Thirty years ago it was impossible to imagine a wedding without songs. Yes, and almost all modern weddings have their own sound accompaniment: instead of grandmothers, DJs and other brethren “sing”. However, live "music" somehow breaks through either in the form of grandmothers or in the form of song contests. Which confirms the statement of the famous researcher of Russian folklore V. Anikin - “As part of wedding ceremony most important place occupy the songs.

Wedding songs are different from all other songs related to life (of course, we will not mention the funeral rite any more). These songs literally belong to the ceremony and are never performed outside the wedding ceremony. functional wedding songs, glorifications and lamentations are very important - they seem to illuminate the weight of the rite, making it understandable, marking the most important points and milestones of this impressive and long event. Songs among all wedding folklore carry songs in a certain sense and have legal force, being performed and confirming precisely the legal (as we would say now) side of the event.

In addition to this factual and factual significance, wedding songs carried and continue to carry, undoubtedly, an aesthetic function. They differ from other songs in their eloquence, often in allegoricalness and a special narrative style.

Another kind wedding art- greatness. Magnification - a genre of song praise, while praising not only the bride and groom, but also future relatives. However, one should not dissemble - most often they praised, overpraised and even praised the bride and groom. The samples of greatness that have come down to us demonstrate their direct connection with incantational magic, which helped to feel well-being, wealth and other material and spiritual benefits that had already come, existing right here.

Later, magnificence from incantational magic turned into an expression perfect image moral behavior, spirituality, beauty, material wealth without any connection with magic and magical conspiracies.

Lamentations occupied a very special place. These are such sad, sometimes very sad, examples of folk art. Lyrical narratives that touchingly described the experiences of the bride and her friends, parents, and other participants in the wedding. The functional significance of lamentations was completely subordinated to the rite. The bride necessarily imagined her impending marriage as a forced departure from parental family, as an action that is performed against her will. Hence the sadness and anxiety and, of course, lamentations. This was done for the same magical motives that governed wedding songs: in this way, the bride and her new family hoped to avoid the revenge of the host family's ancestors.

Other researchers of Russian folklore suggest that often the lamentations were also a reflection of the true feelings of the bride at the time of parting with her parental family.

After some time, the lamentations were transformed and began to only partly follow the ancient magical ritual, but acquired the function of direct expression of the feelings of people who take part in the wedding. However, the essence and most obvious distinguishing feature lamentations lies in the name itself. People are crying in a confused state.

The verbal, primarily poetic (poetic) design of the wedding had a deep psychologism, depicting the feelings of the bride and groom, 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 parental home, was filled with drama, accompanied by sad elegiac works. At the feast (in the groom's house), the emotional tone changed dramatically: idealization of the participants in the feast prevailed in folklore, fun sparkled.

As mentioned earlier, lamentations were the main folklore genre for a wedding of the Northern Russian type. They expressed only one feeling - sadness. Psychological features songs are much wider, therefore, in the Central Russian wedding, the image of the bride's experiences was more dialectical, mobile 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. The courtship was conducted in a conditional poetic and allegorical manner. Matchmakers called themselves "hunters", "fishermen", the bride - "marten", "white fish". During the matchmaking, the bridesmaids 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 the 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, then the viburnum stood in a kug ...”).

The motif of the girl’s will taken away is being developed (the bride is depicted through the symbols of a pecked “berry”, a caught “fish”, a shot “coon”, a trampled “grass”, a broken “vine branch”, a broken “birch tree”). In ritual songs performed in collusion, at a bachelorette party or in the morning wedding day, an upcoming, ongoing or already completed rite of braiding could be celebrated (see examples in the appendix). Conspiracy songs began to depict the young in the position of the bride and groom, idealizing their relationship. In such songs, there was no monologue form; they were a story or a dialogue.

If the bride was an orphan, then a lamentation was performed in which the daughter “invites” her parents to look at her “orphan wedding”. In the songs, there is often a plot of the transition or transportation of the bride through a water barrier, associated with the ancient understanding of the wedding as an initiation (“Across the river, the bird cherry lay ...”). The bachelorette party was full of ritual and lyrical songs (see the appendix for examples).

In the morning, the bride woke her friends with a song in which she reported about her "bad dream": "damned woman's life" crept up to her. While dressing the bride and waiting for the groom's wedding train, they sang lyric songs expressing the extreme degree of her sorrowful experiences. Ritual songs were also filled with deep lyricism, in which marriage was portrayed as an inevitable event (“Mother! Why is the field dusty?”). The transition of the bride from one house to another was portrayed as a difficult, insurmountable path. On such a journey (from her native home to the church, and then to a new home), the bride is not accompanied by relatives, but mainly future husband(“Even from the tower to the tower, Lyubushka walked ...” see the appendix).

The appearance of the wedding train and all the guests is depicted in the songs through hyperbole. At this time, scenes were played in the house, which were based on the ransom of the bride or her double - "virgin beauty". Their execution was facilitated by wedding sentences, which had a ritual character. Sentences also had another function: they discharged a complex psychological situation associated with the departure of the bride from the parental home.

The most solemn moment of the wedding was the feast. Here they sang only cheerful songs and danced. Bright artistic development had a rite of honor. Magnificent songs were sung to the newlyweds, wedding ranks and all guests, for which the igritses (singers) were presented. The avaricious were sung by parodic magnificence - reproachful songs that they could sing just for laughs.

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

In glorious songs one can see general scheme creating an image: a person’s appearance, his clothes, wealth, good spiritual qualities (see the example in the appendix).

Magnificent songs can be compared with hymns, they are characterized by a solemn intonation, high vocabulary. All this was achieved by means traditional for folklore. Yu. G. Kruglov noted that all artistic means “are used in strict accordance with the poetic content of laudatory songs - they serve to enhance, emphasize the most beautiful features appearance of the person being magnified, the most noble traits of his character, the most magnificent attitude towards him, that is, they serve the basic principle of the poetic content of laudatory songs - idealization ”Kruglov Yu.G. Russian wedding songs. - M., 1978. - p.49 ..

The purpose of the reproachful songs performed at the moment of glorifying the guests (see above) is to create a caricature. Their main technique is the grotesque. Portraits in such songs are satirical, they exaggerate the ugly. Reduced vocabulary contributes to this. Reproachful songs achieved not only a humorous goal, but also ridiculed drunkenness, greed, stupidity, laziness, deceit, boasting (see 3.).

In all works of wedding folklore, an abundance of artistic means: epithets, comparisons, symbols, hyperbole, repetitions, words in an affectionate form (with diminutive suffixes), synonyms, allegories, appeals, exclamations, etc. Wedding folklore claimed 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

In contrast to the texts, the execution of which in all regions of Russia had specific nuances, the objective world of the 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, 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 ...” - the daughter sang, who did not want to leave her home to strangers. Therefore, historians tend to believe that the white or red dress of the bride is the “mournful” dress of a girl who “died” for her former family. During the wedding, the bride changed her outfit several times. She was in different dresses at the bachelorette party, the wedding, after the wedding in the groom's house and on the second day of the wedding (see 9., 11.).

Headdress.

The headdress of a bride in a peasant environment was a wreath of different colors with ribbons. The girls did it before the wedding, bringing their ribbons. Sometimes wreaths were bought or even passed from one wedding to another. To avoid spoilage, the bride rode to the crown covered with a large scarf or veil so that her face was not visible. A cross was often worn on top of the scarf; it went down from the head to the back.

Nobody could see the bride, and the 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 young people took each other's hand 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 a braid when getting married, and to braid a young wife with two braids instead of one, moreover, laying the strands one under the other, and not on top. If the 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 a ransom for "kidnapping" the girl. In any case married woman she had to cover her hair with a headdress or a scarf (so that the power contained in them would not damage the new family). (See 2., 11.).

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

The ring is one of ancient jewelry. Like any closed circle, the ring symbolizes integrity, so it, like the bracelet, is used as an attribute of marriage. Wedding ring should be smooth, without notches, so that family life is smooth (see 11.).

• a) 1 - ritual poetry. Ritual complexes associated with the calendar cycle and economic and agricultural human activities are singled out.
• 2 - Ritual complexes associated with human life (household) - birth, naming, initiation, wedding ceremony, funeral.
• 3 - Ritual complexes associated with the physical, moral state of a person and with everything that lives in his house (conspiracies).
• b) 1 - Non-ritual poetry. Epic (epic, fairy tale, ballad) and non-fairytale (legend, tradition, true story, spiritual poems). Lyrica (lyric song). Drama (folk drama): inviting balagen grandfathers, Petrushka Theater.
• c) Small folklore genres (chastushka, proverb, lullaby, sayings, nursery rhymes).

Children's folklore (riddles, teasers, nursery rhymes, etc.);

Proverbs + sayings;

Chastushki.

Traditional Russian wedding

Marriage is a social act. For many nations, betrothal constitutes a separate group of rituals.

The ransom of the bride is a rite of separation.

A wedding is an initiation ceremony, that is, inclusion in a totemic clan. This is a rite of inclusion of a stranger in the community.

After marriage, a girl and a boy pass into the category of social mature men and women, nothing can make them return to their former position.

In traditional culture, a wedding ritual is a complex of ritual actions that ensure and sanction the acquisition of a new socio-age status by an individual.

A traditional Russian wedding is a complex phenomenon, which includes elements that are diverse in origin, nature and functions. Along with archaic rites (hand-shaking, unweaving the braid of a betrothed girl, etc.), Christian layers can be seen in the wedding ritual, for example, pilgrimage, wedding and others.

Being a family event, the wedding largely went beyond the narrow confines of the family. The whole community followed the emergence of a married couple, and then new family. One of the important goals of the wedding ceremony was the recognition of marriage by the community. The attention of fellow villagers to the newlyweds did not weaken during the whole year after the wedding. After this period, the status of the young, as a rule, changed. The birth of a child meant that the marriage couple took place, and the newlyweds moved into age category full-fledged adults or family.

In the Russian tradition, according to the household way of life, focused on the main occupation - agriculture, there were two main periods for weddings: in the fall - from the Intercession (October 1) to the beginning of the Christmas Lent, Filippov's spell (November 14) and in winter - from Epiphany to carnival week.

The composition of the participants in the wedding, which represented a multi-stage action, was quite large. In addition to the bride, the groom and their parents, the obligatory participants in the wedding were their closest spiritual relatives on both sides - the godparents of the bride and groom, who, as a rule, performed the role of matchmakers and matchmakers. From blood relatives important role belonged to the bride's brother. In addition to matchmakers and matchmakers, the main wedding ranks were the boyfriend and the thousand. Druzhka led the groom's train, ordered the wedding and monitored the observance of all customs. He spoke from the groom's side; usually the elder married brother of the groom or the witty and talkative guy from the groom's friends was chosen as a friend. In the boyfriend, improvisational abilities were valued, manifested in comic sentences and dialogues with the bride and all participants in the wedding. The duties of the friend were shared by the thousand man, who also represented the side of the groom; often played the role of a thousandth Godfather groom.

The junior wedding ranks were the "recallers" who invited people to the wedding, the "friends" and "boyars" who made up the groom's "team", "cows" and "cookers", "pivniki" and "bread-makers" responsible for preparing dishes and drinks for the wedding table and other stages of the wedding, "peddlers" and "numerals" associated with the transfer of the dowry from the bride's house to the groom's house, "barrels", "nailers", "cups", "spoons", "pourers", "stewards", responsible for serving dishes and intoxicating drinks during trips for the bride, to and from church, as well as during the wedding feast.

Girls - bridesmaids, representing the gender and age group that she left, were indispensable participants in the pre-wedding stage. They played a certain role in the rites of parting of the bride with girlhood, as well as throughout the entire wedding cycle in right moments sang ritual songs. In some local traditions, a “polite man” (sorcerer) was present at the wedding, taking on the magical functions of a friend. Fellow villagers could participate in the wedding as spectators, sing songs, arrange outposts for the train with the newlyweds, etc.

Wedding folklore was an integral part of the wedding ceremony. Folklore texts, performed during the entire wedding cycle, starting from the matchmaking, are diverse in form and function. These are songs performed by the bridesmaids and all participants in the wedding, and lamentations (weeping) of the bride. The art of lamentation was especially developed in the Northern Russian tradition, where instead of the bride a specially invited “professional” weeping woman (or mourner) could lament. The crying of the bride or the weeper was often accompanied by the lamentations and songs of the girls who were "voiced". From the matchmaking to the end, the wedding was filled with a variety of sentences, dialogues, orders of an allegorical or comic nature. In addition to sad drawling wedding songs grandiose (to the newlyweds, friend, parents of the young, to each guest separately), comic reproaching songs (to the matchmaker, the thousandth, friend), dancing, ditties were performed. Each folklore text had a certain ritual meaning and was clearly assigned to a specific wedding rite, time and place in the rite.

Conversational songs. They began to draw the young in the position of the bride and groom, idealizing their relationship. Songs are narrative or dialogue.

Girls songs. Appeared monologue forms on behalf of the bride

Sentences. Rhymed poetry. Compositionally, they consisted of a monologue, but the appeal to the participants in the rituals led to the emergence of dialogues.

Magnificent songs had a congratulatory character, they honored, sang.

Coral songs. Create a cartoon. Their reception is grotesque.

A special aspect of the wedding was the performance of certain magical actions aimed at the well-being of the rite itself (matchmaking at night, avoidance of oncoming people by matchmakers, bypassing the wedding train with an icon, etc.) and future life newlyweds (the meeting of the young from the church with the mother-in-law, dressed in a fur coat turned out with fur, the first feeding of the young with milk, an egg or an apple cut in half, etc.), as well as following a number of prohibitions (prohibitions to marry on Monday, beat on the coals while burning the bride’s bath, cry the bride after the wedding, and many others) and the observance of the norms of behavior by different participants in the wedding.

Marriage was interpreted in the traditional consciousness as a temporary symbolic death for rebirth to a new life in a new quality. In the course of the wedding, the betrothed girl moved into another socio-age category, saying goodbye to her girlish will, young and, to a certain extent, carefree life.

The idea of ​​symbolic death manifested itself in wedding rituals at different levels. So, for example, the clothes of the "conspiracy" resembled either funeral or mourning clothes. In the Arkhangelsk province, for example, the bride wore a white unornamented shirt with long sleeves to the floor, which was called “weeping”, “makhavka”, since at the moments of lamentations the “prosvatanka” walked along the floorboards, waved her arms from side to side and cried. In the Russian North, in some local traditions, the wedding attire, which consisted of a white shirt of a “healer” and a blue sundress, was subsequently used as funeral clothing.

The idea of ​​the temporary death of the bride was embodied in the regulation of the movement of the betrothed girl and in the rites of farewell to her native village, all relatives and neighbors, with the places where youth festivities took place. After the wooing, the girl found herself practically isolated in her house (cf. with the fairy-tale bride). She stopped attending gatherings, festivities, and spent all the time at home, taking her friends. Her exit outside the parental home was associated exclusively with the rites of farewell.

The idea of ​​symbolic death is also evidenced by the genre of wedding lamentations, which accompanied all the rituals and pastime of the bride from the moment of matchmaking to the wedding. Wedding lamentations on a number of grounds - the manner of execution, certain formulas, descriptions, common places and others - typologically close to funeral laments.

After the wedding ceremony, which changed the status of the bride and groom (now they were called “young”, “newlyweds”), their symbolic revival took place, accompanied by a change in the mood of the wedding ritual: general fun ensued. The bride was forbidden to cry, otherwise, according to popular belief, a sad life in marriage could await her.

The wedding ceremony was divided into three stages: pre-wedding, directly wedding and post-wedding. The first stage included the rituals of preparation for the wedding and farewell of the bride girl with her friends, the village, neighbors, etc. The complex of pre-wedding ceremonial actions included matchmaking, the bridegroom’s house (“watch house”), pilgrimage, conspiracy of the parties of the bride and groom, handshaking, the bride’s singing, the bride’s premarital bath, a bachelorette party, braiding.

Russian wedding ceremony, depending on one or another local tradition had its own characteristics. The variation of the ritual also depended on the specific situation: the bride and groom from one or from different villages, close or distant from each other; additional elements included the wedding of an orphan bride. However, the course of the wedding, its structure was more or less stable in all regions, and the composition of the main rites and stages of the wedding action were characteristic of all local traditions.

The folklore genre is a historically developing type of oral-poetic work.

Rightly noted by V.Ya. Propp that in folk poetry works of one genre determine the following signs:

1) the nature of the performance;

2) household purpose;

3) the generality of the poetic system.

Hence, there is every reason to distinguish between song, prose and drama genres in folklore. Song: epics, historical songs, ballads, lyrical songs. Prose: fairy tales, non-fairy prose. Dramatic: games, round dances, puppet shows, folk plays.

Genres of folklore are constantly interacting, while some works can move from one genre to another. Folk prose changes its genre especially easily.

Theme 3

Historical development of folklore.

Folklore and literature

Oral folk poetry arose at the early stages of social development. According to archaeological and ethnographic data, the beginnings of verbal art are rooted in the primitive communal system that existed for millennia.

The initial genres of oral folk art were of a utilitarian nature, nevertheless, the origin of labor songs, incantations, spells, ritual poetry, and then fairy tales and non-fairy-tale prose is already associated with primitive folklore.

The poetic content of labor songs, their artistic form serve as proof that the people reflected labor activity in them. In ritual poetry, incantations, incantations, he conveyed his knowledge of the world and ideas about surrounding reality, their faith in the power of the word. Fairy tales and non-fairytale prose captured the multifaceted relationship between man and nature, historical events and the deeds of real people, rich fiction and folk fantasy.

The enrichment of oral poetic traditions and the emergence of new ones were further determined primarily by the adoption of Christianity, the eradication of paganism, the formation of East Slavic nations, the education Kievan Rus, the strengthening of the role of Novgorod, the growing power of the Muscovite state, the formation of the Russian Empire.

The history of the folklore of this period (from the 9th century to the middle of the 19th century) is divided into the following stages: the folklore of the time of the existence of Kievan Rus (9th - 12th centuries), the folklore of the period of feudal fragmentation (12th - 15th centuries), the folklore of the time of the creation of the Muscovite state (XV - XVII centuries), folklore of the XVIII and the first half of the XIX centuries.

In oral folk art of the 9th - 12th centuries. a heroic epic was formed, the main forms and poetics of epics were developed, proverbs, sayings, riddles, and legends gained exceptional popularity.

The folklore of the period of feudal fragmentation is characterized by such genres as historical song, ballad, epic, fairy tale.

The formation and development of the Muscovite state was accompanied by significant changes in oral folk art: the historical song reaches its peak, proverbs, fairy tales, and folk lyrics become widespread.

Folklore of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries experienced diverse processes: traditional folklore genres still exist, but folk drama is emerging, the impact of fiction on the oral poetry of the people is more pronounced, and working folklore is emerging.

second half and late XIX century, the twentieth century brought radical changes to folklore. New socio-historical conditions affected both the content and the form of works of various genres.

In the history of folklore of this time, three periods should be distinguished: folklore of the second half of the 19th century and the turn of the century (1861 - 1917), folklore of the Soviet era (1917 - 1991), modern folklore.

In the first two periods, stages can be identified. In the first: folklore 1861 - 1905-07, folklore 1905-07 - 1917; in the second: folklore 1917 - 1929, folklore 1929 - 1956.

Oral folk poetry of 1861 - 1905-07, quickly updating its subject matter, responded more vividly to certain events and life demands. There has been a sharp narrowing of the existence of some genres, and some of them (historical songs) have even gone out of use.

In folklore 1905-07 - 1917 the processes that took place at the previous stage continued. At the same time, satirical motives and the critical orientation of a number of genres, especially fairy tales, songs, ditties, intensified in it. The connections between oral folk art and literature deepened.

The Revolution and the Civil War affected general character folklore. This was more clearly expressed in those oral poetic works that are more mobile, operational (songs, ditties). But even in fairy tales (with their stable traditions) there was a detailing of life, events, characteristics of heroes. the main role assigned to folk revolutionary songs.

As for the folklore of the period of the totalitarian regime (1929 - 1956), it nevertheless retained the continuity of folk poetic principles. Works were created in which the life of the working people, their thoughts and feelings, their protest against any arbitrariness and violence, their heroic struggle for the freedom and independence of the Motherland during the years of the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, many oral-poetic texts were not written down.

The “thaw” that came after the 20th Party Congress intensified folk poetry, amateur performances. Songs, ditties, tales, anecdotes regained their living forms. And with the advent of "perestroika" and such genres of folklore as ritual poetry, incantations, spells, came out of oblivion.

At present, interest in oral folk art has not disappeared. The traditions accumulated by the people over the centuries are perceived as one of the ways of its spiritual renewal.

Folklore and literature live and develop in parallel, constantly interacting and enriching each other. Their common task is the creation of generalizing verbal images, eternal in their artistic perfection of works. However, oral folk art- the "cradle" of literature. Having arisen on the basis of folklore, Russian literature from its first steps actively uses the system of images developed by him, his traditional formulas and techniques. In turn, Russian literature itself influences oral folk poetry. This should be seen as proof that folklore is as necessary to our society as literature.

Theme 4

Calendar ritual poetry

Calendar rituals are timed to the seasons. Four moments are of particular importance: the winter and summer solstice, the spring and autumn equinoxes. In the Slavic agrarian calendar, they corresponded winter holidays, March and September. And therefore, it is customary to divide the calendar rituals into three cycles: winter (New Year and Shrovetide), spring-summer (meeting of spring, Trinity-Semitsk, Kupala), autumn.

The meeting of the New Year in the Slavic calendar was called - "Christmas". “Svyatki” is a kind of ritual, game and agricultural ritual, therefore, preparing for the New Year, they noted the state of the weather, guessed, caroled, arranged games, and mummers performed.

During Shrovetide, as in New Year, noticed the weather and guessed. Maslenitsa is a moving holiday. It is celebrated on the eighth week before Easter. The central ritual action of Shrovetide is the meeting and seeing off of Shrovetide. It represents the end of winter, the beginning of spring. All Maslenitsa week filled with festive events: games, undertakings, fun. Every day has its own name: Monday - "meeting", Tuesday - "zaigrash", Wednesday - "gourmet", Thursday - "wide", Friday - "mother-in-law's evening", Saturday - "seeing off", Sunday - "forgiveness day".

Among the Eastern Slavs, the rite of meeting spring was widely used, because the harvest, the offspring of livestock, and therefore family wealth, were associated with it. The rites also accompanied the beginning of sowing, the driving of livestock to pasture.

The Trinity-Semitsky cycle of rituals was celebrated at the turn of late spring. Trinity is Sunday, the fiftieth day after Easter. It falls on the last day of the Semitsky (seventh after Easter) week, so the rite was called the Trinity-Semitsky. On Saturday in the Semitsky week - parental day, and on Monday (after the Trinity) - spirits day, followed by "Russian week".

"Hat" of summer - the day of Ivan Kupala. It opens the bathing season. Herbs and flowers collected on this day are dried, saved, believing that they have healing powers.

Harvesting and haymaking in the old days began with Kazansky (from July 21). For the harvest to be plentiful, the reaper, pressing the first sheaf, said: “Stand, my sheaf, for a thousand kopecks!” Honors were paid to the last sheaf. According to tradition, a small handful of uncut ears were left on the field, tied with a ribbon, that is, they “curled a furrow”.

Autumn was approaching the harvest, "Indian summer" (from the fourteenth of September to the twenty-first of September). And then came the Cover. The cover is the first winter. Folk wisdom said:

If the Veil, then soon Christmas!

Theme 5

Family ritual poetry

Not only in economic, but also in family life each significant event ritual had to be followed. Some rites accompanied joyful events (maternity), the second - sad (funeral rites, recruiting rites), the third (wedding rite) combined both elements of fun and elements of tragedy. That is why the wedding ceremony in artistic design and content is especially rich, varied, and interesting.

The wedding ceremony goes back to traditions laid down for centuries, and these traditions were formed on the basis of economic, legal, domestic, religious foundations. folk life. Therefore, the Slavic wedding ceremony is a complex unity of many rituals that lasted several days. The folklore accompaniment of the wedding is unusually rich: lamentations, songs, sentences of the friend, metaphorical dialogues, jokes, theatrical skits, ditties, proverbs, sayings, games, round dances, dances.

central figure at the wedding - the bride. The wedding begins with the matchmaking, then the bride-to-be, the handshake, the great week and, finally, the first day of the wedding follow. It includes the following rituals:

1. Giving the bride to the groom at the table.

2. Twisting the bride.

3. Adoption of the young in the husband's house.

4. Marriage bed.

These ceremonies are designed to confirm the legitimacy of the new family before people.

The poetry of the wedding had a deep psychologism, depicted the feelings of the bride and groom, their development throughout the ceremony. The role of the bride was especially difficult psychologically, so folklore painted a rich palette of her emotional states. The first half of the wedding ceremony, while the bride was still in the parental home, was filled with drama, accompanied by sad, elegiac works. At the feast (in the groom's house), the emotional tone changed dramatically: idealization of the participants in the feast prevailed in folklore, fun sparkled.

For a wedding of the Northern Russian type, lamentations were the main folklore genre. They expressed only one feeling - sadness. The psychological possibilities of songs are much broader, therefore, in the Central Russian wedding, the image of the bride's experiences was more dialectical, mobile and diverse. Wedding songs are the most significant, best-preserved cycle of family ritual poetry.

The courtship was conducted in a conditional poetic and allegorical manner. The matchmakers called themselves fishermen, hunters, the bride - a white fish, a marten. During the matchmaking, the bridesmaids could already sing songs: ritual ("They came to Pashechka Three matchmakers at once ...") and lyrical, in which the theme of the girl's loss of her will began to be developed ("Viburnum boasted ...").

Conspiracy songs depicted the transition of a girl and a young man from the free state of "girlhood" and "youthfulness" to the position of the bride and groom. In the song "Along the Danube ..." a young man on horseback walks by the river. He demonstrates his beauty, prowess in front of the girl and asks to save his horse. But the girl replies:

"When I am yours,

Save your horse...

And now I'm not yours.

I can't take care of the horse.

Paired images-symbols from the natural world appear in the songs, for example, a viburnum and a nightingale (“On the mountain, a viburnum stood in a circle ...”). The motif of the violated girl's will is developed (the bride is depicted through the symbols of a pecked berry, a caught fish, a shot coon, a trampled grass, a broken grape twig, trampled green mint, a broken birch tree).

The song “They didn’t blow the pipe early at dawn ...” could be sung in collusion, at a bachelorette party and on the morning of the wedding day. This ritual song marked the upcoming, ongoing or already completed rite of braiding. Conspiracy songs began to depict the young in the position of the bride and groom, idealizing their relationship: the bride lovingly combs the groom's blond curls, the groom gives her gifts. There were no monologic forms in colloquial songs; the songs were a narrative or a dialogue.

In the songs of the bachelorette party, monologues appeared on behalf of the bride. She said goodbye to the free will and her stepfather's house, reproached her parents for giving her away in marriage. Reflecting on her future life, the bride imagined herself as a white swan caught in a herd of gray geese that nibble at her. The mother or married sister taught the bride how to behave in a new family:

"You wear a dress, don't wear it out,

You endure grief, do not say."

If the bride was an orphan, then a lament was fulfilled: the daughter invited her parents to look at her orphan wedding.

In the songs, there is often a plot of the transition or transportation of the bride through a water barrier, associated with the ancient understanding of the wedding as an initiation ("Sunday early, the Blue Sea played ..."). The groom catches either the drowning bride herself, or the golden keys to her will ("You are girlfriends, my dears ..."). The image of the girls-girlfriends was drawn as a flock of small birds, flocked to the canary, enclosed in a box. Girlfriends either sympathized with the bride, or reproached her for her broken promise not to marry. The bachelorette party was full of ritual and lyrical songs.

The culmination of everything wedding ritual was the day of the wedding, on which the conclusion of the marriage and the greatness of the young family took place.

In the morning, the bride woke her friends with a song in which she reported about her bad dream: the cursed woman's life crept up to her. While dressing the bride and waiting for the groom's wedding train, lyrical songs were sung, expressing the extreme degree of her sorrowful experiences ("How the white birch tree was shaken ..."). Ritual songs were also filled with deep lyricism, in which marriage was portrayed as an inevitable event ("Mother, what is not dust in the field ..."). At the same time, songs of a different content were sung in the groom’s house, for example: with a squad of young men, he sets off from his wonderful house for a beautiful gray duck, the groom floats along the river on a boat, pulls an arrow on his knee and shoots a duck into the sulfur (“Oh , Ivan’s mansions are good ... ").

But the wedding train has arrived. Guests in the house are like a hurricane, sweeping away everything in its path. This is depicted through hyperbole: they broke down a new hall, melted a pair of gold, let the nightingale out of the garden, shed a red maiden. The groom comforts the bride ("There was no wind, there was no wind - Suddenly it was inspired...").

At this time, scenes were played out, which were based on the ransom of the bride or her double - maiden beauty. Their execution was facilitated by wedding sentences, which had a ritual character. The sentences also had other functions: they idealized the whole situation and the participants of the wedding, they humorously discharged the difficult psychological situation associated with the departure of the bride from the parental home.

Sentences are rhymed or rhythmic poetic works. In the Kostroma region, after the arrival of the wedding train, the scene of the removal of the Christmas tree was played out - a maiden's beauty, which was accompanied by a big sentence. The Christmas tree was carried out by one of the bridesmaids, she also pronounced the verdict. Improvisation was present in the construction of the sentence (cf. two options in the Reader), but the core was the same. The verdict began with an introductory part, in which the atmosphere of the chamber was depicted fantastically sublimely. Epithets were used that idealized the surrounding objects:

I go to the table, I go to the oak one.

To tablecloths to scolds.

To copper drinks<медовым>,

To sugary dishes.

To gilded plates.

To turned forks,

To damask knives,

To you, sweet matchmakers.

Then a greeting was uttered to the travelers. Their idealization could take on an epic development: they followed the bride through clean fields, green meadows, dark forests... Hard way groom's trains broadcast hyperbole. Hyperbolas were also used in another epic part - in the story of how the girls got and decorated the Christmas tree:

They trampled on the shoes,

Torn apart by stockings

They broke the green tree.

Tore off the gloves

Broke a ring...

herringbone was main character. She was uttered a magnificence, at the end of which candles were lit on her:

... Our maiden beauty is good

She is beautifully dressed

Hung with scarlet ribbons.

Unbundled to various bows,

Decorated with expensive stones,

Arranged for wax candles.

Scarlet ribbons scarlet,

Different bows were blue.

Road stones spilled

Beskovy candles were kindled.

Then the detours of those present were made and the demand for payment for the Christmas tree. They started with the groom, then turned to friends, matchmakers, relatives. The ways in which they were encouraged to "bestow" beauty were different: for example, they made riddles. Especially often gifting required rhyme:

Here's the last word for you:

Give me a golden ring.

I'll say a word of heels -

Give me a silk scarf.

The matchmaker, who has a red shirt -

Put a five-ruble note;

And in blue - Put it on the other ...

Each giver extinguished a candle. When all the candles were extinguished, the girl who pronounced the sentence turned to the bride. She spoke of the inevitable parting with beauty and the bride's loss of her girlhood forever. The Christmas tree was taken out of the hut, the bride was crying. Through the whole game situation a red thread ran a psychological parallel between the herringbone beauty and the bride.

Sentences compositionally consisted of a monologue, however, appeals to the participants in the ritual led to the emergence of dialogic forms and gave the sentences the character of a dramatic performance.

The most solemn moment of the wedding was the feast (the prince's table). Here they sang only cheerful songs and danced. The ritual of magnificence had a bright artistic development. Magnificent songs were sung to newlyweds, wedding ranks and all guests, for this ygrits (singers) were presented with sweets, gingerbread, money. The avaricious were sung in parodic glorification - reproachful songs that could be sung just for laughs.

Magnificent songs had a congratulatory character. They honored, sang the one to whom they were addressed. The positive qualities of this man were portrayed in songs to the highest degree, often with the help of hyperbole.

The images of the bride and groom poetically revealed various symbols from the natural world. The groom is a clear falcon, the raven horse the bride is a strawberry-berry, cherry, viburnum-raspberry, currant berry. Symbols could be paired: a dove and a dove, a grape and a berry.

The portrait played an important role.

The groom's curls are so beautiful

What are these little curls

The sovereign wants to favor him

The first city - the glorious Peter,

Another city - stone Moscow,

The third city is White Lake.

As in many love songs, mutual love newlyweds was expressed in the fact that the bride combed his fair-haired curls for the groom ("Like the moon has golden horns ...").

Compared to the songs that were sung in the bride's house, the opposition between one's own and another's family changed diametrically. Now the father's family has become a "stranger", so the bride does not want to eat father's bread: it is bitter, it smells of wormwood; and Ivan's bread - you want to eat: it is sweet, it smells of honey.

In laudatory songs, a general scheme for creating an image is visible: a person’s appearance, his clothes, wealth, good spiritual qualities. So, for example, depicting a thousandth, the song pays much attention to his luxurious fur coat, in which he went to God's church, married his godson. A single guy is depicted on a horse in all its glory, capable of even transforming nature: meadows turn green, gardens bloom. The matchmaker is white, because she washed herself with white foam delivered from beyond the blue sea. The glorification of the family is reminiscent of carols: the owner with his sons is a month with stars, the hostess with her daughters is a clear sun with rays (“A green pine tree is at the gate ...”). The greatness of the widow was special - it expressed sympathy for her grief. This was achieved with the help of symbols: an unenclosed field, a tower without a top, a canopy without a ceiling, a marten coat without a ceiling, a golden ring without gilding.

Magnificent songs can be compared with hymns, they are characterized by a solemn intonation, high vocabulary. Of course, all this was achieved by folklore means. Yu. G. Kruglov noted that all artistic means "are used in strict accordance with the poetic content of laudatory songs - they serve to enhance, emphasize the most beautiful features of the appearance of the magnified, the most noble features of his character, the most magnificent attitude towards him singing, that is serve the main principle of the poetic content of laudatory songs - idealization".

The purpose of swearing songs is to create a caricature. Their main artistic technique is the grotesque. A grove grew on the groom's hump, a mouse made a nest in his head; the matchmaker's back is a lavitsa, well ... - a bread box, the peritoneum is a swamp; my friend jumped around the shops, dragged pies from the shelves, wandered around the shop floor and caught mice; the thousand man sits on a horse like a crow, and the horse under him is like a cow. Portraits of reproachful songs are satirical, the ugly is exaggerated in them. This is the reduced vocabulary. Reproachful songs achieved not only a humorous goal, but also ridiculed drunkenness, greed, stupidity, laziness, deceit, boasting. Stupid matchmakers went after the bride - they drove into the garden, poured beer on all the cabbage, prayed to the veree (pillar), worshiped the tyn. Sometimes in reproachful songs there was an ironic quotation of verses from laudatory songs (for example, they copied the refrain "Good friend, handsome friend!").

In all works of wedding folklore, an abundance of artistic means was used: epithets, comparisons, symbols, hyperbole, repetitions, words in an affectionate form (with diminutive suffixes), synonyms, allegories, appeals, exclamations, etc. Wedding folklore claimed an ideal, sublime world, living according to the laws of goodness and beauty.

Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore - M., 2002