Slavic wedding. Russian wedding songs on the Tersk coast of the white sea A wedding ceremony performed in heaven

A wedding is the oldest folk rite, serving to unite two clan families in the person of a man from one clan and a woman from another, in order to continue life on earth and the work of their ancestors. The wedding is the Great Requirement for All God, performed in his turn by each of the Russian clan, the Slavic tribe, who is in good health in soul and body.

As wise people say: “A Slav’s wife doesn’t take the same thing that a Slavic wife doesn’t give birth to children, it’s the same that the work of the Ancestors doesn’t continue, it’s the same as blaspheming the Gods of the Native! To do the opposite is equal to dropping grains into arable land, equal to that one's Path s-Right to torment, equal to believing that earthly generations will last. "

The wedding, along with the introduction to the Rod, the birth and burial from time immemorial, was revered by our ancestors and is revered today as the most important event in the life of a Kolo man. In this regard, the Wedding does not belong to intra-family or personal events, but to the general-Family festivities. Indeed, indeed, this action is not only a private affair of young and close relatives, but of the entire Clan of the earth, the Clan of Heaven and the Clan of the Almighty Almighty. This is a deliberate and serious step on the path of life to the Glory of the Gods and the benefit to people.

What is every branch from the trunk,
What is every trunk from the root,
So is every kind of earthly kind from the kind of heaven.
It was, it is, it will be.

Let us, Friends, tread our Path, as our ancestors did, as we were commanded to do.

To play a wedding, do not put on shoes

A wedding in the life of the Russian people is one of the main events of the tribal way of life. For a long time, the wedding is accompanied by a series of consecutive rituals. Departure from these rituals, according to popular belief, entails unpleasant consequences.

Due to the substitution of values ​​and the severing of ties with the Primordial Tradition, wedding ceremonies are not observed in our time. Only in some regions of Southern Siberia, in Tomsk, in Mordovia, some elements of the wedding household rituals have been preserved. For example, the description of S.I. Gulyaeva is one of the earliest and is an almost complete record of a Russian Siberian wedding.

A folk wedding is a “legal act of everyday life,” therefore, in villages, newlyweds who did not celebrate a wedding were often not considered husband and wife. The whole Community took part in the celebration of the wedding and in its preparation. In the public consciousness of the villagers, in the consciousness of the community, the new established relationship between a man and a woman was legally consolidated by the celebration of the Wedding. The wedding legalized the civil status and economic relationship of the two clans and established family ties between them.

The wedding was divided into several ritual actions: matchmaking, bride show, hand-marriage, betrothal, "great week", bachelorette party, wedding ceremony, wedding feast.

It all started with matchmaking. Friends and elder brothers of the groom came to the bride's house in order to find out whether their groom would be pleasing to the bride's house and whether it was worth sending real matchmakers. All this happened in a comic form, using a variety of sentences and persuasions:

We have a merchant, a daring fellow.
Our merchant buys not sables and martens, but red girls.

If the bride's parents were not against the proposed groom, then a small meal was arranged, at the end of which the day of Smotrin was appointed. Thus, matchmaking was not the rite at which it was decided whether to be a wedding or not.

At the bridegroom, the main thing was to find out the economic well-being of the two genera and see the bride. Real matchmakers (the groom's parents) came to the bride. The bride went out to the matchmakers: she was examined and introduced. After Smotrin, the bride's relatives went to “look at the place” (the groom's household). Sometimes they even asked neighbors about the prosperity of future relatives. The bride was also not the last ceremony at which the decision was made about the wedding itself. After the Smotrin, the Day of Handwriting was appointed.

According to the established tradition, the Handling took place in the bride's house, where important issues were resolved: the bride's dowry was discussed, "laying" - the amount that the groom had to pay for the bride to her parents. This meeting also determined what gifts the bride's side should give to the groom's parents and allocated the costs of the wedding. If the parties came to a general agreement, then the Handicap was committed. The handshake was attended by close and distant relatives of the bride and groom. A treat was arranged. The rite of arms received wide publicity. After the handshake, the day of the Betrothal was appointed.

The betrothal took place in a cult place: the Temple, the Temple, the Sacred Grove, cult stones and other places of universal worship. The ceremony was conducted by a priest: the Priest, the Magus or the Supreme Leader of the community. At the engagement, the day of the Wedding Rite was appointed, after which the "great week" began.

The "Great Week" could last long enough, but no more than two months, and ended seven days before the wedding day. During the "great week", the bride said goodbye to her neighbors, the community, and all the places dear to her. She went to the churchyard, asked for forgiveness from her dead relatives; walked around the village with her friends, inviting guests to a "tearful wedding"; after which she called a bachelorette party.

At the Bachelorette Party, the bride said goodbye to the "divine beauty" - a symbol of girlhood. This ceremony marked the end of a girl's life and preparation for a new life path in marriage. The main action at the bachelorette party was the unweaving of the braids. Unlike married women, girls in Russia wore braids. The unweaving of the braid indicated an imminent change in life, in which she would turn from a bride into a married woman (sluzh), a mother.
The groom, for his part, also walked through his village, inviting guests to a "merry wedding." He arranged bachelor gatherings with songs and dances, saying goodbye to bachelor friends and a valiant life.

And then the long-awaited day came. The "wedding train" with the groom and his friends arrived at the bride's house. On this day, many small rituals took place, following in a certain order one after the other.
The ceremony of giving the bride to the groom took place in a solemn atmosphere and in the presence of a large crowd of people.

The bridesmaids arranged a buffoonery: the ransom of the bride. In the buffoonery, the main characters were Druzhka (friend of the groom) and Ponevestitsa (girlfriend of the bride). Sometimes a “dressed-up bride”, usually a dressed-up man, was taken out, but after an agreement, a real bride, dressed for the Wedding Rite, was brought out. The bride and groom were necessarily taken out by the father and mother or the named parents (later god and godmother), holding both hands, and passed into the hands of the groom (from hand to hand). The bride's parents blessed the newlyweds for a long married life, and the “wedding train” went to the Temple for the wedding ceremony (in the days of Christianity, to the church for the wedding).

On the Temples, the Priests performed a Rite, in which they invoked the Forces of the Gods (nature) and glorified them in order to unite the two clans into one and continue life on earth by giving birth to children, prolonging the Tradition of fathers and grandfathers. During the Rite, the Priest binds the groom's shuitsu (left) hand and the bride's right hand (right) hand with a family wedding towel, and only after that the Priest loudly declares the bride and groom to be honest husband and wife. Having completed the Wedding Rite, the young, accompanied by guests and relatives, continue their journey and go to the groom's house for a wedding feast.

In the groom's house, the groom's parents greeted the young at the porch: bread and salt (the groom's mother) and a god's cup (the groom's father). After bowing to their parents and accepting from them refreshments and parting words for family life, the young followed to the wedding table.

Before the start of the feast there was a ceremony of "twisting" the young. The rounding up consisted in the fact that the matchmaker's bride's hair, which had been untwisted the day before, was braided into two braids and put on the "babya kiku" - the headdress of a married woman. The largest connoisseur of wedding ceremonies, E. Kagarov, described this rite as "the act of accepting a newlywed into a sex and age group of married women."

After the round, the guests were invited to the tables, and the feast began. The first three slavs (toasts) were raised traditionally: To the Glory of the Native Gods, to the Glory of the Ancestors of the saints, to the Glory of the young. After the third toast, they shouted for the first time "Bitter!"

After a while, the young were taken to a specially prepared bedroom and left there until morning. The guests continued to walk and celebrate the wedding. In the morning next day the young were awakened and taken to the bathhouse. That morning there were many jokes, comic scenes: the young woman was forced to carry water, to revenge the fragments of broken dishes, into which money was thrown. In the following days, the young people went to visit their relatives, who held small festivities.

During the wedding celebration, many different protective and producing rituals were also performed. Such rituals also ensured the safety of entering into married life, and protected young spouses from otherworldly hostile forces, and ensured childbearing, as well as prosperity and wealth in the house. Part of the rituals was aimed at strengthening the love of the newlyweds.
Wedding ceremonies have always been accompanied by choral or solo accompaniment of traditional songs, lamentations, and sentences. At the same time, lamentation necessitated the execution of the song, the song, in turn, determined the execution of the sentence. The verdicts were mainly executed by Ponevestitsa, although matchmakers and matchmakers could take part in this action. This was the course of the Slavic wedding: its spiritual, economic, legal and everyday significance.

Many people today attach great importance to wedding ceremonies and, if possible, include elements of the Primordial Tradition of their ancestors in the celebration. This helps to build family relationships, to improve the way of life and to manage the household. Our ancestors very carefully and seriously approached the arrangement of the family, and today we can use this experience, proven for centuries.
To all who wish to unite their hearts, their families, I sincerely wish you happiness and harmony. But before celebrating such a great event, remember how our ancestors did it, try to include ancient rituals in your wedding celebration and believe me: this day will be filled with unforgettable moments and fun.

May you live happily ever after!

Bowing, Wailing Priest Rodobor (Boruta)

From the book of E. Kagarov " Composition and origin of wedding rituals»:
Matchmaking, matchmakers, wedding - the root of SVA on behalf of the ancient Slavic God Svarog. The power of Svarog is the power of connection, creation, creation of different parts into a single whole.
A wedding towel is a towel sewn from two halves, when one of the spouses died, the towel was torn at the seam and half was placed in the domina (coffin).

Chapter 1. Formation of the wedding ceremony as an independent phenomenon in the social life of medieval Russia in the 10th - 17th centuries.

1. Formation of a ceremonial rite on P

2. The wedding ritual and its behavior.

Chapter 2. Evolution of wedding ceremonies in modern times.

1. The nature of the changes in the vandal rite of the richest nobleman under the influence of the Petroh transformations of the HUSH in

2. The cultural foundations and content of the Russian folk wedding in the 19th century.

3. Benny of the townhouse in the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

Chapter 3. Transformation of the wedding ceremony in the Soviet and post-Soviet period.

1. Wedding ceremony in the secular time: traditions and innovations.

2. Specificity and cultural significance of the modern wedding ceremony

Recommended list of dissertations

• Wedding of Russians of Bashkortostan as a folk-game complex: Questions of poetics and interethnic interactions 1998, Doctor of Philology Karpukhin, Ivan Egorovich

• Marriage and family rituals of the Avars of Andalal: Traditions and innovations 2002, candidate of historical sciences Israpilova, Zarema Akhmedkhanovna

• Interaction and relationship of poetry with ritual in a Central Russian wedding 1984, candidate of philological sciences Kalnitskaya, Alexandra Mikhailovna

• Family rituals of the Lezgins of Azerbaijan: the end of the 19th - 20th centuries: an ethnographic study of the north-eastern zone of Azerbaijan 1989, Candidate of Historical Sciences Abbasova, Mehriban Olegovna

• Wedding rituals of the Akkin Chechens: traditions and innovations 2009, candidate of historical sciences Yakhadzhieva, Aminat Khasanovna

Dissertation introduction (part of the abstract) on the topic "Traditions and innovations in the Russian wedding ceremony"

Similar dissertations in the specialty "Theory and history of culture", 24.00.01 code VAK

• Vologda wedding folklore: history, traditions, poetics 1999, Candidate of Philology Ostrovsky, Evgeny Borisovich

• Vocabulary of the Kuban wedding ceremony: on the material of the ritual practice of the village of Chernoerkovskaya, Krasnodar Territory 2011, Ph.D. in Philology Finko, Olga Sergeevna

• Traditional and new in the rituals of the Kabardians 2003, candidate of historical sciences Bogatyreva, Izabella Zabidovna

• Wedding rituals of the Tatars of the Middle Irtysh region: Late 19th - 20th centuries. 2004, candidate of historical sciences Kolomiets, Oksana Petrovna

• Wedding ceremonies of the peoples of Southern Dagestan in the past and present: XIX-XX centuries. 2008, candidate of historical sciences Khadirbekov, Nariman Bubaevich

Conclusion of the thesis on the topic "Theory and history of culture", Timofeeva, Lilia Vadimovna

List of dissertation research literature Candidate of Historical Sciences Timofeeva, Lilia Vadimovna, 2004

Please note that the above scientific texts are posted for review and obtained by means of recognition of the original texts of dissertations (OCR). In this connection, they may contain errors associated with the imperfection of recognition algorithms. There are no such errors in PDF files of dissertations and abstracts that we deliver.

Library
materials

PLAN

1. Description of a classic Russian wedding.

2. Description of the wedding ceremony of the Belozersk region.

3. The similarities and differences between the classic Russian wedding and its variations in the Belozersk region.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Application.

INTRODUCTION

What is a wedding? In fact, this is the entry of a couple into a legal relationship, it is a solemn holiday for everyone. This is the happiness of the young, the joy of parents, friends, relatives, this is vanity, troubles, and tears, in general, the whole bouquet of exciting emotions. But they are so pleasant, because this is a holiday of the soul, on this day a person acquires the most valuable thing in life - and this is love, family, children. From that day on, a person begins to build his nest, his family hearth. Every day we live living together it is, in a way, one brick of the fortress.

A wedding is a ceremony that involves several stages, traditions, customs, everyone tries, to the best of their ability, to observe as many of these traditions as possible.

In general, the wedding process developed from Slavic wedding ceremonies, some of them have disappeared, and some are present to this day. The wedding marked the official transition of the girl from the parental home to the clan of her husband, and in order for the new family to be healthy, happy, fertile, protective ceremonies had to be carried out.

Nowadays, the wedding is celebrated in a different way, much simpler, that is, such a ceremony as protecting a new family from evil spirits no longer carries the same meaning as before. Now the wedding means just the official legalization of marriage, this is registration, and not an old rite, unfortunately. You can draw a parallel and see how far we have gone from ancient traditions.

The purpose of the research work - to investigate the peculiarities of the wedding ceremony in the historical aspect.

The following result follows from this goal.tasks:

1. Trace the history of the development of the wedding ceremony.

2. To highlight the wedding ceremony in the study of folklorists.

3. Describe the traditional wedding of the Trans-Urals.

4. Describe a modern wedding.

5. Trace the similarities and differences between weddings.

Relevance The work is as follows: the wedding ceremony remains the most popular and most important ritual of life for modern Russians. However, the wedding is undergoing various changes: ideological, structural, ideological. Therefore, the study of a wedding ceremony of this kind seems to us very timely.

Novelty lies in the fact that in the presence of a large number of descriptions of the wedding ceremony, in the Trans-Urals there is still no study of modern weddings, as well as the similarities and differences between modern and ancient weddings have not yet been analyzed.

There is a study by V.P. Fedorova "Wedding on Iryum", dedicated to the analysis of the Old Believer wedding, as a bygone rite. The modern wedding of the Belozersky district, firstly, has nothing to do with the Old Believers, and secondly, having traditional roots in modern times, it has a different ritual effect, which is described in this final qualifying work.

Object of study - a wedding as part of the family ritual system.

Subject of study - characteristic features of the wedding ceremony of the Belozersk region.

Practical significance work lies in the fact that its material can be used:

1) in the classroom;

2) on electives;

3) practical training at the university;

4) as a basis for the reconstruction of folklore rituals;

Work structure : the final qualifying work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources used, and an appendix.

CHAPTER 1 RESEARCH OF THE WEDDING RULES

1. THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEDDING RITE IN PRINT

Folklore is part of the national culture of any nation. It bears great cognitive, moral and aesthetic value. Rituals and ceremonial folklore have always played and still play an important role in the life of society. They passed on from generation to generation the experience of the spiritual life of people, contributed to the creation of collective, social relations. Of particular importance in terms of studying the traditional culture of the Russian people is the study of wedding ceremonial folklore, "which, according to KV Chistov, is one of the most developed, rich in all respects and therefore especially complex multicomponent among the wedding rituals of the peoples of Europe." Wedding ceremonies as an integral part of customs and traditions are associated with the psychology of the people, with its social practice, poetry. During the performance of wedding rituals, certain norms and rules of behavior were fixed. They manifested folk wisdom, which found verbal expression in the accompanying works of oral poetry. Russian wedding is a part of folk culture, elements of verbal - poetic, musical, hareographic and dramatic art are reflected in it in a harmonious combination.

A review of the history of collecting and studying wedding ceremonies and poetry in the 18th century showed successes in collecting and publishing them and very low achievements in their research. All publications are characterized by the same approach to publication of both ceremonial folklore and rituals. There was great interest in wedding songs; both songs and ceremonies were printed separately from each other. Ritual songs by publishers of the 18th century were perceived to a large extent as an artistic phenomenon. They were worthy, in their opinion, to be published alongside arias from "Russian operas and comedies", to be read and performed not only among the people, but also among the middle class, and even among the nobility.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the publication of ceremonies and ceremonial folklore remained the same. One cannot speak of research in the field of wedding folklore until the 1930s. XIX century - until the time when the works of I.M. Snegirev appeared. It was he who, for the first time in Russian folklore, explained the new principles of publishing rituals and ceremonial folklore, which then became firmly established in publishing practice.

Collectors and publishers of this time highly appreciated wedding ceremonial folklore, which served them for enlightenment and propaganda in the public consciousness of the Russian principle. However, the nighttime reliability in this case could not be high, since it was necessary to more clearly distinguish between the general Russian and regional trends in ritual folklore, and scientific and popular science trends in publishing.

At the same time, from this time in Russian folklore, there were grandiose publications by I.M.Snegirev, I.P. Sakharov and A.V. Tereshchenko.

But gradually, from year to year, the number of publications about the Russian wedding in a wide variety of periodicals, both all-Russian and provincial, increased. Quite a lot of them appeared in the first half of the 19th century, their significance is different both in the breadth of coverage of the material, and in depth and manner of presentation. Published mainly in periodicals and magazines, and they reckoned mainly on the general reading public.

The creation of the im. Russian Geographical Society, which announced, among other main directions of its activities, the collection of information about the Russian wedding, and also attracted the attention of the provincial authorities to the folk ritual life: information about it began to be published in almost all provincial gazettes (in the unofficial part). Several folklore collections were published at that time, in which, in contrast to the history of studying wedding ritual poetry, the history of its collection and publication in the middle of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. much richer. Editions of ritual folklore are numerous and varied. The collectors were peasants and priests, teachers and doctors, lawyers and journalists, ethnographers and folklorists. And all this was based on the purpose of collecting material, on the principles of collecting it, on the choice of the type of publication where the collected material was published, and on many other things.

A folk wedding in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries was a fact of the everyday life of a Russian person. This can explain the large number of her records from almost all regions of Russia. In the titles of published materials, the words "superstition" and "prejudice" were often encountered; the society waged a struggle with them. As before, the church opposed pagan rituals. Quite a lot of articles on this issue were published in the diocesan Gazette.

But there were no bans on folk weddings, the public interest in it was great, as a result, for more than half a century, Russian folklore studies were enriched with material of great scientific value. Almost complete regional recordings of the folk wedding were published in print.

Wedding folklore begins to be actively included in local folklore collections. Success in collecting activities, public interest in folk life were the reason for the creation of popular books.

It was at the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX centuries. appears a huge number of publications of wedding ceremonies and poetry, especially in "Living Antiquity", "Ethnographic Review", in numerous publications of the Russian Geographical Society. Large editions of VN Dobrovolsky, PV Shein and others appeared. This, of course, does not mean at all that the previously published records of wedding folklore, descriptions of wedding ceremonies in the provincial registers, statistical collections, memorable books, etc. have no scientific value.

The folklore studies of the beginning of the Soviet period in the history of Russia in the field of collecting wedding folklore did not violate pre-revolutionary traditions. Referring to the folklore of workers and folklore, in which the oppressors' protest was expressed (folklore about S. Razin, E. Pugachev, etc.), the collectors also recorded and published materials on the wedding.

Historical and ethnographic publications of wedding folklore did not last long. Obviously, because of the view established in Soviet folklore studies of folklore only as the art of words, which was especially argued after M. Gorky B. and Y. Sokolov, wedding folklore (apart from rituals) began to be widely published in the so-called "regional" collections, of which a great many have been published over the entire XX century. As a result, folklore has been enriched with several tens of thousands of ritual songs and lamentations, unfortunately snatched, as a rule, from the ritual context.

Much worse than collecting and publishing, the situation in the pre-war years was the study of wedding ceremonies and folklore. In the 20s and 30s of the XX century, Soviet folklore studies were formed, researchers mastered the Marxist - Leninist methodology, there were discussions about the nationality, the class of folklore, but, as before, for many decades, scientists were primarily interested in bylinas, fairy tales and historical songs. There were no large works specially devoted to ritual poetry, although it was for articles in which the authors solved some problems of history, poetics of ritual poetry (V.G. Kagarov, A.K. Moreeva, N.I. Gagen-Thorn, P.S. Theological).

The 40s - 50s of the XX century are the least prolific in the study of wedding poetry. Interest in it is not great, researchers are mainly interested in the ritual, as before, but there are achievements here as well. Almost all studies of these years are historical and ethnographic (A.I. Kozachenko, N.M. Eliash, etc.).

The turn of the 60s - 70s of the XX century is a significant border in the collection, publication and study of Russian weddings. Within several years several Ph.D. theses on wedding poetry were defended (T.I. Ornatskaya, Yu.G. Kouglov, T.F. Pirozhkova, V.I. Zhekulin, etc.).

In the 70s, the philosophical trend in the study of wedding folklore barely made its way. The reason lies in the reluctance of many scholars to abandon the consideration of ritual poetry as only historical and ethnographic material. Several mutually exclusive classifications of ritual songs were proposed, identified by researchers with ritual lyrics (V.Ya.Propp, D.M. Balashov, V.I. Eremina, L.N.Bryantseva, Yu.G. Kruglova, etc.).

We can say that in the second half of the 20th century, Russian folklore has made great strides, both in the study and in the collection of publication of wedding folklore.

The main task of future researchers is not to reduce the level of analysis and publication of wedding folklore, but to actively continue to study it.

1.2. WEDDING RULES IN THE STUDIES OF FOLKLORIST

Strong, touching, beautiful rituals are an unforgettable part of any celebration. And one of the brightest and most memorable events in the life of any family is, of course, a wedding. What is a wedding? This is a holiday! This is a long-awaited moment for lovers. And also this is the fusion of two clans - the clan of the groom and the clan of the bride. When a girl gets married, she "leaves" her clan, leaves it in order to be adopted into the clan of her future spouse. Therefore, all the ceremonies carried out during the wedding helped to unite the power of two families, two genera of two lovers. And the ritual side of the wedding was given great importance. And then - many centuries ago, and now, Slavic wedding rituals have not only a secret meaning, but also very beautiful. They use ancient objects and traditional vestments. Even the smallest details are important. Without them, the ceremony can be performed incorrectly and lose all its charm and meaning. Wedding rituals bequeathed by our ancestors seal the marriage. They enclose hearts that truly love each other.

Many researchers have studied the Russian wedding ceremony. Historians of Russian literature Likhachev D.S., Rybakov B.A .; ethnographers Kostomarov N.I., Bernshtam T.A., Toporkov A.L. In their works, you can trace the change in the wedding ritual over time, as well as how the ritual differs in other regions.

Ethnographer N.V. Zorin in the work "Russian wedding ritual" he examines in detail the structure of the Russian wedding ritual of the Middle Volga region. His book also discusses the meaning of wedding "roles".

Scientists - folklorists Balashov D.M., Kostomarov N.I., Putilov V.P., Rybakov V.A. investigated the structure of the rite, its symbolic basis.

The scientists Bayburin A.S., Bernshtam T.A., Zhekulina V.I. made a great contribution to the study of wedding rituals.

In particular T.A. Bernshtam reveals the significance of the creative possibilities of the participants in the rituals that create the "young world", new cultural entities. Researcher of traditional culture great attention devotes to the problem of folk play in the aspect of play behavior of children, adolescents, youth, which is aimed at preparing for life roles.

The famous folklorist, ethnographer Mikhail Grigorievich Ekimov, researcher of song and musical and verbal folklore, calendar and family and everyday rituals of the Russian population of the Trans-Urals in the collection "Russian wedding of Siberians in the middle Pre-Tobol region" includes musical, poetic and ethnographic materials of the traditional Russian wedding of Siberians in the middle reaches of the Tobol river on the territory of the Kurgan region, recorded in thirty-three old-time residents of the Ketovsky, Pritobolny and Kurtamysh districts. In addition to these materials, the collection includes folklore and ethnographic materials from the work of N.O. Osipov "The Ritual of the Siberian Wedding", recorded in 1891. in the village of Nagorskaya Utyat volost, Kurgan district, Tobolsk province (now the village of Nagorskoe, Pritobolny district, Kurgan region), as well as handwritten texts of wedding songs and lamentations, ethnographic materials recorded in 1970 by teachers of the Kaminsky high school A.G. Zakoulova and A.A. Gordievskikh in the village. Kaminskoye and in the village of Razuevka, Kaminsky s / s, Kurtamysh district.

All published materials are printed without any processing. Introduced modern punctuation. The peculiarities of the local dialect are preserved. Many wedding songs and lamentations. Ethnographic materials are presented with variants that add peculiar touches to the outline of a rite, musical and poetic rite or situation.

In this publication, each section is preceded by documentary ethnographic materials that reveal the essence of the wedding ceremony.

The songs and laments within each section follow roughly the order in which they were sung during the wedding. The comments give a passport surrounding where, when, by whom and from whom the given folklore work was recorded, by whom the sound recording was notated, the inventory number in folklore or the manuscript fund, as well as correspondence with the texts in the classical editions of P.V. Kireevsky, A.I. Sobolevsky, MD Chulkov, VP Shein and others. In addition, the scientific apparatus of the collection contains an introductory article and textual notes to the notations of the music editor of the collection, VA Lapin; an alphabetical index of incipits (beginnings, published songs and lamentations; notes to the ethnographic passport data included in the collection; lists of performers of published songs, chorus and lamentations; lists of collectors and notaries; a dictionary of dialectisms; alphabetical index of the beginnings of wedding songs; chorus and lamentations recorded in old-timers settlements of the lower and upper reaches of the Tobol River on the territory of the Kurgan Region, originals of phonograms, notations and handwritten texts that are in the centralized folklore fund of the regional scientific and methodological center of folk art (TSFONMTS) and the personal folklore collection of the author - compiler (FKE).

The preface, the organization of the material, comments to it, lists of performers, collectors and notaries, a dictionary of dialectisms, alphabetical indexes of the beginnings of wedding songs, choruses and laments are made by the author - compiler. The co-author of the musicological part of the commentary is V.A. Lapin. The edition of folklore and poetic texts and ethnographic materials of the collection was carried out by I.V. Menshchikova and V.P. Shakhurina.

The collection uses photographs from the funds of the regional museum of local lore (A. Kochinev's collection) of the photographic libraries of the Central Fund for Fundamentals of the Fund and the FKE.

In the magazine Rodina№ 7 - 2004 Irina Mikhailova, doctor historical sciences, in the article "Let's cook porridge" tells about the royal wedding in Russia in the XVI century. The grand-ducal wedding was magnificent, crowded and strictly ritualized. In the chambers of the Moscow Kremlin, an action was unfolding, similar to a traditional folk wedding, but carefully thought out, prepared and subject to strict court etiquette. In its rituals, remnants of the pagan "marriage games" of the Slavs, and borrowings from Christian Byzantine ceremonies, which in turn retained the elements of rituals performed in Ancient Greece and Rome, can be traced.

In the scientific almanac "Scientific culture"№ 3 - 2005 I.A.Morozov's article "A Doll in a Traditional Wedding Rite" tells that the doll was one of the most striking material symbols used in a traditional wedding. Being a kind of object - a double, alter ego of the main characters, she carried a powerful charge of archaic semantics, referred to the ancient ideas about spirits - patrons, about the incarnations of the soul and myths about the creation of man. The author examines the main hypostases of the doll in the traditional Russian wedding ceremony - extremely diverse and genetically heterogeneous, having different ethnocultural roots in different territories of Russian residence.

The next article of their magazine Rodina№ 9 2004 Marina Zhigunova "Red Flag for the Bride" reveals the theme of the life of the Siberian Cossacks, and in particular tells about the main stages of the life of the Cossacks. Since my work is devoted to the topic of the wedding ceremony, therefore, I will analyze only part of this article, or rather, which talks about the wedding of the Cossacks. Only by getting married, the Cossack received a stable position in the family and became a full member of society. The marriages of Siberian Cossacks were concluded mainly within the same village, or the bride was taken from neighboring villages located on their own line. Reluctantly, they became related with representatives of other estates (they rarely married peasant women, even less often there were cases when Cossack women married a peasant). In an effort to acquire free labor for their economy, the Cossacks tried to marry their sons before military service at the age of 18-20, less often - 20-25 years old, and girls usually got married at 16-18 years old. A twenty-year-old girl was often considered "overdone". If the girl was not wooed for a long time, then the parents put her in a box and drove her through the streets shouting: "I'm in time! I'm in time!" Marriage was usually carried out by mutual agreement between the parents - "a consenting wedding". But there were also secret weddings and "escape". In order to save money on traditional weddings, sometimes a fictitious abduction of the bride was committed with the mutual consent of the parents.

I would also like to highlight a few more interesting facts about the wedding of the Siberian Cossacks. The groom sewed a skirt for the bride (ponevu) and went to woo. The bride ran around the bench and said: "I want - I will jump, I want - no," and her mother persuaded her: "Jump, jump." Parents will shout, I had to jump. The skirt was immediately tied, and the girl was considered to be tied up. On the last day of the bachelorette party, the bathhouse was heated, the girlfriends went to the groom for soap, a broom and firewood. The bridegroom was taken to the bride's broom. Bath brooms were decorated with paper flowers, red ribbons and threads. On the way to the groom, the girls changed into men, old women, old men, Turks, painted their faces with soot, played the balalaika or knocked on empty buckets. Before the wedding, the bride had to cry, even if she married a loved one. Thus, she tried to ensure a happy married life: "If you don't cry at the table, you will cry around the corner."

Article by Fechina K.M. "Wedding ceremony of the Samara region" in the popular science magazine "Folk Art"№ 4 2008 "tells about the old wedding ceremony of the Russian villages of the middle Volga region. a feast in the groom's house.And also about the wedding ceremony of the village of Surgut, Sergievsky district of the Samara region, which was recorded according to the stories of two oldest residents of Sadomova Tatyana Leontyevna and Vekazina Lidia Ivanovna, includes matchmaking, bachelorette party, bathhouse, wedding and is accompanied by various wedding and dance songs.

In the same magazine E. Karyagina in the article "Wedding in Kolomna" writes that last year (2007) employees of the municipal cultural institution "School of Crafts" decided to revive the traditional wedding ceremony and show the beauty and significance of this Russian rite. The entire staff of the institution was involved in the work on this project. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Zubenina, artistic director of the School of Crafts, developed the script, having carried out painstaking work with the literature. The difficulty was that this event should be informative and entertaining in nature with the use of interesting and unusual attributes. In addition, it was necessary to preserve the main religious features of the wedding ceremony: meeting new recruits, honoring newlyweds, testing for the bride and groom, guests, presenting the young and treating them with honey wine from carved goblets. The rest of the article describes detailed preparation and the phased implementation of this event.

In the magazine "Living Starina" 1999№ Article 3 "Wedding Rituals in the Nevsky District of the Kostroma Region" describes a phased wedding in the Kostroma Region. Published materials were recorded in 1995-1997. from local old-timers workers of cultural and educational institutions of the Nevsky district: G.V. Filippov, N.N. Egorov, G.V. Spolokhov, T.N. Kruglova, M.M. Arsenyuk, I.A. Kasatkina, A.P. Shatrova, V.P. Perelomova, T.F. Orlova, T.G. Smirnova, G.V.Smirnova, E.Yu. Zolotova, N.P. Ranzheeva. I would like to note several interesting points in the wedding ritual. Namely, he went through 8 stages. Matchmaking - at the beginning of the week matchmakers come to the girl, and towards the end of the week, most often on Friday, the groom's parents, and then only if the bride's parents have given their consent. The parents agreed on the ransom of the bride. In the 27th year, they gave 105 rubles for a good girl, and so - as agreed. The bride had to sew a towel for each relative of the groom (she embroidered them with different patterns or lace, and there were also ones with a border). To watch the hut - we looked at the state of the groom's hut (there were such cases when they came to the groom, it was raining on the street, and his roof was thin, water was dripping on the floor). Sing - it is on this day that the bride should make a gift to all the groom's relatives. To wear a bed - before the wedding, the bride's bridesmaids carried the bed (mattress) to the groom's house. They carried it all in their arms, at least for how many kilometers. Bachelorette Party - the bride has a party on Saturday. On this day, they heated the bathhouse and took the bride. When they were washed, the conspiracy unraveled the braid and gave the ribbon to the most important friend. Wedding day - on this day, it was customary for the bride to howl at her parents from the very morning ("Thank you, my parents, that she ate a lot of bread, Come on, how she offended you"). After the wedding in the church, two tables were collected from the bride. The festivities took place. In the evening, the young are taken to sleep in the courtyard, a bed was made there, and the bed was made - it turned out like a cage, they laid straw, and on that - bricks. When the young people come to bed, a husband and wife lie there - neighbors. They warm the bed for the young. The day after the wedding - the young wife baked pancakes, one pancake was sure to be baked with a hole in the middle, then this pancake was brought out to the guests, those who put money, some gifts. Post-wedding customs - on the third day after the wedding, relatives walked at the groom's house. They baked rolls, cooked cheese, friends and girlfriends tried to bathe the bride that day, pour water over it.

Shadrinskaya antiquity. 1995 year. Almanac of local lore. In this collection there is an article by Beketova Vera Nikolaevna "Shadrinsky wedding ceremony", in which she presents a summary of the surviving elements of the Shadrinsky wedding. As VN Beketova writes: “The Russian wedding is an ancient rite, well studied by folklorists and ethnographers. And the Shadrinsky wedding ceremony has its own specifics, which differs from the Dalmatian, Shchuchansky, Shumikhinsky and others in the content of the bachelorette party, the behavior of the bride, hair decoration, wedding dress, text and chant versions of songs, etc. "

“Rose, my rose. Wedding ceremony and wedding poetry of the Shadrinsky region ”. Compiled by V.N.Beketova and V.P. Timofeeva. The book "Rose, my rose" is dedicated to the wedding ceremony of the Shadrinsky region. The materials included in the book were recorded in the 1950s - 1970s by V.P. Timofeev, in the 1970s - 1990s by V.N. Beketova and students of the Faculty of Russian Language and Literature of the Shadrinsk State Pedagogical Institute. Scattered memories made it possible to restore the ceremony in a certain logical sequence. When arranging poetic texts, lamentations and wedding songs, all prompts of the performers about the place and time of their performance were taken into account. This principle of presenting materials allows you to better comprehend the course of a folk drama, see all its participants, understand the specifics of works, and evaluate their artistic merits.

DM Balashov, YI Marchenko, NI Kalmykova "Russian wedding". This collection tells about the wedding ceremony in the Upper and Middle Koksheng and Uftyug (Tarnogsky district of the Volgorod region). This publication continues the development of a method for a holistic description of the wedding ceremony, proposed during the publication of "Russian Wedding Songs of the Terk Coast of the White Sea". This method was used in organizing the collection materials, preparing them for printing, and determined the principles of expeditionary recording of materials on a Russian wedding.

Vast areas of the Eastern Vologda region were covered, the nature of various local traditions was revealed, thousands of records were made, which eventually made it possible to discover those areas in which the folklore tradition formed organically integral varieties. The most talented and knowledgeable performers were also identified, local spontaneously formed "ensembles" were found (which is especially necessary for recording wedding folklore). Thus, work has been done, which usually takes many years.

Scientific publication of A. V. Chernykh "Kuedin wedding: Russian wedding ceremonies in Kuedinsky district of the Perm region at the end of the XIX - the first half of the XX century." This publication is a collection of folklore and ethnographic materials of the traditional wedding rituals of Russians in the Kuedinsky district of the Perm region. The material included in the collection was collected in 1993-1995. expeditions of the folklore and ethnographic studio "Peselnaya Artel" of the Perm State University and personally by the author - compiler. In addition to the folklore genres of traditional weddings, the collection also publishes a description of the wedding ceremony. The main feature of this publication is that the description of the wedding tradition is given using a significant number of dialectic texts - the stories of our informants. Oral stories not only create an actual picture of the ceremony, but also reflect the emotional perception of what is happening. A large number of oral stories allow you to look at the wedding rituals "from the inside", through the eyes of the bearers of the tradition. The presence of several comments or illustrations of one phenomenon is explained by the desire to identify all the options, to emphasize the nuances and discrepancies in the descriptions of this or that phenomenon. All cited dialect texts are given with the preservation of the main stylistic and phonetic features of folk colloquial speech.

In the book "Once upon a time, they were ..." GG Shapovalova and LS Lavrenyeva talk about the stages of a person's life and directly about one of the most important, as the authors themselves believe, the peak of life - a wedding. Or rather, they talk about a peasant, rural wedding of the late XIX - early XX centuries, relying mainly on the memories of elderly women, and in some cases men, recorded by us in the 70s during an expedition to Central Russia (Tverskaya, Yaroslavskaya and Kostroma region).

Kruglov Yu.G. in study guide"Russian Wedding Songs" analyzes the genre composition of Russian wedding folklore, characterizes the majestic, corral and lyrical wedding songs, which are considered from the point of view of their functional significance in the rite, poetic content and artistic form. The main objective of this manual is to introduce the student - philologist to the current state of the study of wedding folklore. The book consists of two parts - theoretical and textual. In the first part, the genre and poetic abilities of wedding folklore are consistently analyzed, in the second, the texts of wedding songs are given, which allow the reader to familiarize themselves with a much larger number of wedding songs than is usually done when studying wedding folklore using general anthologies of oral folk art. When selecting texts, the author strove to provide material for developing students' skills, primarily a poetic analysis of works of art.

Collection "From christenings to commemoration" Pankeev I.А. defined as "ethics and aesthetics of everyday life." It contains information that everyone needs throughout life: how to baptize a child, what lullabies to sing for him, how to get married, how to celebrate calendar and church holidays, how to properly perform burial rites, commemorations, etc. The book lists the main events of a person's life, sacraments, fasts, a birthday calendar is given. And, of course, the most beautiful and very important ceremony is the wedding. And also very colorfully and picturesquely tells about the sacrament of marriage. Each chapter is illustrated with folklore examples.

Pavel Kuzmenko “Baptism. Wedding. Burial. Posts ". This book describes Russian Orthodox and folk rituals dedicated to the birth of a child, marriage and funeral. According to the author of this book himself: “Getting married - in the life of every person means the beginning of the existence of the family - the main, primary link of any society. It is not for nothing that a church wedding includes the laying on the heads of newlyweds, similar to royal crowns. It symbolizes that the family is a small kingdom in the earthly sense and a small church in the spiritual sense. Celebrating marriage - a wedding - among Russians in the past was, perhaps, the main event in a person's life and therefore was accompanied by a huge number of ceremonies and signs. Most of the rituals were of a cheerful nature, the people liked it, which explains the vitality of many of them. In our time, new rituals are being born ”.

The book by V.P. Fedorova "Wedding in the system of calendar and family customs Old Believers of the Southern Trans-Urals ". The proposed monograph is the first attempt to show the originality of the wedding of the Old Believers of the Southern Trans-Urals and its place in the ritual calendar and family complex. The article explores the archaic rudiments of the folk culture, the lyric poetry of the wedding. Ritual practice is considered as the implementation of ideological views and mythological beliefs that dominate in the named society. The purpose of the study is to identify the place of the wedding of the Old Believers in the calendar and family rituals of the specified region. This goal is concretized in the following tasks: to determine the influence of social, historical, economic, demographic conditions on the studied ceremony; to establish reciprocity of weddings with winter calendar rituals, pre-wedding and post-wedding customs; consider the specifics of the drama and the artistic world of the wedding.

Most wedding ceremonies and customs date back to pre-Christian times. These ceremonies have always been fun, life-affirming, which explains their vitality. It was the extraordinary, colorful, ancient roots, the abundance of the use of various customs and rituals that prompted folklorists to study the wedding ceremony, describe and compare the wedding of different nations. And thereby convey to us all the beautiful things of this rite.

CHAPTER 2. WEDDING IN BELOZERSK DISTRICT

2.1. TRADITION OF THE WEDDING RITES OF THE ZAURALIE

A wedding is a complex ceremony that artistically enshrined the birth of a new family. All weddings were subject to a single scenario. Its general features were obligatory not only for the wedding of the Belozersk region, but also for the Russian wedding in general.

Valentina Pavlovna Fedorova in her research "Wedding on Iryum" identifies several stages of the wedding and analyzes the Old Believer wedding. I believe that in my work I just need to refer to this study.

So, Valentina Pavlovna distinguishes a large number of wedding ceremonies. Such as, acquaintance of youth, fortune telling, evenings, nadolblitsa, runaway wedding, matchmaking, wedding day morning, bathhouse, bride gathering, dyeing, morning at the groom's house, meeting a train, meeting a train from the crown, "cheering", dining, bath, blessing young, litter, openings, dowry, young, "karalyshno resurrection." Since the volume of work does not allow us to describe all the ceremonies, so I will take only the most basic ones.

The traditional Russian wedding cycle was, as it were, divided into three main periods: pre-wedding (from matchmaking to bachelorette party), the actual wedding (wedding and wedding night) and post-wedding.

When the time came to marry a son, the parents, together with close relatives, chose the bride and sent a matchmaker or matchmaker to her parents. Most often, the matchmakers were the godfather or uncle. Sometimes both the parents and the groom were also taken, but he remained in the entryway until the bride's parents gave their consent. It happened that the groom could get a refusal, but he was not offended by this, he knew that no one gave his consent the first time. Up to three times I had to come with a kind word, with matchmaking. When the bride's parents ceased to excuse themselves, they invited the groom from the vestibule.

The brides according to Iryum knew the omen. If you want to get married, stand by the stove during the matchmaking; if you don’t want to, do not come close to it.

Usually the matchmaking took place at the table. It was there that they had a business conversation. The first step was to decide what kind of kalym. More often the kalym was taken in money, of which little went to the dowry. They worked out how much to spend the evening and what the groom would bring for them. They did not forget to bargain for beer and purchased wine, which will be brought when the bride arrives. The bride's dowry was rarely talked about. There will be some kind of dowry all the same. The main thing is not it, but the hands.

When everything was discussed, they called relatives and girls to get married. The invitees came running soon. They witnessed that the matchmaking ended well.

From the wedding to the wedding, the bride did not go to the adjoining rows and evenings. It is good that the time did not last long: from three days to ten. Most often, the girl sat in brides for four days.

According to Iryum, the word "bachelorette party" is not accepted. The fun of the youth was called evenings. Invited and uninvited guests came. The groom and his friends brought the girls treats: seeds, sweets, gingerbread, nuts. The bride was always given wax or paper flowers, worn with a corolla on her head.

Evenings are a celebration of the bride and groom. A holiday of the youth of a whole village, or even two villages. They gathered for the evenings right after lunch to have plenty of fun. There was no work to do, even the bride's dowry at that time was not helped to collect. She was in no hurry, since the dowry was being prepared after the wedding.

The busiest time for a wedding is the morning of the wedding day. It is all in motion, fullness, event followed event, tears mixed with a smile, crying with cool songs, the real world with the fictional one, an outburst of bitterness with bursts of sparkling joy.

In the morning, the mother heated the bathhouse, in Iryum she was helped by the godfiance. A broom decorated with ribbons, rags, paper flowers, as well as a table with gingerbread, nuts and other girlish joy awaited the girls in the groom's house. Thanking for the treat, they took a broom, sat down in a kosheva prepared by the groom, and rode his horses around the village, waving a broom and rattling a beater on an empty bucket. People looked out the windows, looked, guessing who had a bath, and were in a hurry to get the bride out. Only the bride and her native friend washed in the bathhouse, the rest of the girls guarded the bathhouse. The bride went to the bath with flowers on her head, and from the bath without flowers. Coming out of the bath, the girls tore up a broom and threw it along with ribbons and flowers behind the bride. We walked slowly and sang:

After our visit

Roll out, boy banyushka,

Roll out, boy banyushka,

Every single piece of wood.

Dressing the bride was considered very important. There was a lot to consider here. Firstly, so that the bride is not spoiled, one must not forget to put a pea pod with nine peas there, and put poppy or sand in her boot. Secondly, it is necessary to dress her up in such a way that "at least someone in the palm of your hand can bring it." Some girls cannot cope with such an important matter, so the godmother and one of the young women who know how to weave a braid with a "matting" - a special weaving, came into the upper room. The braid was woven with a "matting" in five pine trees, weaving in a scarlet ribbon and stitching in many combs.

The groom's house has its own worries. The groom woke up early. It is known to whom to marry, that cannot sleep. In the morning, the godfather heated the bath, putting water and firewood. In the 30s, the groom went to the bathhouse with a friend and a thousand, but the thousand did not wash, but stood near the bath - on guard. Before the bath, he blessed the groom: "In the name of father and son and the holy spirit, God bless you to go to the bath." After the bath, the groom dressed under the supervision of tysyatsky. Having dressed, having gathered, the groom had to go to the bride. The mother blessed her son, the father stood next to her, the tysyatsky took the groom out into the courtyard, sat with him in the first kosheva, in the second - a friend with a root matchmaker, in the third they were packed. The groom's train consisted of at least three koshas. This is already poor. There are five carts - six are needed, but what a train, what a young prince!

The bride did not need to look out the window: has the groom arrived? She already knew: if they began to sing "Horses, then they run," then it was time to meet the groom. Tysyatsky brought the train to the porch and pulled it in two lines. On the left, all the male half of the guests stood up, starting with the groom, and on the right, the female half, starting with the matchmaker. They were waiting for the bride. The villagers were also waiting for her. It was the finest hour of the girl, her greatness, power, beauty, youth. She had to "choose" a groom.

Paired with a native friend, accompanied by her mother, father, kinship, girlfriends, the bride went out onto the porch. As in a fairy tale, the bride looked at the people, as if choosing a groom. Slowly she went down the steps, greeted her groom through a handkerchief with her fiance, a thousand, the falcon boyars who had run over. None of the visitors were left unattended. The bride passed to the female half and everyone who stood here shook her hand respectfully. When she reached the matchmaker, who was standing at the porch opposite the groom, she handled her, bowing, and went over to her betrothed - the mummer. He waited patiently. The bride took him by the hand and led him up the steps into the house. The bride led the groom through the vestibule into the hut and the upper room, led him to the "kuti behind the curtain" and seated him next to her on her left hand. A table fenced them off from all the wedding participants. Behind the flames of rose trees on a black field of woven carpet. There were a lot of people in the upper room: their own relatives, the groom's train, girlfriends.

All those present began to joke and sing songs. It seemed that the room was growing higher with jokes, laughter, joy. Everything was cut off when the mother "thrust" her head into her daughter's lap and "howled": "I was carrying you little." The groom's relatives were also supposed to know, like himself, that the bride is dear in the parental home and that it hurts to tear her away from the zeal of the heart.

After crying, the tysyatsky determined: "It's time to get married." The mother took the icon from the icon case and blessed the bride and groom who were kneeling before her. The icon was handed over to the godmother. Then she took the bread on which the salt shaker stood and blessed the children with bread - salt. The bread was left on the table at home.

Tysyatsky sat down as the groom in the first kosheva, the godmother and the bride in the second, the rest were packed into other carts.

In the church, the guide blessed the groom and the bride with an icon, which the matchmaker presented to him. She took the icon to the groom's house. The icon was placed in the front corner. The wedding icon was valued as a family heirloom, "mama's blessing." She bothered her eldest daughter when she got married. The bride and groom left the chapel as a family: husband and wife. The wedding train, led by Tysyatsky, was heading to the groom's house. Bells rang under the arches, songs flew over the frosty blue.

In the groom's house, a meeting was being prepared between the son and the dear guest, who were traveling from the crown. The invited and uninvited people filled the courtyard to watch the wedding, especially the bride. An elegant homespun path stretched from the threshold to the gate. The heroes of the occasion walked along it to the porch, near which the mother stood with the icon. Kneeling down, they waited for the mother's blessing with the icon and bread. Having blessed, they got up from their knees and tried to bite off the bread as much as possible. The spectators were afraid to miss this moment, by the bitten piece they determined whose "Bolshina" would be in the house. If the bride bit off more, then she should be the boss. The mother swept the path in front of her son and his betrothed with a broom, backing up to the porch and saying: "Be a hostess in the house, not a guest."

Young people sat in the front corner under the images. They were given one spoon, one cup. The glass, of course, was not put. And they did not eat at the table. Next to the groom was a thousand. The bridegroom's relatives clumped together on their own, and the bride-in-law - on their own. Beer was served on the table. The purchased wine was kept by a tysyatsky or his assistant. The festivities began, congratulations to the young. Gifts were selected so that the family was born to help and not go beyond the boundaries of their household. Purchased bites, tried to live from their own hands. They brought the walls of canvas and paths, napkins, napkins and napkins. They gave livestock: a ram with a lamb, a calf, a bird. They carried spoons, bowls, ladles, rolling pins, and crushing pins. Earthenware patches, mugs, pots, pots were especially good. The guests left after midnight. Tysyatsky and the matchmaker woke up the young in the morning. The final stage of the wedding was approaching.

In the morning, along a woven path, the young went to the bathhouse, which prepared the whole village. Both young and old went to the bathhouse of the young. And there was something to see. The ribbon of a bright path stretched from the porch to the bathhouse. The young walked in pairs, hand in hand, side by side. Ahead of them, a mother-in-law was galloping on a poker or a broomstick, smeared more terrible than black, dressed in rags or in an inverted fur coat. All those present were waiting for the young to leave the bath. And they went out under one fur coat or shawl, covering themselves with their heads. After the bath, the young woman dressed up and went out with her husband to the guests who were already waiting for them. She was brought under a blessing. The young woman stood in front of her mother-in-law, said:

Mammy, bless to take a broom.

God bless my daughter.

Mammy, bless the dirty linen.

God bless.

The final ceremony in the groom's house was the sweeping of the litter. The ceremony was called "Sor".

The mother-in-law gave a broom to the bride so that she would chalk up the rubbish, and she herself grabbed the pillow, threw it on the floor and rolled on the floor on the pillow. For litter, the guests brought straw, garbage. The young woman marked, and the kinship on the one and the other side threw gifts on rubbish.

Having dealt with the litter, the young woman carried away the presents, the tysyatsky called to the table. As a rule, it never came to songs. The entire "artistic part" ended with a meal.

After the meal, the guests dispersed, and the young gathered at the bends, or "hangover table", which took place in the bride's house.

The village wedding was notable for its beauty and monumentality, was complex in composition and consisted of many elements that were different in origin, character and function. The variety of these elements is associated with regional and social characteristics. In the wedding ceremony of that time, not only "spatial" differences were clearly visible, but also "temporary" strata, remnants of different forms of marriage. The rituals bizarrely intertwined actions associated with pagan beliefs and the Christian religion. Many of the ancient pagan rituals, while retaining their place in the ritual, gradually lost their original meaning, degenerating into superstition, or acquired a new meaning, for example, as a game or entertainment.

2.2. WEDDING RITES OF THE BELOZERSK DISTRICT

A wedding is a spectacular event precisely due to the fact that the bride and groom, as well as friends and relatives, observe wedding traditions. After all, the wedding ceremony is probably the most beautiful ceremony that has come down to our days from our most distant ancestors. The fact that for our distant ancestors was a way to protect newlyweds from evil spirits, to guarantee them a happy and prosperous life, for us became just elements of a wedding show. But these elements are beautiful and memorable; it is these elements that make the wedding one of the most beautiful events.

In my opinion, modern wedding very different from the old one. And first of all, the difference is that the old Russian wedding ceremonies have lost their significance, and they are simply forgotten by modern youth. Each couple strives to make their wedding unforgettable. Currently, a huge number of "informal", "informal" wedding scenarios have been invented for this.

In the second paragraph of the course work, I will describe the modern wedding ceremony in the Belozersk region.

As in many other localities, the wedding of the Belozersky region takes place in three stages: pre-wedding, the wedding day itself and the second day.

So, the young couple decided to legalize their relationship. When they come to matchmaking, it is customary not to visit the bride right away, but first they go to their relatives or friends. Some of them go to the bride and asks for permission to call in to get married. After permission, the matchmakers and the groom enter the bride's house. If there is a godfather who was taken on purpose, then he begins to match, and if he is not there, then father and mother begin to match. They announce that they have a fiancé, and there is a bride in the house, and so we decided to get married. The young couple then ask their parents for blessings if the bride's parents have given their consent. Both sides are very happy, and the bride at this time begins to treat the guests who have arrived with various delicacies prepared by her own hands. During the feast, there is a discussion of the preparation for the wedding. After everything has been discussed, the groom and his relatives go home. At the same time, they take the bride with them, since the girl is married and must spend the first night after the matchmaking in the groom's parental house. But the bride can only be taken with her consent. Leaving the table, the groom's mother says: "We are taking our daughter-in-law with us and accustoming us to our house!" It is believed that if the bride prepares breakfast for the groom and his parents in the morning and they approve of it, then their married couple will be “strong”.

After the matchmaking, the wedding chores begin for both families. The first step is to inform relatives about such a wonderful event, usually they send invitation cards. It is customary to hold wedding festivities in the groom's house, but nowadays this is very rare. Usually they are held in some other premises, for example, in a school cafeteria, a local house of culture. But always in the village where the groom is from.

Wedding rings and the groom should buy clothes, but this issue is usually discussed during matchmaking, since sometimes the bride wants to buy her own dress. And, of course, all these nuances depend on the well-being of the bride and groom.

It is also the obligation of the groom to provide transportation for the bride. And it is customary for the car to be white or light shades, as it symbolizes the character of the bride. Generally speaking, about the preparation for the wedding, it can be noted that the most important issues and concerns fall on the shoulders of the groom. But the bride decides such issues as organizing a wedding party, decorating the hall, cars. The young people choose a wedding cake together, this is the first item they will dispose of together.

And now the last day before the wedding comes. On this evening, usually the bride and groom have a "bachelor party" and "bachelorette party". So, let's say, they see off their bachelor life... "Bachelor party" and "bachelorette party" are held separately, and they are organized differently for everyone, as they say, who is good for what. But more often the "bachelorette party" takes place at the bride's house, and the "bachelor party" at the groom's. Young people invite their closest friends. They are treated with various delicacies, and they should not spare anything for the guests in order to generously buy off their bachelor life.

And finally, the wedding day itself! This is a very disturbing day for both the bride and groom and their parents.

In the morning in the groom's house, preparations are underway for the ransom of the bride, everything you need is collected: sweets, wine, vegetables, fruits and much more. Usually in the morning the groom goes to get a bouquet for the bride. But before that, he puts on his outfit, while his friends or at least a witness must be present in order to morally support the groom. Parting words should also be said. everything that happens in the house of the groom and the bride is often filmed by an operator for a long memory. The groom also has to bring one lily to the bride in the morning on the wedding day, in order to show how dear it is to him.

At this time, preparations are also underway in the bride's house. The bride has her hair done, makeup is applied and, of course, the witness must help her to put on her wedding dress. The task of the witness is to prepare a scenario for the ransom of the bride, the groom should not know what will be required of him. The ransom is carried out by the bride in a humorous manner with dances and songs. The witness should take the ransom for her friend, that is, for the bride, as dearly as possible. While the groom performs various tasks, the bride is waiting for him in the house in her room, at the set table. And next to her sits younger brother, which is the last obstacle for the groom.

And now the groom drives up to the bride's house in wedding cars. But on the way, they can block the road by pulling a rope and demanding a ransom. Having paid off, the groom continues on his way to the bride. And near the gate he was met by a witness with her bridesmaids, jokingly greeted the groom. Various tests begin for him, which he must pass with dignity. A witness can come to his aid, as well as all the guests from his side. When the groom enters the room, the bride sits with her head down, and her brother asks for a ransom. The groom must redeem the place from him, and until it is redeemed, none of the groom's guests enter the room where the bride is sitting. The ransom is made in this way: a glass of vodka is poured, a gingerbread is put on it and presented to the person sitting at the table; usually the brother is stubborn, does not accept this gift, then they put more money on the carrot. And when the bride's brother stops being stubborn and leaves the table, then the place for the groom is free. Then the bride will raise her heads, and the witness asks for candy for the bride's smile, so that family life was sweet and funny. On leaving the table, everyone becomes a stream in order to let the bride and groom pass first. But first, the young people turn to face the bride's mother. An icon is given to the mother, with which she blesses the young couple and says parting words. After the blessing, everyone goes to the registry office.

The wedding carriage is built as follows: the first car for the bride, the second for the groom, and the third for the parents on both sides. And then all the other guests.

Having registered their marriage, the young are no longer the bride and groom, but the husband and wife. From the registry office, it is customary for the husband to carry his wife in his arms, and the guests showered them with rose petals. After marriage, the newlyweds and their guests go for a drive, that is, they visit some sights or just beautiful places. Most often, young couples of the Belozersky region visit the Chimeevsky Church of the Mother of God and the holy spring.

After riding, everyone goes to the groom's house. There they are met by his parents with a loaf and salt. They are invited to bite off the loaf as much as they can, but this is needed in order to determine who will be the boss in the house. Whoever bites off the biggest piece will be the main one in the house. If the festivities are not held in the groom's house, then everyone goes to where the feast will take place.

Currently, weddings are held by the toastmaster. In the Belozersky district, there are also such feasts when the wedding is held by witnesses and friends of the young people.

So, the young people come to the place of celebration. They are most often greeted by a live stream formed by guests. The young are showered with grain, coins or rose petals. The toastmaster solemnly meets the young couple. Escorts the bride and groom to the place of honor. And the toastmaster begins a merry, noisy, joyful festivities. Usually, first, the floor is given to the parents of the young for congratulations, and it is with them that the donation ceremony begins. Then the toastmaster conducts various games, entertains the guests. An obligatory ceremony is the dance of the bride with her father. At the end of the evening, the bride and groom cut their wedding cake and treat all guests to it. And also an important ceremony is the last wedding dance of the young, which ends with the bride taking off the veil from her head and attaching it to her mother's head. So the bride finally says goodbye to girlhood. After these rituals, the young are seen off to rest and gain strength on the second day of the wedding. The newlyweds leave, and the guests will continue to walk and rejoice for the newly-made young couple.

The morning of the second wedding day usually begins at ten o'clock. The witnesses should come first in order to prepare everything necessary for the meeting of the young family and guests. It is also customary to sell everything on the second day of the festivities: cutlery, alcohol and much more. In the Belozersk District, an old custom has been preserved for a girl to marry a virgin. And in the morning, after the wedding night, the groom must bring the bride in his arms, if she was a virgin. And the guests of the young are greeted with applause and shouts: "Congratulations!" On the second day, the fun continues, only entertainment for the guests is usually organized by witnesses. Guests shouldn't be bored.

On the second day, there are also several obligatory ceremonies. Here is one of them. Witnesses pass a bouquet of wildflowers to the guests, and the guests, passing it to each other in a circle, say wishes to the young with just one word, for example, joy, love, happiness, etc. And the last guest, on which the bouquet ends the journey, must sing a funny song, and then present the bouquet to the young couple. Another obligatory ceremony is "Sor". Probably, this rite is found not only in the Belozersk region, but there are some differences. So, some straw or hay is scattered on the floor. The groom's mother must bring a broom from home for the newly-made daughter-in-law. And he passes it over with the words: "As you will put things in order at home, then manage to surprise us with your diligence!" The guests throw whatever they want on the floor, and the young wife collects gifts with a broom. To help her hurry her dear husband. Also, guests can throw gifts not only on the floor, but, for example, attach them to the ceiling. And the young, helping each other, must collect all the gifts. The litter was collected.

After the groom's mother praises the daughter-in-law for her hard work, and the mother-in-law of the son-in-law for caring and helping his wife. The party continues, the guests are having fun, but the young couple do not sit up for a long time.

In the evening, the young family has yet to go to visit the house of the wife's parents. The mother-in-law for the son-in-law should heat the bath, prepare a broom to steam, and also give a towel. This is all a sign that they have accepted the daughter's husband into their family.

With such a wonderful note, a wedding celebration for a young family ends and a happy family life begins.

Regarding the above-described wedding ceremony of the Belozersk region, I think it should be noted that it differs from the traditional Russian wedding ceremony. Firstly, most of the rituals have become for people only a collection of superstitions. Secondly, the tradition of church marriage has been destroyed. Now, even seldom anyone woo, the world is becoming completely different, a person has more freedom, the system of values ​​has changed. And if we compare the wedding of the Belozersky district with a traditional Russian wedding, then the differences are clearly visible.

2.3. SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCE OF TRADITIONAL AND MODERN WEDDING RITES

There is no wedding that looks like another. Each of them has its own groom and its own bride, its own relatives. Weddings differ in guests, houses. But you never know the differences! But all weddings will be subject to one single scenario. Its general features were required not only for a wedding in the Belozersk region, but also for a Russian wedding in general. The special character of the wedding as a celebration was reflected in the word that it was called by during the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the father of Peter 1. His weddings (first and second) were written about as joys. So, the wedding is a joy.

And what are the similarities and differences between a wedding in the Belozersk region and a traditional Russian wedding? Differences are to be found in historical, economic and demographic circumstances. And in the third paragraph of the course work, I will try to find all the similarities and differences.

Always wondering what they wereold russian wedding ceremonies, and what existmodern wedding ceremonies in Russia. Many people know suchvintage wedding ceremonies, as a bachelorette party, bride, matchmaking, grooming, mating, ransom, wedding and so on. Of these, somewedding ceremonies in Russiatake place to this day, for example, matchmaking, ransom, bachelorette and wedding.

Let's compare these Russian wedding ceremonies with those of the Belozersk region. So,ancient Russian wedding ceremonies in Russiathat have become modern includematchmaking... This wedding ceremony symbolizes the prior consent of the parents (and possibly other close relatives) of the bride and groom to their wedding. Of course, the parents played an important role, but the leading role belonged to matchmakers and matchmakers. Previously, the matchmaker usually came to the bride's house and sat under the matitsa, the main essence of the ritual was to buy and sell the bride, evidence of this was such a sentence as “you have goods, we have a merchant”.

Today, the rite of matchmaking in the Belozersk region also takes place, but only in a slightly different interpretation. In essence, it is simply the introduction of the parents of the bride and groom to each other. Usually, the bride and the groom's parents and the groom and the bride's parents are already familiar by this time, and matchmaking is the acquaintance of the parents. Usually, on the same day, some details of the wedding are already discussed.

The difference is that before the bride could be married off without her consent, and the bride and groom did not see each other before the wedding. That is, weddings were played without the consent of the bride and groom. And now this does not occur, a wedding can take place only by mutual consent of the young, only on their own initiative. Also in our region there is no special professional rank - matchmaker. Let's remember the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky. How many troublesome matchmakers are there, walking around with photographs of brides and grooms. And in the Belozersk district they go to match the godfather, the godmother, and the groom also comes to matchmaking with everyone. And how not to take the groom? And who, then, will marry! The bride is also present during the matchmaking.

Previously, it was a little different, and there was such an old wedding ceremony asbride... This is such an old Russian wedding ceremony, when the groom, matchmaker (matchmaker) and the groom's parents could see the bride, and at the same time appreciate her shortcomings and, of course, her merits. In parallel with this, the bridegroom's bridegroom took place. Here, on the contrary, relatives from the bride's side came to see the groom's house, where the bride usually went to her permanent residence after the wedding. The groom with the matchmaker and his parents, as a rule, went to the bride's house in a roundabout way, and not directly, thus "confusing the matter." There is no such modern wedding ceremony in the Belozersky district. That is, the young themselves get to know each other, meet. And parents basically have nothing to do with it.

After the show, wedding ceremonies in Russia used to meanhandiwork(conspiracy), during which they finally discussed all the points related to the wedding: about the timing of the wedding, the number of gifts, upcoming expenses, dowry, and so on. After the agreement was reached, the fathers of the young people beat each other on the hands. This ceremony symbolized the obligation to fulfill all the points that the parties agreed on. After the rite of mating, the young bride was already considered to have been married.And in the modern wedding ceremony, such a rite has merged with matchmaking, all the nuances and details of the wedding are usually discussed during matchmaking.As we know, in ancient times, the groom and his relatives had to spend more money on the wedding, since the bride was seen as the future mistress, the assistant to the husband with his rather significant allotment of land. And the parents, having raised the bride, could demand a ransom from the groom. If the bride was not from a wealthy family, then she might not have had a dowry at all. And at present, in the Belozersky District, it is customary to spend the same amount of money on both sides for a wedding. But still it depends on the well-being of the bride and groom. And at the present time there is no talk at all about the bride's dowry. Hence it should be noted that this custom has been lost.

The next interesting, but rather strange, old wedding ceremony isdischarging. This is a ritual cry that occurs in the bride's home. This ceremony is needed in order to show that the girl lived well in her parents' house, but after the wedding she will have to leave her father's house. Wiping out is a tearful farewell of the bride by her parents, friends and will. Such a wedding ceremony was lost and even nothing like it remained.

Next comes « hen-party"and "bachelor party", which are found in both old and modern weddings. However, earlier they were celebrated a little differently than now. Girlfriends came to the girl with the aim of helping to sew gifts for the groom and his close relatives, and at the same time the girls sang wedding songs. Sometimes the groom and his friends could also come there and together they began to drink tea and arrange various youth games. At the same time, the bride spent all her time before the wedding howling and tears, as she said goodbye to her girlish life. And the groom was supposed to bring various treats to the bride and her friends. Previously, "bachelorette parties" and "bachelor parties" could last a week, and sometimes even two weeks. And in a modern wedding of the Belozersk region, usually one evening lasts. Another important point, which must have been done in the old days, is the washing of the bride in the bathhouse the day before the wedding. Now, of course, on the eve of the wedding, the bride also goes to the bathhouse, but this is not considered any kind of ceremony. No special attention is paid to this.

The next modern wedding ceremony that has come to us for a long time isredemptionbride groom on the wedding day. Before the ransom, the young bride said goodbye to her parents' house, to her parents and to her friends. The bridesmaids did not want to give their girlfriend just like that and demanded a ransom from the groom. Directly on the wedding day itself, both the groom and the bride must dress in everything new. By the way, it is interesting to note that before they did not just ransom, and sometimes even arranged symbolic battles between the bride's family and the groom's family. After some symbolic resistance, the bride's relatives gave up and gave her into the hands of the groom. In the wedding ceremony of the Belozersk District, there is also such a ceremony as the ransom of the bride, in the same way the groom pays the ransom for the bride, and this is all done in a comic form with songs and dances. Also a wedding ceremony can be called a wedding ceremony. Now this ceremony is not considered mandatory, but those young people who are confident that they will be with each other forever, and are ready to tie themselves to each other before God, perform this wedding ceremony according to all the rules of the church. The wedding ceremony in the Belozersky District wedding ceremony is being restored; recently, a very large number of young couples have decided to get married.

Registration of marriage in the registry office. According to the tradition that has developed in our region, newlyweds come to the registry office separately, in different cars. The cars in which the spouses travel are accompanied by a large cortege of parents, relatives, witnesses, friends, as well as such people necessary for a modern wedding as a professional photographer and videographer. The groom's car, in order to help the bride in her wedding dress get out of the car, must drive up to the registry office first. After a short preparation of the characters for the wedding ceremony, they are invited to the ceremonial hall for the procedure. official registration marriage. According to the traditional wedding scenario, everything happens the same way, only in ancient times, young people got married, and now this ceremony has been replaced by the phrase "marriage registration at the registry office."

Wedding walk. This is also one of the great wedding traditions. After a tense official wedding ceremony, a wedding walk allows the newlyweds to feel the festive mood of the celebration, to feel more relaxed (although on this exciting and solemn day, of course, it is impossible to completely relax). There is also such an important detail: a wedding walk is simply necessary to create beautiful and memorable wedding photos and videos. For everything to go beautifully and wonderfully, you need to choose the right place for your wedding walk. Fortunately, today in the Belozersky District you can find a large number of attractions where you can take many beautiful photos for a wedding album. But earlier there was no such custom. After the wedding, the young and guests immediately went to the groom's house. And in our time, such a custom is not found everywhere.

Well, an important old and modern Russian wedding ceremony in Russia -wedding feast, or as it is now customary to call it - a banquet. During the feast (banquet), invited guests (relatives and friends) of the newlyweds congratulate and give gifts. All this goes with toasts, jokes, contests and fun!Wedding banquet. An indispensable attribute of any Russian wedding. During the banquet, the young accept congratulations on the wedding from everyone. The tradition of holding a wedding feast is most likely associated with the natural desire of newlyweds and their family members to get to know each other better, to get to know each other. And of course, the wedding banquet is, in a way, the apogee of the expression of the joyful emotions of everyone who is somehow connected with the groom or the bride. As a rule, a relaxed atmosphere of live communication and joy reigns at the banquet. And in a traditional wedding, it is also customary to celebrate the formation of a young family. They also gave them gifts, said parting words, wishes.Previously, the bride's parents did not come to the wedding feast on the first day, but mummers were sent for them, who had to invite the bride's parents in a cheerful form to the feast. And in a modern wedding of the Belozersky district, it is customary, the groom's parents met the young at the door to the room where the banquet will be held.

It is customary to spend the second day of the wedding not only in the Belozersk region. But also according to the traditional wedding scenario. Only in an old Russian wedding, guests and young people could walk for a whole week after the wedding. The ceremony held on the second day of the wedding "Sor" was met in ancient times and in the traditional scenario. The only difference could be in the conduct.

Songs played an important role in the wedding. They directed the wedding, prompted its course, the following episodes. The songs suggested what to do at the moment. Now this role has been taken on by the witnesses and the toastmaster. Every now and then they look into the script, where it is written what follows what. But the emotional atmosphere that was created by the songs disappeared.

In ancient timesmarriagewas conceived as a union of two families. Over the years, the concepts have changed a little, but some traditions still exist today.White dress, for example, means the purity of the bride. is also an essential attributeweddings... It used to be believed that she would help protect the bride from an evil spirit and prevent other men from getting the bride and upsetting the wedding.

There is also a European tradition that has taken root in Russia, when the groom, after the ceremony, carries the bride in his arms and carries her into the house where they will be. This tradition has survived to this day. It was believed that the bride should not go on her own so as not to attract bad luck. The long train of the bride also had its own symbolism.Train lengthmeant the social status and influence of the bride's family. In addition, guests used to come to the wedding not only to support the bride and groom, but also because they believed that touching the bride and groom brings good luck. As we can see, many traditions and rituals of the old wedding have survived, but the fact is that we do not know their meaning at all, and this is all because we are very little interested in the history of our country!

The line between modern andvintage weddingis very subtle, and there are still many ancient traditions that young people still adhere to. Wedding Dresses may change over time, but some partsceremoniesremain unchanged. In our modern world, people are rather superficial about weddings and do not change anything. Even if this is a wedding of famous people, traditions are still preserved.Modern is still a union that holds two people together and unites two destinies into one.

CONCLUSION

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

So, the purpose of the course work was to describe the ritual actions of the wedding of the Belozersk region. Comparing the classic Russian wedding and the wedding of the Belozersk region, we see that in the modern wedding ceremony the traditions and rituals of the classic Russian wedding have been preserved, but some rituals have undergone changes.

I also think it would be appropriate to draw the following conclusion that the modern wedding of the Belozersk region is a synthesis of the rituals of different religions. It is very difficult to single out ceremonies that do not belong to the traditional Russian wedding. First of all, because over the past time the rituals have become closely intertwined and turned into a single wedding action adapted to modern life. Sometimes a ceremony borrowed from a particular people (as a rule, these were the most vivid, spectacular and interesting rituals), was interpreted in accordance with the mentality of people and acquired completely different outlines, and sometimes even meaning.

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Find material for any lesson,

Childhood, youth, maturity and old age - these are the steps human life... Since ancient times, the stages of a person's growing up were accompanied by certain rituals. And the most solemn and beautiful of them, perhaps, was the ceremony marking the transition from carefree youth to wise maturity - the wedding. Before marriage, a young guy in the village was not taken seriously, they only addressed a married man with "you". The girl also felt insecure. In fact, the preparation for the wedding was carried out all my adult life. From the age of seven, girls were already mastering the spinning wheel, because they had to prepare a full set of wedding gifts for the groom's family, future husband and even children. From an early age, they taught to master household skills and a boy - the future head of the family.

We will begin our consideration of the presented topic by defining the basic concepts. V. Dahl defines marriage as "the legal union of a husband and wife, matrimony, the sacrament of a wedding, the union of four churches." The concept of "wedding" has a slightly different meaning. In TSB, wedding is defined as a festive ceremony accompanying marriage.

"Pankeev I. Customs and traditions of the Russian people. M: Olma-Press, 1999. S. 17.

The etymology of the word "wedding" is interesting. There are several opinions on this. Some scholars suggest that it came from the name of the Roman goddess Svada, others produce it from the verb “to bring”, “to connect”. Still others, and we will adhere to this version, from the ancient word "woo", which means - to conspire, to agree.

Starting to characterize the wedding ceremony as a whole, it should be noted that it is one of the most complex complexes of traditional culture. The wedding ceremony can be viewed as a set of ritual actions of a symbolic, magical and playful nature. On the other hand, a wedding ceremony is a combination of material elements (clothes, hats, home decoration, wedding carts, ritual food, attributes of magical actions) and spiritual culture (verbal, musical, choreographic folklore, theatrical performance). At the same time, this phenomenon somewhat went beyond the concept of it exclusively as an element of culture, since social and legal relations, beliefs, morality, and ethics were reflected and closely intertwined in the wedding ceremony.

The wedding ceremony is very ancient, its roots go back to gray paganism. Today it is impossible to reconstruct a complete picture of the wedding ceremony of those times. Only fragments of it have come down to us, and today we are trying to assemble them into a mosaic picture and reconstruct the past from it. A. Tereshchenko writes about this: “What rituals were performed between the Slavic tribes - we know very little about this. Nestor says that the meadows had a meek and quiet disposition; ... The groom did not go after the bride, but in the evening they brought her to him, and in the morning they brought her dowry. The Drevlyans lived in the forests like beasts; in quarrels they killed each other and did not know marriages. Young people of both sexes gathered for games between villages, danced and sang demonic songs, then took the brides with them; lived with them without performing rituals ... "

"Tereshchenko A. V. Life of the Russian people. 4.2.3. M: Russian book, 1999.

Apparently, the wedding, as a ritual design of marriage, was developed during the period of patriarchy, when “monogamy and the settlement of spouses in the husband's house were firmly established. Lada. The historical observer "Synopsis", published in 1674 in Kiev, said: "Those preparing for marriage, with the help of God Lado imagine good joy and kindly acquire life ... Singing Lado: Lado! Lado! And that idol the decrepit charm of the devil at wedding celebrations, they splash their hands and beating on the table, they sing. "

The spouses also worshiped the Sun - the light. The rituals of fire worship are associated with this. On the day before the wedding, the bride cried in front of a kindled hearth. Her friends echoed her. Entering her husband's house for the first time, the newlywed approached the blazing hearth.

The echoes of ancient rituals have reached our days in an incredible way. Until now, we use the expression "get on with the wedding", "live okay", and for children we hum the little pestle "okay", accompanied by hand-clapping, which was once part of the ritual chanting of the Slavic goddess of love and marriage.

The elements of the ancient rite of wedding fire worship also had a long life ahead of them. The matchmaker, who came to the bride's house, always warmed her hands by the stove, which was specially set on fire, which served as a sign of a successful matchmaking.

With the adoption of Christianity in Russia, church rituals that came from Byzantium were layered on the pagan wedding rituals. The Church in every possible way contributed to the widespread approval of the wedding ceremony, which was not so easy. The people were not going to abandon the traditional administration of the primordial wedding in favor of foreign trends, and it was not easy to get along with these seemingly mutually exclusive actions - a riotous, merry pagan feast and a strict Christian rite. Moreover, for a long time, an alien rite was simply rejected. For several centuries in a row, ordinary people entered into marriages without church blessings. Even the great princes sinned the same, for which they were condemned by the church as apostates of good behavior and chastity. For those who despised the sacrament of the church, an epitimy was imposed for several years, after which they were allowed to get married.

However, despite the centuries-old struggle with pagan remnants, the church never won a complete victory. The decree of the church council of 1551 "Stoglav" testifies that in the middle of the 16th century, during the wedding party, "glamorists, ridiculers, guselniks" played and sang "demonic songs". When the young people went to get married, the heretics "rode with all the demonic games" in front of the priest who was waiting for them with the cross.

Thus, until the beginning of the 20th century, two sharply contrasting parts can be clearly traced in the Russian wedding rite: the church wedding ceremony and the wedding itself - a cheerful family rite rooted in the distant past. The Church recognized only marriage, which it sanctified. In the eyes of the peasants, a marriage was not considered valid if only the wedding was performed, but the traditional wedding feast was not celebrated. It is interesting that the feudal lords, up to the princes and kings, observed, along with the church and the folk wedding ceremony. It is no coincidence that the grand-ducal and royal weddings of the 16th-17th centuries largely retained the features of the traditional wedding ceremony. "

When considering the basic elements of the wedding ceremony, the following reservations should be made. The Russian land is large, therefore its natural conditions, national features, ethnic differences in the way of life of the people are infinitely varied. It is quite obvious that the peculiarities of the wedding ceremony will be fully determined and vary depending on these conditions, representing various and non-recurring options.

"Kostomarov NI Home life and customs of the Great Russian people. M: Economics, 1993.

Therefore, it is necessary to consider this problem not abstractly, but observing a strict confinement to a specific place, time and class for which it is characteristic. A similar approach is presented in the book by D. M. Balashov et al. "Russian Wedding", which describes in detail the wedding ceremony of the peasantry in the eastern part of the Vologda Oblast at the end of the 19th century.

Unfortunately, in this tutorial we cannot adhere to this fundamental principle due to its limited scope. Therefore, we will try to highlight and briefly describe the most common features of the territorial, temporal and estate traditions of the wedding ceremony, without touching on many details.

Autumn was considered the best time for weddings, when the suffering was over, the harvest had already been harvested, there was something to put on the banquet tables, and winter, the period between two fasts, from Christmastide to Shrove Tuesday. The age of those entering into marriage, as a rule, was small; according to modern concepts, the newlyweds were almost children. One foreign writer of the 16th century noted that girls 10-11 years old were already wives. This custom was observed not only by the simple estate, but also by the nobility and the grand dukes, although the church has opposed this custom since ancient times.Early marriages were prohibited by the decree of Peter the Great, issued on March 23, 1714. According to the decree, the male sex was charged to marry no earlier than 20 years, and the female - 17 years. In 1775, Catherine II issued a decree commanding males under 15 years of age who were married, and 13 years of age for women who were married - to divorce, and to defrock a priest. In 1830, the greatest decree forbade marriages if the groom is not 18 years old, and the bride is 16 years old. The church is guided by these rules to this day. On the other hand, the church has always disapproved of marriages between very elderly people. In church practice, it is customary not to marry persons over 80 years of age.

Girls were usually given in marriage at the will of their parents, not interested in their opinion And this despite the fact that as early as 1701, a decree of Peter I was issued, decreeing that parents should not force either their children or their servants to marry without parental blessing! Not surprisingly, the girl's boyfriend at parties and gatherings rarely became her husband. For the parents, it was not the girl's affections of the daughter that were important, but the economic wealth and the good family of the future son-in-law.

The wedding ceremony unfolded in several stages, which can be defined as pre-wedding, wedding and post-wedding. Each stage was divided into smaller episodes, the content of which varied depending on local conditions.

The wedding ceremony consisted of several episodes.

The Russian wedding began with matchmaking. This wedding episode also had another name - the bride, the frets The groom himself was not supposed to go to match This function was performed by the matchmaker and matchmaker. They go to the house of the bride or groom (depending on which party initiated the wedding). The conversation between them usually began from afar, although both sides were well aware of the purpose of the visit. The matchmaker said that she was walking from afar and went to the kind people to warm up, and she was coming from a red girl whose heart was languishing for a good fellow. After unhurried negotiations, which usually culminate in mutual agreement, the matchmaker was presented with a glass of wine. Soon, the groom's parents sent an elegant matchmaker with a return visit.

The matchmaking was followed by conspiracy (mating, contract, enlistment, drinking, drinking) - the first feast in the bride's house, when the agreement of both parties was solemnly confirmed in the presence of guests. Matchmakers, matchmakers and all those present here sat down at the table and treated themselves. In collusion, they agreed on the timing of the wedding, the number of guests, the dowry. Sometimes masturbation, binge and conspiracy constituted episodes separated in time (2 - 3 days). Collusion was the traditional beginning of a wedding, and from that moment only in connection with exceptional reasons could have canceled or rescheduled the wedding.

A long series of lamentations of the bride began with an agreement, in which she persuaded her father and mother to postpone, or even completely cancel the wedding, complained about her hard fate, the need to leave her sweet father's house and live among strangers. Even if a girl married a loved one, she certainly had to show her grief. Any other behavior would certainly arouse condemnation of others. Here is one of the variants of the accusations presented in the book by N. P. Andreev "Russian Folklore", with which the bride addressed her father:

“Don’t come on, father-breadwinner,

You are with the words of the faithful,

Do not fasten the girl to me,

Strong and strong and forever.

Don't hit me hand in hand

You do not put up with a lovebird.

Do not drink away, father-breadwinner,

Over a glass of green wine

You are my maiden beauty ... "

The bride continued to lament until the crown, and the lamentations were very diverse. The bride greeted her relatives, girlfriends and neighbors who came to visit her with special honors: “Why did you hesitate so long, my friends are sincere”. Or: "You are my disease

auntie, you won't come, you won't see me, I’m sorry

bitter bitter ".

After getting married, the "conspiracy" no longer worked, but sat with her friends who helped to sew the dowry.

The traditional episode of the wedding event was bachelorette party - a farewell party that took place on the eve of the wedding day at the bride's house. Elegant girls, bridesmaids, gathered in the upper room. There was talk about the upcoming holiday, special songs and lamentations were sung, expressing the grief of the bride parting with her stepfather's house, parents, girlish joys.The bride parted and said goodbye to everything that she no longer had to wear, becoming a married woman, for example, a beautiful girl's headband. In some places, the groom and his friends are invited to the bachelorette party. In this case, the groom will certainly come with gifts for the bride and her girlfriends. Then the party takes on a more cheerful playful character, the elements of the bride's tragic farewell with the attributes of a girl's life fade into the background. Round dances are held, songs are sung. The bride herself often plays the role of a round dance. The bachelorette party continues until late at night.

The next morning follows bath. After the "black" real bath, the bride sometimes went to "wash" in an imaginary "white bath", which exists only in cribs. The painful farewell of the bride to her stepfather's house, relatives, and girlfriends, which lasted for several days, continued.

Finally, the apotheosis of the wedding is approaching. Equipped with smart groom train and his retinue - participants in the wedding ceremony, which follows the bride's house. Bride dressed in best dress, with her friends and family awaiting the arrival of the groom. On this day, for the first time, she appears in front of numerous wedding participants and casual spectators, so special measures are taken in advance to protect her "from damage and letting go". Needles without lugs are stuck into the dress, stone chips are poured into the pockets, etc. The groom is also "guarded", making sure that unkind people do not throw spells at his feet, and they sweep the road with a leafy broom.

In order for the groom to sit next to the bride at the table, and his place is usually specially taken), a ransom must be paid. They do not sit at the tables for long, it is not customary to have a hearty meal here, because there is a wedding feast ahead. Young people do not eat at all, and soon the bride, and after her the guests leave the table.

Before leaving for the wedding, the bride's parents are blessed with images.

Then follows solemn departure of all wedding participants to the wedding ceremony. The bride and groom ride in different sleighs, each with its own train. From this moment on, an emotional turning point of the wedding action comes, the bride no longer laments, complaining about her mournful fate, the motives of the conflict, trial, struggle of the two sides disappear,

reconciliation. The ceremony takes on a cheerful and cheerful character.

The bride and groom enter the temple where the sacrament takes place weddings. The priest, having blessed the newlyweds, takes their hands and asks three times: do they love each other and will they respect each other? After three times "Yes!" he leads the young around the lectern. Crowns are placed on the heads of the newlyweds. The priest proclaims: "Grow and multiply!" After reading the prayer, he blesses the spouses three times with a cross and says: "What God connects, that man cannot dissolve." Then the young drink red wine (honey) served to them in a bowl. The common bowl was a symbol of one destiny with the same joys and sorrows. Then they threw the bowl on the ground and trampled on it with their feet, saying that those who want to sow discord and disagreement between them should perish in this way. Those present showered the young with grains and hops

The entire church wedding ceremony was accompanied by special - "wedding" chants

After the wedding, the matchmaker made a woman's hairstyle for the bride and put on a woman's headdress. Then the newlyweds went to the groom's house. At the gate they were again showered with grains and hops, and their parents greeted them with bread and salt. The young fell at the feet of their parents, who blessed them. Then the newlyweds were seated at the table and treated. After that, invited guests were invited to the table. In some places, the ceremony was reversed: the young were the last to sit at the table. At this table, one could no longer hear the lamentations of the bride - the wedding was already over, there were no merry and solemn glorifications to the glory of the young people and guests. On the princely feast, namely, that was the name of this wedding episode, it was customary to treat themselves to their heart's content.

One of the final wedding episodes - wedding feast in the house young parents, also called bits and pieces, bread, dining, pancake table. A young (or newlywed couple) usually comes here with guests and gifts. Here, the mother-in-law's mother-in-law was traditionally treated to pancakes. Quite often a humorous action was played out when the mother-in-law brought pancakes to regale her beloved son-in-law and, having received gifts from him, immediately carried off the treat: "Here's to you, son-in-law, and I ate the pancakes!" However, pancakes soon returned to the common table. "

After some time (the next or the same day), the newlyweds returned to the house of the groom's parents and the feasting continued.

Having briefly described the episodes of the wedding event, it is important to dwell on one of the most interesting features of the Russian wedding - wedding ranks. In Russia, weddings were not celebrated, not held, but played. This expression very aptly denoted the meaning of the theatrical performance unfolding at the wedding, the roles in which were played by its direct participants - guests.

The main characters of the wedding action were, of course, the bride and groom, or, as they were called, prince and princess.

The spotlight was on friend. The functions of a friend at Russian weddings were usually performed by the same peasant, who knew not only the whole procedure for conducting a wedding for many days, but also many texts of prayers, poetic addresses, conspiracies, sayings and possessing good acting skills. Usually the boyfriend performed actions of a playful nature and ritual prevention of "spoilage" of the bride and groom.

"Balashov L. M. et al. Russian folk wedding. M., 1985. 134

So, after the blessing of the bride's parents with images and bread - the salt of his friend, he “let go of the wedding”: he put wax on the hair of people and the manes of the horses of the wedding train and walked around it three times with the icon. This wax was saved from the candle standing during Easter Matins.

The girlfriend was an assistant to a friend and a matchmaker. He was also a talented performer.

Matchmaker, along with its main function - matchmaking, it performed a number of ritual and game actions:

She brushed the bride and groom before the wedding train left, treated guests (along with her friend) according to special etiquette and, finally, woke up the young in the morning with her friend.

Tysyatsky - head of the wedding train. The role of the tysyatsky was usually played by the godfather or a relative of the groom, so this “role” was played by constantly changing faces. Nevertheless, Tysyatsky must have known certain elements of wedding folklore.

Boyars or lovers named guests invited from the side of the groom or the bride. They constituted the most passive in terms of performance of the characters.

Thus, the old Russian wedding ceremony was akin to a detailed theatrical performance, in which there was a traditional plot, roles were assigned and various types of folk art were synthesized (singing, conspiracies, dance, arts and crafts, etc.). It is no coincidence that the people said that the wedding is “played”.

At the same time, the traditions of Russian weddings are the embodiment of the primordial values ​​of the family, home, procreation, mother and motherhood.

The preservation and transfer of these values ​​to new generations are also important today, when the statistics of family breakdown, child homelessness and other problems are growing, the roots of which are in the loss of the original folk traditions of creating families.

Funeral rite

The inevitable completion of human life - death from ancient times was accompanied by a certain ritual. This is evidenced by archaeological finds of burials dating back to the Neanderthal period, found in Europe and Asia. The most ancient funeral rituals were not only a complex of certain ritual actions with the body of the deceased. It was based on the world outlook of an ancient man, an established system of ideas about the world order, the meaning of life and death, the soul and the afterlife. It is safe to conclude that the belief in the posthumous existence of the soul was formed in primitive society.

Belief in the afterlife is characteristic of all peoples, although the idea of ​​how the soul leaves the body, what its posthumous existence is and what the afterlife is, differ significantly. The most common in these ideas was the picture of the afterlife, which was seen as similar to the earthly, but saturated with those benefits that people on earth were sorely lacking.

A peculiar system of ideas and customs of wires, burial and commemoration of the dead also existed among our ancestors - the Eastern Slavs.

According to ancient Slavic beliefs, the soul leaves the body with the death of a person. She ascended with the smoke of the funeral pyre and went to the distant land of the dead. According to the ideas of the ancients, this country could be on earth, and in the sky, and underground. The idea of ​​finding the afterlife underground, obviously, determined the most common method of burial in the ground. As already noted, the afterlife could be on earth. This "side", as it was called in funeral laments, is located far from human eyes, in an inaccessible living place. The world of the dead could be located on an unknown lost island in the "sea - ocean" and in a dense forest. Echoes of the idea of ​​the forest as the abode of the soul were reflected in the Russian calendar rites of the funerals of Kostroma, Kuzma and Demyan. Anthropomorphic stuffed animals of these mythological characters were buried in the forest. The ancestral world could be in the lower reaches of the river or the path to it lay across the river. Let's remember the ritual funeral of the Mermaid. The scarecrow depicting the Mermaid was laid in a coffin, the funeral procession moved to the river, where they said goodbye to the Mermaid and threw her into the water. The motive of crossing the river encountered in funeral laments, ritual actions at the funeral (throwing towels into the water so that the deceased had something to wipe off) also confirmed this version. The place of the dead could have been the sky. The idea of ​​the afterlife as a heavenly garden, obviously, developed already in the pre-Christian era.

A fairly detailed description of this rite is presented in the book by V. A. Tereshchenko "Life of the Russian people." funeral pyre and burning on it the deceased together with his wife, servants, horse, beloved pets, weapons, money, drinks and food. The killing of living people and burial with the deceased master was the ethnic norm of that time. Moreover, the wife who survived her husband was considered reproach for the family, and servants who wished to voluntarily leave with their master in order to look after him in another world, were awarded great honor.

Burial rituals underwent a significant transformation with the adoption of Christianity in Russia. The basis of Christian funeral rituals was the dogma of the resurrection from the dead. In accordance with it, a person's life was represented as a short-term earthly stay, and the physical body was a mortal vessel for an immortal soul.

"Tereshchenko V. A. Life of the Russian people. Part 2.3. M., 1999.

The souls of the righteous went to paradise - the heavenly garden of disembodied bliss, where there are no tears, no sorrow, no sighs, and life is carefree. Sinners faced eternal terrible torment in a gloomy, gloomy dungeon - hell.

Christianity opposed the burning of the dead according to the Roman custom and burial mounds and adopted the ancient Jewish custom of burial - burial. For the first time in Russia, according to this rite, Princess Olga, her husband, Prince Igor, was buried. Meanwhile, the new custom of burial was inculcated with difficulty both before and after the baptism of Rus. At first, the intercession to the earth was considered a princely rite. Commoners buried their dead according to ancient custom. According to the chronicler Nestor, the burning of the dead occurred among the Vyatichi and Krivichi until the beginning of the 12th century. And the echoes of the ancient rite survived until the end of the 19th century: in the Tula and Kaluga provinces, pagan fires were made on a Christian grave after the funeral. Ancient burial huts - dominoes, pillars were preserved in the northern regions until the beginning of the 20th century. Despite the fact that the church fought for centuries with pagan remnants, including in funeral and memorial rituals, pre-Christian elements turned out to be extremely stable and viable. Thus, with the establishment of Christian rituals, many features of folk rituals did not disappear, but, as it were, were woven into the basis of religious customs. That is why, moving on to the analysis of the Christian funeral rite, we deliberately will not separate the Orthodox and folk rites of burial and remembrance, presenting them, as in real life, in a single complex.

Traditions and customs occupied a special place in traditional Russian culture preparation for death. According to Russians, it was considered a blessing to die “your own death” surrounded by relatives and full of memory. Our ancestors believed that if a person died quickly and without suffering, his soul went to heaven, but if he suffered for a long time before death, then it was punishment for sins: hell awaited him. They feared an accidental, unintentional death: to die far from relatives, without saying goodbye to anyone, without repentance.

In Russia, it was considered very important to be prepared in advance for death. There was a custom during his lifetime to prepare mortal clothes for himself, by the way, which has survived to our time.

A man, anticipating the imminence of death, tried to do good deeds. Frequent church attendance, the distribution of alms, the payment of one's own debts, and the forgiveness of strangers were considered pious.

Immediately after death a person is lit a lamp or candles, which burn as long as the deceased is in the house. The body of the deceased is washed. Washing with water symbolizes the spiritual purity of the life of the deceased, as well as the future resurrection and standing before the face of God in purity and integrity. Ablution was performed at the threshold of the hut. The deceased was placed on the straw with their feet to the stove and washed two or three times with warm water and soap from an earthen pot.

After washing, the deceased was dressed in clean clothes, in accordance with his rank and service. The deceased layman was mostly dressed in a shroud - a white cover, reminiscent of baptismal clothing. It was customary to bury women in headscarves: the young in the light, the elderly in the dark. The funeral clothes of a dead girl or boy were special. Their deaths coincided with marriageable age. This served as the basis for combining the funeral rite with the wedding. The girl was dressed in a wedding dress, preparing her for burial as a bride.

Until the coffin was ready, the deceased was placed on a bench, on straw, in the front corner of the hut, facing the icons. Silence and restraint were observed in the hut. A psalter was read over the body of the deceased day and night. For this, either a church reader or a pious layman was invited. Relatives and friends came to say goodbye to the deceased.

The coffin was considered as the last home of the deceased. The methods of making the coffin have been transformed over the centuries and fully reflected the evolution of funeral rituals.

The coffins were covered with something soft from the inside, a pillow was placed under the head of the deceased, and a blanket was placed on top. The coffin was sprinkled with holy water. The washed and clothed body was transferred during the reading of prayers to the coffin. The mouth of the deceased should be closed, the arms should be folded crosswise on the chest, the eyes should be closed. The icon of the Savior was placed in the hands. Four candles were placed around the coffin: at the heads, at the legs and on both sides of the coffin, which together form a cross. The tradition of putting a couple of linen, money and other household items in the coffin remained from paganism. On the forehead of the deceased was a whisk received in the church during the funeral service.

The timing of the funeral, as a rule, was determined after three days from the time of death. The time of the funeral was usually appointed by the priest. They were buried, as a rule, in the afternoon, but always before sunset, so that the setting sun would capture the soul of the deceased with it.

The order of the funeral procession in different regions of Russia in the past, and to this day, remained quite the same. The funeral procession was led by the one carrying the icon, then one or two people with the lid of the coffin, the narrow part in front, followed, followed by the clergy. The clergy was followed by the coffin, then followed by close relatives. The funeral procession was concluded by neighbors, acquaintances, curious. For superstitious reasons, the coffin was carried not on hands, but on towels, on poles, on a stretcher. In some places, the dead were brought to the burial place on a sleigh. Subsequently, the sleds were turned upside down with runners or were not used at all, throwing them on the churchyard, in the forest or in the field. When the deceased was taken out of the house, the ceremony of the first meeting was carried out, symbolizing the close connection between the dead and the living. The person who first met on the path of the procession was handed a crumb of bread in a towel. The first person he met was obliged to take an offering and pray for the newly departed. In gratitude for this, the deceased would be the first to meet him in the next world. "

Before lowering the coffin into the grave, the last kissing of the deceased by relatives and friends takes place. The priest put a letter of dismissal in the hands of the dead. Church candles that burned during the funeral service were lowered into the grave. After lowering the coffin into the grave, everyone present threw a handful of earth. Then a memorial meal began: they ate kutya at the grave. The poor and the beggar were given

food and money to pray for the salvation of the soul of the newly departed.

Until the first half of the 18th century, it was customary to bury the dead in churches and near churches. By a special decree of December 31, 1731, it was decided to carry out burials in specially designated places outside the city - cemeteries. Churches and chapels were built at the cemeteries. Tombstones were erected over the burial site. The tradition of burial inside temples and monasteries was preserved for noble and eminent persons, and this was done with the special permission of the spiritual authorities. Contributions were made to these churches or monasteries.

In the grave of the dead, they put their faces to the east, and a cross was installed at their feet - a symbol of salvation. Christian customs of putting crosses on the graves of the dead dates back to ancient times; it took shape around the 3rd century in Palestine and became firmly established after the establishment of Christianity under Constantine the Great. Suicides were buried in a special way. They were not buried in cemeteries, but buried in the forest. According to popular belief, if this custom is violated, then unprecedented disasters will befall the whole region. Outcast, unworthy to be buried in a cemetery - thieves, robbers, executed or

those who died from wounds (but not suicides) were buried in squalid houses without a funeral service.

"Kuzmenko P. Russian Orthodox burial rite M: Buk-man, 1996, p. 84.

From ancient times, it is customary to commemorate each deceased on especially important days close to his death. This is the third, ninth and fortieth day after death. The Church has established a series of prayers for "the repose of the dead and the granting of the mercy of God and the kingdom of heaven", which are also performed on the above dates. Such commemoration is called private, and includes thirds, nine, magpies and anniversary. In addition to the church rite of remembrance - funeral liturgies, memorial services and lithium, the commemoration rite also includes a memorial meal. Memorial meals, established in a special significant days, are an echo of ancient funerals, performed after burial on the graves of pagans.

In addition to the days of private commemoration, mediated in each case by the date of death of the deceased, there are days of general commemoration of the deceased. These days include the so-called. parental Saturdays. They were called parents according to the custom of calling all the dead parents. And they are called Saturdays according to the day of their departure: the Orthodox Church has established on every Saturday of the week, on the day of rest, to commemorate the dead and loved ones. Days of augmented (special) commemoration of the departed are five universal Saturdays:

Meatless parental Saturday (happens two weeks before Lent),

Trinity universal parental Saturday (celebrated on the 49th day after Easter, before Trinity),

Parental: the second, third, fourth Saturdays of Lent.

The commemoration is also held on private parental days: on Radunitsa - on Tuesday of Fomin's week, on the ninth day after Easter; on the day of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist - September 11, new style; on Dmitrievskaya parental Saturday - the week before November 8 N. with. - the day of the great martyr Dmitry Thessaloniki.

The many traditions and customs associated with the funeral of a person reflect the traditional for our people admiration for their memory, a merciful and compassionate attitude towards those who have left this world forever. A whole chain of ritual actions, perpetuating the memory of the deceased are manifestations of the people's faith in the immortality of the soul.

For centuries, the Russian people, like other peoples, have formed the traditions of family and household holidays and rituals, the development of which continues in our time. Attempts to completely replace the traditional family and household rituals with completely new ones (and there have been a lot of them since the October Revolution) have not stood the test of time. The stability of old traditions, in contrast to the post-revolutionary “Komsomol christenings” or “Gorbachev's non-alcoholic weddings”, makes us pay special attention to these cultural phenomena. brides, to call the midwife for childbirth or "howl" for the deceased. However, it is quite obvious that critical comprehension and revival of the elements of these traditions are of great importance today, as they make it possible to appreciate, preserve and develop the rich experience contained in them, which is so lacking in our modern society, devoid of ideals and moral guidelines.

Literature

Balashov L. M., Marchenko Yu. I., Kalmykova N. I. Russian wedding. M., 1985.

Zabylin M. Russian people: His customs, rituals, traditions, superstitions and poetry, sobr. M. Forgotten. M., 1990.

Orthodox names. Name day. Christening. M., 1995.

Kagarov EG Composition and origin of wedding rituals. L., 1929.

Koskina V.N.Russian wedding. Vladimir. 1997.

Kostomarov N.I. Home life and customs of the Great Russian people. M. 1993.

Kremleva I.A.Funeral rituals of the Russian population of the Perm region. M., 1980. The circle of life. M., 1999. Lyrics of the Russian wedding. L., 1973.

The wisdom of the people. Human life in Russian folklore. Issue 1 Infancy, childhood. M., 1991; Issue. 2. Childhood. Adolescence. M., 1992; Issue 3. Girlhood. M., 1992; Issue 4. Wedding. M., 1993. Ritual songs of the Russian wedding in Siberia. Novosibirsk, 1981

Pankeev I. From christening to commemoration. Customs, rituals, traditions of the Russian people. M., 1997.

Russians: family and social life. -M., 1989. Russian folk wedding ceremony: Research and materials L., 1979.

Russian Orthodox wedding ceremony. M., 1996.

Russian Orthodox burial ceremony. M., 1996.

Rybakov B. A. Paganism of ancient Russia .. M., 1988.

Slavic mythology. M., 1995.

Ancient Russian commemoration of the dead // Niva 1894. №8.

Tereshchenko A. Life of the Russian people. M .: Russian book, 1999

Chistov K.V. Family rituals and ritual folklore // Ethnography of the Eastern Slavs: Essays on traditional culture. Lamentations. L „1960.

Eliash N.M.Russian wedding songs. Eagle, 1996.

Encyclopedia of rituals and customs / Comp .: Brudnaya L.I., Gurevich Z.M., Dmitrieva O.L. SPb .: Respeks, 1996.

O.A. Tuchina

Semantics of ritual and magical actions of the wedding ceremony (based on materials from the Pinezhsky district of the Arkhangelsk region)

For many years in our country, the phenomena of folklore (in particular, ritualism) have been studied as the art of words, and only recently has a true understanding of them come as phenomena reflecting an archaic worldview, a model of the world. Archaic ideas about life and death, about the binary structure of the world are reflected in the everyday and cultural life of people. They were organically included in rituals, genres of folklore at the level of symbolism, various taboos, signs and ritual actions. According to A. K. Baiburin, ritual is “the most effective and only possible way for a person to experience critical life situations ... a mechanism for regulating and sanctioning phenomena Everyday life, the highest stage of realization of which is the rite "1 ... The ritual ensured the successful passage of stressful, crisis situations in a person's life, due to the exact observance of all the norms and rules of ritual behavior. It (ritual behavior) was determined by the belief of the pagan in the existence of supernatural forces, the other world, the relationship of oneself with the natural world. Ritual-magical actions in a rite are a certain order of actions, enshrined in tradition, aimed at achieving the desired result.

Research allows us to reconstruct the model of the world, to prove the isomorphism of various rituals (funeral, wedding, recruiting), genetically built on the idea of ​​dying in one capacity and rebirth in another. An attempt at such an analysis was made in the work of V.I. Eremina 2 , examining in detail the symbolic layer of folklore.

A wedding ceremony is a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon; it is a complex that combines elements of various kinds (ritual actions, objects of material culture, song folklore). It consists of clearly defined complexes of actions that have semantic completeness and functional significance. In the process of historical development, the genetic and semantic content of ritual actions lost or rethought, gradually acquiring an aesthetic character. To a greater extent, these changes and transformations concern the plane of expression, in contrast to which the deep layer of the rite (the plan of content) turns out to be the most stable.

In our study, we are trying to consider ritual-magical actions at a single locus (wedding ceremony in the Pinezhsky region) and find out their semantics in the context of the ceremony. We used materials recorded by P. S. Efimenko in 1870, D. Chirtsov in 1916, publications of the wedding ceremony by N. P. Kolpakova, N. I. Savushkina, as well as the richest materials from the folklore laboratory of the Pomor State University 3.

1. Apofeucteic actions are the most passive means of evading the influence of evil spirits, basically these include various kinds of prohibitions, taboos.

Silence of the bride and groom, refraining from eating during the wedding ceremony E. G. Kagarov explains quite primitively: “evil spirits can invade through an open hole into the human body while eating” 6 ... We met these prohibitions in the Sursko-Karpogor rite [Kolpakova, pp. 121–122, 136] and the ritual of the city of Pinega, for example, before the wedding ceremony, the groom does not eat anything until the bride appears [Kolpakova, p. 15 4].

The so-called “deceiving” actions, with the help of which they try to deceive in order to hide the true meaning of what is happening 10 ... This category of rites includes several techniques.

Allegories and circumlocutions, the purpose of which is to hide the true meaning of what is being done and thus protect from the influence of supernatural forces. Traditional allegorical techniques are used in matchmaking: “We have a merchant, you have a product, we have a groom, you have a bride. Couldn't they be brought together in one place? " [ OPP, p. 33] or other allegories: "You didn't catch the mare, but you tied it down, manage to catch it"[FA PSU, P. 263, p. 67, Krotova A. N., b. 1909, d. Priluk]. These enduring formulations persist in modern wedding ceremonies.

The dressing of the young is constantly performed throughout the entire ritual (this is especially true for the bride). Ritual dressing symbolized in this case a change in the essence of a person, in particular, the sex, age and social status of the bride, who died in one capacity during the wedding and was reborn in another capacity. For example, “The bride wails for a whole week, every day she dresses up in new dresses”[OPP, p. 39; Efimenko, p. 77; Kolpakova, pp. 128, 149]. At almost every stage of the wedding, the bride changed her clothes, which turned into a stable folklore formula and had a protective purpose, since, being in a transitional state, she could harm others. The highest form of shape shifting is werewolf, which is based on ancient totemic notions. His traces have survived in the form of stable metaphorical substitutions, comparisons in wedding lyric songs.

More active methods of protection against the effects of otherworldly forces, expressed in external protection from them. This subgroup should include the following acts:

Covering the head and face of the bride, which is one of the most common wedding customs in many countries of the world. This magical action is mentioned in each of the descriptions of the wedding we are considering repeatedly [OPP, p. 37, 72; Efimenko, p. 76; Kolpakova, s. 125, 132, 154]. So everywhere, after the collusion, the bride was put on a scarf or a headband, and on the wedding day the groom himself threw a “homulka” or shawl on her. For example, before leaving for the crown “The groom immediately covers the bride with an elegant shawl, a veil, or his goddess. The bride's face is almost invisible, but she sees through the brushes ”[OPP, p.72]. We know that marriage is the symbolic death of the bride, so in the ceremony she carries the idea of ​​death. Thus, the covering of the bride endows her with ritual blindness - a sign of another world. The essence of this rite is protective, but its nature is twofold. On the one hand, the veil protected the bride, who was in a borderline state, from the influence of hostile forces, and on the other, was necessary means prevention from a dangerous force emanating from the bride herself, temporarily staying in the “other” world.

Closing doors and gates in front of the wedding train led by the groom [Efimenko, p. 77; Kolpakova, s. 141, 153; FA PSU. P. 303, p. 7]. Recently, these actions have become more and more playful, losing their original meaning - to protect the bride from evil forces, from representatives of the “alien” space.

The retinue that accompanies the bride and groom to the crown is also a kind of protection from the influence of otherworldly forces outside of "their" space. Their protective function is enhanced by various amulets (bells, bells). So, in a rite recorded in 1870, the wedding train consisted “From betrothed and village relatives, with many humming bells, sharkunov, bubunchiks, vertebrae”[Efimenko, p. 78].

The most active means for driving away, removing and protecting from the influence of the forces of the “other” world, which have a strong protective effect. This category includes:

The use of various kinds of amulets. It was already mentioned above about the protective ability of bells, etc., the noise of which, according to popular beliefs, scares away otherworldly forces. Prophylactic actions include sticking needles and pins into the bride's braid [OPP, p. 47; F PSU. P. 311, p. twenty; Efimenko, p. 76], dressing jewelry with amber, which has a repulsive ability [OPP, p. 52]. Similar amulets are found among many Eastern Slavs. All objects in the form of a circle are endowed with apotropic semantics. As a talisman, the groom gives the bride a ring [Chirtsov, p. 352], as much as possible they put on jewelry in the form of a circle: beads, bracelets, rings [OPP, p. 52] and belt [FA PSU. P. 263, p. 5, Nosonova E. Ya., B. 1913, Wong village]. As N. A. Lavonen writes, “a circle is an incantatory space that erects an invisible barrier around a person and makes him inaccessible to evil spirits” 11 .

The connection of the young, their hands [Chirtsov, p. 352; FA PSU. P. 303, p. 27] acts as an act of joining one world to another.

Joint eating and drinking of the bride and groom - a common wedding custom among many peoples - is also observed in the Pinega rituals [Kolpakova, p. 131, 152; OPP, p. 53; Efimenko, p. 79;

Cutting and embroidering wedding bread, the bathhouse carries the idea of ​​defloration after the wedding night [Efimenko, p. 80; Chirtsov, s. 356; Kolpakova, s. 159]. A. van Gennep calls such actions symbolic rites of passage 17.

They are aimed at initiation, the introduction of the bride, as a representative of the "other" world, to the cult of the groom's ancestors. Van Gennep calls them rites of inclusion 19 This includes the following techniques:

Rounding up a young woman, when the bride, after the crown, is unweaved one girl's braid into two women and put away under the warrior [FA PSU. P. 263, p. 68; Efimenko, p. 79; Chirtsov, s. 356]. It is the act of accepting a newlywed woman into a new age and gender group of married women. Eremina wrote about this that “the ritual tonsure of the ancient peoples, as a form of initiation, was replaced by the removal of hair under a woman’s headdress” 20.

These are ritual and magical actions aimed at raising the productive forces of nature and man, the harvest of bread, the fertility of livestock and the fertility of the bride.

In our recordings, we have come across examples of productive actions that enhance the fertility of the young and everyone present. This is achieved by the following methods:

Ritual bathing of the bride on the eve of the wedding in the bathhouse [OPP, p. 49; Kolpakova, s. 125-152; FA PSU. P. 311, p. 8, P. 263. 6; P. 303, p. 12]. We will also consider it below as a cleansing rite. Kagarov saw in this ceremony the marriage of the bride with the spirit of the bath, which, in his opinion, ensured fertility. ... We are close to the position of N.I. Eremina, who sees the connection between the ceremony and the fertilizing power of water 23 ... "A drop of rain approached the male seed with which the sky fertilizes the earth," A. Afanasyev also wrote. 24 ... Thus, direct contact with water (washing) served to increase the fertility of the bride and groom (washing together).

Sprinkling young oats, rye, hops, etc., is one of the most common ritual and magical actions noted among many peoples [Efimenko, p. 70; Chirtsov, s. 356; FA PSU. P. 311, p. five; Kolpakova, s. 154]. Such realities concentrate in themselves this “origin of life, growth”. In the popular consciousness, there was a belief that the signs possessed by these objects would be transferred to those who touched them.

Rite of passage with a doll, log or stuffed child [OPP, p. 84; Kolpakova, s. 141; FA PSU. P. 263, p. 69]. Escorting the young to the basement, they put a doll or a wrapped log in their bed. This act is an interweaving of homeopathic and contagious magic, touching the image of the child was supposed to ensure the conception of the newlywed. Such actions were accompanied by sentences and obscene laughter:

This ritual context was intended to enhance the action. As Eremina notes, “the word in early archaic cultures was substantive, it had a magical essence” 25.

Ablutions, various actions with water. These rituals include the bride's bath and joint washing of the young after the wedding night. About bathing the bride in the bath is mentioned above. A reduced form of bathing for young people is the washing procedure in the morning after the wedding [Kolpakova, p. 148]. This custom is closely related to the idea of ​​the purifying power of water. During the bride's bath, ablution is aimed at removing the previous state ("girlhood"), when the girl leaves her former life, "maiden beauty". After the wedding night, the water removes the transitional state of the bride and groom.

Purification by means of fire as a powerful cathartic remedy. We find echoes of these rituals in the use of candles during a wedding [Efimenko, p. 76-77; Chirtsov, s. 354; FA PSU. P. 263, p. 68].

Fortune-telling with a broom during the bride's bath [Kolpakova, p. 127; OPP, p. fifty; Chirtsov, s. 352], the girls find out who will marry next. These rituals are associated with the ancient ideas that a “bathhouse” is an “unclean” place, and a broom as a bathing utensil has demonic, supernatural properties.

Notes (edit)

Kolpakova - Kopakova N.P. Wedding ceremony on the Pinega river // Peasant art of the USSR. Issue 2. Art of the North. L. 1928

OPP - Ritual poetry of Pinega. Materials of folklore expeditions of Moscow State University to the Pinezhsky region (1970-1972). Edited by N.I.Savushkina. Publishing house of Moscow State University. 1980

Chirtsov - D. Chirtsov Wedding customs in the Pinezhsky district of the Arkhangelsk province // News of the Arkhangelsk society for the study of the Russian North. –1916. - No. 9. - P. 350–358. - P. 403–410

FA PSU - Folklore Archives of the Pomor State University. M.V. Lomonosov. Fund 14

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