Rituals at matchmaking among the Mordovians. Mordovian wedding ceremonies

Traditions

Wedding rituals of the Mordovians of the Zalesovskogo Chumysh region: traditions and innovations

The spiritual culture of the Mordovians, as a result of centuries of neighborhood and communication with Russians, life in the same natural and socio-ecological conditions, has absorbed many common features in the economy and culture. Along with this, many traditional features that have developed in the past are being transformed, disappearing, or, conversely, are being further developed and spread.

One of the most stable components of modern spiritual culture, in which one can trace the traditions that were formed in different historical periods, is wedding rituals. In a very complex complex of the wedding ritual, which breaks down into numerous ritual actions, archaic features, customs, beliefs, family and marriage relations, reflecting the social, legal, religious ideas of the Mordovians, are still preserved.

In wedding ceremonies, due to their special persistence, the ethnic specificity of life and the culture of an ethnic group living in a different ethnic environment are clearly manifested. All this allows us to consider the wedding ceremony as one of the most interesting sources in the study of the Altai Mordovians.

The article is written on the materials of expeditionary surveys of residents of Mordovian villages (Borisovo, Nikolskoye) and mixed villages (Bolshoi Kaltai, Malyi Kaltai, Dumchevo, Pishcherka, Cheryomushki), conducted under the guidance of Doctor of Historical Sciences. T.K. Shcheglova in 1998 - 2003 in the Zalesovsky district. During the field work, we tried to reconstruct the wedding ceremony that existed in the middle of the 20th century, to reveal the preservation of the traditional elements of the Mordovian wedding, their transformation.

The Mordovian wedding is the most interesting and unique celebration in its national, traditional scale, which has retained its importance to this day peoples: Russians, Chuvashs, Tatars. Speaking about the Mordovian wedding in Altai, it should be noted that due to a number of reasons (living in a foreign ethnic environment, remoteness from the tribal territory, lack of connection with it), there have been changes in the structure of the wedding ceremony. In recent years, a modern Mordovian wedding has absorbed many new, all-Russian wedding traditions, while maintaining some elements of a traditional wedding.

In the villages of the Zalesovsky district (Small Kaltai, Dumchevo, Peshcherka, Bolshoi Kaltai), elements of the traditional wedding (in a transformed form) were preserved until the 1940s–1970s. 20th century But in the villages of Borisovo and Nikolskoye, Mordvinians still celebrate weddings according to traditional customs.

The traditional Mordovian wedding is a very complex action with rituals, lamentations and songs, on which lay sadness and suffering. In the scientific literature, the Mordovian wedding cycle is usually divided into three stages: pre-wedding, the actual wedding and post-wedding. The pre-wedding stage includes rituals and ceremonies associated with matchmaking and preparation for the wedding, lamentations. Each of these stages is accompanied by a number of peculiar rituals. Like many peoples, earlier marriage among the Mordovians was at the behest of their parents. Young people did not choose each other before, “parents chose”. “They chose the bride that parents would like, but the groom didn’t have to like it.”3 Mordovians used to have such a phenomenon when sons of 8-10 years old were married to 20-30-year-old girls.

The purpose of the marriage of young boys to adult girls was purely economic: a rich man tried to marry his son in order to take new labor into the house. The girls' parents, on the contrary, tried to keep their daughters with them as long as possible for the same purpose, since the woman in the family was a powerless labor force. Along with men, she did all the work and still had to feed and clothe her husband and children. She did not receive help from her family, and her dowry went to the common household. There were no unmarried Mordovians. But over time, such a phenomenon became frequent when healthy and beautiful women, mostly the daughters of wealthy parents, refused to marry, changed their national costume for a black Russian dress. The main reason for this phenomenon was the living conditions of a married woman. Therefore, the wedding in the bride's house was accompanied by bitter lamentations, tears about the difficult fate of women.

Matchmaking in a Mordovian wedding is one of the highlights and takes place in several stages. The first stage is a preliminary agreement on matchmaking. Before the matchmaking, the groom's parents had to find out whether the bride's parents would accept them or not. “And then suddenly they don’t want to marry their daughter. And if the bride's parents agree, then the matchmakers will soon come. There were cases when parents decided to marry their children themselves (who had never seen each other, for example, from different villages). “At the same time, there was no marriage. They will bring the bride, put her in the front corner and close her so that no one can see, while the wedding is going on. And when they start to pancake, give out gifts, then they open it, that's how it was. Neither one nor the other saw each other, but they were married and you can’t go anywhere. They live and suffer."

If the wedding took place by early agreement, then the second stage was matchmaking. Parents sent matchmakers to the bride's house, "to agree on who will put how much." At first, the matchmakers usually sat under the mat, it was believed that it “confuses”, “binds”, so those who came cannot be kicked out. In the village of Borisovo, when matchmakers came to woo the bride, “they brought gifts to the bride, and the bride said what to give her for the wedding, there, for example, felt boots, a shawl, a dress. Be sure to agree on the day of the wedding on this day. 8After setting the wedding day, the mother-in-law brought woolen threads for embroidery to the bride. Usually three balls - red, blue and green. The time of the wedding was appointed so that the bride had time to prepare gifts for everyone: “There, for example, a shirt for the father of the groom, a shirt for the mother, a shirt for the godfather and a shirt for the lelka. There if the sister is a dress or a canvas. Four bags were prepared.

Preparing for the wedding of the bride was a very important thing, because before the bride had to have for herself and for gifts from 10 to 20 embroidered women's and men's shirts and dresses. Such a multitude of gifts could not be prepared quickly. Yes, and the girl had a little time to prepare her dowry, because "in winter and summer, the girl works for the family, but only in May and July - these are the months for sitting, she works for herself." Therefore, there was a fairly long period of time between the matchmaking and the wedding itself. And often the bride was already married and in marriage she prepared her dowry.

The next rite in the pre-wedding cycle was the drinking rite, which also existed among the Russians, but among the Mordovians it had a number of specific features. “Before the wedding, after the matchmaking, they left 6 weeks, and after three weeks they went to drink the bride. From that day on, the bride and groom did not meet until the wedding itself. “When the matchmakers come, they should bring with them: a bucket of wine, a loaf of bread, salt and a ruble money, while the hosts and relatives (brides) sit as if they were invited, they are treated by the matchmakers.”

Previously, during the “drinking of the bride”, matchmakers put a mark, although this ceremony was not found in Altai. At this time, the bride was sitting in the closet, where the father of the groom went to inspect the bride. At the door of the closet he was met by two married women, usually the wife of the bride's brother and the elder married sister, and demanded payment for the pass-+, after he paid, he was let through. The groom's father poured a glass of vodka, lowered a silver coin into it and offered it to the bride. She drank a little and let her friends finish drinking. Her father-in-law gave her a handkerchief, a ring and a bracelet. From that moment on, the young people were considered completely betrothed, the girl stopped going to gatherings and began to prepare gifts for the groom's relatives together with her friends.

All these stages of the pre-wedding cycle were accompanied by wedding lamentations, which the Mordovians passed on from one generation to another. Mordovian girls have been accustomed to them since childhood. In general, the Mordovian wedding represented the struggle of two parties (votes) - the kind of bride and groom, i.e. two motives sounded: the matchmaker usually sang loudly, merrily and solemnly, as a representative of the family of the groom (winner); another motive - sad, sad (associated with parting with their home) - was sung by the bride and her friends.

Among the Altai Mordovians, the wedding was accompanied by the singing of mostly Russian wedding songs; few people could remember exactly the Mordovian wedding songs.

The Mordovian wedding usually took place on a "light day" - Sunday. Three days before the wedding, on Friday, friends came to the bride's house. On Saturday, the day before the wedding, they held a "porridge day", this ceremony is still preserved and is performed at Mordovian weddings, symbolizing the bride's farewell to her relatives and friends. The most ancient and traditional for the Mordovians was millet porridge, which was part of the festive and ritual food (wedding, funeral). Many researchers of the traditional Mordovian wedding, describing the role of millet porridge, pointed to the archaism of the dish, seeing its origins in the pre-Christian beliefs of the Mordovians, in particular, in the “baban porridge” holiday. On this day, all her relatives gathered in the bride's house (men were not invited).

Each woman who was invited had to bring a pot of porridge with her. “Usually boiled millet porridge. Whoever had milk will cook with milk, or with water. When everyone sat down at the table, they put pots with porridge, and in the middle a cup of butter. The hostess from her cast-iron pan imposes porridge for all guests. The bride should sit at the head of the table, and next to her, on one side, sat on a pillow a little sister or goddaughter, and on the other, a girl who was to get married. After they have spent the “porridge”, they collect a tablecloth and put it on the head of the oldest friend so that she will soon get married. All cups that were brought with porridge remain with the bride so that the groom can see how many relatives she has. After that, the bride is taken out into the street, where she throws a ring, whichever of her friends catches it, she will marry next.

On this day, the mother of the bride was preparing a wedding cake - “kurnik”, which was considered an obligatory attribute of a Mordovian wedding. The pie was made from cottage cheese and dough (in several layers: a layer of dough, a layer of cottage cheese). This "kurnik" the next day, along with the wedding train, was sent to the groom's house.

In the majority of surveyed villages, the obligatory part of the Mordovian wedding was the ritual "maiden's bath". The materials of the traditional Mordovian wedding show that for the Mordovians this is a relatively new rite, borrowed from the Russians17. At the end of the ceremony with porridge, the bridesmaids began to heat the bathhouse. “While the bath is heating, they will lock the bride, pour cold water on the doors, cover them with snow in winter, and go to the groom for a broom and soap. They bring it, and the bride breaks the broom and tramples on the soap.”18 The broom for the bride was usually taken from the neighbors: “and the kids take the broom, tie it with a ribbon and hide it, and the bride has to buy it back.

If a boy stole, then he will give a ruble, if a girl, then a ribbon. The bride was taken to the "maiden's bath" by her friends, they sang sad songs that she was parting with a girl's life, "washing away a girl's life", leaving her home. The bride walked with her head covered, only a white shirt was worn from her friend's linen. In the bath, the friends untwisted the braid for the bride, washed it for the last time. Upon returning from the bath, her friends already braided her two braids (among the Mordovians, unmarried girls wore one braid, and married girls wore two). And if the bride was an orphan, or she had one mother or father, then the braids were braided in half. On this day, the mother of the bride prepared treats for her friends - “maiden salma”, scrambled eggs with pork, and the bride gave them gifts - handkerchiefs, ribbons. And the old women at the same time lamented: “they will divide the braid in half, they will take away the girl’s will, and the woman’s share is heavy.”

The wedding at the groom's house, on the contrary, began with fun, baking pies for the wedding train. Usually they were baked by the mother of the groom, and women from her relatives helped her. They brought with them a bowl of cereals or flour, around the edges of which an odd number of eggs were placed, and in the middle a piece of butter. At the wedding, it was customary to bring food raw and in odd quantities. Now even older people cannot explain why this is done. They say that this has been "according to custom for a long time." And in the past, raw foods were considered a symbol of life, and an odd number meant that there was not enough person in the family. It was considered indecent to come to the wedding empty-handed, since the help of relatives to the groom's parents was manifested in the offerings.

In order to expel evil spirits that could ruin the wedding, when they baked pies, they lit a torch and walked around the dough with it, and only after that they started baking. They baked from 5 to 9 pies, each of which had its own meaning.

The most important pie was Bolshoy luksh, it had a round shape, it was baked from sour dough, and the filling consisted of 7 layers: the bottom layer was millet porridge, then a layer of eggs, the third of cottage cheese, the topmost layer was with an egg. Each layer was baked separately, and then they were stacked on top of each other, smeared with millet porridge. From above, the pies were decorated, Christmas trees and cloves were made from the dough, and on top of the most important pie, a “bun” bird would be planted. Here in Russian, this “gull” does not mean anything, just a bird, but in Mordovian this is a bad word, it’s like “male”. And when they go for the bride, they will take Bolshoy Luksh with them. When the cake is put on the table in the bride's house, the matchmaker will try to steal this bun. She must bring her back to the groom's house so that the bride does not get this floor. On the first evening before going to bed, the matchmaker will show the bride a bun - whether she likes it or not.

Of great importance in the Mordovian wedding were the wedding ranks: the matchmaker, uredev, uredev's assistants, lamenters, passers-by. With the change in wedding rituals among the Altai Mordovians, many of these ranks were lost. As already noted, wedding lamentations have disappeared almost everywhere, and with them there is no need for lamenters. But the matchmaker - “kudava” still plays an important role in the wedding train, she was usually the godmother of the groom or another relative. The matchmaker could not be the mother of the groom, a maiden, a widow or a pregnant woman, it was believed that these women could bring misfortune to a new family. On Sunday morning, the groom was going to go for the matchmaker: “before, they didn’t dress up much, they usually put on shirts, which were only embroidered on the bottom, sleeves, collar. They put a coin under the groom’s heel so that they wouldn’t jinx it”23. In the meantime, he went to the matchmaker, in the groom's house they were waiting for "girls" from the bride's side, who were supposed to bring part of the bride's dowry: "girlfriends collect tablecloths, towels." In the groom's house they were greeted with songs, while a lot of people gathered. “The girls will come, first they play, they douse themselves with water, if it’s winter, then they throw snow. They come into the house, start hammering nails, shouting that the nails don’t break.” “The hosts set the table for them, and the girls try to steal the spoons and carry them away, how many spoons are stolen, so many children the young will have. And already at the wedding, the hosts will take and put one spoon for them - here you are, since you are thieves.

After the groom went for the matchmaker, the second stage of the Mordovian wedding began. The Mordovians called this procession the “wedding train”: they brought with them a pie that they cooked in the evening - Big Luksh, a quarter of moonshine and a bucket of beer. The matchmaker was considered the main person in the train, and then uredev (poksh-kida), now this is a friend of the groom, and earlier he had the function of protecting the groom and the entire train from damage. Any food served on the table was eaten first by the uredev, and then by all the others. The groom's mother, as the keeper of the hearth, remained at home, she only saw off her son with bread and salt. Before leaving, the parents blessed the groom: the father took in his hands the icon that was left at home, she was considered the guardian of the hearth of the new family. And the old women prayed for the train.

Wedding at the bride's house

There was no sleep in the bride's house the night before the wedding. The bride and her friends sang songs and cried all night. And at dawn, the bride alone went out into the yard, knelt down, said goodbye to her house, household, “wailing that she was meeting the last dawn at home.”

At this time, everyone was waiting for the train, the friends began to dress the bride, they sang songs. Previously, among the Mordovians, the process of preparing the bride for the wedding was a whole ritual. In Altai, Mordovian girls did not have a traditional wedding dress. It was just elegant canvas shirts (wide) and a skirt with an apron, embroidery was on the collar, hem and sleeves. They usually embroidered with woolen threads of red, green, blue colors. Of the jewelry, the bride wore a lot of beads, earrings, an embroidered belt. With the arrival of the matchmakers to the bride's house, each stage of the Mordovian wedding had its own meaning. It was a whole performance when one family (the groom) fought with another (the bride). “As soon as the bells were heard in the bride’s house, two brothers immediately run to the gate to delay the train and get a ransom from the trainees.”

Matchmakers stand at the gate, sing, give money, redeem the gate. They approach the porch, buy a porch, then they will buy a door. In the house of matchmakers, elderly women were waiting, who stood around an empty table and sang songs (the table was supposed to be set by the groom). “It is now customary to redeem a bride, but before they bought a table, they believed that redeeming a bride is a sin, this is not good. Previously, they only sold a table, not a person.”27 When the table was bought, the bride’s side answered: “We went shopping, bought flowers, wreaths, as they are made on your faces, buy flowers. And after the matchmaker, they put everything that they brought on the table. From the side of the bride, they turned to the groom’s father: “Don’t stand on the sidelines, you came for business, bought the table, you have to sit down.” When they sat down at the table, they sing: "The table has four corners, four words in the corners, and 100 rubles in the middle," and the matchmakers begin to treat the bride's relatives. After eating, the matchmaker gets up and says: "How many relatives do you have, how many gifts do you need." They say: “We have so many gifts, so much we need, so many rubles, give back the money.” And at the same time, bridesmaids, if it seems to them that they were given little money, then they begin to shame them.

After that, the bride's relatives hand over the rest of the bride's dowry and give the matchmaker a towel, uredeva and others of white canvas. The bride at that time was sitting in another room, after that she was taken out, and the rite of farewell of the bride with her relatives began. All relatives began to lament, the old women prayed: “here the mother and daughter begin to cry, here they say goodbye.” The bride approaches her parents, the mother blesses her with the icon with which her mother blessed her. The bride gives this icon to her father-in-law with the words: “This icon must be protected”, the father-in-law takes her away with him, with the words “as you are blessed, so you will live.”

When the bride was taken out of the house, she began to grab at all the jambs: “she doesn’t want to leave her home,” and the groom drags her. Before the young people get into the sleigh, the father of the bride had to go around the horses with the icon, and give this icon to the friend. This rite is connected with the fact that the Mordovians believed that the young could be jinxed at any moment of the wedding, especially they were not protected during the period of departure from the bride's house. Another amulet was made by the groom’s father: “he walked around the horses three times with the icon, and then, in order not to jinx the bride, he baptized her and the earth three times with a knife.” After the departure of the wedding train, the crying stopped in the bride's house, and the fun began.

Wedding at the groom's house

The bride and groom entered the courtyard, where they were met by their father with an icon, their mother with a loaf and salt, and a relative in an inside-out fur coat and hat, and she had a cup of hops in her hands. This woman in a fur coat was called a bear. In this image, the pagan beliefs of the Mordovians were intertwined. Wearing an inside-out hat and fur coat, the Mordovians believed that it was possible to protect the young from the evil spirits of "sorcerers" who were "afraid of the bear." Hops were considered a symbol of fertility and lightness. Sprinkling the young with hops, they said: “Let the young have as many children as there are cones on hops. Let the young be as easy to work as hops. After that, the young people were brought into the house: the uredev walked in front, he led the groom with one hand, and with the other hand he swept the floor with a broom so that the slanderous substance would not get under the feet of the young and spoil them. The table had already been laid in the house, on which in the middle stood an icon, three lighted candles and a pot of porridge. The young people were circled around the table three times: the uredev walked in front, then the bride and groom, and behind them the matchmaker: “and where the young people began the third circle, they sit down there.”

When all the groom's relatives sat down at the table, the bride was taken away to "bandage her head like a woman." Among the Mordovians, before marriage, the girl walked with her head uncovered. They tied the woman's head from the groom's side. They throw a scarf over the bride, and she throws off the scarf three times: she doesn’t want to stand in the women’s ranks. After this, the groom is called to tie a scarf for her. The handkerchief was tied back with the end, the rope was made a “hoop” on top. They “tie” a red scarf and braid two braids, and the girl becomes a woman. After that, the bride was taken outside, everyone stood in a circle and bought beer from the bride, and the mug was thrown in order to “find out what kind of gait the bride has”. This ceremony was performed three times a day. When these ceremonies were held, the fun began, the wedding train was sent for the bride's relatives and they walked all day. The bed for the young was made either by a matchmaker, or by a sister, or by relatives - “women are young, funny. They put firewood under the bed and joked about everything. And they will put firewood in order to sleep softer, so that the bridegroom sleeps softly on the bride, let the bride know how.

On the second day of the Mordovian wedding, everyone had fun, raged, baked pancakes, “now they pancake on the first day, but we pancake on the second day, on the first day they didn’t pancake.” They carried out the ceremony of "chicken", "they themselves dragged rubbish, logs and firewood into the hut at the matchmaker and the bride." “They will take the pipes and close them so that smoke pours into the hut, they will close the door so that the smoke does not pour into the street, it was very interesting before, now there is no such thing.”

The rite with the rooster turns into wild fun when the rooster is caught, its head is cut off, and all the guests are smeared with blood. “Then everyone goes to the river with songs, with an accordion, they put the matchmaker with a rooster in the bath. Everyone starts swimming in the river, and the matchmaker is thrown into the river right along with the trough. This rooster is brought home and the soup is cooked and served to the guests, but only the groom’s relatives eat the meat.”

The last rite, which was done on the second day, was “rubbish”: “The straw will be brought into the house, mixed with money, and the bride must buy the broom, sweep it. They themselves will tear the broom out of their hands, again the bride needs to buy a new broom, and money is littered everywhere. When all the guests have dispersed, "the bride leaves the table to give gifts to her new relatives." So, for example, the father of the groom - a shirt, the mother-in-law - a shirt, and the rest - to whom two meters of goods, and the peasants - a shirt. Sometimes there were such cases that the bride was stolen at the wedding. They will hide it in the pantry, but the groom is not allowed there, it is necessary that he redeem it. A wedding is considered completed when the hosts perform the ceremony of “beating the pots”. They pick up sticks or something else and beat them, make a kind of noise. Travelers and late guests rise from their seats, leave the house and disperse, this is where the wedding ends.

The wedding used to take place about a week: “we walked around for a week, if there was a lot of food, the young people went to visit guests. We went home, now in the dining room for two days and there is no wedding. On the third day, it was customary to go to visit the bride's relatives, then - to the groom's. And if the bride is from another village, the wedding could drag on for two weeks, while the young people go around everyone.

Thus, during the work of the expeditions, it was possible to find out that the Mordovian wedding ceremony retained its general structure, although it lost many traditional features. There are no longer those laments that in a traditional Mordovian wedding sound without stopping, there is no that wedding train. Many post-wedding customs have disappeared, such as the young woman going to her mother a week later to get a spinning wheel, or the acquaintance of the young husband with his wife's relatives.

Other customs ceased to exist: for example, for some time after the wedding, the young woman ate separately from the family, or she had to wash clothes not only from her husband’s family, but all his relatives brought dirty linen to watch how she washes. At the wedding of the Altai Mordovians, many religious and magical actions, customs, old prohibitions of warning and restrictive significance were lost: sticking needles or pins into the clothes of the bride and groom, bypassing the wedding train, etc. Some elements of traditional rituals, actions and customs exist in a transformed form.

In addition, in the traditional Mordovian wedding, there are many similar rituals with Russians and Ukrainians, for example: meeting the young in an inside-out fur coat, sprinkling them with hops, breaking pots, baking loaves, going to the bathhouse, parting with girlhood. In turn, many Russian rituals, no doubt, originate from the Finno-Ugric peoples.

But, despite the similarity of Russian and Mordovian wedding rites, they have different meanings. For example, let's take breaking pots, this custom is practiced by both Mordovians and Russians, but among Mordovians it drives away evil spirits from the hut that enters there during the wedding. According to Mordovian customs, if after the wedding the specified ceremony is not performed, then there will be no life in this hut - the spirits will sing and dance in it for whole nights.

Despite this, the wedding has retained many specific rituals characteristic of the Mordovians. This is the ceremony of treating the bride to her relatives with porridge (porridge day), the preparation of special pies (“luksh”, “kurnik”), the ceremony of covering the head with a scarf.

Thus, the wedding of the Mordovians in Altai has retained its main structural elements and appears before us as a complex ritual action that has absorbed individual rites of a Russian, Ukrainian wedding.

M.A. Ovcharov, Barnaul State Pedagogical University

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Wedding poetry of the Mordovians as an archaic part of oral poetry, captured in epic works, myths about matchmaking and marriage of the gods, ancient legends and traditions. Wedding rituals of the Mordovian wedding. Features of wedding suits

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Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation

Kazan State University of Culture and Arts

Faculty of Artistic Culture and Design

Department of ethno-artistic and Tatar musical folklore

Coursework on the topic:

Mordovian wedding (structure, characteristics, features)

The work was completed by: 3rd year student,

Vanipatov R.R.

The work was checked by: Associate Professor Candidate of Philosophical Sciences

Gafiyatullina L.A.

Kazan, 2013

Introduction

The relevance of research. In the modern period, there has been a clear trend towards the revival of national traditions, customs and rituals that have a deep social significance. These, of course, include the wedding ceremony - the most significant event in the life of any nation. A wedding is a cornerstone in the process of creating such a component of society as a family. The exceptional importance of the family and the diversity of its functions determined the complexity of the wedding ceremony.

As a historical, cultural, folklore and ethnographic phenomenon, the wedding embodies a significant layer of the oral, poetic and musical heritage of the people, which reflects its ancient worldview, ideas about family life, moral and ethical norms and moral principles. The wedding ceremony and folklore are the key to understanding many phenomena of everyday, social life of an ethnic group in the past. A wedding is an inseparable element of culture, the quintessence of the national spirit. It embodied a syncretic perception of the surrounding world, echoes of superstitions and pagan rituals, cult motifs, thoughts about a person, family, children, continuity of generations and the meaning of being.

Mordovian wedding poetry represents the most archaic part of oral poetry, captured in the epic works "Siyazhar", "Mastorava", myths about matchmaking and the marriage of the gods, ancient legends and traditions about the marriages of girls with a totem - a bear. The wedding has become a treasury of the national art of the word, an outstanding monument of artistic talent, which clearly shows the features of the verbal and artistic thinking of the ethnic group, the complexity and specificity of the language, images, visual means, genre diversity and thematic richness of family ritual works. The wedding folklore expressed the poetic talent, artistic and aesthetic tastes of the people, the depth of their psychologism, sharpness of mind and observation, generosity and breadth of soul. This explains the deep interest of folklorists and ethnographers, historians and writers, musicians in the wedding as an important section of folk culture.

Mordovian wedding rituals

A wedding is one of the most important events in a family's life. Traditional rituals dedicated to its various stages were supposed to contribute to its successful course, as well as to announce the event to fellow villagers and relatives. Wedding ceremonies were distinguished by great complexity and diversity, which was determined by the peculiarities of settlement, the variety of contacts of individual ethnic groups with their neighbors.

FormsmarriageatMordovians. Marriage has traditionally been not so much a matter for the young as for their parents and relatives. Often, when choosing a bride, the main attention was paid to the property status of her family, the diligence and health of the girl. By age, brides were sometimes older than their suitors. Decrees rulingSenate In the 18th century, Mordovians-new baptizers noted the presence of marriages of young boys of 8, 10, 12 years old to girls of 20 years or more. This was explained by the desire of the groom's parents to get additional working hands by marrying their son, and the bride's parents sought to keep their daughter in their house as long as possible. Therefore their before twenty five years and not gave away. this is was the most young bride" . This phenomenon was observed among the Mari, Udmurts, Chuvash, Komi-Permyaks. By the 19th century, the marriageable age of brides and grooms had leveled off, it mainly varied in the region of 17-20 years. As a rule, marriages were concluded in their own ethnic environment, but there were also ethnically mixed marriages, especially Mordovian-Russian ones.

Registration of marriage usually took place according to the full wedding ceremony. But other forms of marriage also took place, for example, the kidnapping of brides. For this, a group of men gathered, consisting of relatives and acquaintances of the groom, who went to the village where the girl who liked the guy lived. " Theft this produced or from round dance, or in time processions per water, or early in the morning in time chase livestock on the watering place" . The girl was taken to one of the relatives or acquaintances of the groom, locked in a barn or a crate and persuaded to give consent to marriage. In most cases, the kidnapper tried to take possession of the girl as quickly as possible. After that, she, as a rule, did not return to her parents' house. In some places, cases of kidnapping of brides occurred until the beginning of the 20th century.

ErzyabrideWithgirlfriends.

The village of Standrovo, Temnikovsky district, Tambov province. Early 20th century

Mordovians also had known marriages ear-house, or cigarettes (fox tuema(this crazy(m.) when " wench ran away from father and mothers, came out married. and transmitted his husband secretly from family all own property" . Such weddings were arranged because of the poverty of the groom and his inability to pay the bride price, or because of the disagreement of the parents to marry the guy to the girl he liked. Sometimes such a wedding took place with the secret consent of the parents in order to avoid unnecessary expenses for the wedding - ". self-propelled gun how groom, So and bride father becomes on lesser measure in five once cheaper against wedding, manageable on all form" .

But usually, no matter how poor the parents of the young, they tried to arrange a full wedding for their children, which in its composition is a complex ritual, the plot of which contains a kind of struggle between the characters of the two parties in the wedding (supporters of the groom and supporters of the bride) and develops, therefore, in the form of a dramatic collision. The Mordovian traditional wedding can be divided into several stages, each of which had a strictly defined compositional completeness, often accompanied by ancient forms of symbolic and magical motifs.

The wedding consists of the following steps:

1) matchmaking ( Ladyama(m.), well(e.);

2) preparation for the wedding ( wedding anoklama(m.), wedding anoxta mo (e.);

3) wedding in the groom's house ( wedding tseran qudsa(m.), wedding cerant kudoso(e.);

4) wedding at the bride's house ( wedding styren qudsa(m.), wedding teiterenkudoso(e.);

5) the arrival of the wedding train to the bride ( kudan herself-valgoma(m.), valgomo(e.);

6) wedding in the groom's house after the wedding ( wedding tsoran qudsa(m.), wedding kudoso(e.), venciamda mele(m.), wenchamodo mail ( e.);

7) day of fun or mummers ( quietly shea ( m.), quietly chi(e.).

Pre-wedding ritual. The wedding cycle began with matchmaking - Ladyama(m.), well(e.). Its description based on materials from the first half of the 19th century is interesting. Before going to woo the bride, the groom's father made sacrifices to the patron gods of the house, court, and deceased ancestors. Then he cut off a crust from the bread, took out the crumb from it and filled it with honey. At night, on horseback, he rode to the bride's house and put the humpbacked salmon on the gatepost. Then he banged on the window with a whip, told the owner that he had come to woo his daughter, and quickly left. The girl's father with his sons or brothers chased him. If they succeeded in the father of the groom, then

Mokshan bride costume. Temnikovsky district of the Tambov province. Late XIX - early XX century.

returned bread with honey, and beat him himself. Otherwise, the girl's father, having driven up to his house, also banged on the window with a whip, agreeing to marry his daughter to the owner's son. The Mordovians did not dare to refuse such matchmaking, fearing the wrath of the gods. However, if the daughter was matched to a poor house, then the father of the bride tried to catch up with the matchmaker in earnest, and if to a rich one, they only created the appearance of a chase.

By the end of the 19th century, this rite was noticeably transformed. Having chosen a bride for their son, the parents invited relatives to their place and announced it to them. After a thorough discussion of all the circumstances of the choice and upon the approval of all his relatives, they prayed to the gods to provide support in the planned business. Then someone from the groom's relatives was sent to the bride's parents for preliminary negotiations, usually these were his godparents or aunt and uncle. In the girl's house, the messenger must sit under the mother, as it was believed that she "confuses", "binds", therefore, those who came cannot be expelled. The conversation began with foreign objects, and then imperceptibly translated into the right direction. The bride's parents, no matter how happy this matchmaking was, refused the matchmakers on the first visit. Some did this by virtue of custom, but many delayed the matchmaking so that as many people as possible would know about it and thus provide other suitors with the opportunity to marry. These preliminary negotiations about matchmaking in the territory of modern Mordovia were called ingole yakama(m.), and kele yakamo(e.) (literally, preliminary circulation), among the Mordovians Samara areas - boulder by the way(lit., give a word), in Totsk area Orenburg region - conditionallywitzya.

The second stage of matchmaking, matchmaking itself - Ladyama(m.), well(e.). During this stage, they agreed on the costs of the wedding, on the amount of dowry, etc. As a dowry, parents usually gave their daughter clothes, as well as a young uterus from each breed of cattle. After successful negotiations, the matchmakers put on mittens and beat on the hands. Her relatives gathered in the bride's house, each of them brought a loaf of bread with them. Leaving home, they took in return the bread baked in the bride's house, which symbolized the union of two families.

But even after well(e.) It was still possible to terminate the contract, both on the part of the groom and on the part of the bride, by paying the costs of matchmaking. Young people were considered finally betrothed only after the third stage of matchmaking - chiyamo(e.), proke simomas(m.) - final singing. After him, the girl stopped going to gatherings and began to prepare gifts for the wedding.

The gifts. Many gifts were needed. To play a mediocre Mordovian wedding, it was necessary from 10 to 20 embroidered women's shirts, approximately the same number of men's, a significant amount of embroidered hats, towels, handkerchiefs, etc. They prepared gradually over several years. At the end of the XIX century. part of the gifts that the bride gave to her husband's relatives (men's shirts, scarves) were purchased. The rest she had to do with her own hands. Immediately before the wedding, her friends helped her, gathering in her house.

The wedding dress of the Erzyanka bride was especially distinguished by continuous carpet embroidery. pokai, which is covered to the middle of the chest with a continuous ornament. Embroidered signs-symbols (charm, tribal and family) on festive and wedding dresses were different than on everyday shirts.

Dowry preparation. Reconstruction. Photo from the album "Mordovian dress".

In the wedding folklore of Erzi and Moksha, the beauty of shirts embroidered with signs is sung:

mazy yalgan incredulity , And what digan polcox son syrgast .

Kotova targan sonst palast , Cell marto sonst rucyast .

Beauties my girlfriends rose , flock whites geese moved .

AT six stripes embroidered them shirts , AT cage embroidered them rutsi .

In the Mordovian wedding ceremony, there is a ritual of demonstrating and trying on the dowry of the bride to one of her friends, during which the elements of the costume, the beauty of embroidery, signs, and ornaments were characterized in the song being performed:

Pull shkaka, Yalganka , Surmatf clumping panaronts .

Melganza cheek, Yalganka , Pindolds petx panaronts .

Pull goodbye, kelgomyanke , Langong mazy panaronts , Dream colma suron kelesa , Surmatft mazy qualmonza , Kyad noodle box enzenza , Ustor shovels kenzhenza , Dawn tyashtep nalenza .

Now put on girlfriend , shirt, embroidered kumach .

On the her put on girlfriend , shirt With bright embroidery .

Now put on darling , most beautiful shirt .

On the her in three finger width , Beautiful embroidery on back , FROM palm pattern on hem , How maple sheet embroidery on the shoulders , How morning star embroidery on the sides .

In a number of places, after the matchmaking, there was a custom to go to the groom - to get acquainted with his place of residence kudon vanoma(m), kudon vanomo(e.), - look at the house, look at the stoves. Many researchers believe that this custom was adopted by the Mordovians from the Russians. This is supported by the use of the Russian term for its designation, its widespread use among Russians in many territories, as well as the fact that the Mordovians " he not had values serious acquaintance With economy, a wore comic, happy character" and usually boiled down to the festivities of the bride's relatives in the groom's house.

Among the Mordovian wedding songs, there are a lot of songs performed in the form of a dialogue between separate groups (choirs) or individuals. Such are the dialogical songs-lamentations performed by the bride and the married woman, more often by a relative. The bride, asking the woman, laments:

Tell, mother, tell , What someone else's father .

Tell, mother, tell , What is someone else's mother .

Tell me bride, tell , What is someone else's a family ?

The woman responds by saying:

I'll tell you dove, I will tell , What someone else's father :

So sides on the him watch , He how the first day Easter , BUT come up to him closer , How run into With him - Alien something father, dove , How thunderstorm angry , How lightning acute :

If a shout on the you , Not find places, where get up , Not find places, where stand .

There are many such songs-dialogues in the wedding, and they sometimes even depict clashes of feelings and aspirations, changes and actions of the participants in the wedding action themselves.

Songs occupy a large place in the wedding paryaf (Tue) nemat, similar in content to Russian scorching songs: ". on offensive appointed days arrives train ( wedding train) at sem girlfriends brides sing offensive songs, mentioning what at them dress, horses and all someone else's begged for at neighbors only on the wedding, a they so poor what are dying With hunger. at departure brides With by train to groom in house father and mother make bride kick frying pan, at this girls sing bride reproachful songs, calling her non-woven, unspun, sloth"" . Purpose parafnemat in a wedding ceremony - to ridicule the people leading the wedding, to create a comic or satirical characterization of them.

Matchmakers , With cotton wool , uh X , With cotton wool , Your face, how bottom cast iron .

These songs helped to increase the fun, both in the house of the groom and the bride.

Bride dowry.

The village of Standrovo, Temnikovsky district. Early 20th century

The last stage of matchmaking is the appointment of a wedding day. shin way(m.), chinputomo(e). The groom's parents with two or three relatives went to the new matchmaker to set the wedding day, that is, the day the wedding train would arrive for the bride. From that day until the wedding, the bride had to lament in the morning and in the evening

rum, saying goodbye to their home, with a free girl's life. In the 18th - early 19th centuries, the bride lamented for 15 or more evenings, by the end of the 19th century - 2-4 evenings. Now only a few representatives of the older generation remember the old lamentations, who perform them at certain moments of the wedding ceremony: when seeing the bride off to the bath, while treating her to porridge, when the bride says goodbye to her home, etc.

Weddinginhomegroomandbrides. The central stage of the wedding cycle was, in fact, the wedding in the house of the bride and groom. This period marked the transition of the bride from her home to her husband's house, from her clan to her husband's clan. The rites of this stage were an act of social approval of marriage, which gave certain legal, economic, religious and magical guarantees to those entering into marriage. Wedding feasts marked the union of two tribal groups. From this follows all the variety of rituals and ceremonies of these days, their diversity and drama, versatility of content. At the same time, ritual actions took place either simultaneously in several places, or were transferred from house to house. The rite of the church wedding was also wedged in here.

In the bride's house, wedding ceremonies began with a visit to the girl by relatives who treated her to porridge. Together with porridge, they brought several rich cakes, and from their husbands - a pair of bast shoes. They were then placed in a chest - guy bride along with her dowry. This rite in different places of residence of the Mordovians has an unequal name: in Mordovia he is called pits yarkh-tsama(m.), porridge yarsamo(e.) - eating porridge or pits candoma(m.), porridge can-domo(e.) - bringing porridge; from the Samara Mordovians, he received the name porridge urneme- lamentations over porridge. Sometimes the bride herself, together with her friends, went around her relatives, where she was also treated to porridge, and in some Moksha villages they cooked on this occasion shyanafks- fried pork. A widespread pre-wedding ceremony was the washing of the bride in the bath - washroom(m.), teiteren bath(e.). Before the bath, one of the friends unraveled the bride's braid and gave her mother the braid, and tied her hair with a ribbon.

Then the bride, in lamentations, ordered her father to buy boards for a coffin at the market, bake memorial pancakes for her mother, brothers to call relatives and girlfriends to mourn her, etc., that is, she equated her marriage to death. This is also evidenced by the fact that, returning from the bath, she sat down in the place where the dead were usually laid, and in lamentations she expressed her desire to die. Researchers interpret this rite in different ways. Some explain it as a cleansing act, others believe that the girl's bath is nothing more than a relic of the ancient ritual marriage of the bride with the spirit of the bath or with the spirit of water, to which she sacrificed her virginity in order to ensure her fertility.

Erzya boy

The chest-tub is hollowed out of a part of a solid linden trunk and has the shape of a cylinder. In the middle part of the body of the tub, a forged iron ring is attached, on the other side - an iron plate, which served to secure the lid.

An obligatory item of Mordovian utensils were dugout wedding chests - guy, guy, w uvamnya(m.); guy, avan guy, eryamo guy, mirde-nen lyseme guy(e.); parga, pargo(m., e.). They were made of linden with a well-fitted bottom and a tight lid. The bets were of various sizes, their average height reached 80-90 cm, massive cast-iron brackets for locks were hung on them. These chests contained canvas, towels, the most valuable clothes and jewelry. The boy was preparing his father-in-law as a gift to his daughter-in-law. Usually it was ordered to the masters. The customer paid off with grain or worked on the master's farm for as many days as he did par. They were covered with rich carvings on the theme of family life or some kind of labor processes, sometimes women's jewelry was depicted on it. These drawings carried a certain sacred meaning and were supposed to contribute to the happiness, well-being and many children of a young family.

The rite of laying the chest ( guys vachkama(m.), guy vachkamo(e.) was an important moment of the Mordovian wedding. He was not only an acquaintance with the material well-being of the bride, but also had to "ensure" her a happy family life. Therefore, at first, the steam was cleansed of "evil spirits" (they circled it with a lit candle, an icon, poured a pinch of salt), then they put money, bread, cakes, sometimes dishes on its bottom, so that " box all life not was empty, to young lived ornate" . In some places, yes, the brides put down a cup and a spoon for food, then they began to lay the shirts, while listing the purpose of each shirt: “for the harvest”, “for the holiday”, “pulling hemp”, etc. At the end of the ceremony, the bride gave gifts to those relatives who brought her cakes. And for the deceased relatives, she hung a towel on the icon, with which her parents blessed her before the crown.

When hollowed-out chests began to be replaced by wooden ones, this rite continued to be preserved. Chests were also ordered to the master, who put part of the money earned inside him, " to life not was empty" . Many older women still keep bets and chests in which they keep their clothes.

After packing things, the bride said goodbye to the street. Boys and girls from all over the village gathered at her house. The bride treated all the guys with wine, and gave the girls rings. It was her farewell to her peers, to the youth group with whom she had fun, participated in communal rites and holidays. In the evening, the mother of the bride treated her friends, who helped in preparing wedding gifts, and the betrothed girl herself gave each of them a scarlet ribbon.

On the morning of the wedding day, the groom's relatives baked wedding cakes in his parents' house, there were from 5 to 9 of them. Each of the cakes had its own name and purpose. The largest and most important of the pies luksh(m.), luvon kshi(e.) Presented to the father of the bride. Depending on how it turned out, they judged the merits of the girl: if luksh rose during baking, which meant that the young woman would give birth to many sons; if it spread, then the bride will be barren and evil. The second most important pie - suvaman paryaka(m.), s ovamo hide and seek or sowamo kedge(e.) (input pie). He made it easier for travelers to enter the house of the bride and her relatives, where she was hiding from matchmakers. Pie avaloftsa(m.), Ava lovso(e.) (mother's milk) was intended for the bride's mother for raising her daughter. It was handed over either by the mother of the groom, or by the matchmaker, along with a scarf and onuchy bast shoes. At the same time, she was thanked for raising such a good daughter.

Sometimes they gave a cake to the godmother of the bride. It was made with different fillings, and decorated with a pattern on top. In some places they prepared alan lofza(m.), and tian catcher(e.) (milk of an old man, father). Instead of filling, they put three braid-points into it. For the bridesmaids they baked a girl's pie - styren paryaka(m.), tate-ren hide and seek(e.), his matchmaker brought in ashema where(m.), Ashtema kudo(e.) the house of the godfather, uncle of the bride or married sister, where she, along with her friends, hid from the travelers.

Baked in many places kurnik. Instead of stuffing, oats were put inside, so it was not suitable for food. But it was very beautifully decorated with paper flowers and ribbons. Kurnik worn during the wedding for the young everywhere: to church, to the homes of relatives, for water. It was carried only by young women, who danced with them, passing it to each other. During the exit of the young for water by the river with kurnik they picked flowers and threw them into the water, and the cake itself was carried back home.

The bride's relatives, in turn, baked a cake for the future son-in-law. That's what he was called fire paryaka(m.), sodamon hide and seek(e.) (son-in-law pie). He was brought to the groom's house on the first day of the wedding, when the young people returned from the church.

Moksha Volzhsky district Samara areas the mothers of the young baked special bread rodon kopsha- tribal bread, which symbolized the family of the bride and groom. During the dance during the wedding feast, each side raised its bread, while praising its own family. At the end of the fun they exchanged bread, saying: " Now two kind united together, they will be friends and to help friend friend" .

Fragment of the costume of a Moksha bride.

Temnikovsky district of the Tambov province. Late XIX - early XX century.

On the morning of the wedding day, the groom took a bath and put on new clothes. To protect against evil spirits, needles were stuck into his clothes, on his chest and back, after which he, along with his relatives, went for the matchmaker, who played the main role in the wedding train. Usually matchmaker (clunky) is the godmother of the groom. It cannot be a girl, a pregnant woman and a widow. In many places, the matchmaker is replaced by the boy's own mother. M.E.Evseviev believed that the matchmaker was introduced to the wedding train under the influence of the Russians: " In those places where the wedding has preserved more ancient customs, there are no matchmakers and women in general on the wedding train." .

The second person in honor and importance on the train was toron candy(m.), uredev(e.) - friend. His duty was to protect the groom and the entire train from damage and manage the table. Moksha toron candy also called the young "new name" in her husband's house. Uredeva the young woman was ashamed and afraid more than even her father-in-law:

for the rest of her life she could not pronounce his name aloud, as well as the name of her father-in-law.

If at baptism her son was named after one of them, then the woman changed her son's name to another. At uredewe she was not allowed to sit down. Entering the young into the house uredeva after the wedding, she was arranged with special ceremonies: at the entrance to the gate or gate, she laid a ring on both sides of them, at the entrance to the house she did the same. On the table a young woman placed a bracelet or money, and she covered the front bench with a full length of white canvas. On the first Easter after the wedding, she gave uredeva a shirt, in the second - pants, in the third - footcloths. Uredev any adult male could be - married, single or widowed.

Per uredev should poksh where(e.), oqiu where(m.) - senior traveller. His duty is to manage the master's treasury. In the bride's house, he managed the groom's expenses. In a number of places where there was no uredev at the wedding, poksh (oqiu) where he performed his functions.

In individual Mordovian villages Zavolzhye among the trainees were chosen to help uredeva Yartska(e.), archtsi(m.). He was usually the elder brother or uncle of the groom, always younger uredeva. Its functions are similar to those of a friend in a Russian wedding.

Other trainees somewhere were all equal. They were not assigned special duties, they had to help the leaders of the wedding train. The total number of trainees ranged from 5 to 17 people, but there could have been more.

Previously, the groom did not play an active role at the wedding: in the bride's house he sat at the table in a hat, did not eat, did not drink and did not say anything. Did only what they made him do matchmaker and uredev. And in many places the groom did not even go for the bride. The first meeting and acquaintance of the young (not counting the meeting in the church at the wedding) took place at the bedside, which in winter and summer, in the absence of separate rooms, was usually prepared in the stable or barn. The groom came there in advance, and then the bride was brought there, who, with the words: " Wolf, here you sheep!" pushed to her husband.

When the wedding procession drove up to the bride's house, her friends and relatives locked the gates and doors, demanding a ransom from those who arrived. At the same time, they jokingly ridiculed their "poverty" or "greed".

mordva wedding costume ritual

The custom of locking the doors in front of the groom's relatives who came for the bride was also widespread among other peoples. Scholars interpret it in different ways. The most common opinion is that such an action is associated with the remnants of tribal traditions, when all relatives of the bride should receive their share from her purchase and sale.

Erzyanka bride costume.

Temnikovsky district of the Tambov province. Late XIX - early XX century.

Entering the house, the travelers put pies and other food on the table, then, after praying, the refreshment began. And the bride at that time with her friends was in a neighboring house, from where soon the matchmaker, having given a certain ransom, brought and seated her in the front corner to the groom. During the feast, one of the stewards of the wedding train (druzhka or senior traveler) opened kurnik- cut off the top crust from the pie. She used to be taken back to the house of the bride's parents, which meant the return of the spore of bread, " which the Mordva highly appreciates and protects in every possible way so that it does not pass to others" . Sometimes not the whole crust returned, but only the dough figures with which it was decorated. Usually these were images of birds (ducks, pigeons, hens with chickens), which served as symbols of progenitation and happiness. No wonder they, as a rule, were given to the young, who ate these figures before the wedding night. Before the departure of the wedding train from the house of the bride's parents, the matchmaker tried to take decorations from the cake unnoticed by the bride's relatives and friends. If she failed, she paid a ransom for them. In the village Big Ega Pokhvistnevsky district Samara areas The "fight" for the two doves that decorate the wedding cake is still going on. It is believed, whose relatives win it, that of the spouses will dominate the family. In the Mordovian villages Shentalinsky district in the same region, the rite of "opening" the pie is preserved: the bridesmaids in every possible way prevent one of the travelers from cutting off the top crust from it, that is, these rites, which used to pursue the goal of preserving the power of fertility in their kindred team, are now gradually transformed into entertaining moments of the wedding.

At the same time, ritual songs were also sung. But this time it was songs paranzamate. These songs are the opposite of the songs paryaf (Tue) nemat according to their role in the ritual. They sang good wishes, gratitude to the participants of the wedding. In the center of aggrandizement is a person, so the description of an idealized appearance, deeds, business qualities, his material security became the main content of these songs. AT paranzamate gratitude was expressed to the parents of the bride and groom, that they raised their children smart, that the bride's temper was meek, for a good meal, a rich table.

Lime table, big table Good tablecloth covered .

imposed a lot of bread and salt .

Highly good treat .

Another genre of songs - wedding kshtima, kishtema morot- accompanied the wedding from the very beginning and corresponded to the mood prevailing at the festive feast. They were also performed "for the soul", as a release, after performing ritual actions, i.e. they expressed the emotional state of the wedding participants.

At the end of the feast, the relatives of the bride gave presents to the travellers. The matchmaker was usually presented with a towel with embroidered ends, uredeva and poksh where- canvas, the rest - canvas handkerchiefs with a red border.

After the blessing of the bride by the parents snatch(the escorted brides - her relatives or cousins) carried her out into the yard. At the same time, she tried to resist, in her lamentations she expressed her unwillingness to leave her parents' house. Urvalat were always near the bride. In a traditional wedding, they played the role of her intercessors and hid from the travellers, but, bribed by the groom's relatives, they sold their sister. In charge snatch in some Mordovian villages Saransk and Simbirsk counties, as well as Samaraprovinces included the device of a special wagon, in which the bride was brought to the groom's house. This wagon was arranged in the winter on a sleigh, and in the summer on a cart. Two willow arcs were bent on the sleigh, rods were tied over these arcs, and a white canvas was thrown over the top, the end of which hung at the entrance to the wagon so that the bride's face could not be seen. The wagon was decorated with multi-colored ribbons, tassels, braid. Inside the sleigh there was a felt mat or feather bed. AT Saransk and Simbirsk counties such a kibitka was called onawa, and in Samara provinces ulemakudo.

After the bride said goodbye to the parental home, the wedding train went to the church. At the end of the 19th century, the bride was brought to get married directly from the parental home. Only in some places did the wedding train call first at the groom's house, and from there to the church. Perhaps this is an echo of the time when the wedding was not part of the wedding ritual of the Mordovians.

The meeting of the young in the house of the husband's parents was furnished with ceremonies that symbolized the introduction of the young to the new family, the wish for a prosperous, happy life. The young people who came from the wedding were greeted with bread and salt, showered with hops and grain. In a number of places, there was a custom of meeting young women dressed in a fur coat turned inside out, depicting a bear with a frying pan in her hands, in which lay hops and extinguished coals. The frying pan was placed under the feet of the bride. She had to throw it away three times. With the help of this rite, they tried to determine the nature of the daughter-in-law. When the young were brought into the house, prayers were arranged and they were fed with dinner. A little boy was put on the lap of the young one so that the newlyweds would have children.

Erzya bride. Belebeevsky district, Ufa province. Photo by M. Evseviev at the beginning of the 20th century.

On the second day of the wedding, a number of rituals were performed related to checking the economic abilities of a young woman, naming her daughter-in-law. An interesting and original rite of the Mordovian wedding is lemdema- the rite of naming the bride. Its roots probably go back to the distant past. Among the Mordovians-Erzi, it disappeared almost everywhere by the end of the 19th century, and among Moksha, some of its elements have survived to this day. This rite consists in the fact that the daughter-in-law in her husband's house was given a new name, which she bore until her death: Mazava(e.), Mazay(m.) - a beautiful woman, Pawai(m.) - a happy woman, Ashava(e.) - white woman, Parava(e.) - a good woman, C yrniaava(m.) - a golden woman, Tetyava(e.), Aunt(m.) - the value is unknown as well as Tyaziay(m.) and Vezhava(e.), Knit(m.) - the younger woman. The last name was always given to the last daughter-in-law. The new "name" of the young woman served as a sign of belonging to a new family and indicated her position in it. Perhaps this reflected the former division of women into age groups. Perhaps this was even an echo of the custom of kidnapping brides, when, giving a woman a different name, they tried to hide her whereabouts from relatives for as long as possible.

On the same day, the young woman was introduced to her husband's dead ancestors. For their "treats" they took pancakes, scrambled eggs, meat, beer. As a "gift" to them, the bride specially prepared clothes: shirts, kokoshniks, footcloths, etc. Then they were given to the poor. The deceased were asked to love a new family member, to help her in business. The patron of the court prayed for the same thing, as a gift to him, the young woman left a ring in a “clean place”.

On the third day of the wedding, their relatives arranged a treat for the young. This custom was called one ryvyanyan yakaftoma(m.), odirvan yakavtomo(e.) - the walking of a young woman. The young people were treated to all the relatives who participated in the wedding. Walking around the houses necessarily began with the house uredeva.

On this day or the next young woman "showed water" - after all langa bodice theme(m.), after all langa livtema(e.). This custom used to mean introducing a new family member to the goddess of water. After all ave. The young woman was necessarily led to a river or stream, where she made an offering to the goddess, usually a ring or a towel.

The last ceremony of the wedding was the prayer of cakes - syukoron oznoma(e.), c yukoron ozondom(m.). It was dedicated to the deity of the house Kud ave, as a gift to which the young woman brought a towel or tablecloth, as well as cakes brought from her parents' house. After the end of the prayer, the travelers were treated to dinner and they went home.

Post-weddingrites. Post-wedding rituals can be divided into two main groups according to their content. One group of rituals was designed to strengthen the relationship between the families of the bride and groom. The rites of another group secured the entry of the newlywed into the gender and age group of married women and the transition to the clan of her husband.

The bonds between the clans of the young were consolidated through mutual visits of new relatives. A week after the wedding, the young woman, together with her mother-in-law, went to her parents for spinning accessories - pin Karen kitty(e.), kshti-remxa-lapamxa(m.) They took cakes, beer, wine with them, which they treated the relatives of the young daughter-in-law.

Moksha girls at a wedding in Novye Vyselki. Photo by G. Bokarev, 1972

Two or three weeks after the wedding, they came for the young woman snatch and took her away to visit her father, where she lived for about a month. This custom was called mek potaftoma(m.), mekev potamo(e.) - return, retreat. Usually the departure of the young was timed to coincide with some religious holiday. For example, in some villages Shentalinsky district Samara areaspotamo took on Cover. At the appointed time, the husband and the father-in-law with the mother-in-law came for the wife. In those places where the groom did not show himself to people during the wedding, this was his first visit to his father-in-law. It was called sodamox sowamo(e.), with odaphthoma(m.) - entry into sons-in-law. This time, the father-in-law for the first time really got acquainted with the husband of his daughter and recognized him as a son-in-law, introduced him to his relatives. After that, the son-in-law could visit his father-in-law and his relatives at any time. Without this official introduction, the young husband could not enter the house of his wife's parents, as well as the houses of her relatives. Her relatives and friends were going to see the young woman off. This time, she finally said goodbye to them. The next day, the son-in-law usually came to the father-in-law for cattle, which the latter promised as a dowry to his daughter.

After performing the rite of return-retreat, the young woman received the right to visit her parents and relatives at any time. Before that, even though they lived a few steps away, she could not see them and enter their house.

A number of customs and rituals of the second group are associated with a stable idea of ​​a kind of transitional period during which the young, and especially the newlywed, were considered extremely susceptible to all types of damage. Therefore, for some time after the wedding, the young woman ate separately from the family in the closet. She could sit at the table only after the birth of the child, when she was recognized as a full member of the family. It is possible that such a custom was also an echo of the Mordovian custom of kidnapping brides. That is, they simply wanted to hide the young woman from prying eyes. In the same row there is another custom: not to call a woman by her own name, but by the name of her husband or the name given to her during the ceremony of naming her daughter-in-law. The rites of introducing a young woman to a new family include her visiting the bathhouse along with new relatives on the first Saturday after the wedding. In order for women to accept her into their environment, the young woman gave them gifts. On the Easter the young woman was taken to the houses of her husband's relatives to show the clan-tribe. At the same time, she was accepted into the women's brotherhood for the holidays. avash pose(m.), or avan pia(e.).

On the Maslenitsa the young woman was supposed to go to Shrovetide Mountain. She treated the youth having fun there with pancakes.

14-year-old girls, dressed in Moksha costume, go around the village with an invitation to their relatives to the wedding. Kargashino, 1978

"My second cousin was about to get married. His sister and I, as was customary, were dressed up in a Mordovian outfit on Friday, and we went around the village to invite relatives to the wedding. From the side of the bride, they also went and invited to the wedding. We, very young girls, this whole ceremony was very exciting. We didn’t know where all the distant relatives lived, so our aunt walked with us and showed us their houses. How we were met! We didn’t know where to plant, what to treat! This was perceived by relatives as great respect, that such elegant girls came to them and invited to the wedding. We went to the closest relatives in the evening, there was a party at which we also received a lot of attention. " L. Yurilina (Krutina).

Young guys took turns rolling it on a sleigh, for which they received rings as a gift. It should be noted that during the first year after the wedding, the newlyweds continued to maintain a close relationship with the youth environment. They took part in youth festivities, fortune-telling, games, and could call for a dance, etc. During this year, the young woman continued to wear her wedding dress on holidays, in some places also a girl's headdress. This transitional period ended with the birth of the child. From that moment on, the young couple finally passed into a group of adult community members, family people who enjoyed all the rights and obligations inherent in this culture.

Thus, in the wedding rituals of the Mordovians, one can trace numerous layers from different eras. In particular, the remnants of the tribal system were reflected in the active participation of the relatives of the young in the search for candidates for the future married couple, preparations for the wedding. A number of customs are also a reflection of close family and kinship relations: treating the bride with porridge by her relatives, gifting the bridegroom's relatives by the bride, buying out a bed, girls staying with relatives on the maternal side while they prepare the dowry, etc. A survival form of social institutions is "hostile "the attitude of the girl's relatives towards matchmakers and travelers at the time of arrival for the bride, mutual comic swearing, etc.

A noticeable mark in the wedding rites of the Mordovians was also left by the pagan ideas of the people. In numerous lamentations that accompanied the entire cycle of this action, its main characters turned to the patrons of the house, courtyard, bathhouse, and deceased ancestors. In addition, they performed a number of magical actions: some - in order for the bride to have many children (showering her with hops, putting a child on her knees, etc.), others - to protect the young from "unclean" forces (covering the bride's head, triple bypass of the wedding train by the friend, etc.). The form and content of the wedding rituals of the Mordovians did not remain unchanged. In connection with the penetration of capitalist relations into the Mordovian village, the disintegration of large families, otkhodnichestvo, acquaintance with ethical culture, it underwent a gradual transformation. Some elements disappeared, the second ones lost their original meaning and were performed only according to tradition, the third ones were rethought and acquired an entertaining, playful character. So, in a modern Mordovian wedding, such rituals as the lamentation of the bride, the return of the young to the parents' house after the wedding, the so-called "swearing" of the bride by the groom's relatives before the wedding celebration, the ceremony of putting on the headdress of a married woman for the bride, naming her daughter-in-law, the custom, forbidding a young woman to sit at the wedding table immediately after the wedding.

...

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Description of the presentation on individual slides:

1 slide

Description of the slide:

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Description of the slide:

The Mordovian wedding is interesting for its traditions and rituals, theatrical performances and characters, colorful costumes and beautiful songs. In the modern world, traditions are forgotten, and now, when interest in national values ​​begins to grow, we return to ethnic roots in order to show how important and interesting they are. After all, knowing our culture, we learn the history of our people.

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Description of the slide:

The wedding cycle of the Mordovians began with matchmaking (“ladyama” - moksha, “ladyamo” ​​- erzya). Matchmaking among the Mordovians took place in several stages. Before sending matchmakers to the bride’s house for preliminary negotiations, one of the groom’s relatives went there (“ingolden yakai” - moksha - “going forward”). Arriving at the bride's house, he sat under the so-called mother, where, as it was believed, the keeper of the house was staying. The guests also sat under the mother mat because she allegedly “entangled”, bound, and then the matchmakers would no longer be driven away.

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Description of the slide:

The final agreement on the upcoming wedding was reached during a big matchmaking, which was called "simoma" - moksha, "simema" - erzya (lit. "drinking") - "drinking". During it, they agreed on the “laying” for the bride (“pitna” - moksha), on the gifts that she had to make to the groom’s relatives, and on the dowry.

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Description of the slide:

Mordovians, both Moksha and Erzi, had a custom after the matchmaking to get acquainted with the groom's household. This rite was called "house to look" or "to look at the place" ("vasta varjama" - moksha, "tarka vachamo" - erzya). The visit had a comic, cheerful character: the bride's relatives armed themselves with anything and threatened the owner to break the stove if he did not pay off them with a treat.

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Description of the slide:

The Mordovians attached great importance to baking wedding pies in the groom's house. Especially solemnly, with numerous rituals, they set the dough for them. The groom's relatives actively participated in this ceremony. A very original wedding cake stuffed with cottage cheese. In pagan times, this pie was obligatory for the Mokshans at a special prayer in the groom's house, during which the audience asked the supreme god Nishke for the bride to give birth to seven sons and the same number of daughters.

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Description of the slide:

The wedding of the bride and groom was combined with rituals aimed at protecting them from evil forces. The "wedding train" came for the bride, which consisted of the groom's relatives. When the wedding train drove up to the bride's house, her relatives locked the gate and demanded a ransom.

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Description of the slide:

After the wedding, the young couple was met in the house of the groom's parents. Here the parents of the young met them with bread and salt, showered them with hops. This ancient rite had the magical meaning of ensuring childbearing. Among Mordovians, young people were usually met by “ovta” (“bear” - moksha) - a woman dressed in a fur coat turned inside out. In her hands she held a frying pan with hops and dead coals, which was substituted under the feet of the young woman. She had to throw it away three times. At the end of the XIX century. this rite was given the importance of determining the character of the young.

A wedding in Mordovia is an action worthy of full-fledged photo coverage: beautiful shots and colorful characters are guaranteed.

Especially for the readers of "Hive" prepared a report on unusual traditions photoblogger msserv . To be honest, before my trip to Mordovia, I knew nothing about this part of the Earth. My idea of ​​her began and ended with the work of the group “OYME“. Therefore, the invitation to go to a village near Saransk to record a Mordovian wedding was accepted immediately. I can't say anything about the road. The road, especially the highway, it is the road. Highway, speed, traffic police, fines, road again, speed again. The exception, probably, is the village of Umet, where a trucker and a truck driver traditionally stop. There, for several kilometers on both sides of the road, there are several hundred canteens - cafes with killing names like "Eater", "Edun", "Engels", "MordDonalds" and a bunch of similar trash.

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An interesting thing began when, having passed the city of Saransk with a huge cathedral,

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we tried to find the village of Old Turdaki at night. And they did find it! But what tests did the little fawn with a gun go through on these pits and wet roads ... It will be necessary to demand a premium from Peugeot for a successfully passed test drive.

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When we stumbled into the hut in the middle of the night, the hosts seemed to be no less happy than ours that we finally got there and rolled out onto the table. Have you ever drunk moonshine with dead bees and propolis at 3 o'clock in the morning, eating it with milk mushrooms?

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Here! And neither do I. They say that this drink has a special invigorating properties for men))) so it was quite natural that after 3 hours of sleep we flew to explore the village and its surroundings.

Alas, as elsewhere, there are many empty and collapsed houses.

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Yes, and the population in the village is mostly elderly, and children exiled by their parents to their grandparents.

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But the sun is getting higher and the village is waking up.

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And we are slowly starting to find out the details of the event.

Firstly. The wedding will be shown to us by the ensemble of the House of Culture in the village of Starye Turdaki, headed by the director of the House of Culture and the head of the ensemble, Natalia.

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Secondly. All characters will be dressed in real Mordovian costumes, some of which are over 100 years old, while in the rest of the costumes only minor details have been restored in our time.

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It was necessary to see with what delight and pride the women showed us these outfits! "My grandmother got married in this dress!", and someone's aunt.

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Thirdly. It turns out that the Mordovian wedding is played for 3 days, but since it was not part of our plans to spend 3 days at the feast, we asked to reduce the wedding to one day. By the way, do you think that only among Muslims the bride and groom meet only at the wedding? No matter how! In Mordovia, the same rules.

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Parents or relatives woo, and hello. Like it, don't like it, no one cares. Moreover, the first day the groom can walk somewhere, and the bride sits in the house with her head covered. They will only meet on their wedding night. And then such options happened that Mexican TV shows are resting))

Fourth. Food and songs will also be real! Members of the ensemble prepared food for our meeting. They even baked bread and pies in a real oven!

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And, of course, they prepared real moonshine, the joint drinking of which is accompanied by all the rituals and the pauses between them are filled))

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And so, at 10 am, the action began. A procession began to move through the village to the groom's house with songs and dances.

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Together they decorated the horse and wagon

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and went to buy the bride.

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The road to the bride's house is not close,

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therefore, we managed to listen to a lot of wedding songs and stories about such weddings along the way.

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After long negotiations, which are an obligatory part of the bride price process, it is possible to persuade the parents,

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and they bless the marriage and hand over the bride to the care of the matchmaker.

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And the whole procession returns back to the groom's house.

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The next morning, the guests return to the groom's house, and all kinds of rituals begin, connected with the past first night and the future of the family. In short, they mock the young to the fullest. We were shown one of the rituals: young people should give everyone a drink on the street, and the drunk should throw away the glass that the young people are looking for, and so on ad infinitum, that is, until the drink runs out))

And when we were still going to the bride's house, we were told about the case when the guests dispersed so that they brought the horse into the house with the tables already set. They started it, they laughed, but it turned out to be another big story and not so funny. Horses have no reverse gear, and there was nowhere to turn around.

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Well, everything ends, as usual, with songs, conversations at the table and clarification of the role of the Mordovian people in the history of Russia.

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And this is all who participated in this wedding, who have preserved this beautiful ceremony and these songs to our times. Here is Blackberry Spirkina, head of the OYME group. She recorded all these rituals and songs, saving them for posterity, helping to popularize folk art. Honor to you all and praise!

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

II. Main part……………………………………………… 5 - 13

1. Mordovian family……………………………………………. 5

2. Mordovian wedding ceremony…………………………………… 8

2.1 Odirvan kochkamo - the choice of the bride………………….... 8

2.2 Ladyamo - matchmaking……………………………………… 10

2.3 Marriage anokstamos – preparation for the wedding… 10

2.4 Chin putoma - the appointment of the wedding day…………………. eleven

2.5 Odirvan banyaso shlyamos - washing the bride in the bath ...... 11

2.6 Eryamo guy vachkamos - laying the chest……………. 12

2.7 Pryakan panem - cooking pies……………… 12

2.8 Groom Samos - wedding train…………………… 13

III. Practical part of the study…………………………. 13-15

1.1 Survey ……………………………………………………... 13

2.1 Interview………………………………………………….. 13

IV. Conclusion………………………………………………… 15

V. List of used literature……………………….. 17

Application.

I. Introduction.

Every nation on Earth, regardless of skin color and race, has its own customs and beliefs, its own language and its own legends. Every nation has its own history. Each nation has made its own contribution to the universal culture. It doesn't matter if this contribution is big or small, the important thing is that it is unique. The Mordovian people have their own history, their contribution.

Customs and rituals are a kind of keepers of the achievements of the past. With their help, people reproduce themselves, their culture and character from generation to generation.

Topic my work was not chosen by chance. My grandmothers, both on my mother's side and on my father's side, are Erzyanka. I really love being with them. I like to listen to their stories about the past, about antiquity. When I was very young, grandmother Valya, rocking me, often sang long Mordovian songs over me instead of a lullaby. After 3-4 years, she was already telling me about the customs and holidays of the Mordovians, learning Carols with me. When I went to school, I began to study my native language, began to attend the National Local History club and sing in the Mordovian children's ensemble Leine, which was a winner and prize-winner of various regional children's festivals and competitions more than once. And once, looking through the photos in the album, I came across bright pictures taken at a Mordovian wedding. I asked my grandmother where we got them from. Grandmother told me that in our village Staraya Shentala in 2000 there was a big holiday "Mordovian wedding", the participants of which were the inhabitants of our village. This ceremony was held according to an old custom and was shown on television several times. It turned out that my grandmother and mother also took part in this holiday. This became very interesting for me...

Relevance of this work lies in the fact that my research, in conjunction with other similar ones, will contribute to the expansion of knowledge about national culture, the education of patriotism.

Purpose of the study : find out the essence of the Mordovian wedding, trace the features of the wedding ceremonies of the Mordovians of the Samara region.

Research objectives:

Consider how relations were built in Mordovian families.

Consider the structure of the wedding ceremony of the Mordovians and recreate a complete picture of the life of the wedding.

Conduct a survey among school students on the subject of knowledge and study of their native language, customs and traditions of the Mordovian people.

Summarize the studied material and draw conclusions from the studied literature.

Object of study - Mordovian wedding as a historical, cultural and ethnographic phenomenon.

Hypothesis : the history of the Mordovian people, like any other history, is part of modern culture, and not an extinct world. An increasing number of people join it, learning and comprehending the rituals and customs of the Mordovians.

Research Methods

Selection and study of literature on the wedding ceremony of the Mordovian people.

Survey of villagers and work with the material received.

The study of local history material of the local historical and local history museum. M.I. Chuvashev.

Presentation of the project at the school-wide event "Day of the Mordovian Language".

Replenishment of school museum materials.

Currently, there is a tendency to revive national traditions, customs and rituals. These include the wedding ceremony - the most significant event in the life of any nation. A wedding is a cornerstone in the process of creating a family.

I. Main part.

1. Mordovian family.

The family is the oldest institution of human society. How were family relations built in Mordovian families, for example, in the 18th and 19th centuries?

There is no word in Mordovian languages a family in its modern sense. In everyday use, this concept corresponds to the word kudo (erz.) - house. In the folk tradition, the house is perceived not only as a dwelling, but also as a community that unites people on a family basis. Family and home are synonymous. This is reflected in the proverbs:"Kodamo azoros, istamo and kudon seven" (erz.)- "What is the owner - such is the house (family)"; “Eykaksh marto kudos - utsyaskav kudo” (e.) -"A home with children is a happy home."

Traditionally, the oldest man was the head of the family. pokshtya (e.), in relation to the younger - grandfather or great-grandfather. After his death, Erzi immediately transferred this place to the eldest of the brothers.

The head of the family was an indisputable authority for its members. “And the king wanted, but the father did not order,” says an old Mordovian proverb. He was the representative of the family before the authorities, the community and the church, he paid taxes for the whole family, in a word, he did business at home. He was also responsible for family members, for their behavior. All of them did not dare to disobey the wife of the head of the family. The wife of the head of the family had a high status - pokshtyava (e.) (large woman, main mistress). In the norod they said:“Mashty kudazorava marto kudoso is paradise, and beryanent marto is tonachi”(e.) - "With a skilled housewife in the house, heaven, and with a bad one - hell" . Its functions were extremely diverse. She was in charge of all women's affairs, managed and disposed of all women. The daughters-in-law were completely dependent on her. Work among women was distributed by a housewife according to their inclinations and age, but equally. She was the sovereign mistress of the pantry. In a number of cases, she was in the hands of the family cash desk.

The mistress of the house had a huge role in caring for the baby. Kudazorawa nursed, caressed, treated, educated, laid the foundations of morality and diligence. Folk wisdom says:"Awas chachty, and the woman is caste"(e.) - “Mother gives birth, and grandmother raises. At the wedding, she was presented with an equivalent gift as her mother. For a less honorable and significant gift, the bride was condemned.

The relationship between husband and wife was usually characterized by cordiality. The husband consulted with his wife on all matters. It is no coincidence that Mordovian proverbs say: “Treat your neighbor with a ruble, and treat your wife with affection”, “They live - they please each other, respect each other.” .

The position of other women in a large family was determined by the tradition of customary law, as well as personal qualities and the labor that was invested in the common household. A strong, hard-working daughter-in-law was respected. When entering a new house, the daughter-in-law lost her name. According to custom, she was given a name in accordance with the age hierarchy of her husband among other sons. So, the wife of the eldest son or brother was called Parava (couple (m.) - good), second son or brother - Mazava (mazy (m.) - beautiful), third - Vezhava (vezha (e.) - small). And the father-in-law and the mother-in-law called all the daughters-in-law ryvyanya (m.), urvya (e.) - daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law.

In Mordovian houses, there was no division into two separate halves; a special female corner was not fenced off. Moksha and Erzya women did not know seclusion, participated in family and public holidays, attended women's gatherings, and in the absence of a husband they could receive guests.

Unmarried daughters, although they depended on the will of their parents in everything and were lower in the family hierarchy than their brothers, still enjoyed relative freedom and performed less work. Most of their time was spent on preparing a dowry, wedding gifts.

In the Mordovian family, each girl had her own personal property, which included festive clothes, a headdress, and jewelry. Girls from an early age began to embroider shirts for themselves, pick up beads, buttons, tokens. From the family budget, the daughters were allocated a certain amount of money to purchase the necessary items. Their own income could also be formed from the sale of berries, mushrooms, nuts. Often, girls were hired on the side to weed the garden, thresh bread, knit sheaves, and pluck geese.

An exclusively female property was a woman's box - guy - a dugout tub with festive clothes and various decorations (beads, clasps, beaded collars, headdresses with rich beaded embroidery, pendants, belt decorations). Items from the box were never sold, but passed from generation to generation. par never entered the section, and a woman could dispose of her property regardless of her husband, she was inviolable, and no one had the right to waste it.

Children in a Mordovian family obeyed their parents and obeyed them. Mordva puts the will of parents extremely high. A disrespectful son could be disinherited by his father and driven out of the house. This, of course, does not mean that the relationship between fathers and children among the Mordovians was built on fear alone. Mordovian proverbs also prove this: “Teach a dog with a club, a child with love”, “There are as many worries for every child as there is hair on his head”, “Teach children, while they are small, adults will be good”.

Mordovian youth, who had great freedom in personal affairs, entered into marriage in most cases by mutual agreement. But the consent of the parents was certainly required, because marriage was not conceived without parental blessing..

II . Mordovian wedding ceremony.

A wedding is one of the most important events in a family's life. Traditional rituals dedicated to different stages of the wedding were supposed to contribute to its successful course, as well as to announce the event to fellow villagers and relatives. Wedding ceremonies were very complex and varied.

Mordovian wedding helps to see the beauty of the customs and traditions of the Mordovian people. The description of the Mordovian wedding was made by me from the words of a resident of the village Volkova Tatyana Ivanovna (born 1935), Osipova Nina Mikhailovna (born 1928) and Ilyasova Valentina Maksimovna (born 1923). All their lives they lived in the village of Staraya Shentala. Here they were born, grew up, got married, raised children and now grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren. They keep all the brightest and biggest events in their memory and pass them on to us, to the next generations. Of course, the rite of the Mordovian wedding was remembered by them most of all, since it is an event in the life of every person that is incomparable with anything in its beauty and splendor.

2.1 Odirvan kochkamo - the choice of the bride.

When choosing a bride, parents often focused on the property status of her family, the hard work and health of the girl. By age, brides were sometimes older than their suitors. There were marriages between young boys aged 8–12 and girls aged 20 or more. This was explained by the desire of the groom's parents to get additional working hands by marrying their son, and the bride's parents sought to keep their daughter in their house as long as possible. Therefore, they were not given before 25 years, it was the youngest bride. By the 19th century, the marriageable age of brides and grooms leveled off. As a rule, marriages were concluded in their ethnic environment, but there were also mixed marriages, especially Mordovian-Russian ones.

Kornishina G.A. Traditional ritual culture of the Mordovians // Mordva. Essays on the history, ethnography and culture of the Mordovian people / Editor-in-Chief: N.P. Makarkin, A.S. Luzgin, N.F. Mokshin and others. S.S. Markova. - Saransk: Mordov.kn.izd-vo, 2004.

APPENDIX