Customs and life of the Little Russians ritual poetry. ritual poetry

All folklore from the point of view of its existence can be divided into ritual and non-ritual. Ritual folklore includes works of folk poetry that are performed during the performance of any rite; they accompany this rite, are its integral part. Non-ritual folklore is oral folklore, the performance of which is not associated with any rite: they exist outside the rite, in a variety of conditions of life.

A rite is certain actions strictly defined by customs: baking larks from dough in spring, curling wreaths of birch branches in summer, lighting fires in winter and jumping over them, sprinkling the bride and groom with hops, grain, etc. The purpose of these and many other ritual to act to achieve some goal. At the heart of the rites are the real concerns of the peasant about the greater productivity of his labor, a good harvest, general well-being, well-coordinated family life etc. Since the rites and the folklore works accompanying them performed vital functions, each time they were performed, they were perceived as very necessary, necessary and relevant in their own way. In one way or another, they reflected the real everyday life of the people, their worldview. In this sense, the rites and the folk poetry accompanying them were always modern.

At the same time, it should be noted that rituals are one of the oldest types of folk culture. Their origin dates back to ancient times. In the rituals and the folklore works accompanying them, one can find such features of the thinking of a person of a pre-class society as animism, anthropomorphism and magicism. Animism (from lat. Ashta - soul, spirit) belief in the existence of souls and spirits that allegedly control all the phenomena of the world. Anthropomorphism (from the Greek. ashbroz - human and togre - appearance, form) - the idea that all natural phenomena, animals and plants have human qualities (will, reason, etc.), that death, illness, etc. exist in the form of a person. Magizm (from the Greek tage! a - sorcery, sorcery) a person's belief that he, through certain actions and verbal expressions, can influence the course of events: get rid of diseases, cause a good harvest, a large offspring of livestock, etc. All this is a manifestation of an ancient pagan religion .;

It should also be added to what has been said that over the past millennium, the Christian religion has had a certain influence on rituals and ritual poetry. With the introduction of Christianity in Rus' (X century), the church, on the one hand, fought against pagan culture, in every possible way eradicated ancient folk rituals from life, and on the other hand, it sought to adapt many of these rituals to its goals, to fill them with Christian content. As a result, Christian motifs and images penetrated into folk rituals and poetry; a phenomenon arose that was called "dual faith" (a mixture of pagan and Christian elements).

From what has been said, it is quite obvious that the rites and the verbal art that accompanies them have great importance both for studying the life and worldview of the people during the period of recording these rituals (mainly in the 19th century), and for understanding the peculiarities of the people's worldview at earlier stages of history.

Collection and publication of ritual poetry. The ancient customs of marriage are already reported in the earliest Russian chronicle, in the compendium of The Tale of Bygone Years (beginning of the 12th century). 33 In the Ipatiev Chronicle under 1178, the funeral ceremony for Prince Mstislav Rostislavovich is described and a funeral lament for him is given. We find evidence of calendar and family rituals in many historical documents and literary works XIII-XVII centuries Separate calendar and family songs were published in small numbers in the 18th century. in the collections of M. D. Chulkov "Collection of different songs" (parts 1-4, 1770-1773) and Lvov-Prach "Collection of folk songs with their voices" (1790). Samples of recruiting lamentations are first cited by A. N. Radishchev in the chapter “Gorodnya” of his book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (1795). Some ritual songs are published in songbooks of the first third of the 19th century.

Serious work on collecting ritual poetry began in the mid-30s of the 19th century. As a result such large collections are published; “Tales of the Russian people about the family life of their ancestors” (1836-1837) and “Songs of the Russian people” (1838-1839) by I. P. Sakharov, “Russian folk holidays and superstitious rites” by I. M. Snegirev (1838-1839) . Samples of ritual poetry are published in the ethnographic work of A. Tereshchenko “Life of the Russian people (1848). Especially valuable materials on ritual poetry are contained in the song collection of P. V. Kireevsky and his numerous correspondents, dating back to the 30-50s of the 19th century, but published only at the beginning of the 20th century.

Significant materials on ritual poetry were published in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And still haven't lost it. of great scientific value are the collections of E. V. Barsov “Laments of the Northern Territory” (vol. 1, 1872; v. 2, 1882; v. 3, 1886) and P. V. Shein “Great Russians in their songs, rituals, customs, beliefs , fairy tales, legends, etc.” (vol. 1, 1898: vol. 2, 1900).

Ritual poetry is collected and published in the Soviet years. The most significant collections of ritual poetry published by Soviet folklorists are the books of V. G. Bazanov. and A.P. Razumova "Russian folk-household lyrics" (1962), I.I. Zemtsovsky "Poetry of peasant holidays" (1970) and N.P. Kolpakova "The lyrics of the Russian wedding" (1973).

The study of ritual poetry. Questions of the content and form of Russian ritual poetry, one way or another, are touched upon in various articles already at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. (N. A. Lvov, A. Kh. Vostokov, N. A. Tsertelev, M. A. Maksimovich). However, a special study of it begins only in the 30s of the XIX century, when the Slavophiles I.M. Snegirev and I.P. Sakharov turned to the publication of ritual songs. These songs, in their opinion, remarkably expressed the national traits of the Russian people. Carrying out the ideas of the “official nationality”, they argued that such national traits of the Russian people as religiosity, humility and humility are being vividly expressed in ritual songs. V. G. Belinsky spoke out against the Slavophiles, pointing out that the Russian person is characterized not by religiosity and humility, but by sobriety of mind, atheism and practical prudence.

In 1848, the solid work of A. Tereshchenko “The Life of the Russian People” was published in 7 parts, in which folk rituals are described in detail.

Mythologists F. I. Buslaev, A. N. Afanasiev and A. A. Potebnya in the 50-60s of the XIX century. directed their efforts to revealing the original meaning of various rituals, determining the origin of images, plots and the poetic style of ritual poetry. Their mistake was that they saw the genetic roots of all rites in ancient mythology.

Representatives of the Russian school of borrowing, followers of A.N. Veselovsky V.F. Miller and E.V. Anichkov undertook comparative comparisons of Russian calendar rituals with the rituals of other European peoples [see, for example, V. F. Miller. Russian Maslenitsa and Western European carnival, 1884; E. V. Anichkov. Spring ritual poetry in the West and among the Slavs, part I-P, 1903-1904]. In the works of these scholars, the national identity of Russian ritual poetry was underestimated.

The works of pre-revolutionary scientists, which are methodologically outdated, nevertheless contain valuable factual material. Interesting articles describing calendar and family rituals were published in the last quarter of the 19th - early 20th century. in the journals "Ethnographic Review" (1889-1916) and "Living Antiquity" (1890-1917).

Soviet folkloristics, having subjected to scientific criticism the erroneous theories of pre-revolutionary academic science, solves many important problems associated with the study of folk ritual poetry from new methodological positions.

First of all, Soviet scientists convincingly prove the thesis about the labor origin of folk rites and the poetry that accompanies them, and reveal the predominantly materialistic nature of the worldview they express. Valuable in this respect are the works of V.I. Chicherov “The winter period of the Russian agricultural calendar” by V.Ya. XIX - beginning of XX century. (19"79).

In a number of studies, the historical and ethnographic characteristics of the rites are supplemented by an analysis of the poetry accompanying them (see, for example, Propp V.Ya. "Russian Agrarian Holidays", 1963; Anikin V.P.. Calendar and wedding poetry, 1970; Krugloye Yu.G. Russian Wedding Songs, 1978.) In many works, the life of the old rites and ritual poetry is considered in historically new conditions. All rituals are divided into two groups - calendar or family and household. And, accordingly, the folklore works accompanying them belong to the calendar or family ritual poetry.

old poetry.

Let us dwell on the calendar ritual poetry. Many folk holidays were celebrated on strictly defined days of the year. On these holidays, various rituals were performed, which in science are called "calendar" 1 .

Calendar rituals were accompanied by special songs, which were called carols, carnival songs, stoneflies, Semitsky songs, etc.

Carols. The circle of annual - (calendar") rites opened with New Year's Christmas rites. Christmas time was celebrated during the winter solstice (from December 24 to January 6). At the core Christmas rituals lay the magic of the first day of the year .; the rituals performed at this time, according to their performers, should have acted in a certain direction throughout the new year.

During Christmas time, various games, disguise and other actions that have a magical meaning were carried out. One of the most remarkable phenomena of the Christmas holidays was caroling - walking to Lvoram with the singing of New Year's songs, which were called carols.

Young people (mostly teenagers), gathered in small groups, walked down the street from one yard to another and sang carols under the windows - a kind of New Year's greetings. For these song congratulations kolyalovshiki were rewarded with gifts. - festive - treats (pies, boiled meat, etc.). Especially widespread caroling was in Ukraine and in the south of Russia.

A wonderful description of it is given in N.V. Gogol's story "The Night Before Christmas".

The term "carol" to refer to congratulatory New Year's songs was used by all Slavic peoples, including Russians.

Carols are songs of New Year's content, in which, as a rule, a paired rhyme. After each pair of rhymed verses, there is a refrain-cry in which the word "carol", "ov-shed" or "grapes" is mentioned. According to these cries, the songs are called. In terms of volume, carols are very diverse (from four to twenty, and sometimes more verses).

Often, carols begin directly with a refrain-exclamation. In the most extended forms, the refrain-exclamation includes a description of the rite of caroling itself, a message that the carolers walked for a long time, looking for a house, the owner of which they wished to congratulate with a song. Then comes the glorification itself, which is the main meaning of the carol. First of all, carolers give an ideal description of the house of the magnified. It turns out that in front of them is not an ordinary peasant hut, but a real tower. Around this tower “there is an iron tyn”, “on each stamen there is a dome”, and on each dome “a golden crown”. To match this tower and the people living in it. A typical formula for characterizing a dignified family is the following: the owner of the house is “bright month”, the hostess is “red sun”, and small children are “frequent stars”.

In the same idealized plan, a description of the peasant outfit is given in the carol. It is said about the peasant that he “put on a caftan worth a hundred rubles”, “girded a sash worth a thousand”

All this, of course, is pure fiction, fantasy, in the reality of which no one believed. But this fantasy had a deeply vital, definite social meaning. In fantastic pictures of national wealth, not the real, but the desired was drawn. Concerning this question, Engels wrote: “A folk book is designed to entertain the peasant when he, tired, returns from his hard work in the evening, to amuse him, revive him, make him forget his painful work, turn his stony field into a fragrant garden; she is called upon to turn the workshop of a craftsman and the pitiful attic of a tortured student into the world of poetry, into a golden palace, and present his hefty beauty in the form of a beautiful princess ... "

We also find fantastic pictures of wealth in other genres of folklore (for example, in fairy tales). However, they are of particular importance in carols, which to some extent perform the functions of a magic spell.

The next important motif of the carol is specific wishes to the person to whom the carol is performed. A distinctive feature of these wishes is sobriety and realism. V.Ya. Propp writes about this: “If magnification in somewhat abstract and conditional forms painted the image of a rich boyar, then the final part of the singing directly and directly su yayla to the peasant what is most important and necessary to him: not gold, silver and furs, but crops, livestock, health, satiety, contentment. So, for example, in one carol a wish is expressed that

At the owner's house

The boys would lead

The calves would lead

The lambs would lead

The foals would lead

The carol ends, as a rule, with a demand for a reward for caroling, for a good wish. reprisal.

It can be assumed that during the period of the most complete flowering of carols, they had a composition in which its individual motifs went in the sequence we have considered: a description of the search for a house for caroling, the magnificence of the owner and his family, the expression of his wishes for the new year and the demand for a gift. However, in carols that have come down to us, this composition is not always maintained. Most often there are carols in which one or two of these motifs are lost. There are carols that consist of only one motive - the demand for a gift.

Submissive songs.FROM New Year's holiday Christmas time connected also all sorts of divination, including fortune-telling girls with the singing of the so-called underling songs. In the evening, the girls gathered in some hut, covered the table with a white tablecloth, put a dish of clean water on it. Each girl put some thing into the water, most often a ring, earrings or other jewelry, and the dish was covered with a scarf. Then the girls sat down near the dish and began to sing songs.

In the time of singing spy songs - one of the girls (most often - not taking part in fortune-telling) with her eyes closed, took out the objects placed in the dish one at a time. The one whose item was taken out was the content of the song being performed at that time.

The sub-songs were very small in volume - from four to ten verses. The basis of their content was some one image that has a magical and symbolic meaning. This image in the song received domestic development. So, on the basis of the everyday development of the image of the ring, which is a symbol of love and marriage, the following song was created:

Alright, okay

To whom do we sing

We honor that.

Subdued were called songs performed during divination with the help of a dish.

The girl, whose little thing was taken out of the dish during the performance of this song, according to legend, should get married in the coming year.

The meaning of spy songs for fortunetellers was quite transparent. Everyone, for example, knew that songs that mentioned bread and everything related to it (field, sheaves, stacks, grain, loaf, pancakes, pies, etc.) predicted a good harvest, wealth, general well-being. Conversely, a song in which a portrait of a tattered old woman was drawn meant poverty; a song that mentioned a cawing crow denoted death, etc.

Fortune-telling with the performance of daddyudny songs did not have the character of spells (which was observed in some carols), but predictions. But they deeply believed in this predsnee. That is why many sing-along songs ended with such a stable formula:

Who will take it out, Tom will come true

That will come true, It will not pass.

In most cases, sub-songs are created on the basis of folk beliefs. They often use images and motifs from other genres of folklore. So, for example, on the basis of the riddle "a girl is sitting in a dungeon, and a scythe is on the street," an accomplice song arose:

A girl is sitting in a cage, who will succeed,

A scythe on a string. The truth will come true

Alright, Alright! So good!

This song foreshadowed happiness.

According to the songs they guessed about a happy or unhappy fate. Especially many songs were composed on the theme of marriage. And this is quite natural, since, mostly girls guessed! The symbolism of wedding songs is widely used in girlish songs: a symbol of marriage a ring, a ring, a crown, a pillow, etc. protrude in_them_.

The specificity of the figurative content of spy songs is that they whimsically combine the real world and the ideal world. On the one hand, these are ideal images of folk poetry; “good fellow”, “beautiful maiden”, etc., and on the other hand, on the contrary, as if deliberately mundane images of the real world: a cow, a cat, a beetle, a barrel, a yoke, a bridle, an arc, etc. This is also reflected in the poetic style of the songs. “two little doves”, “falcon and dove”, “sable and marten”, and reduced-real “two balls”, “rooster and hen”, “breast and white”. Epithets, on the one hand, reflect the apt observation of the peasant over objects and lifestyles surrounding him (“puffing bear”, “polyaenka hare”, “grey hen”, “gray cabbage”, “green cabbage”), and on the other hand, his dreams of an ideal life, fabulous wealth are reflected. So, for example, the heroine of subservient songs, a simple peasant girl, is alive she lives in a “high tower”, she has a “golden brocade”, a “golden ring”, the groom - “a loader” is called a “boyar son”, and the bride - a “white-haired woman” - a “hawk”.

Shrovetide songs. The next big annual holiday after Christmas time was Shrove Tuesday. Researchers believe that in ancient times Shrovetide was a spring holiday.

With the introduction of Christianity and the ban on holding various amusements in the spring seven-week pre-Easter fasting, its celebration was pushed back to an earlier date. Maslenitsa began to be celebrated at the very end of winter, from the end of January to the beginning of March.

Maslenitsa is the funniest, wildest folk holiday that lasted a whole week - from Monday to Sunday). Moreover, this celebration included both communal and family motives and was carried out according to a strictly scheduled order, which was reflected in the names of the days of Shrovetide week. Monday was called "meeting" - this is the beginning of the holiday; Tuesday - "tricks"; from this day, various kinds of entertainment began, disguise, skating, Wednesday - "gourmet": she opened treats in all houses with pancakes and other dishes; Thursday was called "revelry", “breaking point”, “broad Thursday”, on this day was the middle of fun and revelry: Friday - “mother-in-law in the evening”: son-in-law treated mother-in-law; Saturday - “sister-in-law gatherings”: young daughters-in-law took relatives to visit. Sunday is the "seeing off", "the kisser", "farewell day", the end of the Maslenitsa fun.

Pancakes were an obligatory subject of Maslenitsa treats. Shrovetide food had a ritual and ritual character: it was assumed that the more plentiful the treat on this holiday, the richer the whole year would be.

The Maslenitsa games were predominantly entertaining in nature: horseback riding, sledding from the mountains, snowball fights, wrestling, fisticuffs, etc. In all these games, the daring character of the Russian people manifested itself with particular force.

Shrovetide songs, few have come down to us. All of them, according to their subject matter, are divided into two groups: one of them is associated with the rite of meeting, and the other - with the rite of seeing off (“burial”) of Shrovetide.

The rite of meeting Maslenitsa was as follows. They made a scarecrow out of straw, gave it the appearance of a woman with the help of old clothes, put this scarecrow on a pole and, singing, drove it on a sleigh through the village. Then a scarecrow - Maslenitsa. They put it on a snowy mountain, where games and sledding took place.

The songs accompanying the rite of the meeting of Shrovetide are distinguished by a major, cheerful tone. First of all, this is a laudatory song in honor of Maslenitsa, which received its anthropomorphic expression in the form of a straw effigy:

Dear our guest Maslenitsa

Avdotyushka Izotievna,

Dunya is white, Dunya is ruddy,

The scythe is long, triarshiny,

Scarlet ribbon, two-fifty,

White scarf, brand new

Eyebrows are black, pointed,

The fur coat is blue, the swallows are red,

Bast shoes are frequent, big-headed,

Footcloths are white, whitewashed.

Before us is an ideal portrait of a Russian beauty, in the creation of which features of realism are also noticeable (“bast shoes are frequent, big-headed, footcloths are white, whitewashed”).

In the songs dedicated to the meeting of Maslenitsa, the motif of a plentiful treat is developed. They say that Maslenitsa is met with joy “with pancakes, with loaves, with dumplings”, “with cheese, butter, kalach and a baked egg”. Emphasizing wealth and festive abundance in Shrovetide songs had a magical meaning.

On the last day of the holiday, Maslenitsa was seen off. The straw effigy of Maslenitsa was taken out of the village, and there it was either burned or torn apart and buried in the snow. Burning wheels rolled down from the mountains, a symbol of the sun. This rite is reflected in Shrovetide songs.

The rite of farewell to Maslenitsa and the songs accompanying it are already distinguished by a completely different, minor key. If the songs with which Maslenitsa was greeted resembled wedding laudatory songs, then the songs accompanying the rite of seeing off Maslenitsa were similar to wedding “koril” songs. In them, Maslenitsa is reproached for deceiving people: she ruined them, ate everything and put them on a great post.

In ancient times, the rites of meeting and seeing off Maslenitsa had agrarian and magical significance: the farewell (“funeral”) of Maslenitsa meant seeing off winter and a spell, a greeting for the coming spring. This is especially clearly expressed in the Shrovetide song cited by A. N. Ostrovsky in the play-tale "The Snow Maiden". Thinking about spring, the Berendey peasants sang:

Wettail Shrovetide!

Drive away from the yard

Your time has passed!

However, the agrarian nature of the Maslenitsa rituals was gradually forgotten, and they began to be perceived simply as a festive entertainment. During these entertainments, “songs that do not have ritual significance began to be used. Some of them in their rhythm and emotions resembled dance ditties.

Stoneflies. After Maslenitsa came a seven-week, so-called "great post". At this time, of course, there were no celebrations, all kinds of youth amusements (“gatherings”, “parties”, etc.) stopped. All thoughts of the peasants were focused on the new economic year, preparations for spring field work. It was very important for the peasants that warm spring days should come as early as possible, and that the weather conditions would be such that there would be a good harvest, with which all the well-being of the peasants was connected.

However, they did not passively wait for spring, but tried to actively influence not its fastest coming.

With this For example, the custom of baking larks from the guest house and playing with them was associated. The same purpose of calling for spring was also served by special short songs - stoneflies, which were not sung, but shouted out by girls gathered in small groups.

In stoneflies, girls turned to larks (and sometimes to waders or bees, so that they would fly in faster and bring with them “red spring”, “warm summer”).

With the advent of a good spring, a “good”, “bread-bearing”, “thick rye”, “eared” year was expected.

Stoneflies uniquely combine the signs of song aggrandizements and conspiracy spells.

With the greatness of the stonefly, their increased emotionality brings them together. They, like magnifications, often begin with appeals. These are appeals to spring, larks, bees, etc. Their style is distinguished by a light, joyful tone, which is manifested in the corresponding epithets (“red spring”, “warm summer”, “silk grass”, “granular rye”, “golden wheat ”) and the wide use of words with diminutive suffixes (“springlet”, “letechko”, “lark”, “birdie”, “swallow”, “killer whale”). What unites stoneflies with conspiracies is primarily their imagery. In them, as in conspiracies, images of a lock and keys are widely used. The most common motif of stoneflies is an appeal to spring (or larks) with a request to bring the keys to close the “cold winter” with them and unlock the “warm summer”. Stoneflies are characterized by appeals in the imperative mood. So, for example, one of them begins with such an imperative wish-requirement:

Come to us spring

With joy

With great to us

With mercy!

Yegoryev's songs. Spring Yegoriev Day was celebrated on April 23. On this day, as a rule, the herd was driven into the field for the first time. This important event was arranged by the peasants with rituals. On the eve of Egoriev's Day, the youth, as in the Christmas caroling, walked around the yards and sang songs in which the wish was expressed to the owner and his cattle. One of these songs, for example, conjured:

Calves, calve!

Pigs, suck it up!

Chickens, run!

These songs, like carols, usually ended with a demand for a gift.

If the owners gave good gifts to the performers of Egoryev's "carols", then the best wishes were expressed to them, for example: "two hundred cows, one and a half hundred bulls, seventy heifers." If they were not given gifts, then they spoke with resentment; “No stake, no yard, no chicken feather!”, “God give you cockroaches and bedbugs!”.

On Egoriev's Day, several men went out into the field with the herd, who "called out" to Egory, that is, they sang songs of the same content as Egoriev's "carols". In one of these songs, they turned to Yegoriy with a request:

You save our cattle

In the field and beyond the field

In the forest and beyond the forest

Under the bright moon

Vyunishnye songs. Vyunishnymi were called songs that on Saturday or Sunday of the first post-Easter week congratulated young spouses who got married in the past year. The main content of these songs is a wish for young people to have a happy family life. The image of the nest - a symbol of family happiness - is central to these songs. So, in one of them, at first there is an appeal to the bindweed and bindweed, “fair trees” are mentioned, and then it says:

The bees are nesting,

At the roots of those trees

The ermine made a nest...

In the vine songs, the foundations of the patriarchal peasant family, in which the woman was in the position of a slave, were vividly reflected. So, in one of these songs, the young woman is given the following advice: father-in-law “wash your shirts”, mother-in-law “wash the hut”, brothers-in-law “give handkerchiefs on your hands”, sister-in-laws “braid your braids”, and “honor your husband - stronger to your chest squeeze."

As with caroling, young people walked around the yards singing vine songs, demanding gifts for their performance. And depending on how the performers of these songs presented, the young couple expressed good, or vice versa, bad wishes.

Semitsky ritual songs. The seventh week after Easter was called Semitskaya. Thursday of this week was called Semik, and its last day (Sunday) was the feast of the Trinity. On the Semitsky week, special rites were performed, which were accompanied by songs.

The main rite of the Semitsky week was the rite of “curling a wreath”. Dressed in holiday clothes, the girls went into the forest. There they chose young juicy birches for themselves and performed a ritual with them, which had a certain magical significance. They bent birch branches to the ground and wove them with grass, believing that the vegetative power of the birch would be transferred to the earth.

Then the girls "curled the wreaths." At the ends of individual birch branches, without breaking them off, they wove (“curled”) wreaths, singing a song in which were the words: “Curl you, birch, curl you, curly.”

The rite of birch curling in ancient times had an undoubted agrarian and magical significance.

When performing this ceremony, the girls sang:

We will curl wreaths

For good years

On a thick life

For spiked barley,

Then, after a few days, this birch was cut down, carried around the village, then drowned in the river or thrown into rye, which also had an agrarian magical meaning; the plant power of the green birch was supposed to be transferred to the earth, water.

However, the spring ceremony with birch subsequently began to have not only agricultural significance. By tilting two adjacent birch trees and linking their tops, they made a kind of green arch, under which the girls passed in pairs and “kumilis”, i.e. kissed. Thus, the desire of the girls to be good "gossips", faithful friends was expressed.

A few days after the “curling of wreaths”, the girls went to the forest, separated these wreaths from birch trees and walked with them to the river, where they guessed at the suitors. They threw wreaths into the water: where the wreath floats, there will be the groom.

If the wreath floats well, evenly, then married life will be calm, happy. And if the wreath floats badly, clinging to the shore, turns over, etc., then life will be hard.

These songs, accompanying fortune-telling on wreaths, are distinguished by sincerity, lyricism, and sometimes genuine drama. Such, for example, is a song that tells how a girl, along with her friends, went “to the Danube River” and threw her wreath into it. The prediction turned out to be very sad, and the girl sings softly and sadly:

All wreaths on top of the water

And mine sank.

All friends send gifts,

the theme of marriage and family relations gradually occupies an increasing place in the Semitsky songs, it is the main one in the round dance songs performed at this time; in particular, in those of them that the girls performed while driving a round dance around a “curled” birch.

Summer ritual songs. Semitsky songs were the last ritual spring songs. After that came the summer period of intense field work. There were "few rites at that time. And few songs accompanying these rites have survived. Among them, songs related to the funeral rite of Kostroma and the day of Ivan Kupala stand out /

The funeral ceremony of Kostroma did not have a strict timing and was performed in the period after the Trinity and before Peter's Day 1. In ancient times, this rite had agrarian significance. It is believed that the word "Kostroma" comes from the word "bonfire", which was called the waste obtained after processing flax and hemp. The funeral ceremony of Kostroma was performed as follows. A scarecrow made of straw was placed in a wooden trough or deck and a scene of a funeral was played out. This action was based on the idea of ​​a dying and then resurrecting god of vegetation. Then the meaning of this idea was forgotten. The ritual has turned into a treat. Kostroma began to be interpreted as an image of a once-dead cheerful and husky woman. So, one song accompanying the "funeral" of Kostroma begins with words;

Kostroma, Kostroma,

You were smart

Cheerful was

You were goofy!

And now, Kostroma,

(The feast of Ivan Kupala was celebrated on the day of the summer solstice, on the night of June 23-24. On this night, they collected herbs (especially ferns), which supposedly had healing powers. At the same time, fires were kindled and jumped over them, poured water over each other All this, according to popular belief, had a cleansing value.

Kupala rites are reflected in the corresponding songs. So, one of them began with words;

Chizhik walked along the street,

Gathered the girls to the Bath:

"Well, girls to the Bathhouse,

Well, yes, you girls, to the Bathhouse!

In a number of songs, Kupala appears before us in the anthropomorphic image of a woman-mother. So, in one song, when asked where her daughter is, Kupala replies that her daughter “flying beds, pricking her hands”, “tears flowers, wreaths wreaths”, “his friend on the head” 15, 465].

"Autumn ritual songs. In the autumn, due to employment in the field and other work, there were even fewer rituals than in the summer. Those few rituals that were performed at this time were all connected with concerns about a good harvest. An example is the ritual<<завивания_б_ор.о.ды>>. This was the name of the custom of tying several ears of corn specially left uncompressed on the arable land into one bundle. It was assumed that in this way it is fixed to the land, its “yielding power” is left for the next year. This rite of "curling the beard" is told in songs.

The first and last sheaves of the harvest were often solemnly brought into the village. The power of these sheaves was considered magically healing. Them grains were poured into feed for sick livestock, they began sowing grain. These rituals are also reflected in the corresponding songs.

Songs are also known in which joy was expressed in connection with the end of field work, threshing and harvesting of bread in the bins. For example:

Oh and thank God

What a life they reaped

What a living shook

And they put them in the cops

On the threshing floor with haystacks,

In the cage bins,

And with the oven pies.

To date, calendar rites have almost completely disappeared from life. However, in the past, both calendar rites and the songs accompanying them occupied a large place in the spiritual life of the people. They expressed the thoughts of the people about a good harvest, the offspring of livestock, general well-being and well-being. Their main subject is agrarian and economic. But along with this main theme, family and everyday motives also appear in them; dreams of a good family are expressed, healthy offspring etc.

Ritual songs are based on the spontaneous materialistic worldview of the people. The leading images of these songs are taken from the reality surrounding the peasant. However, it should be noted that many images of calendar songs bear traces of ancient animistic ideas (anthropomorphic images of Kolyada, Maslenitsa, Kostroma, etc.).

The main purpose of calendar songs is utilitarian and practical. These songs, together with the rites they accompanied, should have been^ according to their performers, to influence the increase in yield, the health of people and animals.

“At the same time, it must be emphasized that calendar poetry also performed considerable aesthetic functions: it conveyed an atmosphere of festivity, artistically expressed all kinds of thoughts and feelings. Many calendar songs are characterized by high poetry.

Ritual poetry is a section of oral poetry that is associated with traditional rituals.

A rite is a set of actions established by custom, in which any religious ideas or everyday traditions are embodied.

Rites are divided into: calendar (reflecting the characteristics of folk labor) and family (folklore as a ritual phenomenon)

The rite is closely connected with the myth, is its staging. Myth is man's way of explaining the structure of the world.

Totemic (about the origin of man)

Eschocological (about the death of the world)

Etiological (about the origin of things)

Cosmogonic (about the birth of the world)

The myth lives in the human mind, is subsequently forgotten and remains in separate elements (rites)
1) The essence of calendar ritual poetry is to get a rich harvest. They were based on magic and incantation.
The rituals were accompanied by songs.
winter rites
- The celebration of the New Year took place in late December-early January. New Year opened with carol songs.
A carol is a glorious, solemn song, a song-spell of well-being in the coming year.
- Christmas time (from Christmas to baptism) - they played a lot, guessed, sang sing songs.
- Maslenitsa was considered the most joyful holiday of the year. The songs that were sung on Maslenitsa had a major character, they resembled greatness.
spring-summer
- Execution of stoneflies (from March 25)
Vesnyanka is a song call for the early arrival of spring. These songs were magical.

Semitskaya week (7th week after Easter)
The rituals performed this week had an agricultural and economic meaning. With the onset of the holiday, people went to the fields and groves, collected herbs and decorated their houses with them.

autumn
- Life songs
2) Family and household rituals are associated with birth, death, wedding and seeing off recruits.
Lamentations are an ancient genre of folklore. The object of the image in lamentation is tragic in human life.

5.Calendar ritual poetry in the system of oral folk art. Ritual poetry of the winter cycle, its mythological content, genre composition, poetics.

Diverse ritual poetry arose and developed on the basis of human labor activity. One of the reasons for its emergence was the dependence of man on nature, which prompted ancient people to deify and animate her, to seek her protection and help.
Rites associated with the labor activity of the peasantry and repeated every year with a certain sequence, i.e. according to the calendar, called calendar ritual poetry. The forces of nature are personified in Russian calendar poetry, the cults of ancestors and animals, features of the Christian religion are partially reflected.
The annual ritual calendar of the Russian peasantry began with the New Year holiday, the days of the new "awakening" of the sun (from December 25 to January 6). New Year's calendar rituals were supposed to ensure economic well-being for the whole next year. Among the stable customs on New Year's holiday was dressing up animals, which was supposed to ensure successful hunting and livestock breeding. Some New Year's rituals were included in songs. they were "carols", "shedrovki" and "ovseni". The period of New Year's celebrations included youth parties, "games" and gatherings. They were filled with folk amusements. . The second calendar holiday after the New Year was Shrovetide, which was celebrated in February or early March. On Maslenitsa, it was customary to have fun and feast especially widely. Shrovetide rites included seeing off winter. Usually they made an effigy of Shrovetide from straw, rags or snow (often in the form of a female figure). The first part of Shrovetide is a meeting and honoring, the second part is songs about the upcoming fast. Maslenitsa was usually interpreted primarily as a celebration of the victory of spring over winter, of life over death.

6.Calendar ritual poetry of the spring-summer and autumn cycle, its mythological content, genre composition, poetics.

Calendar rites got their name from the fact that they accompany the work of the people throughout the year. These rituals were based on belief in the magical power of words, gestures, and actions, which, according to people's ideas, could ensure a good harvest.

Spring and summer cycles - Rites aimed at preparing and increasing the harvest. The spring-summer cycle includes the beginning of the Maslenitsa week after Christmas, accompanied by ritual gluttony. It was a celebration of the glory of the Sun. The rite also included the obligatory commemoration of the ancestors. The next main holiday of the summer period, which is also associated with ritual poetry, is Ivan Kupala. On this day, the girls were guessing. They wove wreaths and sang songs. The ritual of jumping over a fire is traditional. Symbolizes purification.

1. Ritual, ritual poetry. The relationship of calendar and family rituals with the work and life of peasants.

1. 
   Folk calendar, classification of the calendar ritual cycle and its content.
2. 
   New Year's rituals and its genres.
3. 
   Spring-summer holidays and their poetry.
4. 
   Autumn rituals and the completion of the agricultural cycle.

rite- a set of actions established by custom, performed in a certain

Consistency and associated with religious ideas and everyday tradition. The rite was performed at critical, important moments and had an impact on the well-being and self-consciousness of a person, and also passed on the accumulated social experience from generation to generation.

The rituals are divided into calendar rituals associated with agricultural work, and family rituals associated with the world of an individual family - with a wedding, birth, funeral, and later - seeing off recruits to the army.

The essence of the calendar ritual poetry was reduced to the desire to get a rich harvest. The calendar of the ancient Slavs reflected mainly the economic and practical side of their life.

Mythological representations, imbued with the concern of the farmer about the fate of the field that fed him, were associated with the existence of especially important holidays and calendar rites that fell on the time of the revival of the sun (the Kolyada holiday) and at the time when the sun reaches the heights of its power (the summer holiday of Kupala). The holidays of the second half of the year, especially autumn ones, were much less often accompanied by calendar rites: when the harvest was harvested, the farmer no longer depended on the elements of nature.

The rituals were accompanied by songs. Calendar ritual songs are diverse, but they also have common features:

1. 
   spell element;
2. 
   they show that ancient man believed in his power over nature, respectively, the function of songs is the impact of man on nature;
3. 
   calendar ritual songs have the same style.

Yu.G. Kruglov in his work "Russian Ritual Songs" highlights songs ritual, incantatory, majestic, reproachful, playful, lyrical.

Function ritual songs - to form a rite, to tell that it is perfect. Therefore, they have a fixed place in the rite.

The calendar rituals were based on magic and a spell in order to protect against hostile evil spirits (preventive magic) and in order to provide a person with any positive values ​​(producing magic).

The celebration of the New Year in folk life took place in late December - early January. The New Year was opened with the performance of carol songs or carols(from lat. calendae - the first day of each month). The word carol designates the time of the celebration of Christmas time (from December 24, "eve", Christmas Eve, until January 6 - the church holiday of Epiphany).

carol- this is a majestic solemn song, a song-spell of well-being in the coming year. With the advent of the holiday, carolers, usually teenagers, young people, gathered in groups of several people, went from hut to hut and sang laudatory songs to their owners under the windows. They sounded the wishes of health to all family members, harvest, wealth at home. The motives of carols are stable.

In Christmas time (from Christmas to Epiphany) they played a lot, guessed, sang subservient songs.

The subject of fortune-telling in sing-along songs was common to all folk fortune-telling: good luck and failure in life, harvest, worldly well-being, health. But the favorite theme of fortune-telling in spy songs has always been "narrowed - mummers", i.e. marriage, marriage, family. Through divination, they wanted to predict what the fate and life of a person depended on.

Fortune-telling, disguise, dances, songs - this is the content of the festivities and gatherings in the old days at Christmas time.

Pancake week- a spring holiday, but detached from the spring cycle to the winter one, largely due to the church Great Lent, which forbade any entertainment for 7 weeks before Easter. Winter supplies are running out. Since ancient times, Maslenitsa has been considered the most joyful holiday of the year. The change of fun and merriment during the week was reflected in the names of the days of Shrovetide week.

Monday was called meeting. They made a stuffed Maslenitsa - dressed him in a caftan, girded with a sash, shod in bast shoes, brought him to the mountain with the inviting "come to visit the wide yard, ride the mountains, roll in pancakes, make fun of your heart." The song that was sung at the meeting is the first type of carnival songs. These are songs of a major nature, often reminiscent of greatness:

To keep the servants young.

Tuesday called "games". In the village began a variety of entertainment, games, disguise, riding.

Maslenitsa is predominantly a holiday for married youth, while Christmas time is a single holiday.

Wednesday in Shrovetide week was called " gourmet". She opened treats in all houses with pancakes and other dishes. Yu.M. Sokolov explains revelry and gluttony at Maslenitsa with similny magic - the desire to achieve the desired phenomenon by its image.

Thursday was called revelry”, “Broad Thursday”, this day was the height of games and fun. Friday - "mother-in-law of the evening", sons-in-law on this day treated mother-in-law. Saturday - "sister-in-law gatherings." On this day, the girls gathered for parties.

Sunday called "Forgiveness Sunday", "seeing off", "tselovnik". The effigy of Maslenitsa was planted on a pole, raised into the sky, burned, among the Western Slavs they were lowered into the water. Maslenitsa was sent to the world where it came from. The borderland with that world is water, the outskirts.

Songs were sung in which regret was often expressed that Maslenitsa ended so soon:

Kissed, reconciled.

From March 25, spring songs were supposed to be performed. stonefly- this is a song call for the early arrival of spring. She was associated with a children's and youth audience. These songs had a magical, ritual character.

The singing was supposed to represent the hubbub of birds. Stoneflies are close in character Yegoryev's songs. Egory, George - saint, patron of cattle. April 23 is the first day when cattle were driven out. These songs contain a lot of spells, images typical of charm songs.

The last spring holiday was the Semitskaya week, which fell on the seventh week after Easter. She was called semik. That was also the name of Thursday this week. In ancient times the week was called "mermaid", "green".

The ceremonies performed during the Semitsky week had an agrarian and economic meaning. With the onset of the holiday, people went to the fields and groves, collected various herbs and covered the floor in their dwellings with them. Birch branches were used to decorate houses on Wednesday. The girls went to the forest to curl a birch.

On the night of June 24, it was celebrated feast of Ivan Kupala. There is also duality here. Pagan rituals fell on the day of St. John the Baptist. At this time, the sun turned to the winter path. On the Kupala night, bonfires were made on the shore of the reservoir, having received fire in a natural way. This living fire had a symbolic meaning - it acted as a symbol of the hot June summer. Kupala Day was a holiday of solar fire, its cleansing, creative power.

Kupala songs contain motifs of early going to the zhito, to water bodies, and also the songs point to the cult of the sun.

After the celebration of Ivan Kupala for a long time, until the very autumn, the fun stopped. The hot season has arrived.

Field work ended with a harvest festival. They brewed beer together, slaughtered a ram, baked pies, and, having called relatives and neighbors, began the fun.

Songs performed at this time were called stubble songs.

Life songs often have an incantatory character. Sometimes these are not even songs, but incantational formulas.

Calendar songs convey the mood, thoughts and feelings of the people, always associated with the land that fed them.

Main literature

1. 
   Russian folk poetry. Reader edited by A.M. Novikova. - M., 1987. - S.8-16.
2. 
   Russian folk poetry. Reader under the editorship of Yu.G. Kruglov. - L., 1987. - P. 5-15.
3. 
   Kravtsov N.I., Lazutin S.G. Russian oral folk art. - M., 1983.- S.32-48.
4. 
   Russian folk poetry. Ed. A.M. Novikova.-M., 1986.- S.53-66.
5. 
   Anikin V.P. Russian oral folk art. M., 2001.- S.86-162.
6. 
   Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore. Textbook for higher educational institutions. - M., 2002.- S.71-85.
7. 
   Anikin V.P. Russian folklore. M., 1987.- S. 94-145.

additional literature

1. 
   Afanasiev A.N. Living water and prophetic word. - M., 1988.
2. 
   Kruglov Yu.G. Russian ritual songs. -M., 1982.
3. 
   Russian folk poetry. Reader on folklore, ed. Yu.G.Kruglova.-M., 1986.-Articles:Afanasiev A.N. Folk holidays. Chicherov V.I. New Year's songs-spells of the harvest and well-being of the family (Russian carols and their types). Kolpakova N.P. Incantation songs.

Topic: Family ritual poetry. Birth ceremony. The wedding ceremony and its poetic complex

1. 
   general characteristics family ritual poetry.
2. 
   Birth ceremonies.
3. 
   Stages of the wedding ceremony and its poetry.

In addition to the calendar rituals performed by the entire peasant community, there were rituals associated with the life of individual families. These are ceremonies associated with birth, death, wedding and seeing off a recruit to the army. The most famous of these rituals is the wedding ceremony.

The concept of "wedding poetry", according to V.P. Anikin, includes songs, lamentations and eulogies. Each of these genres differs from others in the time of execution, style, ideological and aesthetic content.

laments- in Russian folklore it is customary to call complaints (crying), which were considered traditionally obligatory elements of some family rituals and were performed by women. The texts of lamentations in their verbal expression have an unstable, one-time character. The functioning of the tradition is ensured by the traditional methods of lamentation - "common places" and the rules for their combination. The texts of lamentations are situational and traditional.

For exaltations this type of narration is typical, when it is clearly seen that the praise comes from the team. That's why the first person form is so common here plural. It reproduces the attitude of relatives and friends towards those who marry, as well as towards their relatives and acquaintances. The attitude of those who sing a glorious song to the glorified person is manifested in the wish for him every worldly well-being, which the song speaks of as having already been achieved.

Another type of storytelling wedding song. About the groom, the bride, their relatives, about the feelings and thoughts that own them, it is always said as if from the outside. Here the narration is in the 3rd person singular or plural. They, like the songs of praise, contain assessments of what is happening, but they do not sound in direct expression, but in the nature of the story itself. They publicized the course of the wedding from stage to stage, and also made the new marital status of those entering into marriage a fact. Wedding songs in their form were an objective impersonal story about the wedding.

In the wedding ceremony, pre-wedding conspiracy is distinguished (ceremonies before the wedding eve) - matchmaking, bridegroom, handshaking; wedding eve - bath, bachelorette party; wedding day; wedding feast.

The wedding ceremony was recognized as a household norm among the whole people. The ensemble of actors of the wedding is: the matchmaker, the matchmaker, the bride, who plays the main role, the friend.

In the pre-wedding ceremonies, the lamentations of the bride come to the fore. The bride begins to lament as soon as she finds out that she is engaged, that is, when the matchmakers leave. Relatively few songs are sung before the handshake, but much more for the handshake and after it. If the bride did not cry, did not lament, then she showed ingratitude to her parents. If the bride did not know the lamentations or did not know how to fulfill them, which was extremely rare, then on her behalf a weeping or wailing woman spoke, often a widow, thus earning her living

After the handshake - the main motive of lamentations - the motive of the ruined will.

At the same moment of the ceremony, songs begin to sound. The song brings to the attention of the public the fact of the conspiracy and introduces an element of poetry into the rite.

After the wedding, the main role in the ceremony is occupied by laudatory songs. Greatness praised mother-in-law and father-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law as good hosts. In the host they praised the mind, sobriety, in the hostess - affectionateness and friendliness, the thousand man was famous as a governor, warrior, leader of the prince's squad, who managed to take the bride with his head; svaha - sugar lips; friend - courteous, resourceful, with a cheerful disposition; guests were promised wealth, health, success in business. After the fulfillment of the greatness, the demand for reward sounded:

Just as in the calendar ceremonies, reproachful songs were sung. The reproachful song contained imaginary curses to those who go against the will of the mythical patrons, so they did not cause offense. Later, they became comic songs with elements of condemnation and ridiculed stinginess, swagger, arrogance and other shortcomings.

Main literature

1. 
   Russian folk poetry. Reader. Comp. Yu.G. Kruglov. - L., 1987.
2. 
   
3. 
   
4. 
   
5. 
   
6. 
   
7. 
   
8. 
   Kruglov Yu.G. Russian wedding songs. M., 1978.

additional literature

1. 
   Kolpakova N.P. Russian folk household song. M.-L., 1962.
2. 
   Russian wedding songs of Siberia. Comp. R.P. Potanina. - M., 1979.
3. 
   Ritual songs of the Russian wedding in Siberia. Comp. And note. R.P.Potanina. - Novosibirsk, 1981.
4. 
   People's wedding. Collection of articles and materials. - Omsk, 1997.
5. 
   Lamentations. Comp. K.V. Chistov. - Leningrad, 1960.
6. 
   Cherdynskaya wedding. Recorded and compiled by I. Zyryanov. - Perm, 1969.

1. 
   Knyazeva I.N. Russian wedding in the Kazakh Irtysh region. - Pavlodar, 2002.

15. Lamentations. Introductory article and note. K.V.Chistova.-L., 1960.

16. Russian folk poetry. Reader on folklore. Comp. Yu.G.Kruglov.-M., 1986. Articles:. Chistov K.V. Russian reckoning.

Subject: Funeral. Recruitment rite, laments and lamentations

1. 
   Funeral rite.
2. 
   The main types of lamentations.
3. 
   Recruitment rites and lamentations.

The funeral rite, as well as the wedding rite, and the tale associated with it, was a pronounced collective ritual action, in which all members of the clan or tribe participated, later - members of the family and territorial community (according to the terminology of the tale - "relatives" and "social "or" neighbors in order"). This explains why lamenters always assume the presence of "relatives" and "neighbors" to whom they address.

The funeral rite included a whole cycle of lamentations connected by their themes, content and system of images with its various links.

Immediately after the declaration of death, the first funeral hymn sounds - crying-questioning, in which the lamenter, turning to the deceased, asks him why he left the family, asks him to open his eyes, to stand up.

The second reason - cry-alert. It sounds at the moment of arrival in the hut of relatives and neighbors who have learned about death. Its main theme is a sad story about how death came.

The third largest lamentation - crying when bringing the coffin. In this lamentation, there is a rather stable circle of familiar motives - gratitude to those who made the coffin, comparison of the coffin with a hut in which there are no windows, doors, bed, table.

Fourth clue - crying at the removal of the coffin. At the heart of her poetic questions: "Where are you going?", "To whom are you leaving us?".

Fifth note - crying on the way to the cemetery, which repeats some motifs of crying when taking out and crying-alerts.

Sixth note - when lowering the coffin into the grave and grave. The main thing here is a promise to visit the grave, decorate it with flowers, a request to the deceased to “come visit”.

Seventh note - when returning from the cemetery- is based on the poetic image of the rite of imaginary search for the deceased in an empty house.

Eighth note - memorial. Actually, a funeral parable is a cycle of laments associated either with visiting the grave on ritual days, or with a simple need to express the surging memories, to tell the deceased about the difficulties experienced after death.

The ideas about death that have settled in the people's mind are reflected in “common places” or in traditional motifs of lamentations.

^ The Poetics of the Lament

Lamentations are performed by a kind of recitative, which is generally characterized by a pronounced declamatory beginning and the absence of a wide development of the melodic side itself. In the northern regions, lamentations are more melodious, in some southern regions they are just exclamations that are not connected into an elementary sound unity.

Lamentations are characterized by the method of repetition, stringing syntactically, intonationally and semantically similar constructions. The lamenter asks question after question, varying with the help of synonyms, similar images, logically intertwined concepts.

The howler uses the so-called "amplifying particles" - yes, that's all, after all, more, how, here, etc.

Lamentations are characterized by the use of diminutive and augmentative suffixes not only of nouns and adjectives, but even adverbs (severely, quietly), pronouns (tebeyushki).

Characteristic is the use of prefixes, such that do not convey a new meaning, but reinforce the root meaning of the word (say, young).

The epithets in the parable do not indicate a typical sign, but are aimed at identifying a number of signs. Therefore, nouns in lamentations can have 2, 3 or even 4 definitions (secrets, sweet, advice, friendly girlfriends). One noun can have up to 30 definitions in lamentation. Lamentations are characterized by a variety and abundance of epithets, and the largest number of epithets are concentrated around words denoting the person that the lamenter mourns.

In their striving for emotional and semantic loading, the words of the performer willingly use compound adjectives (sly-wise, thin-white) and doubled nouns that are relatively rare in other genres.

Combinations such as “dead grave”, “troublesome orphans”, etc. also serve as semantic concentration.

The tradition of lamentation has created a peculiar poetic style capable of expressing the ultimate tragic tension of the feelings of the lamenter. It captured the talented, emotional soul of a Russian peasant woman.

Main literature

1. Russian folk poetry. Reader. Comp. Yu.G. Kruglov. - L., 1987.

1. 
   Kravtsov N.I., Lazutin S.G. Russian oral folk art. - M., M., 1983.
2. 
   Russian folk poetry. Ed. A.M. Novikova.- M., 1986. - P.67-84.
3. 
   Anikin V.P. Russian folklore. –M., 1987.- S. 183-219.
4. 
   Anikin V.P. Russian oral folk art. M., 2001.-S.163-202.
5. 
   Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore. Textbook for higher educational institutions. - M., 2002 - S.86-112.

additional literature

1. 
   Kruglov Yu.G. Russian ritual songs. M., 1982
2. 
   Lamentations. Introductory article and note. K.V.Chistova.-L., 1960.
3. 
   Russian folk poetry. Reader on folklore. Comp. Yu.G.Kruglov.-M., 1986. Articles:. Chistov K.V. Russian reckoning.

Theme: Conspiracies

1. Definition of a conspiracy, its origin, connection with mythological thinking.

2. The main thematic groups of conspiracies.

3. Poetics of conspiracies. Features of composition and plot.

4. The specifics of the existence of conspiracies, publications.

Among other types of oral folk art, incantations occupy a peculiar place. From other genres of folklore (songs, fairy tales, epics, legends, etc.), they differ primarily in that they are means to achieve a specific practical goal. Conspiracies are closely connected with everyday life, they are utilitarian. However, in them there are also undoubted manifestations of the unconsciously artistic reflection of the world.

In short definition a conspiracy is a traditional rhythmically organized formula, which man considered a magical means to achieve various practical goals.

We attribute the incantation to ritual poetry, because the verbal formula of the incantation usually coexists with the action, and the action and the word turn out to be mutually reversible and identical in function. It is assumed that the same goal can be achieved both with the help of a word and with the help of an action. Often a verbal conspiracy formula is only a verbal expression, a verbal description, an image of the action being performed.

Various points of view have been expressed on the question of the origin of the conspiracies. So, mythologists, in particular A.N. Afanasiev, defined conspiracies as fragments of ancient pagan prayers and spells. The most striking examples of such prayers were texts containing appeals to natural elements - the month, stars, sun, dawn, etc.

The mythological is contrasted with the formalistic definition of a conspiracy as a comparison and the psychological definition of a comparison as an association.

Potebnya and Zelinsky (late 19th - early 20th centuries) argued that conspiracies were based not on a prayerful appeal to pagan elemental deities, but on a sign, a simple perception of phenomena, association as a primary function of consciousness, inherent to a person even at the pre-linguistic stage of his existence.

If you delve into antiquity, you can be sure that from ancient times the East Slavic tribes carried commercial and economic conspiracies. According to the general view of conspiracies, characteristic of the primitive communal period, success in hunting and cattle breeding depended on how much a given hunter or herd owner knew the necessary conspiracies.

A particularly large group is made up of conspiracies used in the household of peasants and townspeople. We can name all of them household conspiracies. These are conspiracies for invoking or driving away evil spirits, from drunkenness, wedding conspiracies, and especially common in everyday life - healing.

Conspiracies against diseases are the most common type of conspiracies. Of the 372 incantations placed in the collection of LN Maikov "Great Russian Spells" (1869), 275 are among the healing ones. This is a group that is peculiar in the nature of representations and actions associated with them.

^ Social conspiracies. An extensive group of conspiracies regulating the relations of people in society: conspiracies from the anger of dashing people, conspiracies to approach the authorities, conspiracies for going to court, conspiracies for military affairs, to tame cruel masters, etc. A special place among them is occupied by conspiracies concerning family and marriage relations.

V.P. Anikin notes that the composition of the plot before the 10th century was simpler than that known from later plots. The conspiracy, already under Christian influence, often began with prayer introduction(1) "in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit" or "Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me." Conspiracies can also have a non-prayer beginning. Next part - beginning(2): “I will rise, the servant of God (name), blessed, I will go, crossing myself, from the hut with doors, from the courtyard with gates, into an open field.” In essence, the beginning is a verbal reproduction of the place of the ritual action.

Although the speaker overshadowed himself with a cross, called himself a servant of God, nevertheless, the formula about a slave leaving a hut in a field through a gate retained elements of a pagan rite. Then there could be words about a fantastic washing, dressing in the morning light. The next part is more abstract. – epic(3). In the epic part of the plot, a number of traditional motifs are found: the motif of a wonderful pike, the motif of a red maiden sitting on a stone and sewing with a red thread (to stop the blood), the motif of sweeping or washing away the disease.

The epic part in conspiracies is followed by a demand, the so-called imperative part(4) - the main compositional part in the plot, since the verbal demand has always been the main point in it. For example: “Just as the rain does not sink from the blue sky, so the blood of the servant of God (name) would not sink.”

The conspiracy ended with the so-called bartack(5): “Be my words a key and a lock”, “My word is strong!” Late events include aminating. (6).

The following elements of the composition could have been primordial, existing before the adoption of Christianity in Russia in a conspiracy: a verbal image of a ritual action in the beginning, an epic part, an imperative part with a list of wishes and requirements, as well as a bartack. Conspiracies of the pre-Christian era could be alien to prayerfulness, the conspiracy demanded, forced the imaginary forces of nature to act in accordance with the will of man. The conspiracy merged with prayer at a later time.

In the plot, the influence of other genres of folklore is seen: fairy-tale means, images from riddles, borrowings from lyrics. In the plot, folklore constant epithets are found: the field is clean, the forests are dense, dark; stars are frequent; azure flowers; mountains are high; sands are yellow; the heart is zealous; eyes are clear; body is white; head - violent; well done - daring, kind.

The conspiracy is characterized by rhythm: "Fierce snake, your house is in a cave, and the servant of God has a village." In the plot there is a palology - the repetition of each subsequent line of the final lines of the previous one: “There is an oak tree on the sea on the Okian, on Buyan Island. / Under that oak tree there is a willow bush. / Under that bush lies a white stone.

A conspiracy is characterized by verb endings of rhythmically commensurate syntactic parts, that is, a conspiracy is often a verse:

Yegory the brave rides on a white horse,

Decorated with a golden crown

Supported by a damask spear,

Meets with tatem at night.

The plot retained numerous lexical repetitions, as well as repetitions of the once chosen syntactic structure.

Main literature

1. 
   Anikin V.P. Russian folklore. - M., 1987. – P.94-119
2. 
   Petrov V.P. Conspiracies // From the history of Russian Soviet folklore. – L., 1981. – pp. 77-142

additional literature

1. 
   Russian people. His customs, rituals, traditions, superstitions and poetry. Sobr. M. Zabylin. - M., 1880 (reprint edition - 1992)
2. 
   "You are a goy, good fellows." Russian folk poetry. Comp. P.S. Vykhodtseva and E.P. Kholodova, - M., 1979. – P.343-347
3. 
   Russian conspiracies and spells. Ed. V.P. Anikina. - M., 1998
4. 
   Fedorova V.P. Man and word in conspiracies: Southern Trans-Urals. End of XX century. _ Kurgan, 2003.

Topic: Russian folk prose. Animal Tales

1. 
   The definition of a fairy tale. origin problem. connection with the myth.
2. 
   The genre composition of the fairy tale.
3. 
   Tales about animals, their origin, sources of fiction. Poetics.

The entire field of oral folk prose can be divided into 2 large sections: stories that are believed or believed to be true, and stories that are not believed - this includes all types of fairy tales.

A fairy tale is one of the oldest, one of the main genres of oral folk art.

A folk tale is an epic, oral work of art, mostly prose, magical, adventurous or everyday.

V.Ya.Propp defines a fairy tale as follows: “A fairy tale is a deliberate and poetic fiction. A fairy tale is never passed off as reality.

A fairy tale is a genre that signaled the destruction of the mythological consciousness of man. Many researchers lead a fairy tale from a myth. In the monograph "Russian Fairy Tale" V.Ya. Propp says that the genre that precedes the appearance of a fairy tale is a myth. In another work, Historical Roots fairy tale(1946) Propp argues that a fairy tale and a myth can sometimes coincide so completely with each other that in ethnography and folklore such myths can be called fairy tales. However, in the fairy tale there are images and situations that obviously do not go back to any immediate reality.

Prefabricated formations, according to Propp, are rituals, myths, forms of primitive thinking, some social institutions. The fairy tale absorbed elements of primitive social and cultural life.

How is a fairy tale different from a myth? 1) In the fairy tale, there is a desacralization of the world. 2) The fairy tale loses its etiological meaning, the function of explaining the world. The ethical, educational function comes to replace it. 3) The fairy tale changes the audience, it is told among the uninitiated also for entertainment purposes. And since the tale is for entertainment, it has its own poetic features.

All this is reflected in the definition of a fairy tale given by Nikiforov: ^ A fairy tale is an oral story with unusual content, which exists among the people for the purpose of entertainment. The tale is distinguished by a special compositional and stylistic construction.

^ On the meaning of the tale: Like all genres of folklore, the fairy tale has a cognitive, educational and aesthetic value, but educational value surpasses others. There are many things in fairy tales that can affect an adult even today, but it is no coincidence that children are introduced to a fairy tale. Fabulous fiction is imprinted in the soul of a child. The people have never remained indifferent to what children will become when they grow up.

According to the thematic, compositional-structural and figurative-style certainty, the fairy tale genre has intra-genre types. The story is divided into three types. For the first time this division was proposed by A.N. Afanasyev in the middle of the 19th century, publishing a collection of Russian fairy tales. These are fairy tales about animals, magical and everyday (short stories - as Anikin calls them).

Among Russian folk tales, animal tales make up 10%, fairy tales - 30%, social and everyday ones - 60%.

It is traditionally considered that the most ancient are fairy tales about animals. They arose at an early stage in the development of society and initially were of a mythological nature, since they reflected people's ideas about nature and society - animism, anthropomorphism, totemism. Cult stories and hunters' stories about the habits of animals are the sources of animal tales. At an early stage, stories about animals exist as myths, they cannot be called fairy tales, they do not have a fiction setting.

Later, these stories are projected onto people's lives, people's lives are modeled through the behavior of animals. For a long time, magical, totemistic representations have been preserved in them. Gradually, the fairy tale loses its connection with the myth, turns into a social allegory.

Tales about animals also have a special poetics. 1) They are characterized by a simple composition. The action is characterized by increasing tension and complication. It is based on a repetition of the situation with a change in some thematic detail. Such tales are called chain or cumulative ("Fox with a rolling pin"). The repetition of the main episode of the narrative makes the idea clear. The artistic meaning of cumulation is different in each individual case. At the same time, it also has invariable properties: repetitions contribute to the understanding and memorization of a fairy tale.

2) The next feature of fairy tales about animals is the rapid development of the plot.

3) Tales about animals are dramatized game prose. They have a lot of song and poetic inserts, dialogues. Some fairy tales consist almost entirely of dialogues ("The Fox and the Black Grouse", "The Beanstalk").

1. 
   Most fairy tales use the richness of imagery hidden in colloquial speech. The language of the characters reproduces the everyday speech of people of different classes and different individual appearance. Thus, they have a bright household style.

In the nature of fairy tales about animals there is a sharp distinction between positive and negative. There is never any doubt about how to treat this or that character.

The composition of family ritual poetry, its connection with ritual and everyday life. General characteristics of each genre.

Introduction

For hundreds of years, the peoples of Russia have developed common customs, traditions, a common Russian culture. And at the same time, every people, like an island in the ocean, lives by its own traditions, national culture, lives by what distinguishes it from other peoples. The development of culture contributed to the formation of the national identity of the people, a sense of unity. This is the strength of the Russian people, this is what makes Russians Russians. Family rituals are predetermined by the cycle of human life.

In the earthly life of a person, the most important events are the birthday, the rituals associated with the wedding, and the sad day of the funeral. The rites associated with the birth of a person usually take place in a close family circle; In this case, the grandmother plays an important role, it is with her that the rite of placing the child in the cradle, “babina porridge”, is associated. In the rites associated with the birth of a child, their magical and educational significance is great, they must ward off diseases from the child and ensure his well-being. In the lullabies that a mother sang to her child, there are various life wishes, "exaltations", spells, these songs should take the "evil eye" away from the child. Separate rituals accompany the appearance of the first tooth in a child, the first tonsure, even the first landing of a boy on a horse, etc. All these songs have one hero - a child addressed by a loved one, all these songs are filled with elements of spells, conspiracies, wishes, the content is the same in the folklore of different peoples.

The special attention of rituals and ritual poetry to the family is explained by the fact that it had exclusively importance in the life of the people. A characteristic feature of the patriarchal way of life, when family rituals were most developed, is that in it the family was the main production, economic and spiritual unit.

1. The concept of ritual, family ritual poetry.

rite- a set of actions established by custom, performed in a certain sequence and related to religious ideas and everyday tradition. The rite was performed at critical, important moments and had an impact on the well-being and self-consciousness of a person, and also passed on the accumulated social experience from generation to generation.

Ritual poetry arose in connection with human relations on the one hand and in connection with eternal social relations in society. Therefore, the entire ritual folklore is divided into 2 groups:

Calendar ritual poetry

Family ritual poetry

Some researchers distinguish 3 groups - conspiracies and spells. There are disputes here, because. incantations and spells can be associated with the attitude of a person and with the attitude of the community. But they are not included in the rite itself, therefore, a third group is distinguished, considering the first two groups to be the main ones.

Family ritual poetry:

1) Maternity and christening ceremonial songs. Genres: lullaby, nursery rhymes, pestles, korilki, teasers, counting rhymes.

2) Wedding ceremonies. Genres: lamentations (of the bride, girlfriends, relatives), wedding songs (purely ritual), magnification, sentences of the friend.

3) recruiting ceremonies. Genres: lamentations, soldiers' songs.

4) funeral rites. Genre: funeral songs.

1.1 The connection of family ritual poetry with ritual and everyday life.

Along with the calendar rituals, which were performed by the entire community, practically on the scale of the entire village or village, rituals were also performed among the peasantry, mainly related to the life of individual families. That is why they are called family houses.

All significant events in the life of peasant families (the birth of a person, marriage, death, and others) were accompanied by special rites that were greatly developed.

2. Characteristics of the genres of family ritual poetry.

Family ritual poetry is divided into maternity, wedding, recruiting and funeral. Let's take a closer look at each genre.

2.1. Poetry related to the birth of a person.

A woman acquired special ritual significance during the rituals. For a newborn, this rite symbolized the beginning of a life journey. During the ceremony, the newborn acquired the status of a human being, and the woman who gave birth - the status of a mother, which allowed her to move to another socio-age group - adult women - women, which prescribed her a new type of behavior.

Birthing rites sought to protect the newborn from hostile mystical forces, and also assumed the well-being of the infant in life. A ritual washing of the newborn was performed, the health of the baby was spoken of by various sentences. Our ancestors sincerely believed that not only the child is a carrier of evil spirits, but also his mother is a danger to the living, as she serves as a guide between the worlds. Through the body of a woman, a child comes to the earthly world. But along with the child, evil spirits can also penetrate into the earthly world. These rites were called "cleansing", that is, they cleansed from dark power.

Birthing ritesare very ancient in origin. The purpose of these rituals, according to their performers, is to ensure the safety of the newborn, to positively influence the future fate of a person, to protect him from "spoilage", "evil eye" and disease, to make his life secure and happy. So, for example, bathing a newborn in a bath, a midwife would say: “Handles, grow up, get fat, become vigorous; legs, walk, carry your body; tongue, speak, feed your head. It was assumed that this conspiracy would ensure good health and rapid growth of the newborn. Special songs were also dedicated to the newborn. Gradually, maternity rites die off, and the poetry that accompanies them is also forgotten. It can be assumed that various lullabies began to perform their functions to some extent. So, in one of these songs, a rich life is predicted for a child: “You will walk in gold, wear pure silver.”

2.2. Wedding poetry.

A wedding is a complex ritual, consisting of ritual actions and ritual poetry, expressing the economic, religious, magical and poetic views of the peasants. The wedding is divided into three stages: pre-wedding, wedding and post-wedding.

The pre-wedding includes matchmaking, the bride, conspiracy, bachelorette party.

By the wedding - the arrival of the wedding train to the bride's house, the ceremony of giving the bride to the groom, departure to the crown, wedding, wedding feast. At the wedding, works of various folklore genres sounded: lamentations, songs, sentences, etc. Among the ritual songs, songs of praise and reproach stood out. Magnificent songs glorify the wedding participants: the groom, the bride, parents, guests and boyfriend. They include the image of appearance, clothing, wealth. They idealized the surrounding world and reflected the idea of ​​the peasants about the aesthetic and moral appearance of a person, dreams of a happy, rich life. The main principle of the image in these songs is the principle of exaggeration. In laudatory songs, original portraits of wedding participants are given.

But a wedding is not only a fact of ethnography, but also a remarkable phenomenon of folk poetry. It was permeated with works of various genres of folklore. It includes sayings, proverbs, sayings and riddles. However, lamentations, songs and sentences are especially fully represented in wedding ceremonies.

2.2.1. Bride's Lamentations.

Lamentations (lamentation, crying, goloschenie) - recitatively, with crying, song improvisations performed. (If the bride did not know how to lament, then a specially invited mourner did it). Lamentations. were performed at a conspiracy, at a bachelorette party, during a ritual visit by the bride to the bath, before her departure together with the groom to the crown. After the wedding, the lamentations were not fulfilled. The main content of the lamentations is the hard feelings, the girl's sorrowful reflections in connection with the upcoming marriage, farewell to her family, beloved friends, her girlhood, youth. The lamentations are based on the opposition of the girl’s life in the “native family”, on the “native side”, the alleged life in the “foreign family”, on the “foreign side”. If in the native side - "green meadows", "curly birches", "kind people", then in the "foreign side" - "bumpy birches", "hummocky" meadows and "sly" people. If in her own family a girl is treated with love, she is affectionately invited to “oak” tables, “marsh” tablecloths and “sugar” dishes, then in a strange family she had to meet with the unfriendly attitude of her father-in-law, mother-in-law, and often her husband.

Of course, in the image of the native family, we meet with undoubted features of embellishment - idealization, but in general, wedding lamentations are distinguished by a pronounced realistic orientation. They truly depict the experiences of a girl getting married, at every step the features of a specific household situation appear, they talk about ordinary everyday activities in a peasant family.

Lamentations give a fairly complete picture of the everyday life of the peasants. However, their main significance is not in this. Lamentations are one of the brightest genres of folk lyrics. Their main point is not detailed description certain phenomena and facts of life (in this case, connected with the theme of marriage), but in the expression of a certain emotional attitude towards them; their main purpose is to express certain feelings.

The main compositional form of lamentations is a monologue. Most often, such monologues - the cries of the bride begin with appeals to parents, sisters, brothers and friends. For example: “You, my dear parents!”, My dear sister!”, “Lyuba, dear friend!” etc.

In lamentations, syntactic poalels are widely used in abundance and include all kinds of questions and. exclamations. This enhances their drama and emotional expressiveness.

In lamentations, as in many other genres of folklore, epithets are widely used. However, the lyrical nature of lamentations is especially pronounced in the fact that they most often use not pictorial epithets, but expressive ones, for example, such as “native side”, “desired parents”, “dear friends”, “dear neighbors”, “alien side”, “foreign clan-tribe”, “foreign father-mother”, “great longing”, “burning tears”, etc.

A distinctive feature of lamentations is the unusually wide use of words with diminutive suffixes in them. Especially often they use such words as “mother”, “father”, “brothers”, “sisters, girlfriends, neighbors”, “little head”. "gorushko", "crunch." and etc.

Often, all the noted techniques and means of poetic style (syntactic parallelism, words with diminutive suffixes, expressive epithets, appeals and questions) are used simultaneously in lamentations, and then expressiveness of extraordinary power is achieved. An example is the lamentation in which the bride-maiden refers to "darling, aunt" with the following words:

You, dove, aunt!

You tell me, dove

How did you break up

With a dear father,

With a nurse mother,

With a little brother falcon

With a sweet dove sister,

With aunts, with grandmothers,

With girlfriends doves,

With souls to red girls,

With girlish beauty

With girly jewelry?

Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded that all wedding poetry, all the folklore genres included in it, are closely related to each other in terms of figurative content and purpose. Differing in their poetics, these genres at the same time have features that unite them, they represent, in a certain sense, a single artistic system.

Wedding poetry was inextricably linked with its rituals, which had not only great ethnographic, but also a certain aesthetic value. (Despite the fact that the very fact of marriage was largely approached from the practical side, they thought first of all that a good housewife would enter the groom's family, in general, the wedding was perceived not as a practical transaction between the parents of the groom and bride, but as a big and bright holiday. The tone of festivity came through in everything. All those participating in the wedding ritual looked emphatically festive, dressed their best clothes for the wedding. The bride and groom dressed especially smartly. in the best harness; ringing bells were tied to the arcs. The bridegroom's chest was decorated with an embroidered towel. At the wedding, they sang and danced a lot. All this was done with a clear awareness of the festivity of the wedding ceremony, with a certain setting for entertainment: people specially went out into the street to admire the wedding train ; many came to the wedding just to enjoy the festive th decoration and fun.

3. Recruiting poetry

Recruiting rites are rites performed among the peasantry in relation to men called up for service for 25 years in the Russian army during the period of the decree "On recruitment duty. The predecessors of recruits in the history of Russia were the so-called "dacha people." The order on the number of recruits up to each rural community was brought by the authorities from above.Who specifically to send to the soldiers, the communities decided at a general meeting, choosing among those who had already reached the age of 20. For the entire year remaining before the call, the recruit candidate was not forced to work, but from the summer onwards they were generally released from all work, so that he walked more at conversations and summer games. Recruits ("non-recruits") were pitied, they were treated as people whose days of life on earth were already numbered. candles (put out a personalized one - go to the army), on a loaf of bread with a pectoral cross baked in it (fall over the threshold - to the service), on a pectoral cross, which, among other items, could choose there is a rooster in divination at Christmas time, by beans and cards, by the crow of a rooster on the day of departure for the call, etc. On the day of departure for the commission, the parents blessed the guy in the house, played scenes in which the young man allegedly returned from the commission, released from the draft. On the morning of the medical examination, candidates for recruits washed in the bath with soap from the washing of a dead man, so that the doctor would evaluate them as sick and infirm.

After the medical examination, the remaining 3-7 days before the call-up, the recruit walked every day with songs at farewell parties, where, among other things, they were lamented as if they were dead. Sometimes recruits competed in horse races. It was believed that the winner would return alive, and those who fell from the horse would surely die. In the morning on the eve of departure, the recruit went to say goodbye to the dead at the cemetery, and at sunset he said goodbye to the house, to his father's field and meadow, to the bathhouse, to the shore of his native river or lake. In the house on the eve of departure, the relatives once again wondered from the loaf of bread on the threshold whether to serve as a recruit in a nearby city or far from home. On the road, the recruit received a blessing from his father and mother, and if called in a war year, then from the village priest. With them, the recruits took a supply of food for several days and a handful of their native land in a bag. The mothers of the recruits were escorted to the volost center. Near the house and at all important crossroads, friends fired their guns into the air with blank charges. Alive after 25 years of service, few people returned home from recruits.

After 1868, recruiting rites were first transformed into rites of seeing off to the Army or to the active front, but now they are reduced to one farewell party and the general customs of seeing off on a long journey. Occasionally, conscripts take with them a leaflet with the apocrypha "The Dream of the Most Holy Theotokos" or "Prayers of God", other military prayers, which are believed to protect commanders and colleagues from death and rude attitude towards the conscript. Even less often they are given a drink on the day they are sent to the Army water, on which such prayers were spoken by the healer.

Lamentations have their own area of ​​ideological and artistic interests, their own sphere of emotional influence. The peculiarity of lamentations lies in the fact that the public and social theme in them rarely speaks openly, more often a protest against the existing reality finds expression in the aggravation of personal tragic experiences. Often lamentations (wedding, funeral, recruiting) were performed by special performers: “weeping”, “weeping”, “captive”. The performance of lamentations is facilitated by the fact that the poetic tradition plays a huge role in them, having developed over the centuries a number of stable formulas, images, compositional techniques, which facilitated the memorization of fragments of lamentation and improvisation within the established style, improvisation, often consisting only in more or less free combination traditional formulas.

4. Funeral poetry

In direct contrast to wedding rituals and accompanying poetry in their emotional tone were funeral rites with their only poetic genre - lamentations. Funeral and ceremonies dedicated to the most sorrowful, tragic events in a person's life, from beginning to end were full of weeping, cries and sobs.

Funeral rites are very ancient in origin. In them, one can note the features of animistic ideas, which was expressed in the cult of veneration of ancestors. It was believed that the souls of the dead did not die, but moved to another world. It was believed that the deceased ancestors could have a certain influence on the fate of the living, so they were afraid of them, they tried in every possible way to appease them. This was reflected in the funeral rites. The coffin with the body of the deceased was taken out very carefully, being afraid to touch it to the jamb of the door (the magic of touch), so as not to leave death at home. Many rituals and customs reflect the veneration of the deceased. During the commemoration, one place was left unoccupied, as it was believed that the soul of the deceased was present at the commemoration. And the custom is still firmly held not to say anything bad about the deceased.

All this, to some extent, was reflected in the funeral lamentations. Whatever a person was in life, after death he was called in lamentations only with affectionate words ^ For example, a widow endowed her late husband with the epithets “red “sun”, “beloved family”, “breadwinner-semeyushka”, “lawful restraint”, etc. We find traces of the ancient animistic worldview in lamentations in their anthropomorphic images, methods of personification. In them, for example, one can find anthropomorphic images of death, unhappy fate.

The connections of funeral lamentations with early forms of thinking "are undeniable. However, it must be admitted that the main value of funeral lamentations for us is not in this. centuries, when these lamentations were widely used and when they were recorded in large numbers. Expression of love for the deceased and fear of the future surround the main content of all funeral lamentations. In laments, the tragic situation of a family left without a breadwinner is drawn with great poetic power. Thus, in to one of them, the poor widow says that since the father of the family died, the whole household has fallen into complete decline.

Funeral lamentations are characterized by genuine realism in describing the harsh conditions of peasant life. One of these lamentations about the fate of the poor orphans says:

They eat cheeks 2 breadcrumbs And pieces of leftovers...

How orphan little children are

Wearing a sheath dress

And a shoe, - a shoe,

The focus of the funeral lamentations is the peasant family, its plight after the death of the breadwinner. However, over time (especially after the “peasant reform” of 1861, in the era of capitalism), various social motives also penetrate more and more strongly into them. Particularly indicative in this regard is the "Lament for the Warden" by the famous Zaonezhskaya captive Irina Andreevna Fedosova (1831-1899). This lament, like all other lamentations, is based on a completely reliable fact.

Funeral lamentations are of interest to us in several respects: 1) traces of ancient ideas about the afterlife; 2) vivid pictures of the real situation of the peasantry, its social and family life; 3) direct emotional relationship to the deceased. The ideas of the afterlife, associated with the dogmas of Christianity, made it possible in funeral lamentations to refer to the deceased as to the living, but departed, lost, lost. In many songs there are questions to relatives, did anyone see the deceased:

Think about it, dear, dear matchmaker,

Yes, as she walked along the wide path

Didn't you meet a reliable little head there?

Funeral lamentations are very emotional, human grief is directly poured into them, the hard life of the Russian peasantry is depicted. Especially often there are lamentations of a woman who has lost her husband and understands that she alone cannot cope with the burden of peasant life:

I'm lonely alone

I'm bitter, I'm bitter

I can't think with anyone

The warm summer has come

Crazy worker...

How will I work

My strength is not enough.

The lamentations did not specifically depict social phenomena, there was no social protest in them. The account was actually created anew every time; improvisation is inherent in it.

5. Conclusions

In conclusion, it should be noted that, since ancient times, family ritual poetry has been developing, improving and, as a result, simplified.

The poetic works included in the rituals had various and rather complex functions, as they accompanied various moments of the “performance”.

The composition of family ritual folklore is complex. There are four main genres - wedding, laudatory, reproachful songs and lamentations.

In the works of wedding poetry, various artistic means are used: psychological parallelism, appeals, symbols (“green garden” - youth), epithets (“cordial friend”), personifications, inversions, comparisons, metaphors, sound writing. Techniques of artistic typification are especially pronounced when depicting the so-called song heroes and their life environment. The heroes of the songs are not numerous: “the red maiden”, “good fellow”.

Thus, the artistic features of family ritual poetry are so diverse that it will take more than a century to study them. Ritual poetry is a huge part of oral folk art.

Anyone who wants to know the past in order to correctly understand the present and the future must know folklore, as well as traditional folk art, folk music, ancient architecture.

6. List of sources used

Russian folk poetry. Reader edited by A.M. Novikova. - M., 2009.

Russian folk poetry. Reader under the editorship of Yu.G. Kruglov. - L., 2009.

Kravtsov N.I., Lazutin S.G. Russian oral folk art. - M., 2010.

Russian folk poetry. Ed. A.M. Novikova.-M., 2010.

Anikin V.P. Russian oral folk art. M., 2008.

Zueva T.V., Kirdan B.P. Russian folklore. Textbook for higher educational institutions. - M., 2009.

Anikin V.P. Russian folklore. M., 2011.

Kruglov Yu.G. Russian ritual songs. M., 2008.

Razumov A. A. Word of wisdom. - M.: Children's Literature Publishing House, 2007.

2. Russian folk poetry. Reader on folklore /Comp. Yu. G. Kruglov. - M.: Higher school, 2011.

3. Russian poetic creativity. T II, ​​Book I. / ed. D. S. Likhachev. M-L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 2009.

4. Russian folk poetry. ritual poetry. / Compiled by K. Chistov, B. Chistova. - L .: Fiction, 2009.

1. CONSPIRACY FOR FIRE

Father you, Yar-Fire!

You are the Prince of all princes,

You are fire with all fires.

Be meek, be merciful!

How hot and ardent you are

How do you burn and burn

In a clean field of grass and ants,

Thickets and slums

The raw oak has underground roots,

So I pray and repent to you,

Father, Yar-Fire,

Burn - slept with me

All sorrows and illnesses

Fear and turmoil!

Goy!

2. ASK FOR FORGIVENESS BY THE WATER

We came to you, Mother Water,

With a hanging and with a guilty head.

Forgive us,

Forgive us too

Water grandfathers and great-grandfathers!

Goy!

3. ASK FOR FORGIVENESS FROM THE EARTH

Goy thou, Mother Earth Raw,

Mother to us dear!

Thou hast given birth to all of us.

Forgive me, Mother Raw Earth,

If in what they annoyed you!

Goy Ma!

Bless, Mati, take your fruit!

Your fetus is suitable for everything!

Forgive us Mother Earth

When what annoyed you!

Goy Ma!

4. CONSPIRACY ON THE EARTH

Mother Earth Cheese!

Generate on all souls

For everyone who comes and goes,

On the crippled and on the poor,

To the brethren who have and those who do not have!

Goy Ma!

5. CONSPIRACY FOR THE WIND

You are a violent wind!

Blow in a good direction

Don't sink our ships

Do not drive away from your home

And I bake pancakes

I'll make porridge

I will feed you, Wind!

Goy!

6. PLANS FOR RAIN

God forbid, I will rain in thick reins!

Water all day

On our barley

On the grandmother's rye,

On a man's oats

On girlish buckwheat

On baby millet!

Rain, rain, more

Give me more bread!

Goy!

Rainbow arc, bring us rain!

Goy!

rainbow arc,

Break the rain!

Give me a red sun

Kolokolnitsy!

Goy!

7. KO MAKOSHI

You are a goy, Mother,

Makosh-Linen,

field protector,

Woman's work assistant!

You, Mati, commanded us

So that brother does not scold brother.

You, Mother, save

Save and Command

Ergot life,

From thunder, from lightning,

Honestly birth

From vow and prophecy,

Golden crown from the curse,

From reproach and judgment!

Goy Ma!

8. CONSPIRACIES FOR FROST

Frost, Frost!

Come to us to eat jelly!

Do not hit, Frost, our oats, our rye,

And beat, Frost, a bylnik and a wren!

Goy!

frost, frost,

Don't beat our oats

Oak, maple and flax.

And finally - your will!

Goy!

frost, frost,

Don't freeze our oats

Eat kissel and make fun of us!

Wolves, bears,

Foxes, martens,

Hares, stoats,

Come to us to eat jelly!

Goy!

9. ON KOLYADA

Behind the mountain, behind the steep

Behind the river behind the fast

The forests are dense.

In those forests the fires are burning,

Fires burn flammable.

People are standing around the lights

People are caroling!

Goy!

Behind the river behind the fast

The forests are dense

Great fires are burning

There are benches around the fires,

The benches are oak.

On those benches - good fellows,

Good fellows, red girls

Sing songs - carols.

In the middle of them sits an old man,

He sharpens his damask knife.

The boiler boils fuel

A goat is standing near the boiler,

They want to kill a goat!

Goy!

Sunshine, turn around

Red, fire up

Red Sun, go on the road,

Forget the winter cold!

Goy!

Kolyada-Solstice

Standing right at the gate

Carrying a wheel in hand

Leads to Holy Rus'.

Flare up, the sun is red,

You are not extinguished in the Light!

Goy!

The wheel rolled from Nova-Gorod,

From Nova-Gorod to Kyiv,

From Kyiv to the Black Sea,

To the Black Sea to the wide one,

Whether wide or deep.

Wheel, burn-roll,

Come back in Red Spring!

Goy!

Oh, Avsen, oh, Kolyada!

Is the owner at home?

He is not at home!

He left for the field

Sow wheat.

Sow, sow, plow,

Spike ear!

spike ear,

True return a hundred!

Goy!

10. CHALLENGES OF SPRING, SPRING SPELLS

Spring-Mother, come to us for a walk!

Goy Ma!

Oh, sandpipers, larks,

Come visit us from the far side!

A sandpiper flew from across the sea,

Sandpiper brought nine locks.

Sandpiper, sandpiper, close the winter

Unlock spring, warm summer!

Goy Ma!

Help me, God

Help, Mother

Call spring!

For a quiet summer

On a vigorous life,

Zhito and wheat -

Every farm!

Goy Ma!

God bless

Bless, Mati

call spring,

See off the winter!

Zimochka - in a cart,

Letichko - in the shuttle!

Goy Ma!

We pray, Lado,

We pray to the Supreme God

Oh Lado, oh!

Let it blow, Lado,

Let the gentle wind blow!

Oh Lado, oh!

Let it hit, Lado,

Let the native rain hit!

Oh Lado, oh!

Goy Ma!

Spring is coming, coming

On a golden horse

In the green saiyan

Sitting on the plow

Oruchi the Cheese-Earth,

Seyuchi with the right hand!

Goy Ma!

Spring! Spring Red!

Come join us with joy!

With joy, with great mercy!

With big flax

With a deep root

With great bread!

Goy Ma!

11. TO PERUN

Perun-Father!

Bless the seeds to throw into the ground!

You drink Mother Earth Cheese

cold dew,

To bring her grain,

shook him up,

She returned it to us in a big ear!

Goy!

12. TO YARIL

Light-Yarilo!

Three Heavens going

Three Heavens going

Three Heavens go!

Take the keys!

Unlock the Earth to Cheese -

Let the dew warm!

Let the dew through the spring

For a dry summer, for a vigorous life!

Goy!

Yarilo!

Get up early

unlock the earth

Release the dew

For a warm summer

On a wild life

On the vigorous

On the spike!

Goy!

Yarilo walked around the world,

He gave birth to a field, he gave birth to children for people.

And where Yarilo is with his foot - there is a living dig,

And where Yarilo looks - there the ear will leap!

Goy!

Good morning honest people!

Here comes the green Yarilo

On a green horse

Green like grass

Dewy like dew;

Brought a zhita ear

And good news from Heaven!

Goy!

We drive the green Yarila,

Butter and eggs please

We drive away the winter - we scatter the spring!

Goy!

Leela, burn, give birth to life!

Have fun with us Lel came,

He brought Spring with him!

Goy!

13. TO KOSTROMA

Kostromushka danced,

Kostromoshka played out

Wine with poppy seeds got drunk;

Suddenly Kostromushka fell down -

Kostroma died,

Kostromushka-Kostroma!

They began to converge on Kostroma,

Clean up the kostromoushka

Yes, to believe in stealing;

How relatives began to grieve,

Cry out over Kostromushka;

And strangers - to dance, tap:

“Kostromushka was cheerful,

Kostromushka was good

Kostroma-Kostromushka,

Our white swan!

Goy Ma!

14. TO KUPALA

How early the sun plays on Kupala,

The sun is playing early good years,

For good years - for warm dews,

For warm dew - for bread-crops,

For bread-crops!

Goy!

Kupala walked - village, village.

She closed her eyes - with a pen, with a pen.

Vitala lads - brow, brow.

Weaving wreaths - silk, silk.

In the night she shone - fire, fire.

Kupala was reputed to be warm, warm.

Glory to Kupala - sing, sing!

Goy Ma!

Today we have Kupala - glory!

The Gods themselves kindled the Fire - glory!

And they called all the spirits to themselves - glory!

Only there is no Yarila with Kupala - glory!

Yarilo went to lay the fire - glory!

I went to Kupala to watch life - glory!

Whose life is the best - glory!

To brew beer, marry sons - glory!

To drive the burner, to give out daughters - glory!

Goy Ma!

15. ON THE AUTUMN MAKOSH

Mother the Most Pure,

Get rid of the pendulum

Take the insults away from me,

Sanctify my life-being!

Goy Ma!

Mother Field Protector,

Come to us, help us sow, reap,

Clean up the bins!

Goy Ma!

Harvest, harvester, give me back my snares,

On the pestle, on the beat,

On a crooked spindle!

Goy Ma!

Nyvka, Nyvka, give me your snares!

Let the ear be born

Like a red girl's hair !

Goy Ma!

16. ON THE AUTUMN DEDOV

Holy Grandfathers, we call you!

Holy Grandfathers, fly to us!

Goy!

Holy Dzyady, you have come here,

They drank and ate

Latsice same tsyaper to syabe!

Goy!

Grandpa, come to dinner!

You are and give us!

Holyly accept this sacrifice!

Goy!

17. TO VELES

Breadwinner! Here comes your holiday.

We are all gathered to You with bread and salt.

Give us health and a good life.

Let our grain be born and cattle multiply.

Save our houses from fire

And from all evil.

Glory to Thee!

Goy!

18. TO LESH

Master of the Forest!

Stand before me like a leaf before the grass,

Not black, not green, but just like me!

I brought you a red egg!

Goy!

Master of the Forest, Hostess of the Forest!

Give me a fruit, a kind!

Take it to good health!

Goy!

19. TO THE YARD HOST

Father Dvorovoy, don't leave,

Do not destroy the yard, do not destroy the cattle,

Don't tell the dashing way!

Goy!

20. CONSPIRACY ON KIKIMORA

Oh, you are a goy, Kikimora brownie,

Get out of the mountaineer's house as soon as possible!

Goy!

21. ON THE DEAD

The body in the pit - the soul is with us,

We are home - the soul is uphill!

Goy!

22. WOUND HEALING

On the sea on the ocean,

On the island of Buyan

The white-flammable stone Alatyr lies,

Father of all stones.

On that stone Alatyr

Sitting red girl

seamstress,

Holds a damask needle

He threads a silk, rudo-yellow thread,

Sewing bloody wounds.

I speak [name] from a cut!

Bulat, leave me alone

And you, blood, stop flowing!

Goy!

23. CHARMS FOR CATTLE

Veles God of cattle!

Don't leave the cattle

On the way and on the road

Go without any obstacle!

Key and lock - strong words!

Goy!

Yarilo our brave,

Veles God of cattle!

You save our cattle

In the field and beyond the field

In the forest and beyond the forest

Under the bright moon

Under the red sun

From the ravenous wolf

From a fierce bear

From the evil beast!

Goy!

24. SONG TO BREAD

And we sing this song to Bread - glory!

We sing bread, but we honor Bread - glory!

Old people for amusement - glory!

Good people to hear - glory!

Rolled grain on velvet - glory!

Is that Burmese grain still - glory!

Grain rolled to the yacht - glory!

Large pearls with a yacht - glory!

Good groom and bride - glory!

There is a blacksmith from the forge - glory!

Blacksmith carries three hammers - glory!

Blacksmith, Blacksmith, forge me a crown - glory!

Forge me a crown, and gold, and new - glory!

From the remnants - a golden ring - glory!

Goy!

25. WEDDING

I walk through the garden, I make a towel,

I’m still like - I’ll spread the canvases!

Glory, my Lado!

Glory, my Lado!

Pike swims from the lake

She carries her tail from Nova-gorod,

She has silver scales on her,

That silver, gilded!

Glory, my Lado!

Glory, my Lado!

There is a blacksmith from the forge,

The Blacksmith bears a golden crown,

Carrying an engagement ring.

I'm getting married in that crown,

I should get engaged with that ring!

Glory, my Lado!

Glory, my Lado!

Goy Ma! Glory!

My silver cup

Set on a golden platter!

Whom to drink, who is healthy to be?

Young drink to health,

To health, to health!

Goy!

Glory to Rod!

Recorded vlh. Veleslav

© Russian-Slavic Rodnoverie Community "RODOLYUBIE"

© Commonwealth of Communities "VELESOV KRUG"