East Kazakhstan Regional Architectural-Ethnographic and Natural-Landscape Museum-Reserve. Azam and sundress
I will say right away that I am personally not interested in either Mohammedan or Jewish (in the good sense of the word)) or ours, orthodox old believer traditional clothes. I don’t write about it and I don’t read it, but I wear it. I put on a caftan or a shirt with a belt only during prayer, and even then not always. But I'm really fed up with different evil and ignorant "cradles"(on behalf of Alexander Lyulka - a missionary of the Russian Orthodox Church, an adherent of the Sysoev sect). The mentioned missionary somehow even agreed to the "Old Believer paces". Therefore, I decided to prepare a short course on "hijab studies and caftan studies" so that such liars do not fool people.
"Cradles" are very fond of tryndet that, they say, Old Believer traditional clothing, Muslim hijab and Jewish costume are one and the same. Like, all "Pharisees and ritualists" believe that wearing such clothes will bring them closer to God. Meanwhile, to say and write this, even without taking into account the tradition of the Orthodox Old Believers, is wrong: already in Judaism and Islam, clothing is given somewhat different meanings. In turn, among the Old Believers, the traditional dress is called “clothes for prayer” and is caused by the peculiarities of liturgical practice.
Common to these religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) are commandments to wear beards and head coverings for women. This is in the full sense of the word creeds.
Christians and Jews God forbids even trimming your beard and cutting your head very short.: "Do not cut your head around, and do not spoil the edges of your beard" (I quote from the synodal Bible, the book of Leviticus 19:27). In Islam, only Sunnis are required to wear a beard.(that is, Muslims who recognize the Sunnah, the set of sayings of the "prophet" Mohammed). The Sunnis here follow the commandment of the founder of their religion, who declared: "Allah has cursed men who resemble women." Since the “prophet” did not say anything about whether to cut the beard or not and how exactly, then every Mohammedan here chooses a fashion close to his heart or school. For example, Salafis (or Wahhabis) are usually recognized by the absence of a mustache with a long, uncut beard.
The Jews, on the other hand, brought the Lord's commandment about a beard and hair to ridiculous absurdity. I'm talking about the habit of wearing sidelocks(long uncut strands of hair at the temples). The fact is that the above "prohibition of short haircuts" in the book of Leviticus in Hebrew literally sounds like a prohibition on shaving whiskey. Although, according to the commandment, any length of hair, except for a very short one, is sufficient, the "orthodox" wear curls to stand out from the "mass". The length of the peys depends on the tradition of the community or locality.
The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a symbolic book of Judaism - something like a short course in the Talmud) explicitly admits that the main meaning of the traditional clothes and hairstyles of the Jews is the difference from the "goyim" (non-Jews): “they do not follow the customs of non-Jews and do not try to be like them either in clothes or in hair…” The customs of wearing sidelocks, shtreiml or kippah (yarmulke) and, moreover, lapserdak (Jewish caftan) are not prescribed by any religious or symbolic books of Judaism. The listed types of clothing are also not obligatory during prayer - for example, a Jew is prescribed to pray with his head covered, but nowhere does it say that his head should be covered with a kippah. Nevertheless, in Judaism, an analogue of Orthodox Old Believer clothing for prayer has been preserved from Old Testament times, but more on that below.
By the way, the wearing of a veil by a married woman (a fee or a scarf, later a wig) in Judaism is also regulated by custom, and not by the Law of God, although Jews pray with their heads covered. However, even a pious tradition remains a tradition, and by no means sacred: in the Old Testament there is a mention of custom, but no commandment. Not so in Christianity. The New Testament, which is a set of divinely revealed books, through the mouth of St. apostle paul expressly prescribes for women to cover their heads in the temple (as for men - to take off their hats): “... every woman who prays or prophesies with an open head shames her head, for this is the same as if she were shaved; for if a woman does not want to cover herself, let her have her hair cut; But if a woman is ashamed to be shorn or shaved, let her cover herself” (1 Cor.
In Islam, “Allah” is concerned about fashion issues, on whose behalf the Koran is written. Especially women's fashion. It is also regulated by Sharia - a set of Muslim laws. Unlike Jews and Christians, Muslim women are required to wear the hijab always and everywhere - mainly for security reasons and ... differences from non-Muslim women. A man is also obliged to wear the dress established by Sharia for the faithful only in order to differ in appearance from the kafirs (pagans) or the people of the Book (Jews and Christians).
“Speak to your wives, and to your daughters, and to the women of the believers, to close their outer covers tightly over themselves. It’s better that way, so that they can be distinguished ... And not subjected to insult ”(Sura 33, verse 59). "Tell the believing women to lower their eyes and protect their genitals. Let them not flaunt their beauty, except for those that are visible, and let them cover the neckline with their veils and show their beauty to no one but their husbands, or their fathers, or their fathers-in-law, or their sons, or the sons of their husbands or their brothers, or the sons of their brothers, or the sons of their sisters, or their women, or slaves who have been taken possession of by their right hands, or servants from among men who are deprived of lust, or children who have not comprehended the nakedness of women; and let them not knock their feet, making known the ornaments they hide. O believers! Turn to Allah with repentance all together - perhaps you will succeed. (Sura 24 "Light", Ayat 31)
Muslims, Muslim women and Jews do not have any special clothing for prayer. In non-Christian Abrahamic religions, such robes are only worn by Jewish men. This is a tallit (a quadrangular veil) decorated with tsitzit or tsitses (tassels or woven bundles of threads at the corners). “In our time, it has become out of the habit to wear such clothes, but in order to fulfill this commandment of the Torah, we wear the so-called. “small tallit”, and before the “Shacharit” prayer we put on the “big tallit”” (“Kitzur Shulkhan-Arukh”, “Laws of Tzitzit”). However, women are not forbidden to wear tzitzit, but traditionally only men wear tassels on the bedspread.
Anyway - neither Muslims nor Jews have strictly established liturgical vestments. This fact, apparently, is due to the fact that neither the mosque nor the synagogue are considered places of the mystical presence of God in these religions. Among the Jews, the dwelling place of the Shekinah was considered the Temple of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans millennia ago.
Not so in Orthodox Christianity, where each temple is considered the Tabernacle of the Most High. Orthodox Old Believers sacredly observe the Lord's commandments about the Tabernacle of the Covenant - a non-believer will not enter any of our temples beyond the porch (why are things impossible here, like dancing on the pulpit; unless the violators kill all the Christians in the temple). A bishop, priest, or deacon, in theory, may also serve in lay clothes, but only in extraordinary circumstances. Singers, as well as any other clergy, theoretically, may also not wear a sundress or caftan ("forgot", "no money"), but such things can only be tolerated, and then not for long.
But without a scarf stabbed at the chin (necessarily stabbed, not tied), the parishioner will not be allowed further than the porch (more precisely, she herself will not go): the New Testament requires covering her head, but covering it with a scarf stabbed "in the Old Believer way" is a pious custom . A sundress for a parishioner, as well as a ladder in her hands (a kind of rosary) are not required; the main thing is that there are no short sleeves, neckline, open belly, and the skirt should be below the knees. Shoes with high heels are undesirable, but our gatekeepers, unlike many others in Moscow, are indulgent towards young and beautiful young ladies :) But not too much - a woman in jeans, wrapped around her hips with some kind of Pavloposad shawl or chlamys, will not be allowed into the church. A heavily made-up woman will be let in, but already in the temple one of the old women will probably say a couple of "kind" words to her :)
A man can wear a caftan or a Russian shirt with a belt if he is or feels like a participant in worship. In any case, regular parishioners, especially those who come to the church at the beginning of the service, try to get a caftan, a belt and a ladder. Even those who do not have a caftan or a Russian shirt try to put on a belt.; during divine services, I often enjoy the funny look of serious men in loose European shirts tied with prayer belts))) However, this detail of the costume is established by custom and is not mandatory. As, in fact, all prayer clothes - if you do not stand on the pulpit and do not enter the altar during the service. Shorts and shirts with a deep neckline or short sleeves, as well as things "decorated" with indecent ornaments or inscriptions, are not allowed. Like everything done for the sake of outrageous - with dyed hair, piercings or barefoot, they will not be allowed into the temple.
It's believed that the house rule must be read in the same way when putting on clothes for prayer. However, this is already in the power of the owner of the house. The wearing of "overalls" by (mentally and spiritually normal) Orthodox Old Believers outside houses or churches is observed only during religious processions, which, if anyone remembers, are a form of worship. In everyday life, it is not necessary to wear a Russian ("Christian") dress even to those inhabitants of the Old Believer villages scattered around the world who preserved it (the Old Believers are not Amish). However, we, like the Nikonians, have enough idiots - mummers "Cossacks" and other caftans, aunts in caps and huge scarves. But freaks, thank God, are not in the majority.
In any case, the Orthodox Old Believers have neither commandments nor customs establishing the need to wear certain items in order to distinguish themselves from all others, like the Jews and Muslims. Therefore, comparisons with the Muslim hijab and the clothing of traditional Jews are incorrect. The prayer clothes of the Orthodox Old Believers have the same origin and use as the vestments of the Orthodox clergy. It’s just that in our country, unlike the Nikonians (New Believers) and other Catholics, all the laity present in the temple also participate in the service. Well, or, at least, most of the laity)))
The historical and ethnographic group of Russians - the Old Believers - were among the first to come to the uninhabited lands of the Far East. Experiencing persecution for their religious beliefs in the era of tsarist power, and during the period of collectivization, and during the Stalinist repressions, mastering one taiga region after another, the Old Believers, nevertheless, retained their commonality, originality, confessional foundations and traditions. However, it should be noted that under the influence of these political changes and socio-economic processes, there have been changes in the form of ownership, in the system of agriculture and other economic activities, family and marriage relations, material and spiritual culture.
And yet, many elements of the traditional material, domestic and spiritual culture continue to live. Many of them are associated with confessional attitudes, the degree of which varies considerably in different regions of the Far East. So, if among the Old Believers of Primorye they were preserved only among the older (50–80 years) generation, then in the Amur region they are characteristic of all age groups. Moreover, in the Amur region there are settlements, the boundaries of which coincide with the boundaries of the community. For example, in Tavlinka, Khabarovsk Territory, only Old Believers live, who even have their own elementary school, where the teacher is also from the Old Believers. And in Berezovoy (Khabarovsk Territory), where a rather large community of Old Believers-bespopovtsy lives compactly, who, despite their close proximity to other residents of the village, try to isolate themselves and preserve their originality. Members of the community, and among them there are representatives of such well-known Old Believer families as the Basargins, Bortnikovs, Guskovs, and others, try to reduce their communication with other people and secular authorities to a minimum. For example, marriage is formalized much later than the wedding and, as a rule, before the birth of the first child. The children of the Old Believers do not attend kindergartens, they do not eat at schools with their classmates. However, contacts are actively maintained with their fellow believers both in Russia and abroad (districts of the Khabarovsk Territory, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the Tomsk Region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Canada, the USA, Bolivia). Marriages are made with them, visits are exchanged, books, magazines, and religious objects are ordered from them. Such a wide geography of marital contacts is explained by the fact that it is forbidden to marry persons up to a certain (eighth) generation of kinship, not only by blood, but also when it comes to children of godparents and their descendants.
The implementation of these rules is monitored by the older generation of Old Believers-bespopovtsy, they also determine the correct observance of maternity, wedding and funeral rites. It is the family ritual and its regulations that have preserved the traditional features to the greatest extent to this day. For example, the name of the child is chosen strictly according to the holy calendar. A girl can choose a name within eight days from her date of birth, both in one direction and in the other. The community has identified several people who have the right to conduct the baptismal ceremony. They are baptized immediately upon discharge from the hospital in a prayer house or at their parents' house in a font with river water. As godparents, as a rule, relatives are chosen so that there are no difficulties when entering into marriage (the so-called kinship “by the cross”). During christening, parents are not present, because if one of them interferes with the baptism process, then the parents will be divorced (divorce among the Old Believers-bespriests is also possible if one of the spouses cannot have children). After baptism, the child is simultaneously put on a belt with a cross, which is not removed throughout his life (amulet).
The funeral rite also has its own characteristics. The Old Believers-bespopovtsy of the Sunny District of the Khabarovsk Territory do not wear mourning. It is not relatives who wash the deceased, but specially selected people, respecting their gender (men - men, women - women). The deceased is placed in a quadrangular coffin on the shavings that remained during its manufacture, completely covered with a sheet. Buried on the third day, in the morning. The coffin is carried depending on the gender and age of the deceased (men - men, boys - boys, etc.). They don’t drink at the wake, relatives don’t drink for 40 days, and they try to distribute the things of the deceased as alms. Traditional for us pancakes are not baked at the wake, but kutya, thick jelly, kvass, pies, noodles, shanezhki, honey are prepared. Prayer is served on
9th, 40th day and one year.
For the Bespriest Old Believers, daily home prayers are traditional. There are Saturday, Sunday and holiday prayers with hymns performed in specially built prayer houses.
Certain traditions also exist in material culture. The appearance of the Old Believer emphasizes his isolation from other residents of the village. Men of the Old Believers certainly wear a beard and mustache, married women wear a multi-layered headdress - shashmura and a dress of a special cut - a “cart”, and go to the prayer house only in sundresses. An indispensable part of the costume is a belt, woven or braided. On holidays, men wear loose-fitting silk shirts with a central front closure (not to the bottom) and embroidery on the stand-up collar, closure. Children's clothing on holidays is a small copy of an adult one, and on weekdays it is no different from children of non-Old Believers.
The basis of nutrition is traditionally made up of cereal products; products obtained in the taiga and water bodies are widely used: fish, red caviar, taiga wild plants (ramson, fern, etc.), berries, meat of wild animals, as well as vegetables grown in household plots. Old Believers strictly observe fasts throughout the year and on certain days of the week (Wednesday, Friday). On the days of weddings, funerals, commemorations, a certain ritual food is characteristic. Also, the Old Believers will not accept food prepared by non-Old Believers (this does not apply to factory-made products), and in their house each of them has dishes for non-Old Believers guests, from which the owners themselves never eat. All vessels with water must be covered with a lid so that evil spirits do not enter the water. Despite the refrigerators use the traditional glacier.
Separate features of the communal way of life have also been preserved. This is help in major chores for treating the owner and helping the lonely and the elderly both financially and in economic activities (plowing the garden, harvesting hay, firewood, etc.).
However, it is important to note (and the Old Believers themselves speak about this) that at present the requirements are being softened, there is no such “strictness in faith”, and, nevertheless, the Old Believers are not very willing to make contact, they are silent about many things and do not impose “their own” on anyone. faith." They retain their religious principles (the schedule of prayers, fasting, bans on work on holidays), traditions in everyday life and costume, have large friendly families, are loyal to the authorities and are of great interest to ethnographers.
Wedding rituals of the Old Believers-bespopovtsy
The traditional wedding ceremony of the Old Believers consists of the same stages as any East Slavic wedding. This is matchmaking, singing, a bachelorette party (hen party), the actual wedding, visiting relatives after the wedding. However, each of these stages, of course, has its own characteristics.
So, marriage. In addition to the groom and his parents, relatives and acquaintances both from the side of the bride and from the side of the groom may be present. Currently, young people, as a rule, agree among themselves in advance, although sometimes they may know very little of each other. After all, in addition to the ban on marriage between relatives up to the eighth generation of kinship, there is also a ban on marriage for "relatives by the cross." For example, a godmother's son and her goddaughter cannot marry. Therefore, the geography of marriage contacts of the Old Believers-bespopovtsy of the Solnechny region is quite wide. This and other areas of the Khabarovsk Territory, the Amur Region, the Jewish Autonomous Okrug, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as the USA, Canada, etc. In each Old Believer community there are people who check the degree of relationship of the spouses. If a marriage is concluded that violates this prohibition (even out of ignorance), then it must certainly be terminated. There are cases when such families "departed from the faith" in order to save their family.
The next step is to sing. During the drinking, which is organized by the relatives of the bride, the so-called rite of "three bows" takes place. After praying, the groom and matchmakers bow three times to the bride's parents and the bride is asked about her consent to marriage. If the girl gives her consent, then the parents of the bride and groom become matchmakers. It is believed that if after the “three bows” the girl refuses the young man, then she will not be happy in life. Also, after the “three bows”, the bride and groom do not visit the company of young people without each other.
Next comes the bachelorette party. It should be noted that among the Old Believers, not only girls, but also boys, and sometimes recently married young spouses, gather for this action. It is often carried out not at one time (depending on the wealth of the family), but from two to seven days. The central event of the bachelorette party is the putting on the bride of the headdress of the betrothed girl - krosaty. This is a headdress consisting of a wreath and ribbons, flowers, beads attached to it. His girlfriend wears before marriage. After the “marriage”, the young wife is put on shashmura - the headdress of a married woman (more on that later). At a bachelorette party, they treat themselves to sweets, nuts, seeds, sing “girlish” songs, and play role-playing games. For example, girls sing the following chorus:
Alexey Ivanovich!
We congratulate you with an honest song,
Us a golden hryvnia!
You kiss Maria Petrovna,
Don't forget us
Throw money on a plate.
The guy who was approached kissed the named girl first, and then everyone else, except for the bride, and threw money on the dish. If the guy did not want to throw money or threw a little, they sang this chorus to him:
We were told that the good fellow does not hear,
Plant the good fellow higher!
The other guys toss him up and "shake" the money out of him. The funds raised in this way are used to buy wedding gifts for the young. After the bachelorette party, the whole company escorts the groom home, the bride and groom go ahead, the girls sing a song to the groom corresponding to this occasion.
The wedding is most often scheduled for Sunday, and if a holiday falls on Sunday, they are postponed to Monday. They do not play a wedding on Tuesday and Thursday (except for the continuous week before Lent, when it can take place on any day). Before the wedding, as a rule, on Saturday - "broom". Young people go to the groom for a broom (to wash the bride), and they also buy soap, a comb, perfume, etc. from the groom. The girls go to the bride, wash her in the bath with songs and disperse only early Sunday morning at about 3–4 o’clock. By this time, the bride is dressed, a scarf is thrown over her. A girl from a family of Old Believers must marry in a sundress (clothes in which women go to a prayer house). Currently, wedding clothes for the bride and groom are sewn from the same fabric (shirt, sundress, scarf). This is a trend of modern fashion, but the cut of the shirt and sundress has remained unchanged for many centuries. The groom comes to redeem the bride from those who block his path. With the groom - a witness and a witness (necessarily married, but not among themselves). They redeem the bride with braga, sweets, money, etc. The bride's brother sells her braid (if the groom does not redeem it, they will cut it off). The bride and groom are asked the names of their new relatives, etc. There is another married witness in the house with the bride, everyone goes to the prayer house to “marry” (the word “marry” is not used). In the prayer house, the young people are once again asked about their desire to marry, since divorce among the Old Believers is extremely rare. After this ceremony, the young wife is put on a "chin" - shashmura (a complex headdress of a married woman), braiding two braids before that. Without this headdress, a married woman does not show herself to anyone (except her husband) - this is a sin. It must be said that the custom of wearing a special headdress of a married woman is characteristic of all Eastern Slavs:
My mother scolded me
Do not braid on two braids.
Will you get married -
You will not see your girlish beauty.
Shashmura consists of three elements: a small handkerchief that fixes the hair, a special solid headband and a top handkerchief that matches the color of the rest of the clothes.
This is followed by a dinner in a prayer house, after which the bride's relatives sell her things, and the groom redeems them. After that, the bride and groom go to invite guests to their wedding feast. By two o'clock the guests gather at the groom's house. Parents meet the young with bread and salt. Young people stand in front of the icons, they are congratulated first by their parents, then by everyone else. It is interesting that the bride and groom do not take gifts in their own hands, they are accepted by the witness in order to divert possible negative energy from the young. And yet, during the wedding, the witnesses of the young carry a chain knitted from handkerchiefs in their hands, and go everywhere together: all this plays the role of a kind of amulet for a young family. On the second day, the newlyweds walk already without witnesses, connected only with each other. I do not mention the registration of marriage in the registry office, since the Old Believers do not attach much importance to this. Often they register their marriage only before the birth of their first child. At the wedding they sing songs, listen to music, but do not dance. The newlyweds do not stay long at the wedding table, the witnesses take them to sleep, and the guests continue to walk. In the morning, the witnesses wake up the young people, and they again invite guests "for a hangover." On this day, they change witnesses, sell gifts, dress up, have fun from the heart. A young wife must give gifts to her husband's relatives (parents, sisters, brothers). It can be a shirt, a scarf, a belt, etc. In the event that the groom does not have his own home, the young ones settle with his parents. Old Believers are generally characterized by large families in which several generations of relatives live. But at the first opportunity, young people try to build their own house. This is understandable, because the Old Believers have large families. They give birth to as many children "as God gives."
The wedding cycle ends with a mutual visit of relatives. And for the newlyweds for another year, all members of the community receive additional attention.
Of course, wedding rituals are more influenced by time than, for example, funeral rituals. But still, the main elements of the rite continue to persist, which allows us to speak about the preservation of traditions known since the 18th century.
Birthing rites of the Old Believers
Based on materials of expeditions to the villages of Berezovy, Tavlinka and Duki of the Khabarovsk Territory
The birth of a child has always been the most important event for the family and the main purpose of a woman. Attitude towards infertility is always negative. It was infertility that was the only reason why divorce was allowed. And it does not matter who was the culprit - the husband or wife. They could remarry, and in such families, it happened that children were born. And yet it was the woman who was most often accused of infertility and, of course, took all possible measures against him. These are prayers, and herbal medicine in all forms (rubbing, tinctures, decoctions). If the listed funds do not help, then medical intervention is currently allowed, up to artificial insemination, but with the permission of the community and through a prayer service.
The attitude towards artificial termination of pregnancy has always been negative, and it is still prohibited to this day. And yet, there have been cases like this. For such a sin, a woman must "carry the rule" for seven years.
In the event of a miscarriage (the woman is always blamed for it), it is also necessary to “carry the rule” (which one is not specified, each one has her own).
The gender of the child was not very important for the Old Believers. After all, God gave any child, so there were no ways to influence the sex of the child, and the Old Believers do not believe in signs. According to M. Bortnikova from the village of Berezovy, when young people are married, they are told: "Don't be superstitious."
The families of the Old Believers are characterized by a careful attitude towards a pregnant woman, but, nevertheless, if there are no older children in the family, then the woman does all the daily household work herself. Although it was necessary to beware of hard work, not to strain, to take care of the unborn child. Pregnant women do not work on holidays (however, this applies to all Old Believers), and they cannot do anything for 40 days after giving birth. There were no prohibitions in behavior, work, or food for a pregnant woman. There are only indulgences in fasting. For example, on days when even vegetable oil is prohibited, a pregnant woman could eat it.
Despite the fact that there was a careful attitude towards the pregnant woman, in general, the attitude towards the woman is ambiguous. A woman among the Old Believers is considered "unclean" from birth. This is evidenced, for example, by such a fact (according to M. Bortnikova, the settlement of Berezovy). If, for example, a mouse falls into a well, then the well is “made” (that is, 40 buckets of water are poured out of it) and a special prayer is read. If a girl falls into a well, they bury it or board it up and never use it again. Or one more thing: if a baby is capricious at the festive table and needs to be passed across the table, then this can only be done with a boy, but a girl is by no means passed across the table - only around.
Before giving birth, a woman usually confesses, as a rule, to her spiritual father.
Currently, births mostly take place in the hospital, but sometimes at home and in the bathhouse. To facilitate childbirth, there are special prayers to the Mother of God, Great Martyr Catherine. After the birth, the rector reads the prayer, then everyone else comes in. If they entered before they read the prayer, they carry the rule.
The services of a midwife in our time are practically not used (there was a midwife in Berezovoe, but she left), more often they give birth in a maternity hospital, but sometimes the mother-in-law acts as a midwife. It is not customary to pay money to a midwife. As a rule, she receives a handkerchief, a towel, etc. as a gift. A special prayer is also read to the midwife, she carries a small rule.
After giving birth, a woman in labor could stay in bed for several days, depending on her condition and the availability of housewives, and sometimes more (at this time she is weak, and they say that she “walks along the edge of the grave”). For 40 days after giving birth, a woman does not visit the prayer house, does not eat with everyone (the Old Believers do not each have their own plate, everyone eats from the common one), has separate dishes, because her body is weakened and susceptible to many infections. To improve health, the woman was given decoctions of various herbs, home-made wine (a little, to improve lactation).
The Old Believers-bespopovtsy of the Sunny District try to christen the child within eight days after the birth. If the child is weak and there are fears that he may die, then they are baptized even in the maternity hospital. Since baptism is a kind of amulet that gives hope for a successful outcome. But if a child dies not baptized, then they don’t bury him in a prayer house, don’t put a cross on the grave, and then they don’t remember him in prayers, because he has no name.
The names of the Old Believers are chosen for children only according to the calendar, and the name for the boy is within eight days after the date of birth, and the name for the girl is within eight days before and eight days after the birth (they say that the girl is a "jumping girl"). It should also be noted that further, throughout life, only the name day (angel's day) is celebrated, and not the birthday, and the birthday and name day most often do not coincide. It is believed that after baptism, a guardian angel appears in a child. In the families of the Old Believers there are children with the same names, and this is not forbidden in any way (in the village of Tavlinka there is currently a family in which two sons have the same name).
Baptized, as a rule, in a prayer house, rarely - at home, in the morning at 7-9 o'clock. Water for baptism is carried by the father, older children, relatives from the river (the water must be running, the water is not heated). In the same water, several children are not baptized (even twins). The sheet, tablecloth, on which the font stands, is also pre-rinsed in the river. The godfather and the one who baptizes are given towels. After baptism, the water from the font is poured out so that they “do not trample” on this place (it can be an abandoned well, a glacier).
After the child has been christened, they put on a cross, a belt and a baptismal shirt. Baptismal shirt - white, the same for girls and boys. Three days after baptism, the shirt is not removed from the child and the child is not bathed. During the baptism of a child, his parents cannot be present, because if one of the parents approaches the child at this moment, then the parents will be divorced.
There are several people in the bespopovskaya Old Believer community who have the right to baptize a child. As a rule, these are elderly people respected by all, physically strong enough (to keep the child during baptism). The gender of the godfather does not always match the gender of the child. The Old Believers try to choose close relatives as godfathers, so that later, when choosing a groom or bride for a child, they do not encounter the problem of “kinship by the cross”. And since the choice of a marriage partner is rather complicated due to objective reasons, they try to avoid additional difficulties.
Immediately after the christening, a baptismal dinner is held. The owner of the house is in charge of all meals. After dinner, they pray for the health of the baby and mother.
Godparents and godchildren maintain close relationships throughout their lives, since it is believed that godparents are responsible for their godson before God and the community, and in the event of the death of their parents, they replace them.
In general, the maternity and baptismal rites of the Old Believers of the Solnechny District of the Khabarovsk Territory have existed for a long time, practically without undergoing cardinal changes. At the same time, it should be noted that some “relaxations in faith”, characteristic of all spheres of life of the Old Believers, are also noticeable in this area (artificial insemination when it is impossible to give birth to a child, baptism in a maternity hospital, etc.).
Lyubov KOVALEVA (Komsomolsk-on-Amur)
KOVALEVA Lyubov Vasilievna, head of the research department of the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Museum of Fine Arts. In 1999 she graduated from the Vladivostok University of Economics and Service, since 1998 she has been working in the museum. She has been studying the history of the Old Believers in the Far East since 1999, collecting materials during annual scientific expeditions in the places of local residence of the Old Believers. Participates in scientific and practical conferences and seminars.
In the 20s - 30s. 20th century in the Northern, and then in the Central, Southern and South-Eastern parts of the Altai District, the processes of further transformation of headgear proceeded intensively. Among Kerzhach and Siberian women, the headband in sashmurs and warriors became quite narrow, and sometimes it was only a quilted strip of 2-3 layers of fabric. Caps embroidered with lace, beads, sequins, which were attached to the head with hairpins, spread (hence tattoos). They were sewn from a piece of oval-shaped fabric, gathered on a straight strip, a cloth flagellum-rib was inserted into the seam of the connection. Tattoos were worn without a headscarf by young women on holidays and on occasion of attending a wedding (Fig. 89, 90). As already noted, there were also dresses simplified for a given area - from one or two purchased scarves tied around the head, which, at the same time, were folded diagonally from corner to corner.
Girls and divorced women who wore only one headscarf tied a knot under their chin. When doing work, married women, like girls, put on one scarf, but tied it in a knot at the back of the head; in a festive and ritual costume they wore two scarves, the lower of which was tied at the back of the head, and the upper in front, under the chin.
The "Poles" of the Southern and Central Altai in the late XIX - early XX centuries. under the influence of kerzhachek, "horned" kichki were replaced by sashmurs, which by the 20s and 30s. 20th century firmly occupied a place in everyday costume. But, however, headwear made of two scarves, tattoos, even by the 30s. were not widely used here, and in some places the descendants of the "Polish women" did not wear them even at a later time. Even to this day, elderly women live in various regions of the Upper Ob region, on whose heads you can see sashmurs with narrow hoops, and in chests you can find kichki.
Literature for the chapter "Women's clothing". Shirts.
1. Fursova E.F. Polik shirts of peasant women of the Southern Altai in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. // Cultural and everyday processes among the Russians of Siberia in the XVIII - early XX centuries - Novosibirsk, 1985. - P. 199.
2. She is. Women's funeral clothes among the Russian population of Altai // Traditions and innovations in the life and culture of the peoples of Siberia. - Novosibirsk, 1983. - P. 73 - 87.
3. Sobolev M.N. Russian Altai. From a trip to Altai in 1895 // Geography.- 1896.- T. III.- Book. Ill-IV.-S. 60; Novoselov A.E. Among the Old Believers of Altai // Belovodie.- Irkutsk, 1981.- P. 394.
4. Grinkova N.P. Single-dvor clothing of the Korotoyaksky district of the Voronezh province (From the materials of the South-Eastern expedition of the GAIMK) // Izv. Leningrad state. ped. in-ta im. A.I. Herzen.- 1928.-Iss. I. - S. 152.
5. AGO, r. 27, o. 1, N 18, l. 132; Chizhikova L.N. Traditional Russian women's clothing based on the materials of the Nizhnedevitsky district of the Voronezh region // PIIE. 1980 - 1981.- M., 1984.- S. 14; Bshetska V.Ukrashsk! shirts, tipi, involution and ornamentation // Materials for ethnologists and anthropologists Shevchenko at Lvov!
6. Shcherbik G.A. Collection of peasant clothing in the funds of the East Kazakhstan Museum of History and Local Lore // Cultural and everyday processes among Russians in Siberia in the 18th - early 20th centuries - Novosibirsk, 1985. - P. 219.
“Come on, Nadia, let's show how they play on spoons!” - says Galina Pavlovna. Nadia, her granddaughter, obediently sits down on a chair, straightens the folds of her sundress and nods in sign of readiness. The Fadeev family from the village of Bolshoi Kunaley performs the song “Oh, you, canopy, my canopy” especially for me.
Nadya is a master of the instrument - she quickly and rhythmically beats spoons against her palm, making lunges on her shoulders and legs. Lyudmila, her mother, no less masterfully groans at the most daring beats. The main part is performed by Galina Pavlovna, she has a deep and strong voice. Everything that I knew about Russian song since childhood - from the hopeless Soviet television with its love for everything folk and from kindergarten teachers with their mandatory program of aesthetic development - turned out to be true. Pretty unexpected considering how far I've traveled in my search for real, not television folklore.
Bolshoi Kunaley is an Old Believer village that arose in Transbaikalia in the 1760s. Under Catherine II, schismatics hiding from the Russian authorities were expelled from the eastern part of Poland and sent to Siberia. Under the escort of the Cossacks, the Old Believers moved east for many years and settled in Altai, Khakassia, Transbaikalia, reaching the Amur. Those who stopped and still live in the region of Ulan-Ude and Chita were called family (one of the versions is because they migrated and settled with whole families).
While I frantically think about how to behave, the song ends and Galina Pavlovna begins an excursion into history. With "Senya", he says, they met guests at the gates for the wedding, only they beat not with spoons, but with a ladle on the damper removed from the stove, so that the whole village could hear. So, having arrived at the origins of television stamps, I am surprised to find that the song about the canopy was not invented specifically to fool the head, it really was an important part of the traditional way of life. Meanwhile, Galina Pavlovna orders to sing further - about the chicken, about the berry-raspberry, the comic-dancing "My sides, sides." For the penal song “Autumn Leaves Are Falling,” I have already overcome my awkwardness and react as an experienced listener: having lamented the fate of the protagonist, who is almost always unenviable, I ask how old the song is and in what situation it was performed. In general, I tolerably play the role of a tourist, for whom three generations of the Fadeev family professionally play the role of family Old Believers.
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Galina Pavlovna's mother died ten years ago and was a real Old Believer. Galina Pavlovna herself managed the village club all her life and in the 1980s led the Bolshoi Kunalei folklore ensemble, which successfully toured America and Europe. Lyudmila works for a travel company in Ulan-Ude. Her younger Nadya ended up at home by chance - she has been living abroad since the eighth grade, now she is studying to be a tourism manager in Holland. The eldest daughter Natasha recently got married and left for Israel. All of them consider themselves family, although they make a reservation - "we are the keepers, not the bearers of the tradition." Unlike many other Semey families who have long lost touch with tribal habits, the Fadeevs have learned to convert these habits into an exclusive tourist offer.
“They prepared for death in advance, from the age of forty: they hollowed out the domino, stocked up with death clothes. It was supposed to wrap the dead man in a shroud and tie it with braid, - Lyudmila intercepts the leading role. - I went through my grandmother's suitcase three times. She will see a new fabric: “Oh, brave material, buy it for me for a veil.” She will like one fabric, then another. I had to buy. And she bought ten yards of tape for her. Now I understand that this is how it should be.” I envy the Old Believers a little, whose whole life was painted according to rituals.
“And it was supposed to put an atlas on the coffin,” Lyudmila continues, asking if such a topic frightens me. - They will come from the funeral and discuss: "They had a bad atlas, but they buried them bravely." Well, family, what can you do! The last remark causes all three to roar with laughter, as if they themselves can do nothing with their family origin. “And most importantly - how they voted! So nowhere did they vote, as in Kunaley. The funeral was considered brave if everyone roared. My hostess softens, murmurs, and she turns out to “roar more”: portraying her fellow villagers, Lyudmila, without warning, switches to a family dialect with its characteristic words and pronunciation. Like other components of the culture of the Old Believers, it was partially preserved from pre-Petrine times, partially absorbed Polish, slightly changed during its life next to the Siberian old-timers and Buryats, and today it is on the verge of extinction. It can be seen that the family dialect serves Fadeev for "internal" purposes: it is spoken when you want to connect a family that has scattered all over the world again, to feel like a family. In a conversation with strangers, they have a well-delivered Russian speech.
In the midst of fun, a cow jumps outside the window. Following my gaze, Lyudmila says: “Ah, cows? Yes, they are also family!” - and causes a new fit of laughter in those present. A real family man will not miss an opportunity to laugh at his family nature. Lyudmila and Galina Pavlovna go into the kitchen, from where exclamations are sometimes heard: “Mom, where is your hazel tree? Did you get the sausage? Lyudmila calls her mother "you", Nadya Lyudmila - "you".
We sit down at the table. On the table there is “nothing bought but vodka”: their own pork with potatoes, homemade sausage, butter, pancakes with strawberries. Galina Pavlovna tells how she first tasted sugar in 1954. “My grandmother's mother-in-law, Nenila's grandmother, invited us to visit. There were no saucers, she takes out her purse and distributes a handful to the guests. I'm small, I also want to. Grandmother divided the pile and pushed me away. Real sweets were not eaten until the 1950s. As a delicacy, they ate oatmeal - crushed flour and salt baked in the oven (“The top of perfection!” - says Lyudmila), malt - a sweet stew made from sprouted wheat with flour (“It's very tasty, even I managed to try it,” says Nadia) , straw - the same flour, brewed with water and fried in oil. They went to the forest for locusts - sweetish lily bulbs, and in the gardens in late autumn they picked bulbes - berries that form on the stalk of potatoes. "They're poisonous!" I scream. “But we have immunity,” says Lyudmila, and everyone laughs. “We didn’t eat anything sweeter than bulbs.”
The Fadeevs are well aware of what a typical tourist who has come from the west needs, which means that he has probably lost touch with the soil and roots. Lyudmila published an announcement on the Internet: "You will visit a family of Old Believers who have preserved all the authenticity and originality of the culture of their ancestors." Like, we will be glad to come. So I got to them. No price list, of course, the price is negotiated by phone. Local travel agencies also offer clients to visit family villages, slowly promoting the option of "home" tourism. Immersion in family life is his main trump card. And I am glad to know the whole truth about sweet bulbs, although I am not a real tourist, I have completely different tasks: I am interested in the family costume.
Shaving off beards and shortening dresses in the European manner, Peter I ordered the "schismatics" by special decree to remain in old clothes so that opponents of the reforms could be immediately identified. For the next three hundred plus years, the Old Believers, wherever they were, strenuously protected themselves from foreign influence. From the Poles who sheltered them in the 17th century, from the neighbors of the 18th-19th centuries - the Buryats, and even from the all-pervading Soviet power a century later. Ethnographers, who visited the locals only fifteen years ago, talk about huge ambers, which, according to legend, have been kept since pre-Petrine times. Strict bans on tobacco and alcohol. About how the family treated guests from separate dishes and tried to avoid vaccinations (“the seal of the Antichrist”). About how they believed in the magic of things (“it’s a sin to milk a cow without a ring”). And about the fact that almost every house kept a chest with old clothes - a family costume. The family people themselves like to say that their clothes are the real Russian costume, which “in the West” (in the European part of Russia) first deteriorated, and then completely disappeared. For them, in general, what is pre-Petrine means the present. I'm just wondering what a real Russian costume looks like, having survived both Peter the Great, and the USSR, and globalization.
It is customary to think that there can be no kitsch in traditional clothes - they say, the antiquity of the canon guarantees thoughtful details and harmonious color combinations. And if you look at the enchanting costume of the family, it seems that they deliberately collected and brought to the point of absurdity the most common clichés about spreading raspberries with a balalaika and a woman on a teapot. Such a deliberate mixture of colors and textures is difficult to come up with.
Any novice designer knows the classic rules for combining colors and makes sure that the color is repeated in different elements of clothing. Semey's have all the opposite principles: the color should not be repeated, and the more colors, the "braverer". A motley sundress with satin ribbons of three other colors sewn on it is put on a bright-colored silk shirt. Then a silk apron of the fifth color, also with ribbons. On top of everything, you can throw a multi-colored satin scarf. A married woman would certainly put on a special hat with a small horn in front - a kichka - on her head. And over the kichka she wound another scarf with beads and artificial flowers sewn to it.
The Fadeev family is ready to show everything that has accumulated in their chests over 150 years. Galina Pavlovna is wearing the most representative ensemble: a bright pink shirt, a black sundress in red roses, a green apron with ribbons, a kichka on her head, tied with an orange-purple scarf and decorated with shiny beads and flowers. Instead of a traditional cufflink, there is a large shiny brooch a la "Cherkizon" at the collar. And of course, amber. Bicentennial, clouded, they pull a kilogram and a half. “It must be very hard for you,” I say, pointing to the necklace. - Can you take a picture? “Nothing,” she replies and suddenly explains, “before, it was hard out of habit, but now I often put them on.”
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1. Nadia - the youngest in the Fadeev family (photo above) - lives in Holland, studies to be a tourism manager. She wears a folk costume and sings family songs only during the holidays. |
I am amazed at the size of the jewelry, but Galina Pavlovna reassures me: “Only rich families had such large necklaces, while the poor worked all year to buy a small amber. We had a lot of Graves' disease here, and they tried to put amber on girls from infancy. For a healthy thyroid gland. Traditional superstitions in the 20th century were replaced by complex medical considerations - thyroid gland, Graves' disease. And this is a new magical reality: ambers continue to work as amulets, although they take the form of folk stone therapy. Hearing that we are talking about amber, Lyudmila looks out from the kitchen: “Semey people like it to be brighter. It was still in my memory when New Year's Christmas tree beads went on, they were put on instead of amber on holidays. Galina Pavlovna adds: “And when they started to take an interest in folklore, they put on amber again.”
From the daily habit of wearing a heavy suit family safely got rid of in the 1950s. The Fadeevs show me a photograph from 1954, in which two women are dressed in a traditional costume, and one is already in a colorful city dress. Lyudmila comes out from behind the closet in a tunic and clearly shows why the Old Believers could not switch to urban clothes for a long time. The shirt looks like an ordinary dress - pink silk top, black cotton bottom. And it’s indecent to walk in one camp, so the city dress was perceived as a shameful underwear, over which three layers of clothing were still supposed to be.
In the 1980s, the costumes were returned from the chests to the wardrobes and began to be put on to perform in folklore groups in front of foreign guests, who were walked in Semey villages by the local administration, and also in front of TV journalists who still graze with the Old Believers, dripping with sweet syrup on the subject " not forgotten customs of our ancestors.
Lyudmila hangs martial belts on the closet door - woven from multi-colored threads with geometric ornaments. “The skill has been lost,” she comments. I have to bet - Moscow needlewomen, obsessed with everything ancient Slavic, have long restored the technique of weaving and make belts on an industrial scale. It's funny that this wave of "Western" fashion here, apparently, has not yet reached.
I already managed to catch a glimpse of the family costume a little earlier at Father Sergius, when I visited his funny Museum of the History and Culture of the Old Believers in the regional center of Tarbagatai. Along with the skulls of ancient animals stacked in the corner (they have nothing to do with Semey ones, Father Sergiy simply amateurly reproduces the matrix of the local history museum: geology, paleontology, anthropology), with wooden butter churns and cast-iron waffle irons, entire deposits of family clothes were found in the museum. Opening cupboards and chests for me, Father Sergiy proudly commented: “The Semey people dressed well, better than in the West. They wore cotton, we wore silk, they wore bast shoes, we wore leather ichigi ... "
Kurmushka - women's outerwear, a long jacket quilted with sheep's wool. “Even before Peter, they used to wear such,” Father Sergius said, and deftly laid out the Kurmushka on the floor so that I could see its “sun” cut.
The priest categorically refuses to put on a kurmushka (“Why am I going to be photographed in a women’s one!”), But when the turn of a man’s robe comes, he readily puts it on over his down jacket to demonstrate how to wear it: sleeveless. Putting your hands in your sleeves was supposed to be only in the church. Father Sergius rejoices when journalists write about him - he needs to popularize the museum. So he throws sundresses, shirts, scarves and sheepskin coats from chests, but I can’t see things properly - the priest is in a hurry to the city, he was invited to the Buryat holiday.
At the Fadeevs, I can finally touch and see the costume and the main pride of the family - a bright silk satin scarf. Contrasting orange-violet flowers with Empire garlands, flowers and flowerpots.
Lyudmila tells how a delegation from UNESCO came to them, made an examination of things and recognized the fabric as real Lyon silk: “Our ancestors brought these atlases from the West. They were not worn every day, and the quality was appropriate, so they were preserved.
I am very interested in how the European headscarf turned out to be the most valuable item of the costume of the Transbaikal Old Believers. Trying to figure out how the atlases got to the family, after returning from the Great Kunaley, I contacted Sarah Rosenbaum, the owner of the ChezSarah vintage store in Saint-Ouen near Paris. Kilometers of old fabrics pass through her hands and she could not fail to recognize Lyon silk. "I've never seen anything like this," Sarah told me, "and I don't think it's a French fabric." In the process of searching, I found that the same headscarves were worn throughout the north of Russia - Arkhangelsk city ladies, Mezen Old Believers and even Kama Udmurts. Having discarded the version about Indian silk, which was brought to Russia by the northern trade route since the time of Alexei Mikhailovich, I finally get to the bottom of the truth. And it turns out to be very prosaic: it was these silk scarves that at the beginning of the 20th century were produced by one of the weaving factories of the Bogorodsk district. Now OJSC "Pavlovo Posadskaya Shawl Manufactory".
The principle according to which identical headscarves were worn in some territories and not worn in others turns out to be economic, and not at all ethnographic: they became part of the folk costume where richer peasants lived, able to buy an expensive headscarf. Because the peasants generally preferred purchased fabric - unequivocally "beautiful", in contrast to pale homespun products.
That is why Lyudmila's grandmother could not choose a “brave” fabric for her funeral shroud: too many beautiful things appeared in stores while she had time to grow old. Since then, the pyramid of values has been neatly turned upside down: today hand-made belongs to design and is valued much more than high-volume production. What, thank God, the descendants of those very rich peasants are learning to use.
It cannot be said that purchased scarves spoiled the Russian costume. Because its whole history is a history of borrowings and alterations. In Transbaikalia, a Russian shirt with a Polish collar was sewn from Chinese silk, and the Buryats learned to wear ichigi. You can also remember that a sarafan translated from Farsi means “honorable clothing”. But none of that ever mattered. Elements of different origin could be perfectly combined and perceived as primordially Russian clothing.
Can all this be called kitsch? It seems not. Because such a concept exists in a completely different coordinate system. In the one where there is also an idea of style, and the color must be repeated.
Finally, I wonder if there are real family people left in the villages - those who still follow the tradition: they wear amber or tie a belt. Hearing the question, Galina Pavlovna turns to Lyudmila and says: “Aunt Tanya still girdles her nightgown.” And to me: “This is my aunt, she is 95 years old. She was very ill about twenty years ago, and they already came to help her. And after that you can not eat anything for three days, only drink water. So she drank water, drank and recovered. She still lives with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.” I already dream of seeing Aunt Tanya and, of course, her chest. But Lyudmila quickly stops: “They won’t show you anything, don’t even dream. Here they come to us and say: "But we thought you, like the Lykovs, live." But after all, you won’t get to the Lykovs as easily as you get to us! Comparing Lyudmila's overly quick reaction with how the Fadeevs, like the very same real Old Believers of a hundred years ago, offered me tea and searched all over the house for a glass from which I had already drunk once, remembering individual intonations and the general politely detached manner of our conversations, I I understand that there is no chance to see Aunt Tanya. I even begin to like it: in the categorical unwillingness to show too much lies the authenticity of my hostesses. Because one's own or someone else's is the main characteristic of a person in the family identification system. Be he any lover of vintage textiles.
The more people want to see the real traditional way, the more this way is destroyed. Families like the Lykovs still live in the Trans-Baikal taiga, in Altai, and in Khakassia. Only they are unlikely to wear festive costumes and sing old songs for tourists. And those who are ready to sing are already demanding a fair price for it.
Recently a Moscow journalist came and wanted to film a wedding. “But now, just like that, no one will go to play a wedding,” says Lyudmila. - And they won't go for two hundred rubles. In Soviet times, everything went on enthusiasm. Mom was the director of the club, I was the senior pioneer leader, the party said "it's necessary" - that's all. It was not paid in any way, we met foreign tourists, took them to nature, they sang, danced, danced round dances. Now is another matter. If you want to play a family wedding - pay. Over the past thirty years, just who has not been visiting the family. Tourists from the administration, tourists at the call of the heart, scientists, film crews from different film studios. All of them are fed up with the order, the enthusiasm is over, and now the family see no benefit from visiting journalists.
Where there is now an information board for tourists, which says that the territory of the Old Believer villages begins (and for me already ends) here, the Ministry of Culture of Buryatia is going to build a special ethnographic village of Semey, and nearby - the same, but Buryat. “Ten years ago there was the first flow of tourists, and we welcomed them well, but when our authorities decided that this was a potential income for them, they took matters into their own hands and want to launch mass tourism with family visits. Unfortunately, we did not receive an invitation to work from them,” Lyudmila wrote to me after I returned home. Old houses will be brought to the ethnographic village and made habitable for tourists from the city. Organize choir performances, open a restaurant. In general, they will stage family life. Even more professional than the Fadeevs, which means no real stories about Aunt Tanya or grandmother Nenila. It is quite natural and, it seems, the final stage of the alienation of the family from their past.
Illustrations by Irina Batakova
Kika (kichka) - an old Russian women's headdress with horns, a kind of warrior (magpie - without horns, kokoshnik - with a high front).
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Horned kitty. Second half of the 19th century. Spassky district. Tambov province.
Kika was an open crown adorned with pearls, beads and other precious stones. Actually, not only the entire headdress, but also its lower part, which was made of glued canvas, was directly called kikoi. Since this part covered the hair, its other name was the volosnik. With the help of inserts made of hard materials, such as birch bark, the front part of the dress was shaped like horns, hooves or shoulder blades. A beaded nape was put on at the back, and an elegant magpie was worn on top.
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F.G. Solntsev.
Previously, costumes carried a semantic load - drawings, patterns, interweaving of colors told about people's lives. Costumes - like cryptography, like hieroglyphs, carried encrypted information: what kind of person, where and where he goes, what class he belongs to, what he does. This is the surface layer of information. There was also a deep one: the mystery of birth, the mystery of being. This knowledge was passed down from pagan times from generation to generation, and served as amulets against evil spirits.
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First of all, a horned kichka in the form of a moon showed a woman's connection with the pagan Makosh, the Great Goddess of Fate, who, as the ancient Slavs believed, embodied all the power of female energy. Female power under the sign of the Moon, male power under the sign of the Sun - this is how the Slavs understood the interaction of two energies - male and female. The most powerful property of Makosh was, according to the ancestors, the fact that it was she who determined the fate of a person. This is the Goddess of Fate, the Heavenly Spinner. Share and Nedolya help her. Wearing a kichka had not a utilitarian meaning, but a ritual one.
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The headdress changed depending on the age and marital status of the woman. On the day of the wedding, after the ceremony, when the girl "turned" into a woman, the ceremony of "unweaving the braid" took place. The bridesmaids untwisted the braid for the bride. They divided their hair in half and braided two braids, stacking them with a whisk at the back of the head. The semantics of the rite shows that the girl found her soul mate and united with her for further procreation. They put on a low headdress (“kichka of a young woman”) with a barely outlined horn. After the birth of the first child, the young woman, having proved her fertility, put on a horned kichka or a high spade-shaped headdress. The longest horns were on the kichka of the oldest woman of the family. Over time, this tradition was lost and wedding suits acquired high "horns".
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For the first time, "human" is mentioned in a document of 1328. Kika was an attribute of the attire of a newlywed and married woman, since, unlike the girl's "crown", she completely hid her hair. In this regard, kika began to be called the "crown of marriage." Kiki were worn mainly in Tula, Ryazan, Kaluga, Oryol and other southern provinces. Having arisen in one locality, existing in another, one or another type of female headdress retained the name of its homeland in the name: for example, “Kika Novgorod” or “Toropetsky heel”.
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Kiki were made by craftswomen, as a rule, for a long time; bought as a gift from husbands to wives, they were kept with special care in all houses. The soft top of the kiki was sewn exactly to the head of her mistress; a hard top of various shapes and volumes was attached to the crown. In some places, the same birch bark was used for kicking, in others - "cardboard" glued in several layers of canvas and paper. All this "construction" was covered with a large piece of dense matter, which was sewn together at the back. Sometimes the fabric was thrown over the kiku not smoothly, but in the form of a scalloped assembly. Ahead, on the forehead, the kika was decorated with intricately woven lace, patterned galloon, mother-of-pearl dice from river shells, colored faceted glass, and beads. If embroidery was used in the decoration, then most often it was a floral ornament or stylized birds. Any kick was complemented by a pearl fringe or a net of pearls and mother-of-pearl beads - “underneath” or “ochelie”.
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Maksimov Vasily Maksimovich Russian peasant woman. 1896
“In some backwoods, even at the present time, one can see among peasants and townswomen a headdress that looks like an inverted box. Sometimes it is with horns, made of lubok or glued canvas, covered with braid or fabric of bright color, decorated with various embroideries and beads. I even saw kiks decorated with expensive stones among rich women, ”the ethnographer and historian P. Savvaitov, an expert on Russian life, described kiku in this way.
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Nekrasov Cossacks and Cossacks. In the center is a woman in a horned kichka.
In the 19th century, the wearing of kiki began to be persecuted by the Orthodox clergy - peasant women were required to wear a kokoshnik. Documents have been preserved, from which it follows that the priests were strictly ordered not to allow a woman in a kike not only to receive communion, but also to church. The ban was in effect for a very long time until the end of the 19th century. In this regard, by the beginning of the 20th century, wearing a headdress was almost universally replaced by a warrior or a scarf, while kiku could only occasionally be found in the southern regions of Russia. In the Voronezh region, the kichka was preserved as a wedding dress until the 1950s.
Wikipedia, article by N. Pushkareva, book by L.V. Karshinova "Russian folk costume".
