Mother of God, sobbing at the foot of the Cross, fell on these blood-red eggs and left traces on them in the form of beautiful patterns and colored specks. When Christ was taken down from the Cross and laid in the tomb, believers collected His tears and shared them among themselves. And when the joyful news of the Resurrection spread among them, they greeted each other: “Christ is risen,” and at the same time passed Christ’s tears from hand to hand. After the Resurrection, this custom was strictly observed by the first Christians, and the sign of the greatest miracle - the tear-egg - was strictly kept by them and served as the subject of a joyful gift on the day of the Holy Resurrection. Later, when people began to sin more, Christ’s tears melted and were carried away along with streams and rivers into the sea, turning the sea waves bloody... But the very custom of Easter eggs was preserved even after that...

On Easter, the Easter table was set for the whole day. In addition to real abundance, the Easter table had to demonstrate true beauty. Family and friends gathered behind him, who had not seen each other for a long time, because it was not customary to visit during Lent. Postcards were sent to distant relatives and friends.

After lunch, people sat at tables and played various games, went outside, and congratulated each other. We spent the day fun and festive.

Easter is celebrated for 40 days - in memory of Christ's forty-day stay on earth after the resurrection. During the forty days of Easter, and especially during the first, Bright Week, they visit each other and give colored eggs and Easter cakes. With Easter, cheerful festivities of young people always began: they swung on swings, danced in circles, and sang stoneflies.

A feature of the Easter festival was considered to be the sincere performance of good deeds. The more human actions were performed, the more spiritual sins could be gotten rid of.

The celebration of Easter begins with the Easter Service, which takes place on the night from Saturday to Sunday. The Easter service is distinguished by its grandeur and extraordinary solemnity. Believers take Easter cakes, colored eggs and other food with them to the Easter service to bless them during the Easter service.

In conclusion, I would like to agree that Easter is the main holiday of the liturgical year, which is deeply respected by all residents of our large and great country. 1

The summer solstice is one of the significant turning points of the year. Since ancient times, all the peoples of the Earth celebrated the peak of summer at the end of June. We have such a holiday.

However, this holiday was inherent not only to the Russian people. In Lithuania it is known as Lado, in Poland - as Sobotki, in Ukraine - Kupalo or Kupaylo. From the Carpathians to the north of Rus', on the night of June 23-24, everyone celebrated this mystical, mysterious, but at the same time wild and cheerful holiday of Ivan Kupala. True, due to the lag of the Julian calendar from the now accepted Gregorian calendar, a change in style and other calendar difficulties, the “crown of summer” began to be celebrated two weeks after the solstice itself...

Our ancient ancestors had a deity named Kupala, personifying summer fertility. In his honor, in the evenings they sang songs and jumped over the fire. This ritual action turned into an annual celebration of the summer solstice, mixing pagan and Christian traditions.

The deity Kupala began to be called Ivan after the baptism of Rus', when he was replaced by none other than John the Baptist (more precisely, his popular image), whose Christmas was celebrated on June 24.

Agrafena the Bathing Suit, Ivan Kupala following her, one of the most revered, most important, most riotous holidays of the year, as well as “Peter and Paul” going on a few days later merged into one big holiday, filled with great meaning for the Russian people and therefore including many ritual actions, rules and prohibitions, songs, sentences, all kinds of signs, fortune telling, legends, beliefs

According to the most popular version of the "Bathroom" of St. Agrafena is called because the day of her memory falls on the eve of Ivan Kupala - but many rituals and customs associated with this day suggest that St. Agrafena received her epithet without any relation to Kupala.

On Agrafena it was mandatory to wash and steam in the baths. Usually, it was on the day of Agrafena that the Bathers prepared brooms for the whole year.

On the night of Agrafena on Midsummer's Day, there was a custom: men sent their wives to “roll out the rye” (that is, crush the rye, lying around the strip), which was supposed to bring a considerable harvest.

Perhaps the most important event of Agrafena Bathing Day was the collection of herbs for medicinal and healing purposes. “Dashing men and women take off their shirts in the dead of midnight and until dawn they dig roots or look for treasure in treasured places,” it is written in one of the books of the early 19th century. It was believed that on this night the trees move from place to place and talk to each other through the rustling of leaves; animals and even herbs talk, which are filled with special, miraculous power that night.

Before sunrise, Ivan da Marya picked flowers. If you put them in the corners of the hut, then the thief will not approach the house: the brother and sister (the yellow and purple colors of the plant) will talk, and the thief will think that the owner and the mistress are talking.

In many places, it was customary to arrange a bathhouse and knit brooms not on Agrafena, but on Midsummer's Day. After the bath, the girls threw a broom over themselves into the river: if you drown, you will die this year. In the Vologda region, recently calved cows were dressed with brooms made from various herbs and branches of various trees; they wondered about their future - they threw brooms over their heads or threw them from the roof of the baths, they looked: if the broom falls with its top towards the churchyard, then the thrower will soon die; Kostroma girls paid attention to where the butt of the broom fell - that’s where they got married.

They also guessed like this: they collected 12 herbs (thistles and ferns are a must!), put them under the pillow at night so that the betrothed would dream: “Betrothed-mummer, come to my garden for a walk!”

You could pick flowers at midnight and put them under your pillow; In the morning I had to check if I had twelve different herbs. If you have enough, you will get married this year.

Many Kupala beliefs are associated with water. Early in the morning the women “scoop up the dew”; To do this, take a clean tablecloth and a ladle, with which they go to the meadow. Here the tablecloth is dragged along the wet grass, and then squeezed into a ladle and the face and hands are washed with this dew to drive away any illness and to keep the face clean. Kupala dew also serves for cleanliness in the house: it is sprinkled on the beds and walls of the house so that there are no bugs and cockroaches, and so that evil spirits “do not mock the house.”

In the morning on Midsummer's Day, swimming is a national custom, and only in some regions did peasants consider such bathing dangerous, since on Midsummer's Day the merman himself is considered the birthday boy, who cannot stand it when people interfere in his kingdom, and takes revenge on them by drowning everyone careless. In some places it is believed that only after Ivan's Day, respectable Christians can swim in rivers, lakes and ponds, since Ivan sanctifies them and pacifies various water evil spirits.

By the way, there are many beliefs associated with unclean, witch powers. It was believed that witches also celebrated their holiday on Ivan Kupala, trying to cause as much harm to people as possible. The witches allegedly keep water boiled with the ashes of the Kupala fire. And having sprinkled herself with this water, the witch can fly wherever she pleases...

One of the fairly common Kupala rituals is pouring water on everything that comes and goes. So, in the Oryol province, village boys dressed in old and dirty clothes and went with buckets to the river to fill them with the muddiest water, or even just liquid mud, and walked through the village, dousing everyone and everyone, making an exception only for old people and young people . (In some places in those parts, they say, this sweet custom has been preserved to this day.) But, of course, the girls got the worst of it: the guys even broke into houses, dragged the girls out into the street by force, and here they doused them from head to toe. In turn, the girls tried to take revenge on the guys.

It ended with young people, dirty, wet, with clothes stuck to their bodies, rushing to the river and here, choosing a secluded place, away from the stern eyes of their elders, they swam together, “and,” as the 19th-century ethnographer notes, “of course, the boys too and the girls remain in their clothes."

It is impossible to imagine a Kupala night without cleansing bonfires. They danced around them, jumped over them: whoever is more successful and taller will be happier: “Fire cleanses from all filth of the flesh and spirit!..” It is also believed that fire strengthens feelings - and therefore they jumped in pairs.

In some places, livestock was driven through the Kupala fire to protect it from pestilence. In the Kupala bonfires, mothers burned the shirts taken from sick children, so that the illnesses themselves would be burned along with this linen.

Young people and teenagers jumped over the fires and organized noisy fun games, fights, and races. We certainly played burners.

Well, after jumping and playing enough - how can you help but take a swim! And although Kupala is considered a holiday of purification, often after swimming together, young couples begin a love relationship - no matter what ethnographers say. However, according to legends, a child conceived on the night of Kupala will be born healthy, beautiful and happy.

This is how the holiday of Ivan Kupala passed - in riotous rituals, fortune telling and other funny and cute pranks.

Variety of Russian weddings

The Russian folk wedding is extremely diverse and forms its own local variants in different areas, reflecting the peculiarities of the life of the Eastern Slavs even in the pre-Christian period. Typical differences made it possible to identify three main geographical areas of Russian weddings: Central Russian, Northern Russian and Southern Russian.

The South Russian wedding is close to the Ukrainian and, apparently, to the original ancient Slavic. Its distinguishing feature is the absence of lamentations and a general cheerful tone. The main poetic genre of a South Russian wedding is songs. The Northern Russian wedding is dramatic, so its main genre is lamentation. They were performed throughout the ceremony. A bathhouse was mandatory, with which the bachelorette party ended.

The Northern Russian wedding was celebrated in Pomerania, in the Arkhangelsk, Olonetsk, St. Petersburg, Vyatka, Novgorod, Pskov, and Perm provinces. The most typical wedding ceremony was the Central Russian type. It covered a huge geographical area, the central axis of which ran along the line Moscow - Ryazan - Nizhny Novgorod.

Weddings of the Central Russian type, in addition to those mentioned above, were also played in Tula, Tambov, Penza, Kursk, Kaluga, Oryol, Simbirsk, Samara and other provinces. The poetry of the Central Russian wedding combined songs and lamentations, but songs predominated. They created a rich emotional and psychological palette of feelings and experiences, the poles of which were cheerful and sad tones.

But at the same time, a wedding is not an arbitrary set of songs, lamentations and ritual actions, but always a certain, historically established integrity. Therefore, in this work we will consider the main, most characteristic features that link together all types of Russian weddings. It is these features that will help to analyze the Russian wedding ceremony most fully and holistically.

Over time, a Russian wedding has developed a time frame that determined the main and most favorable days for marriage. Weddings were never held during fasting (with rare exceptions). Weddings were also avoided on fasting days of the week (Wednesday, Friday), and Maslenitsa week was also excluded from weddings. There was even a saying: “To get married on Maslenitsa is to become intermarried with misfortune...” They also tried to avoid the month of May, so as not to suffer for the rest of their lives.

Along with the days considered unfavorable for weddings, in Rus' there were periods during which the majority of weddings took place. These are, first of all, autumn and winter meat-eaters. The autumn meat-eater began with the Assumption (August 28) and continued until the Nativity (Filippov) fast (November 27).

Among the peasants, this period was shortened. Weddings began to be celebrated on Intercession (October 14) - by this time all major agricultural work was completed. The winter meat-eating period began from Christmas (January 7) and lasted until Maslenitsa (lasted from 5 to 8 weeks). This period was called “svadebnik” or “wedding”, since it was the most wedding of the year. The wedding began on the second or third day after baptism, since on great holidays, according to church regulations, priests could not perform weddings.

In the spring and summer, weddings began to be celebrated from Krasnaya Gorka (the first Sunday after Easter) until Trinity. In the summer there was another meat-eater, it began on Peter's Day (July 12) and continued until the Savior (August 14). At this time, it was also customary to have weddings (see 11.).

The Russian wedding cycle is traditionally divided into several stages:

Pre-wedding rituals include introductions, viewings of brides, and maiden fortune telling.

Pre-wedding rituals are matchmaking, bridesmaids, collusion, bachelorette party, groom's gatherings.

Wedding ceremonies are the departure, the wedding train, the wedding, the wedding feast.

Post-wedding rituals are the second day rituals, the visits.

The figurative basis of a Russian wedding

The wedding ceremony contains numerous symbols and allegories, the meaning of which is partially lost in time and exists only as a ritual.

Central Russian weddings are characterized by the “Christmas tree” ritual. The top or fluffy branch of a Christmas tree or other tree, called a beauty, decorated with ribbons, beads, lighted candles, etc., sometimes with a doll attached to it, stood on the table in front of the bride. The tree symbolized the youth and beauty of the bride, to which she said goodbye forever. The ancient, long-forgotten meaning was that the sacrificial duty of the initiated girl was redirected to the tree: instead of her, the tree that was originally accepted into her circle of kin (substitute sacrifice) died.

A wedding tree is known among most Slavic peoples as an obligatory attribute; at the same time, the Eastern Slavs have a wide variety of objects called beauty. These are not only plants (spruce, pine, birch, apple tree, cherry, viburnum, mint), but also girlish beauty and a girl’s headdress.

Since the marriage couple had to consist of representatives of different clans, the wedding included rituals that signified the transition of the bride from her clan to her husband’s clan. Connected with this is the worship of the stove - the sacred place of the home. All important tasks (for example, taking out beauty) began literally from the stove. In her husband’s house, the young woman bowed to the stove three times and only then to the icons, etc.

The flora of a Russian wedding is associated with ancient animistic ideas. All wedding participants were decorated with fresh or artificial flowers. Flowers and berries were embroidered on wedding clothes and towels.

The fauna of the wedding ritual dates back to ancient Slavic totems. In many elements of the ritual one can see the cult of the bear, which ensures wealth and fertility. In some places, a fried pig's head was an attribute of the wedding feast, and they often dressed up as a bull. Images of birds were associated with the bride (primarily the chicken had fertile power).

The wedding ritual of the Eastern Slavs had a pronounced agrarian, agricultural character. The cult of water was associated with the idea of ​​fertility. In a Northern Russian wedding, it was manifested in the bathing ritual that ended the bachelorette party; for a Central Russian wedding, a post-wedding dousing is typical. When pouring, the woman - the mother - was identified with the mother - the damp earth.

In pre- and post-marital rituals, the newlyweds were sprinkled with hops, oats, sunflower seeds or any other grain. Actions are known not only with grain, but also with ears of corn, with sauerkraut. The cult of bread manifested itself, first of all, as a celebration of the loaf, which played a large role throughout the entire wedding ceremony.

The ancient Slavic cult of the sun is associated with agricultural magic. According to the ideas of the ancients, love relationships between people were generated by the supernatural participation of heavenly bodies. The supreme representative of those entering into marriage and all other participants in the wedding was the sun. The month, moon, stars and dawn appeared next to him. The image of the sun carried the bride’s wedding wreath, which played a unique role in the wedding ceremony.

Since ancient times, weddings have been imbued with magic, all types of it were used. The purpose of productive magic was to ensure the well-being of the bride and groom, the strength and large number of children of their future family, as well as to obtain a rich harvest and a good offspring of livestock.

Apotropaic magic manifested itself in various amulets aimed at protecting young people from everything bad. This was achieved through allegorical speech, the ringing of bells, a pungent smell and taste, dressing up of the newlyweds, covering the bride, as well as a wide variety of objects - amulets (for example, a belt, a towel, etc.). Thus, the figurative basis of the Russian wedding reflects the pagan ideas of the Slavs, their close connection and interaction with the surrounding natural world.

Word and subject environment in a Russian wedding

Wedding poetry

The verbal, primarily poetic (verse) design of the wedding had a deep psychologism, depicting the feelings of the bride and groom and their development throughout the ceremony. The role of the bride was especially difficult psychologically. Folklore painted a rich palette of her emotional states. The first half of the wedding ceremony, while the bride was still in her parents' house, was filled with drama and was accompanied by sad, elegiac works. At the feast (in the groom's house), the emotional tone changed sharply: in folklore, the idealization of the participants in the feast prevailed, and fun sparkled.

As mentioned earlier, for a wedding of the Northern Russian type, the main folklore genre was lamentations. They expressed only one feeling - sadness. The psychological characteristics of songs are much broader, therefore, in a Central Russian wedding, the depiction of the bride’s experiences was more dialectical, moving and diverse. Wedding songs are the most significant, best-preserved cycle of family ritual poetry.

Each episode of the wedding had its own poetic devices. Matchmaking was conducted in a conventional poetic and allegorical manner. The matchmakers called themselves “hunters”, “fishermen”, the bride - “marten”, “white fish”. During the matchmaking, the bride's friends could already sing songs: ritual and lyrical, in which the theme of the girl's loss of her will began to be developed.

Conspiracy songs depicted the transition of a girl and a young man from the free state of “youth” and “girlhood” to the position of a bride and groom (“At the table, table, oak table ...”). Paired images appear in the songs - symbols from the natural world, for example, “Kalinushka” and “nightingale” (“On the mountain there was a viburnum in a bush...”).

The motive of the taken away maiden will is developed (the bride is depicted through the symbols of a pecked “berry”, a caught “fish”, a shot “kuna”, a trampled “grass”, a broken “grape twig”, a broken “birch tree”). Ritual songs performed at a gathering, at a bachelorette party, or on the morning of a wedding day could celebrate the upcoming, ongoing, or already completed ritual of unbraiding the braid (for examples, see the appendix). Conspiracy songs began to depict the young people in the position of a bride and groom, idealizing their relationship. In such songs there was no monologue form; they were a story or dialogue.

If the bride was an orphan, then a lament was performed in which the daughter “invites” her parents to watch her “orphan wedding.” Songs often contain the plot of crossing or transporting a bride across a water barrier, associated with the ancient understanding of a wedding as an initiation (“Across the river lay a bird cherry tree...”). The bachelorette party was full of ritual and lyrical songs (see the appendix for examples).

In the morning, the bride woke up her friends with a song in which she reported about her “bad dream”: “cursed woman’s life” had crept up on her. While the bride was dressing and waiting for the groom's wedding train, they sang lyrical songs that expressed the extreme degree of her sorrowful experiences. Ritual songs were also filled with deep lyricism; in them, marriage was depicted as an inevitable event (“Mother! Why is there dust in the field?”). The bride's transition from one home to another was depicted as a difficult, insurmountable path. On such a journey (from her home to the church, and then to the new home), the bride is accompanied not by relatives, but mainly by her future husband (“Lyubushka was still walking from tower to tower…” see appendix).

The appearance of the wedding train and all the guests is depicted in songs through hyperbole. At this time, scenes were played out in the house, which were based on the ransom of the bride or her double - the “maiden beauty”. Their execution was facilitated by wedding sentences, which were of a ritual nature. The sentences also had another function: they defuse the difficult psychological situation associated with the bride’s departure from her parents’ home.

The most solemn moment of the wedding was the feast. Here they sang only funny songs and danced. The ritual of glorification had a vibrant artistic development. Great songs were sung to the newlyweds, the wedding party and all the guests, and the igresses (singers) were given gifts for this. The stingy ones sang parodic magnificence—corruption songs that could have been sung just for laughs.

The images of the bride and groom in songs of praise poetically revealed various symbols from the natural world. Groom - “clear falcon”, “black horse”; bride - “strawberry-berry”, “viburnum-raspberry”, “currant berry”. The symbols could also be paired: “dove” and “darling”, “grapes” and “berry”. Portraits played an important role in songs of praise. Compared to the songs performed in the bride’s house, the opposition between one’s own and someone else’s family changed diametrically. Now the father’s family has become a “stranger,” so the bride doesn’t want to eat her father’s bread: it’s bitter and smells like wormwood; and I want to eat Ivanov’s bread: it’s sweet, it smells like honey (“Grapes are growing in the garden...” see appendix).

In songs of greatness, a general scheme for creating an image can be seen: a person’s appearance, his clothing, wealth, good spiritual qualities (for an example, see the appendix).

Great songs can be compared to hymns; they are characterized by solemn intonation and high vocabulary. All this was achieved using traditional folklore means. Yu. G. Kruglov noted that all artistic means “are used in strict accordance with the poetic content of glorified songs - they serve to strengthen, emphasize the most beautiful features of the appearance of the one being glorified, the most noble features of his character, the most magnificent attitude of those singing towards him, that is , serve the basic principle of the poetic content of great songs - idealization.”

The purpose of the corrugating songs performed at the moment of honoring the guests is to create a caricature. Their main technique is grotesque. Portraits in such songs are satirical, they exaggerate the ugly. This is facilitated by reduced vocabulary. Corruption songs achieved not only a humorous goal, but also ridiculed drunkenness, greed, stupidity, laziness, deception, and boasting.

All works of wedding folklore used an abundance of artistic means: epithets, comparisons, symbols, hyperboles, repetitions, words in an affectionate form (with diminutive suffixes), synonyms, allegories, appeals, exclamations, etc. Wedding folklore affirmed an ideal, sublime world, living according to the laws of goodness and beauty. Examples of wedding poetry can be found in the appendix.

Wedding clothes and accessories

Unlike texts, the execution of which in all regions of Russia had specific nuances, the objective world of a Russian wedding was more unified. Since it is not possible to consider all the items involved in the wedding ceremony, we will focus only on some of the most important and mandatory ones.

Wedding Dress.

The white dress on the bride symbolizes purity and innocence. But white is also the color of mourning, the color of the past, the color of memory and oblivion. Another “mourning white” color was red. “Don’t sew me, mother, a red sundress...” sang the daughter, who did not want to leave her home to strangers. Therefore, historians are inclined to believe that the white or red dress of the bride is the “mournful” dress of a girl who “died” for her former family. Throughout the wedding, the bride changed her outfit several times. She wore different dresses at the bachelorette party, the wedding, after the wedding at the groom's house and on the second day of the wedding.

Headdress.

In a peasant environment, the bride's headdress was a wreath of different flowers with ribbons. The girls did it before the wedding, bringing their ribbons. Sometimes wreaths were bought or even transferred from one wedding to another. To avoid damage, the bride went to the crown covered with a large scarf or blanket so that her face was not visible. A cross was often put on top of the scarf; it went down from the head to the back.

The bride was not allowed to be seen by anyone, and violation of the ban was believed to lead to all sorts of misfortunes and even untimely death. For this reason, the bride put on a veil, and the newlyweds took each other’s hands exclusively through a scarf, and also did not eat or drink throughout the wedding.

Since pagan times, the custom has been preserved to say goodbye to the braid when getting married, and to braid the young wife two braids instead of one, moreover, laying the strands one under the other, and not on top. If a girl ran away with her beloved against the will of her parents, the young husband cut off the girl’s braid and presented it to the newly-made father-in-law and mother-in-law along with the ransom for “kidnapping” the girl. In any case, a married woman had to cover her hair with a headdress or scarf (so that the power contained in it would not harm the new family).

Ring.

During the betrothal ceremony, the groom and his relatives came to the bride’s house, everyone gave each other gifts, and the bride and groom exchanged wedding rings. All the action was accompanied by songs.

The ring is one of the oldest jewelry. Like any closed circle, the ring symbolizes integrity, which is why it, like the bracelet, is used as an attribute of marriage. The engagement ring should be smooth without any nicks to make married life smooth.

Over time, the Russian wedding has transformed. Some rituals were lost and new ones appeared, which could be an interpretation of an earlier ritual or were even borrowed from other religions. There are known periods in the history of the Russian people in which the traditional wedding ceremony was “thrown away” and was replaced by state registration of marriage. But after some time, the wedding ceremony was “reborn” again, having undergone significant changes. First of all, it was reoriented to the urban environment, due to which the clothes of the bride and groom changed, a wedding cake appeared instead of the traditional loaf, wedding poetry practically “disappeared”, and many details of wedding rituals were lost. The rest practically changed their meaning and began to play the role of entertainment, amuse the audience, and also make the wedding spectacular and colorful. From being the content of life, a wedding has turned into a prestigious event.

But still, the complete sequence of the wedding ceremony has been preserved to this day.

In modern wedding guides, the authors adhere to the original Russian wedding cycle, but at the same time only the name of the ritual and its meaning may be preserved, while the execution itself is very conditional. 1

In general, over time, morals became softer, primitive savagery gave way to, albeit peculiar, civilization. The Middle Ages in Rus' can be called the period of formation of wedding traditions. Even now, so many centuries later, it is rare for a wedding to take place without a traditional loaf, without a veil, and it is certainly difficult to imagine a wedding without the exchange of rings. Alas, for the majority, traditional wedding rituals have become more of a theatrical performance than a belief in their meaning, but still these wedding traditions continue to exist, being an integral part of Russian culture.

Studying materials about the customs and traditions of the Russian people, it is clearly visible that in their fundamental principles they are all pagan. The traditions of ancestors are the basis of human intelligence and morality. Over the course of a long history, the Russian people have accumulated rich experience in the field of training and education of the younger generation, developed unique customs and traditions, rules, norms and principles of human behavior.

Indeed, different peoples have their own heritage and customs, formed over centuries or even millennia. Customs are the face of a people, by looking at which we can immediately recognize what kind of people they are. Customs are those unwritten rules that people follow every day in their smallest household chores and most important social activities.

Since time immemorial there has been a reverent attitude towards traditions. Even after the adoption of Christianity, Russians retained many of their ancient folk customs, only combining them with religious ones. And today, thousands of years later, it is no longer easy to discover the line where ancient culture ends in Russian customs and where Christian culture begins.

Ancient customs are the treasure of the Ukrainian people and culture. Although all these movements, rituals and words that make up folk customs, at first glance, do not have any meaning in a person’s life, they breathe on the heart of each of us with the charms of our native element and are a life-giving balm for the soul, which fills it with powerful strength.

Herodotus believed: “If all the peoples in the world were allowed to choose the best customs and morals of all, then each nation, having carefully examined them, would choose its own. Thus, each nation is convinced that its own customs and way of life are in some way the best. "

This wonderful idea, expressed 25 centuries ago, still amazes with its depth and accuracy. It is still relevant today. Herodotus expressed the idea of ​​the equivalence of the customs of different peoples and the need to respect them.

Every nation loves its customs and values ​​them very highly. No wonder there is a proverb: “Respect yourself and others will respect you!” It can be interpreted more broadly, applying it to an entire people. After all, if the people themselves do not pass on their customs from generation to generation, and do not instill in their youth the reverence and respect they deserve, then in a few decades they will simply lose their culture, and therefore the respect of other peoples. Customs and traditions influence history and international relations.

1. Stepanov N.P. Folk holidays in Holy Rus'. M.: Russian rarity, 1992

2. Klimishin I.A. Calendar and chronology. M.: Nauka, 1990.

3. Nekrylova A.F. All year round. Russian agricultural calendar. M.: Pravda, 1989.

4. Pankeev I.A. Complete encyclopedia of the life of the Russian people. Tt. 1, 2. M.:

OLma-Press, 1998.

4. Yudin A.V. Russian folk spiritual culture Moscow “Higher School” 1999.

5. Chistova K.V. and Bernshtam T.A. Russian folk wedding ceremony Leningrad “Science” 1978

6. .www.kultura-portal.ru

7. www.pascha.ru

8. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter

9. Orthodox holidays, Publishing House of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. Minsk. - P. 240.

10. Brun, V., Tinke, M. History from antiquity to modern times. - M., 2003.

11. The World Tree // Myths of the peoples of the world: Encyclopedia: In 2 volumes/ Ed. A.S.Tokareva.-M., 2003. - vol.1.

12. Fine motifs in Russian folk embroidery: Museum of Folk Art. - M., 1990.

13. Isenko, I.P. Russian people: Textbook. Manual. - M.: MGUK, 2004.

14. Komissarzhevsky, F.F. History of holidays. - Minsk: Modern writer, 2000.

15. Korotkova M.V. Culture of everyday life: History of rituals. - M., 2002.

16. Lebedeva, A.A. Russian family and social life.-M., 1999.-336p.

17. Lebedeva, N.I., Maslova G.S. Russian peasant clothing 19th - early. 20th century, Russian // Historical and ethnographic atlas. M., -1997.P.252-322.

18. Lipinskaya, V.A. Folk traditions in material culture. M., 1987. Ethnography of the Eastern Slavs. M., -1997, pp. 287-291.

11. Maslova, G.S. East Slavic traditional customs and rituals. – M., 2001.

19. Tereshchenko, A.V. Life of the Russian people. - M.: Terraknizhny Club, 2001. 20 17. Titova, A.V. Magic and symbolism of Russian folk life: Textbook. Allowance / AGIIiK. - Barnaul, 2000.

20. Kostomarov, N.I. Home life and customs of peoples. - M., 2003.

21. www.kultura-portal.ru

Annex 1

Russian wedding songs

Ancient Russian wedding songs are varied. They are performed at different moments of the wedding celebration. Before the wedding, the girl gathers her friends for a bachelorette party. At the wedding itself, the girl first says goodbye to her family, then presents her new relatives with gifts that she prepared with her own hands: embroidered towels, knitting.

Great songs are sung to the bride, groom, matchmaker, groomsmen and guests. At a wedding, not only sad songs about a girl’s separation from her family are performed, but also many funny, comic songs.

In the evening, evening

In the evening, evening,

Oh, what in the evening, evening,

Yes, it was dark twilight.

Yes, the falcon flew in, young and clear,

Yes, the falcon flew in, young and clear,

Yes, he sat on the window,

Yes, to the silver pier,

Yes to the golden edge.

Like no one sees the falcon,

Yes, how can no one perceive the clear.

Saw a clear falcon

Yes, Ustinina’s mother,

She told her daughter:

Are you my dear child?

Take notice of the falcon,

The flying falcon is clear,

Good fellow visiting.

My Empress,

How your tongue turns back,

How lips dissolve

I often remember

My heart is breaking.

My heart is already sick,

The zealous one is quite offended.

For me, for a young girl,

The playful little legs were cut off,

The white hands fell down,

The clear eyes are clouded,

My head rolled off my shoulders.

Wedding poetry

Wedding poetry is distinguished by its genre diversity: magnifications, lamentations, so-called “coril” songs, in which both lamentations and magnifications are synthesized, comic songs, dance choruses with humorous content and recitative patter, spell songs. The latter are associated with the ritual of sprinkling the newlyweds with hawt and hops: “May life be a good life, and may a cheerful head come from hops.”

Wedding threesome

Harnessing the horses

With this ringing song.

And a wreath of scarlet ribbons

Bright under the arc.

The guests will scream at us

This evening: Bitter!

And he will rush you and me

Wedding threesome!

The long journey has begun

What's around the bend?

Guess here, don’t guess -

You won't find the answer.

Well, the guests are screaming,

What strength there is: Bitter!

Will fly past troubles

Wedding threesome!

May many years pass

Let's just not forget

Oaths of our word,

And the flight of horses.

In the meantime they are screaming

Our guests: Bitter!

And we are fortunately lucky

Wedding threesome!

Stepanov N.P. Folk holidays in Holy Rus'. M.: Russian rarity, 1992

1 Kostomarov, N.I. Home life and customs of peoples. - M., 2003.

2Yudin A.V. Russian folk spiritual culture Moscow “Higher School” 1999.

Lebedeva, A.A. Russian family and social life.-M., 1999.-336p.

National culture is what makes up the memory of entire nations, as well as what makes this people different from others. Thanks to traditions, people feel the connection of generations through time and feel the continuity of generations. People have spiritual support.

Important!!!

Each day of the calendar has its own ritual or holiday, and even a church sacrament. The calendar in Rus' had a special name - months. The calendar was also designed for a year and every day was scheduled - traditions, rituals, phenomena, signs, superstitions, etc.

The folk calendar was dedicated to agriculture, so the names of the months had similar names, as well as signs and customs. An interesting fact is that the length of the season is associated precisely with climatic phenomena. It is for this reason that the names in different areas did not coincide. Leaf fall can occur in both October and November. If you look at the calendar, you can read it like an encyclopedia that tells about the life of peasants, about holidays and ordinary days. In the calendar one could find information on various issues of life. The folk calendar was a mixture of paganism and Christianity. After all, with the advent of Christianity, paganism began to shift, and pagan holidays were banned. However, these holidays received new interpretations and moved through time. In addition to those holidays that had specific days, there were also holidays of the Easter type, which were not assigned to a specific day, but became mobile.

If we talk about rituals that took place on major holidays, then folk art occupies a large place here:

• Songs
• Round dances
• Dancing
• Scenes

Calendar and ritual holidays of Russians

The peasants worked hard, so they loved to relax. The main rest took place on holidays.

How is the word “holiday” translated and where did it come from?

This word comes from the word “prazd” (Old Slavic). This word means idleness, rest.

There were many celebrations in Rus'. For a very long time, the focus was not on one calendar, but on three:

• Natural (change of seasons)
• Pagan (like the first one, it was related to nature)
• Christian (holidays were designated; if we talk about the largest ones, then there were only 12 of them).

Christmas and Yuletide

The main and favorite holiday of antiquity was Christmas. In Rus', Christmas began to be celebrated after the introduction of Christianity. Christmas was combined with ancient Slavic Christmastide.

The Importance of Christmas

This holiday was the most important for the Slavs. Winter work came to an end and preparations for spring began. And people enjoyed the holiday, because... they had been waiting for him for a very long time. Nature was conducive to rest, because the bright sun was shining, the days became longer. December 25 in the ancient calendar was called the day of “Spyridon Solstice”. In ancient times, it was believed that when a new sun was born, ancestors came to earth and were called saints - and this is how the name “Yuletide” appeared.

Christmastide was celebrated for quite a long time - from the end of December and the first week of January. On this multi-day holiday, it was not allowed to mention death and quarrel, use foul language and commit reprehensible acts. It was a time when only joy and pleasant emotions could be given to each other.

The evening before Christmas was called Christmas Eve. Observance of rituals was preparation for Christmas. According to the rules, on this day they fasted until the first star. And only after the evening dawn appeared, it was possible to sit down at the table. On Christmas Eve, godchildren went to visit their godfathers and mothers. They brought them kutya and pies. The godparents were supposed to treat the godchildren and give them money in return. Christmas Eve was a fairly quiet and modest holiday, cozy and family-friendly.

What comes after Christmas Eve?

And the next morning the fun began. The holiday began with children walking from one house to another, holding a star and a nativity scene. They sang verses that praised Christ. The star was made of paper, painted and a lit candle was placed inside. As a rule, boys carried the star - for them it was very honorable.

Important!!!

The nativity scene was a box of two tiers. In the nativity scene, wooden figures depicted scenes. In general, this entire composition with children can be described as a reminder of the Star of Bethlehem, and the nativity scene is a puppet theater.

The miners received gifts for their contributions. It was either pies or money. To collect pies, one of the children carried the body, and to collect money they carried a plate. Around noon, the adults began worshiping. Previously, absolutely all people took part in this, regardless of class.

Advice

Not a single Christmastide passed without mummers. The mummers fooled around, showed various performances, and entered the huts. A kind of fun for buffoons.

Also among the rituals one can highlight caroling. It was quite common. This is a distant reminder of the ancient Kolyada. Carols are Christmas songs that are aimed at glorifying the owner of the house, wishing him joy, prosperity, well-being for him and his family. The hosts offered tasty rewards for caroling. If the owner turned out to be stingy and did not treat the carolers with anything, then he could very well hear unpleasant wishes.

Christmas and holidays in Rus'

Fortune telling was a favorite Christmas activity. Fortune telling arose from an insatiable desire to find out what lies ahead and, perhaps, even influence the future. During pagan times, fortune telling was used exclusively for economic purposes - crops, livestock, the health of loved ones. On Christmastide they would bring an armful of hay to the hut, and then use their teeth to pull out a straw and a blade of grass. If the ear was full, then the owner was in for a rich harvest; if there was a long blade of grass, then good haymaking. Over time, fortune telling began to be popular exclusively among young people, mainly among girls. Everything that was pagan in this ritual has long been lost, all that remains is the fun of the holiday.

But why is it necessary to guess at this particular time?

It is recommended to guess at this time, because... According to the old legend, at this time evil spirits appear, which can tell about their future fate. The main purpose of fortune telling for girls is to find out whether they will get married this year. In the dead of night, when everyone at home had long since fallen asleep, the girls let a rooster into the house. If the rooster ran away from the hut, then the girl does not promise marriage in the coming year, but if the rooster walked to the table, then the girl will get married.

Bird in fortune telling

There was also another type of fortune telling. The girls entered the goose coop in the dark and caught the bird. If there was a female, then continue to go as a wench, and if it was a male, then marriage is coming.

Single or widower?

Such questions were also present at fortune-telling. The girl secretly left the house and approached the tyn, or fence. She grabbed it with both hands and fingered each tyninka with one hand. At the same time, it was necessary to pronounce the words “single, widower, single, widower.” Whichever word the tyn ends with is the one she will marry.

Advice

To find out from which side to wait for their betrothed, the girls threw a shoe behind the gate. Where the end of the shoe pointed, in that direction the narrowed one lived. You can experiment.

Wax for fate

To find out what fate was, they burned wax. The resulting figures spoke of what awaited the girl. If the outline of the wax resembled a church, then the girl was awaiting a wedding; if a cave, then death.

Fortune telling with a dish

The most popular fortune telling was subspecies. The girls put their rings into the dish and covered them with a handkerchief. They sang songs, and after the song they shook the dish. The fortune teller pulled out one ring. Whose ring was pulled out, the song, or rather its content, related to that girl. This is a prediction of fate.

Mirror and candles

The most exciting and scary fortune telling was fortune telling with a mirror and a candle. You had to look in the mirror through the flame of a candle. One could see something in this reflection.

Important!!!

Fortune telling was allowed during Christmas time, i.e. until January 19 (when Epiphany was celebrated). This holiday was established by the prophet John the Baptist in memory of the Baptism of Jesus Christ.

On the eve of spring, everyone was looking forward to a cheerful holiday - Maslenitsa. This holiday dates back to pagan times - it is a celebration of welcoming spring, as well as seeing off winter. The name of the holiday appeared for a reason. The last week before Lent is such that you can no longer eat meat, but you can eat dairy products, and on Maslenitsa they eat pancakes with dairy products, which also includes butter. So, thanks to the main holiday dish, the name of this holiday appeared. And earlier, Maslenitsa was called “meat empty” - also a telling name. Just like Easter, Maslenitsa is not attached to a specific day and is celebrated in the week before Lent. Christians have been waiting for this event for a very long time.

Name by day

Each day of Maslenitsa had its own name and each day had actions that were prohibited. Such actions included some rituals and rules of behavior. Monday is a meeting. Tuesday was called flirting, and Wednesday was called dainty. Thursday was a riot. Friday was known for mother-in-law's parties. On Saturday we organized gatherings for sisters-in-law and on Sunday we had a farewell day and farewell.

Important!!!

In addition to the official names attached to the days, there were also names for the entire week that were used by the people - honest, broad, cheerful and others, Madam Maslenitsa.

On the eve of Maslenitsa

On Sunday, on the eve of Maslenitsa, the young wife’s father went to visit the matchmakers with a treat (usually pies) and asked to let his son-in-law and his wife go to visit. Matchmakers were also invited, the whole family. As usual, the newlyweds arrived on Friday, which the whole village was looking forward to. The mother-in-law had to take care of her son-in-law, baked pancakes and other delicious dishes. It is from these customs that Friday on Maslenitsa is called mother-in-law evening. The next day belonged to the sister-in-law (husband's sister), now it was her turn to look after the guests.

Among the main Maslenitsa events are the meeting and farewell. By Thursday, a doll was made from straw. The outfit for this doll was either bought together or dressed in cast-offs. They carried this stuffed animal throughout the village, sang songs and jokes, laughed and frolicked.

Lighting fires

The most common way to see off Maslenitsa was to light bonfires. On Maslenitsa Sunday in the evening there was a procession for winter, and it was there that the effigy was burned at the stake. You could see absolutely everyone around the fire. People sang songs, joked, and sang jokes. They threw more straw into the fire and said goodbye to Maslenitsa and called for it next year.

Newlyweds from the hill

A favorite custom during Maslenitsa was the newlyweds skating down the ice mountain. For this skating, the young people put on their best outfits. It was the duty of each husband to take his wife down the mountain. The skating was accompanied by bows and kisses. A cheerful crowd could stop the sleigh and then the newlyweds had to pay off with public kisses.

Advice

Don't miss your chance to ride. Sliding down a hill is, in principle, considered one of the favorite pastimes. Both children and adults have been riding the slides since Monday. The slides were decorated with lanterns, Christmas trees, and ice statues.

Fun for Maslenitsa

On Thursday, instead of sliding down the hills, we switched to horse riding. Troikas with bells were held in high esteem. We rode both to race and just for fun. There were also harsh entertainments. Such entertainment includes fist fights. Everyone fought one on one, and there were wall-to-wall fights. As a rule, they fought on the ice of frozen rivers. The battles were passionate, merciless, everyone fought at full strength. Some battles ended not only in injury, but also in death.

Taking the snow town

Another fun of Maslenitsa week is taking a snowy town. A week before the start of Maslenitsa, little children built a town out of snow. The guys tried their best, creating masterpieces. Next, a mayor was chosen, whose duties included protecting the city from the attack of Maslenitsa. The city was captured on the last day of Maslenitsa. The purpose of taking a city is to capture the flag on the city and also the mayor.

On the last day of the celebrations was Forgiveness Sunday. On this day it was customary to ask for forgiveness from both the living and the dead. In the evening, it was customary to visit the bathhouse, where everyone cleansed themselves and entered Lent.

Lent was marked by the celebration of the Annunciation. Church tradition says that on April 7, an archangel appeared to the Virgin Mary, who said that she would give birth to a baby who would be miraculously conceived. It is believed that all living things on earth are blessed on this day. Despite the fact that the holiday takes place during Lent, it was allowed to eat fish on this day.

Maslenitsa festivities

Every year in the spring, Christians celebrate Easter. This is one of the oldest celebrations. Among the main Easter rituals are baking Easter cakes and painting eggs. But this is not the only thing that marks Easter for a believer. It is also known for the all-night vigil, procession of the cross and the celebration of Christ. The latter is a greeting with kisses on this bright day. On “Christ is Risen” it is customary to answer “Truly He is Risen.”

Why is this holiday so revered among the Russian people?

This holiday is the most important and incredibly solemn, because... This is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who suffered martyrdom. The fact that the day of Easter celebration moves, the course of events that are associated with this holiday cycle changes every year. Thus, the dates of Lent and Trinity change.

One week before Easter, Palm Sunday is celebrated. In the church, this holiday commemorates the entry of Christ into Jerusalem. And at that time the people threw palm branches at him. It is the willow that is the symbol of these branches. It was customary to bless the branches in the church.

The week that follows Palm Sunday was called Holy. This week is the week of preparation for Easter. People went to the bathhouse, cleaned everything in the house, cleaned it and put it in a festive look and, of course, baked Easter cakes and painted eggs.

Trinity

On the fiftieth day after Easter, Trinity was celebrated. This holiday has its roots in ancient Slavic times. Then a similar holiday was called Semika and it was customary to spend it in the forest. The main attention that day was focused on the birch tree. Ribbons and flowers were hung on the birch tree. Round dances with chants were performed around the birch tree. The birch tree was chosen for these purposes for a reason. After all, it was the birch tree that was one of the first to put on its emerald crown after winter. This is where the belief came from that the birch tree has the power of growth and must certainly be used. Birch branches were used as home decoration - they were hung on windows and doors, on temples, courtyards, because... wanted to get its healing power. And on Trinity Sunday it was customary to bury a birch tree, i.e. drown in water to make it rain.

It is worth noting that Kupala is pagan, and it did not have any name. And he received his name when this holiday coincided with the Christian holiday - the Nativity of John the Baptist.

Other name

This day was also called the day of Ivan Travnik. There is a belief that medicinal herbs that are collected at this time are miraculous. On Kupala, my cherished dream was to find a fern - to see how it blossoms. It was at such a time that green treasures came out of the ground and burned with emerald lights.

Important!!!

Everyone also wanted to see the grass gap. It was believed that one contact with this herb could destroy metal and also open any doors.

Advice

The Slavs believed that the period of wild growth of grasses was a period of rampant evil spirits. To get rid of evil spirits, fire was made in an ancient way, fires were lit and pairs, crowned with flowers, jumped over them. There was a sign that said that the higher you jump over the fire, the better the grain harvest. Old things and clothes of the sick were also thrown into the fire.

In the evening, after visiting the bathhouse, everyone went to splash around in the river. It was believed that not only fire had miraculous powers at this time, but also water. The Orthodox Church did not accept this holiday, considering it pagan and obscene. This holiday was persecuted by the authorities and after the 19th century it was almost stopped being celebrated in Rus'.

Conclusion:

Russian folk holidays are vibrant celebrations full of fun and interesting events. They are very diverse, although, unfortunately, some of them have not been celebrated for a long time. But there is little hope that the lost culture will begin to revive and be transmitted through generations again. Rus' is a country that is rich in traditions and customs. A large number of holidays confirm this. These traditions filled the lives of our ancestors with joy and interesting events. These traditions need to be revived and passed on to descendants.

Ivan Kupala - how it is celebrated