Wedding ritual poetry. Russian folk wedding ceremony historical essay. Wedding traditions associated with the decoration of the bride

28.04.2019

The palette of folklore associated with family and everyday life, in particular, the wedding ceremony, which among the Bashkirs is a multi-stage theatrical action, is distinguished by a great variety and abundance of colors:

The first step - bishek tuyy (lullaby wedding) is held when the girl and boy, whom parents want to see in the future as a wife and husband, reach the age of forty days.

The second - khirgatuy (wedding of earrings) is held when the "groom" is able to independently mount a horse and drive it, and the "bride" can carry water (in this case, the boy gives the betrothed earrings).

After these symbolic weddings and the young people coming of age, a real wedding- nikah tuyi ( marriage wedding). Until the groom pays the mahar (kalym), it is forbidden to take the bride away, show his face to his father-in-law and mother-in-law, so he comes to her late in the evening and only on the appointed days.
Before the bride is sent off to the groom's house, a senglyau is arranged: the bride's friends and the young wives of the older brothers lament on her behalf, expressing their attitude towards their parents, relatives, groom and mother-in-law.

Senlyau (lamentation, lamentation) is one of the most important ethnic features of the Bashkir wedding tradition and the main types of wedding poetry, giving a deeply emotional dramatic coloring to the entire ceremony. The parables were timed to coincide with certain moments of the Bashkir wedding: the arrival of the matchmaker, the groom and his relatives, the bride's address to her father, mother, brothers, the bride's farewell to her parents, friends, relatives, native home, native side.
The theme of the wedding parable is a display of a difficult female lot, marriage at the will of her parents, marriage by matchmaking, opposition of her own and someone else's family ... The bride says goodbye to everything that is for her former life was dear, close, laments, complaining about his bitter fate. The lamentations are dominated by motives of sad thoughts, reflections, personal experiences, grief, love suffering, emotions, ideals. The appearance of the groom is condemned, the relationship between the daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law is outlined, life is imagined in a foreign land, in strangers, with an unloved person.

The bride is the main person in the wedding ceremony. Therefore, her crying, lamentations fulfill important role. In addition to the bride, in Bashkir weddings, both girlfriends and professional performers of lamentations lament. Senliau performers skillfully combined tradition with their individual creativity and poetic improvisation.

Lamentations. Recorded in 1978 from Rakiya Tazhetdinova (born in 1910) in the village of Aminovo, Kunashaksky district, Chelyabinsk region.

Lamentations (You mow the hay, my father). Recorded in 1990 by Rozalia Sultangareeva in Ufa. In this version of the senglyau, the bride's plaintive words are addressed to her own father.

The wedding ritual, as you know, incorporates fragments of all eras of the development of the culture of the people: from ancient beliefs and magical actions to patterns of ceremonial behavior developed in modern times.
The Bashkir wedding ritual is a multi-stage folk drama, in which the worldview and mental characteristics of the people, their original musical and artistic culture, and the specifics of the household way of life have been refracted. It is one of the brightest creations of the national collective spirit. The Bashkir wedding has a great typological similarity and meaningful proximity to the traditional wedding of the Tatar, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen peoples, echoes certain motifs of the Altai, Mongol-Buryat, North Caucasian wedding rituals. There are many semantic parallels with wedding ceremonies peoples of Europe (Finns, Saami, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, peoples of Great Britain and Ireland)

1. As emphasized by Rozalia Asfandiyarovna Sultangareeva.
The Bashkir wedding ritual is a Central Asian-Turkic type with a richly ornamented multi-genre poetic repertoire and with a pronounced national color and national-specific motifs (fights over the bed, ceremonial receiving of nominal cattle, ritual beatings, and so on).

2. Since ancient times, in the Bashkir culture, marriage, the upbringing of both physically and spiritually healthy offspring were considered worthy of a real person who cares not only about his personal well-being, but also about the fate of his people.

Bashkir wedding fragment from the film "Turks of Russia"

Materials from the site were used to prepare this page:
http://lik-kuzbassa.narod.ru/bashkirskiy-fol.htm, http://vatandash.ru/index.php?article=259

Creation strong marriage and family for any nation has always been an important and significant event, therefore, probably, there are many different wedding customs, and each nation honors family and marriage in its own way. Christianity was introduced in Russia only by the ninth century, and marriage became associated with a wedding, however, no matter how pagan rituals and customs were eradicated, it was not possible to completely destroy them. One of essential elements Russian culture can be safely called the rites and traditions of the Russian wedding, so sensual soulful, but at the same time pragmatic.

Most of them were almost completely formed by the fifteenth century, divided into main stages and clearly distributed the sequence of actions, the role of relatives and friends, as well as ordinary guests. Today, many want to return to their roots, therefore, when planning to get married, it does not hurt to get to know and understand what Russian wedding rites exist, what sacred meaning they have, and also how to follow the recommendations of ancestors that have passed through the centuries.

Wedding traditions and customs of the Russian people: an honest feast, and for a wedding

The wedding ritual and rite as we know it on given time, took shape around the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was then that ritual songs, sentences, dances, holiday greetings, paraphernalia and even special prayers were finally invented. True, depending on the area, there could be very significant differences, for example, in the words that need to be pronounced, or in a festive outfit, dishes on the table, and so on. However, the basis, as they say, the backbone of the solemn ceremony has always remained, and has survived to this day, almost unchanged.

Interesting

To begin with, it is worth understanding that Russian wedding traditions have always symbolically meant that a girl must leave her father's family and home, replacing him with her husband's family. Thus, she became, as it were, a blood member of another family, while changing patrons in the form of the spirits of the family. In fact, they meant that the bride was dying, and then, after the wedding, she was born again, but already a part of her husband's family.

That is why all the rites and rituals were somewhat strange, and funeral traditions were intertwined in them. For example, at first the bride must cry and refuse, and then go to the bathhouse and take a bath. The girl is led by the arms to the crown of her friend, and already from the church the “newborn” goes by herself.

Another entertaining custom, when the groom carries the young wife over the threshold, in fact, everything is not a sign of attention, but an attempt to mislead the "owner" of the brownie. Thus, the groom showed that a newborn had come to the house, which should be accepted on an equal footing with all other family members. However, let's take a closer look at Russian wedding traditions and rituals, imbued with the charm of the culture of our own people.

Matchmaking in Russian: all the signs in a hat

In the same way as in other countries, in our homeland it has always been customary to send matchmakers to the house of the intended bride. For this, a special day was necessarily chosen when the relatives of a young girl or a matchmaker specially hired for this went to visit her. Most often, parents, uncles, godfathers or just friends of the future husband acted as matchmakers. On this day, a festival was held, with its sentences, songs, jokes and dances, for which they prepared in advance, as prescribed by the customs at a Russian wedding.

It must be said that most often all agreements on a future marriage had already been reached between the parents by that time, therefore the young especially had nowhere to go. It is remarkable that in different places the matchmakers had to perform some special manipulations indicating his role in the performance, and it was at that moment that everything began. For example, in some provinces it was necessary to shake the damper on the stove, while in others it was enough just to sit down under the icon of the Mother of God or under the main beam on the ceiling with a mat. Often, matchmakers did not speak in plain text, but in special words that they learned by heart. There are also some tips for proper conduct matchmaking, which would not hurt to learn.

The bride's parents had to refuse the offer, and the matchmakers had to persuade them.
It was believed that neither Friday nor Wednesday is suitable for such a ceremony as matchmaking.
In order not to jinx the young and their marriage, courtship was held late in the evening or even at night.
In order for everything to work out, in the bride's house after a successful matchmaking, women tied together all the tongs and pokers with a hemp rope.

It is clear that modern Russian folk wedding is already far from what it once was, and all actions and rituals are more symbolic, however, they definitely do not carry anything bad, but they can definitely give the festival authenticity, confirm the connection with the roots, with the native culture.

Engagement and collusion: Russian wedding traditions in the modern world

Today, few people pay attention to such a stage of pre-wedding preparations as an engagement, that is, an announcement publicly that this marriage will definitely be concluded. It is after such an announcement that the couple can and should be called the bride and groom. More often in Russia, the engagement was called collusion, and this was almost the most important part of the whole ceremony, because it was then that it was decided when exactly the wedding would be played, and on what conditions all this would take place. The dowry was discussed, and the parents stipulated future life newlyweds.

In the families of aristocrats, a ball was given that day, all guests were announced about happy event and the groom gave the bride the first ring.
For ordinary citizens, everything was limited to refreshments and a holiday, with ritual songs and refreshments.
In the villages, they prepared in advance for matchmaking, they baked special breads that parents exchanged. The young were sure to be blessed with an icon, and a feast for half the village was definitely provided. After the ritual, the bride-girl had to go out onto the porch and bow seven times in different sides, and then tell everyone that now she is already betrothed.

After the agreement was completed, it was no longer possible to cancel the wedding celebrations, as well as the marriage itself, since it was terrible sin that will persecute both the young themselves and their relatives and even offspring. From that moment, the bride became untouchable, she had to sew a dowry and do household chores, wrapped in a scarf, as she was preparing to die in order to be reborn again to a new life.

In some localities, she even had to go out onto the porch every day and lament, that is, cry out loud, how scared she was to leave. Father's house. Now such a beautiful custom is rarely observed, but some still arrange a dinner, give rings to their loved ones and inform relatives and friends who have gathered there about a joyful event.

Preparing for a wedding feast: a loaf, a bachelorette party, a youth party - Russian wedding traditions and customs

After that, it would seem that everything should have ended logically, that is, with a wedding and entry into a new life, but that was not the case. To begin with, it was necessary to bake a loaf, that is, a huge delicious bread, decorated with a variety of figures, spikelets, flowers, as well as other patterns and ornaments. Most often, it was baked in the groom's house, and in villages and villages, almost all female residents were often involved in this process. There were also special loaf songs, there was also a feast, and the work continued almost until dawn.

The bride also had her own preparatory process, in addition to sewing a dowry, and it was called a bachelorette party. It was a kind of farewell to his former, unmarried life. In some regions, this was called a “weeping man” or “baptism”. For example, one of the characteristic rites of the wedding was the unweaving of the braid. That is, while the girls, the bridesmaids sang sad songs to her lamentations, the braid first had to be braided tighter and more tangled, and then untwisted back. The ribbons that were woven into the bride's braid during a bachelorette party now became magical, blessed, and the participants in the ceremony shared them among themselves, for good luck and a speedy marriage.

On the very last day before the wedding, the groom also said goodbye to his freedom and past, unmarried life. Moreover, a youth party was held, which is now called a bachelor party in the Western manner, either in the evening before the wedding, or in the morning, just before it. A feast was arranged for the groom himself, as well as his relatives and friends, but this ceremony was not always observed, since it was believed that marriage was quite natural process, not like for a girl who is kind of reborn to a new life, along with her husband.

Gorgeous Russian wedding: customs and traditions of the celebration

Photo from the site: etnoxata.com

After all the preparations were fully completed, there was still a lot of things that needed to be put in order. All preparations for the holiday, according to custom, lasted about a week, at least, because most often weddings in Russia were played in winter time when there was not much work in the field.

Conspiracy and matchmaking could take place at any time, but the celebrations themselves on the occasion of the wedding of the young were postponed for more quiet time, for example, in late autumn or winter. Now all these traditions have changed a little, and there is no point in waiting until the suffering is over, so you just need to get acquainted with folk traditions and rituals, and when to apply them is a personal matter for everyone.

Wedding train: solemn customs at a Russian wedding

If you have not yet understood, then the wedding train is the departure of the young to the church for a wedding. It would seem that there is such a thing, they plunged into a carriage or onto a cart, and they went, but everything is not so simple, since here there are some nuances, ceremonies and rituals that could not be missed. First of all, you need to know that even before the light, that is, before sunrise, those who were supposed to take part in the train came to the young man's house. These were the groom's parents and relatives, his friends, an early matchmaker who baked a loaf, uncles, best man and boyars.

Each necessarily had its own duties, carried out strictly. For example, an early matchmaker showered the train with grain, for the fertility of the bride and prosperity in the family, and boyfriends, boyars, best man and others helped the groom to get to the place, all this was accompanied by songs, dances, playful hints and other fun. Moreover, it is interesting that the groom's parents did not go to church, and did not take part either on the train or in its preparation, since at that time they had to prepare refreshments and everything else for receiving guests after the ceremony.

The wedding train moved straight for the bride, with the main boyfriend at the head. In the villages, people prevented his passage as best they could, closed the gates, rolled out carts, pulled ropes. For a symbolic ransom, for example, a mug of wine, a couple of sweets or coins, the passage was opened and the wedding train moved on. In the house of the bride, guests were also greeted with a locked gate, and in some places, also with a hidden bride, who had to either be searched for or redeemed, for example, from her older brother, who was not at all going to sell too cheap. Then there was again a treat, but the bride and groom had to remain hungry before the sacrament of the wedding.

Church wedding and marriage registration

Again, the young people went to church separately, as they were still strangers to each other. First, the groom's friends rode on horseback, followed by the groom in a wagon, and only then the bride and all the other guests who wished to be present in the church. The ceremony was carried out in accordance with church canons, it must be said that it has retained its mystery and solemnity to our time. Formerly with church canons, the marriage was immediately registered administratively, for example, by the village headman. Now the newlyweds need to go to the registry office so that the state recognizes their marriage as valid.

There are also many beliefs and customs that were prescribed to be strictly followed, since the church is really a place of power, nourished by hundreds of years of sincere prayers of the parishioners. For example, in no case was it possible to pass between the young people until they left the temple, otherwise the marriage would not work out. In addition, people believed that wedding things have some kind of magical, magic power, for example, candle wax, water from a blessed icon, men's shirts and women's crowns.

Prince's table and wedding night: Russian wedding traditions and customs

The logical conclusion of the whole holiday was a feast, which sometimes could last up to a week, or even two. Often they walked at the festival with the whole village, and it happened that not just one, especially if the bride and groom were from different areas. The prince's table was laid in the groom's house, where his wife was supposed to live traditionally. It was customary to call the young prince and princess, which is why such a name went. Here again songs were sung, spoken special words and wishes were made.

After the end of the holiday, which symbolized the departure of the young to a separate room, in order to make a basement, that is, a seal of the marriage contract, in a simple way, the wedding night. She must have been held in the house of the groom's parents, even if for the young it was already completely new house where they intended to live. Many rituals were also held here, the main of which was hanging towels and sheets with red embroidery in the courtyard in the morning, after the wedding night, which testified to the innocence of the bride. The wedding ended with the so-called bread, when the mother-in-law treated the new son-in-law to pancakes cooked in the early morning. After that, the holiday was officially considered completed, and the young people entered into a completely new, joint family life.

The theme of oral folk art in Russian literature is extremely diverse, there are numerous genres and types of folklore. All of them were formed gradually, as a result of the life and creative activity of the people, manifested over several hundred years. Currently, there are specific types of folklore in literature. Oral folk art is that unique layer of knowledge on the basis of which thousands of classical works were built.

Interpretation of the term

Folklore is oral folk art, endowed with ideological depth, highly artistic qualities, it includes all poetic, prose genres, customs and traditions, accompanied by verbal artistic creativity. Folklore genres are classified in different ways, but basically there are several genre groups:

Labor songs - formed in the process of work, for example, sowing, plowing, haymaking. They are a variety of cries, signals, tunes, parting words, songs.
Calendar folklore - conspiracies, signs.
Wedding folklore.
Funeral lamentations, recruiting accounts.
Non-ritual folklore is small folklore genres, proverbs, fables, omens and sayings.
Oral prose - legends, bylichki and past stories.
Children's folklore - pestles, nursery rhymes, lullabies.
Song epic (heroic) - epics, poems, songs (historical, military, spiritual).
Artistic creativity - magical, everyday tales and tales about animals, ballads, romances, ditties.
Folklore theater - raek, nativity scene, disguise, performances with puppets.

Consider the most common types folklore in more detail.

labor songs

It's a song genre distinguishing feature which is a mandatory accompaniment labor process. Labor songs are a way of organizing collective, social work, setting the rhythm with a simple melody and text. For example: "Wow, let's pull a little closer to make it more fun." Such songs helped to start and finish work, rallied the work team and were spiritual helpers in difficult times. physical labor people.

Calendar folklore

This type of oral folk art belongs to ritual traditions calendar cycle. The life of a peasant working on the land is inextricably linked with weather conditions. That is why a huge number of rituals appeared that were performed to attract good luck, prosperity, a large offspring of livestock, successful farming, etc. The most revered holidays of the calendar were Christmas, Maslenitsa, Easter, Epiphany and Trinity. Each celebration was accompanied by songs, chants, incantations and ritual actions. Let us recall the famous custom of singing songs to Kolyada on the night before Christmas: “The cold is not a problem, Kolyada is knocking at the house. Christmas is coming to the house, it brings a lot of joy.

wedding folklore

Each separate place had its own types of folklore, but mostly they were lamentations, sentences and songs. Wedding folklore includes song genres that accompanied three main ceremonies: matchmaking, farewell of parents to the bride, and a wedding celebration. For example: "Your product, our merchant, is just a miracle!" The ritual of handing over the bride to the groom was very colorful and was always accompanied by long and short merry songs. At the wedding itself, the songs did not stop, they mourned the bachelor life, wished love and family well-being.

Non-ritual folklore (small genres)

This group of oral folk art includes all types of small genres of folklore. However, this classification is ambiguous. For example, many of the types belong to children's folklore, such as pestles, lullabies, riddles, nursery rhymes, teasers, etc. At the same time, some researchers divide all folklore genres into two groups: calendar-ritual and non-ritual.

Consider the most popular types of small genres of folklore.

A proverb is a rhythmic expression, wise saying, which carries a generalized idea and has a conclusion.

Signs - a short verse or expression that tells about those signs that will help predict natural phenomena, weather.

A proverb is a phrase, often with a humorous bias, illuminating a phenomenon of life, a situation.

A sentence is a small verse-appeal to natural phenomena, living beings, surrounding objects.

A tongue twister is a small phrase, often rhymed, with words that are difficult to pronounce, designed to improve diction.

oral prose

Oral prose includes the following types of Russian folklore.

Legends - a story about historical events in folk retelling. The heroes of the legends are warriors, kings, princes, etc.

Legends - myths, epic stories about heroic deeds, people, fanned with honors and glory, as a rule, this genre is endowed with pathos.

Bylichki - short stories that tell about the meeting of the hero with some kind of "evil spirits", real cases from the life of the narrator or his acquaintances.

Byvalshchina - summary actually happened once and with someone, while the narrator is not a witness

Children's folklore

This genre is represented by the most different forms- poetry, songs. Types of children's folklore - that accompanied the child from birth to his growing up.

Pestles are short rhymes or songs that accompany the very first days of a newborn. With the help of them, they nursed, nurtured children, for example: "The nightingale sings, sings, pretty, but pretty."

Nursery rhymes are small melodious poems designed to be played with kids.

Podushushki,

Rotok - talker,

Handles - grips,

Walker legs.

Calls - poetic, song appeals to nature, animals. For example: "Summer is red, come, bring warm days."

A joke is a short fairy tale poem sung to a child, a short story about the world around him.

Lullabies are short songs that parents sing to a child at night to lull them to sleep.

Riddle - poetic or prose sentences that require a solution.

Other types of children's folklore are counting rhymes, teasers and tall tales. They are extremely popular even today.

Song epic

The heroic epic demonstrates the most ancient types of folklore, it tells about the events that happened once in song form.

Bylina is an old song told in a solemn but unhurried style. Glorifies the heroes and tells about their heroic deeds for the benefit of the state, the Russian fatherland. about Dobryn Nikitich, Volga Buslaivaich and others.

Historical songs are a kind of transformation of the epic genre, where the style of presentation is less eloquent, but the poetic form of narration is preserved. For example, "The Song of the Prophetic Oleg."

Artistic creativity

This group includes epic and song genres created in the spirit of folk art.

A fairy tale is a short or long epic narrative, one of the most common genres of oral folk art about fictional events, heroes. All this is folklore, the types of fairy tales in it are the following: magical, everyday and reflect those ideas about the world, good, evil, life, death, nature that existed among the people. For example, good always triumphs over evil, and there are wonderful mythical creatures in the world.

Ballads are poetic songs, a genre of song and musical creativity.

Anecdotes are a special kind of epic narration about comic situations in people's lives. Originally they did not exist in the form in which we know them. These were stories complete in meaning.

Fiction is a short story about impossible, improbable events, something that was fiction from beginning to end.

Chastushka is a small song, usually a quatrain with humorous content, telling about events, incidental situations.

folklore theater

Street performances were very common among the people, the plots for them were various genres, but most often of a dramatic nature.

Nativity scene - a kind of dramatic work intended for street puppet theater.

Rayok is a kind of picture theatre, devices in the form of a box with changing patterns, the stories being told at the same time reflect the oral forms of folklore.

The presented classification is the most common among researchers. However, it should be understood that the types of Russian folklore complement each other, and sometimes do not fit into the generally accepted classification. Therefore, when studying the issue, a simplified version is most often used, where only 2 groups of genres are distinguished - ritual and non-ritual folklore.

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, for a North Russian type wedding, the main folk genre there were lamentations. 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.

The colloquial 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. The sentences also had another function: they relieved the difficult psychological situation associated with the departure of the bride from her parents' 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 magnified, the most noble traits of his character, the most magnificent on the part of the singing 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.

Wedding Dress.

The white dress on the bride symbolizes purity, innocence. But White color 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.).

MU "EDUCATION DEPARTMENT" MO "CITY OF POLEVSKOY"

WEDDING RITUAL POETRY

Abstract work.

Artist: 9th grade student

Kurgan school BALUKOV ANATOLY VLADIMIROVICH

Head: MASHCHENKO KSENIA VLADIMIROVNA, teacher of literature at the Kurgan school

POLEVSKY - 2006

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….……..…3

1. The originality of folk poetic art……………………….…….…..4

2. Origin and signs of the wedding ceremony………………………….……….6

3. Stages of the wedding ceremony……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8

3.1. Matchmaking……………………………………………………..……....8

3.2. Collusion……………………………………………………………….…9

3.3. Bachelorette party………………………………………………………….….10

3.4. Wedding…………………………………………………………….....14

4. Genres of wedding poetry………………………………………………….………18

5. Wedding ceremony and literature………………………………………………………………………. ..24

Conclusion………………………………………………………………….…………26

Bibliographic list

Introduction.

wedding ceremony- the most complex in its composition and artistically the richest of Russian traditional household rituals. This is a dramatic performance. The wedding usually lasted at least two or three days (and in the maximum version - a week or more) and was a complex combination of ritual actions, folklore texts (including, above all, songs), dances, and dramatic scenes. Therefore, there is every reason to talk about wedding ritual, that is, not about one rite, but about a whole system of rites.

wedding poetry- an amazing phenomenon of Russian folklore. It reflects many aspects of the life of the people, the history of the family, forms of marriage.

But the old peasant wedding has long been forgotten. Separate poetic fragments, memories of ritual actions, the meaning of which is sometimes difficult to explain, have been preserved in the memory of the older generation. The process of reduction and weathering of the wedding ceremony began a very long time ago. He was associated with the destruction of a large patriarchal family and with breaking patriarchal relations in the village. Ancient wedding songs passed into other song cycles and, transforming, received a different purpose in folk life: they turned into games, round dances, etc. Folklorists of the last century argued that peasant wedding poetry was disappearing, that one had to be content with only the fragments of a once magnificent artistic ensemble.

V modern world These songs are almost never sung, which is a pity. Some images, motifs have passed into the wedding of the XXI century vintage wedding, but there is less and less ritualism, and in fact it contains not only beauty, the competition of the parties, there is a lot of symbolism in it. I must say that new rites become tenacious only when they are a continuation of the traditional ones.

Wedding ritual poetry has long attracted the attention of ethnographers, folklorists, and writers. In literary works, authors constantly refer to folk rituals. To understand the meaning of literary works based on folk traditions, we must know these traditions, study them, understand them.

To love the present and think about the future, you need to know the past. That is why it is necessary to study the traditions of the people, in particular the wedding ceremony.

Objective: study the wedding ceremony, get acquainted with the main genres of this ceremony, identify their features.

Tasks:

1. Select material on this topic.

2. Systematize and analyze this literature.

3. Highlight the main stages of the wedding ceremony.

4. Study wedding ritual poetry, analyze the lyrics.

5. Draw conclusions.

1. The peculiarity of folk poetic art.

Folk poetic art - it is verbal artistic creativity people. It has long attracted its collectors and researchers.

Genera and types of folk poetic art. Oral folk poetry is mainly divided into three types: epic, lyric and dramatic art. Having arisen in the folklore of all the peoples of antiquity, they entrenched and developed later in the field of literature. The main feature of each of them is its own way of depicting reality: in the epic - in the narratives of events and the actions of the heroes, in the lyrics - in the images of the inner experiences and feelings of a person, and in dramatic works - in the images of the direct stage actions of the heroes.

Oral folk poetry has many features that distinguish it from literature. Although literature and folklore have existed in parallel for centuries, they have always been completely independent areas of verbal art.

Comparable in them principles of artistic generalization and typification of reality, as well as many compositional techniques. However, the qualitative use of artistic means in folklore and literature is not identical. Quite original in folklore are the processes of the emergence and spread of genres, their ideological and artistic specificity.

In Soviet science, the concept of the specifics of folklore, first of all, takes into account its special social nature originality of its aesthetics and social functions.

The Soviet era is characterized by the establishment of a new socialist way of life, the main feature of which is the equality and cooperation of all members of society. During the years of Soviet power in our country, a new historical community has developed - the Soviet people, new, harmonious relations have been born between classes and social groups, nations and peoples. In a socialist society, folklore becomes the art of the whole people.

Folklore, as a kind of means of communication among the masses, performed important social functions: it united people ideologically, inspired them to fight against the oppressors, and contributed to the formation of the people's worldview.

Such a specific feature originates from ancient times. oral art like him close connection with other types folk art: music, singing, dancing, games. On the early stages development human society the oldest forms of art were not yet clearly separated from each other: the elements of epic, lyricism and drama that constituted them were in an undivided form. Especially often dance, music and singing merged into a single whole. This historically determined specificity of art is denoted by the term "syncretism". Echoes of artistic syncretism are manifested in folk poetry right up to the present day. So, and songs are inextricably linked with their melodies, some folk songs not only sung, but also staged, played out in faces, and the folk wedding ceremony combines the most diverse types of folk art: poetry, music, dance, dramatic play. Such a connection, as a rule, is not characteristic of professional art.

Great opportunities for creative mutual influences between the cultures of the peoples of our multinational country were opened up by the Soviet era, which marked the beginning of the fraternal friendship of peoples in the course of building a socialist state.

Russian folklore is a significant part of world folklore. Independently created by the Russian people, quite original, it has a typological similarity with the folklore of many peoples of the world in its genre system, themes, images of heroes and poetics.

Russian folk art with its great ideological and artistic values has long attracted the attention of scientists and researchers from other countries. Foreign scholars of folklore are also of great interest to Soviet folkloristics, known to science throughout the world.

2 . Origins and signs of the wedding ceremony.

For a long time, family ritual poetry has been known among the people. Its contents are related to the most important events human life: birth, marriage and death. Many of the rituals accompanying them and the poetic works associated with them were of a magical nature. The folk wedding ceremony developed in the feudal era on the basis of the traditional peasant family life. Its content and ritual symbolism reflected some of the features characteristic of even more ancient forms of marriage among the Slavic tribes, which arose during the period of the tribal system or during its decomposition. The groom had to pay a bride price. This custom of giving a ransom for the bride, as a traditional and very stable custom, lived for a long time in the life of many peoples.

The wedding as a whole was like a complex dramatic game in which the real was intertwined with the traditionally conventional, generalized and typical. Everything in it was subject to a single traditional goal - to show how a new happy family: in a festive atmosphere, among a large folk team that goes beyond the families of the bride and groom. This directly followed not only the “predetermined” behavior of all participants in the wedding. Indeed, all the "roles" of the wedding participants were regulated. The parents and relatives of the bride and groom were supposed to behave like hospitable and rich hospitality. The father and mother of the bride were supposed to show her parental pity, but at that time not to give in to her traditional pleas "not to marry her." The groom was supposed to portray the ideal “good fellow” at the wedding: handsome, smart and rich. The well-dressed groom usually sat at the wedding calmly and silently, showing respect for the bride. This was his role.

The bride played the biggest role in the wedding ceremony both in terms of the place she occupied in it and in terms of the depth of her psychological experiences. Throughout the first half of the wedding, she had to cry and grieve, saying goodbye to her parents, friends, and her former "maiden will." But from the time she moved to the groom's house, she immediately had to change her behavior and portray already happy wife, obediently and even joyfully entered into a strange family.