Folk art. Oral folk art in the period of ancient Russia

Collective art creative activity, reflecting the life of an ethnos, its ideals, its views, has absorbed folk art Russia. The people created and existed from generation to generation epics, fairy tales, legends - this is a genre of poetry, original music sounded - plays, tunes, songs, theatrical performances were a favorite festive show - basically it was a puppet theater. But dramas and satirical plays were staged there. The folk art of Russia also penetrated deeply into dance, fine arts, arts and crafts. Russian dances were born in ancient times. Russian folk art erected historical background for modern artistic culture, has become a source of artistic traditions, an expression of the self-consciousness of the people.

Orally and in writing

Written literary works appeared much later than those oral gems that filled the precious casket of folklore since the days of paganism. Those same proverbs, sayings, riddles, songs and round dances, spells and conspiracies, epics and fairy tales, which were reduced to a brilliant shine by the folk art of Russia. The ancient Russian epic reflected the spirituality of our people, traditions, real events, peculiarities of life, revealed and preserved the exploits historical characters... So, for example, Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko, the beloved prince, was the prototype of the real prince - Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, the hero Dobrynya Nikitich - the uncle of Vladimir the First boyar Dobrynya. The types of oral folk art are extremely diverse.

With the advent of Christianity in the tenth century, great Russian literature and its history began. Gradually, with its help, the Old Russian language was formed, which became a single one. The first books were handwritten, decorated with gold and other precious metals, gems, enamel. They were very expensive, because the people did not know them for a long time. However, with the strengthening of religion, books penetrated into the most remote corners of the Russian land, since the people needed to know the works of Ephraim the Syrian, John Chrysostom and other religious translated literature. The original Russian is now represented by chronicles, biographies of saints (lives), rhetorical teachings ("Words", one of them - "The Lay of Igor's Campaign"), walking (or walking, travel notes) and many other genres not so well known ... The fourteenth century gave a number of exceptional monuments of folklore. Some types of oral folk art, such as the epic, passed into the category of written ones. This is how "Sadko" and "Vasily Buslaev" appeared, written down by the storytellers.

Examples of folk art

Oral creativity served as a storehouse of national memory. Heroic Confrontation Tatar-Mongol yoke and other invaders were sung by word of mouth. It was on the basis of such songs that the stories that have come down to our days were created: about the battle on Kalka, where "seventy great and brave" gain our freedom, about Evpatiy Kolovrat, who defended Ryazan from Batu, about Mercury, who defended Smolensk. Russia has preserved the facts against the Baskak Shevkal, about Shchelkan Dudentievich, and these songs were sung far outside the principality of Tverskoy. The writers of the epics brought the events of the Kulikovo field to the distant descendants, and the old images of Russian heroes were still used by the people for folk works dedicated to the struggle against the Golden Horde.

Until the end of the tenth century, the inhabitants of Kievo-Novgorod Rus did not yet know writing. However, this pre-literary period has brought to this day the golden verbal works... And now festivals of folk art of Russia are held, where all the same songs, tales and epics of a thousand years ago are played. The ancient genres that still sound today include epics, songs, fairy tales, legends, riddles, sayings, and proverbs. Most of the folklore works that have come down to us are poetry. The poetic form makes it easy to memorize texts, and therefore for many centuries folklore works passed down through generations, changing to expediency, polishing from one talented storyteller to another.

Small genres

Works of small size belong to small genres of folklore. These are parables: puns, tongue twisters, sayings, jokes, riddles, omens, sayings, proverbs, what gave us oral folk art. Riddles are one of such artistic manifestations of folk poetry, which originated in orally... A hint or allegory, bluntness, devious speech - an allegorical description in short form any subject - that's what a riddle according to V.I.Dal is. In other words, an allegorical image of the phenomena of reality or an object that is to be guessed. Even here, oral folklore has provided for multivariance. Riddles can be descriptions, allegories, questions, tasks. Most often, they consist of two parts - a question and an answer, riddles and answers, connected with each other. In terms of topics, they are diverse and are closely related to work and life: animal and vegetable world, nature, tools and activities.

Proverbs and sayings that have survived to this day from the most ancient times are apt expressions, wise thoughts... Most often, they are also two-part, where the parts are proportional and often rhyme. The meaning of sayings and proverbs is usually direct and figurative, containing morality. Often we see in proverbs and sayings multivariance, that is, many versions of a proverb with the same morality. generalizing meaning, which is higher. The oldest of them date back to the twelfth century. The history of folk art in Russia notes that to this day, many proverbs have come down in shortened ones, sometimes even losing their original meaning. So, they say: "He ate the dog on this," implying high professionalism, but the Russian people in the old days continued: "Yes, choke on his tail." That is, no, not that tall.

Music

Ancient types of folk musical creativity Russia is based primarily on the song genre. A song is a genre of music and verbal at the same time, either lyric or narrative work, which is intended solely for singing. songs can be lyrical, dance, ritual, historical, and they all express both the aspirations of an individual and the feelings of many people, they are always in tune with the social inner state.

Are there love experiences, reflections on fate, a description of a public or family life- it should always be interesting to listeners, and without introducing a state of mind into the song, as much as possible more people will not listen to the singer. The people are very fond of the technique of parallelism, when the mood of the lyrical hero is transferred to nature. "Why are you standing, swaying," The night has no bright month, "for example. And almost rarely comes across folk song in which this parallelism is absent. Even in historical songs - "Ermak", "Stepan Razin" and others - he is constantly encountered. From this, the emotional sound of the song becomes much stronger, and the song itself is perceived much brighter.

Epic and fairy tale

The genre of folk art took shape much earlier than the ninth century, and the term "epic" appeared only in the nineteenth century and denoted a heroic song of an epic character. We know the epics that were sung in the ninth century, although for sure they were not the first, they simply did not reach us, being lost in the centuries. Every child knows well epic heroes- heroes who embodied the ideal of national patriotism, courage and strength: the merchant Sadko and Ilya Muromets, the giant Svyatogor and Mikula Selyaninovich. The plot of the epic is most often filled with life's situational awareness, but it is also significantly enriched with fantastic fictions: they have a teleport (they can instantly cover the distance from Murom to Kiev), single-handedly defeat the army ("as it swings to the right, there will be a street, as it swings to the left - a side street" ), and, of course, monsters: three-headed dragons - Serpents Gorynychi. The types of folk art of Russia in oral genres are not limited to this. There are also fairy tales and legends.

Epics differ from fairy tales in that in the latter the events are completely fictional. Fairy tales are of two types: everyday and magical. In everyday life, the most different are depicted, but ordinary people- princes and princesses, kings and kings, soldiers and workers, peasants and priests in the most ordinary setting. A fairy tales surely attract fantastic forces, extract artifacts from wonderful properties etc. A fairy tale is usually optimistic, and thus differs from the plot of other genre works. In fairy tales, only good usually wins, evil forces are always defeated and ridiculed in every possible way. Legend as opposed to fairy tale - oral story about a miracle, fantastic image, an incredible event that should be perceived as authentic by the narrator and listeners. Pagan legends about the creation of the world, the origin of countries, seas, peoples, about the exploits of both fictional and real heroes have come down to us.

Today

Contemporary Russian folk art cannot represent exactly ethnic culture, since this culture is pre-industrial. Any modern settlement - from the smallest village to a metropolis - is a fusion of different ethnic groups, and the natural development of each without the slightest mixing and borrowing is simply impossible. What is now called folk art is rather a deliberate stylization, folklorization, behind which is professional art, which was inspired by ethnic motives.

Sometimes it is both amateur art, like mass culture, and the work of handicraftsmen. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that only folk crafts - arts and crafts - can be recognized as the cleanest and still developing. In addition to professional, ethnic creativity is also present there, although production has long been put on the assembly line and the possibilities for improvisation are scanty.

People and creativity

What do people mean by the word people? Population of the country, nation. But, for example, dozens of distinctive ethnic groups live in Russia, and folk art has common features that are present in the sum of all ethnic groups. Chuvash, Tatars, Mari, even Chukchi - do not musicians, artists, architects borrow from each other in contemporary art? But their common features are comprehended by the elite culture. And that is why, in addition to the nesting dolls, we have a certain export product, which is our joint business card. The minimum of opposition, the maximum of general unification within the nation, this is the direction modern creativity of the peoples of Russia. Today it is:

• ethnic (folklorized) creativity,
• amateur creativity,
• creativity of the common people,
• amateur creativity.

The craving for aesthetic activity will be alive as long as a person is alive. That is why art is flourishing today.

Art, creativity hobby

Elite art is engaged in, where outstanding talent is required, and works are an indicator of the level aesthetic development humanity. It has little to do with folk art, except for inspiration: all composers, for example, wrote symphonies using folk song melodies. But this is by no means her, not a folk song. The property of traditional culture is creativity as an indicator of the development of a team or an individual. Such a culture can develop successfully and in many ways. And the result mass culture, like a master's pattern, presented to the people for a feasible repetition, is a hobby, an aesthetics of this kind, which is designed to relieve tension from the mechanics of modern life.

Here you can see some signs of the primordial beginning, in the artistic folk art drawing on themes and means of expression. These are quite common technological processes: weaving, embroidery, carving, forging and casting, decorative painting, chasing and so on. True folk art did not know the contrasts of changes in art styles a whole millennium. Now it is significantly enriched in contemporary folk art. The degree of stylization changes, as does the nature of thinking about all the old rented motives.

Applied arts

From the very gray antiquity, the folk applied arts Russia. This is perhaps the only species that did not undergo radical changes before today... From time immemorial and to this day, these items are used to decorate and improve home and social life... Rural craft mastered even rather complex structures, which are quite suitable in modern life.

Although now all these items are not so much a practical as an aesthetic one. These are jewelry, toy whistles, and interior decorations. Different areas and the regions had own species arts, crafts and handicrafts. The most famous and striking are the following.

Scarves and samovars

The Orenburg shawl is both warm and heavy shawls, and weightless scarves and spiderweb shawls. Knitting patterns that come from afar are unique, they identify eternal truths in understanding harmony, beauty, order. Orenburg goats are also special, they give unusual fluff, it can be spun finely and firmly. Tula masters also match the eternal knitters of Orenburg. They were not pioneers: the first copper samovar was found in the excavations of the Volga city of Dubovka; the find dates back to the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Tea took root in Russia in the seventeenth century. But the first samovar workshops appeared in Tula all the same. This unit is still in honor, and tea from a samovar on pine cones- quite an ordinary phenomenon at the dachas. They are extremely diverse in shape and decoration - barrels, vases, with ligature painting, embossing, ornaments of handles and taps, genuine works of art, moreover, extremely convenient in everyday life. Already at the beginning of the nineteenth century in Tula, up to 1200 samovars were produced per year! They were sold by weight. Brass ones cost sixty-four rubles a pood, and red copper ones - ninety. This is a lot of money.

About oral poetry(folklore) of the ancient Slavs has to be largely judged presumably, since his main works have come down to us in the records of modern times (XVIII-XX centuries)

One can think that the folklore of the pagan Slavs was associated mainly with labor rites and processes. Mythology took shape at an already quite high stage of development Slavic peoples and represented complex system views based on animism and anthropomorphism.

Apparently, the Slavs did not have a single higher pantheon like the Greek or Roman ones, but we know of evidence of the Pomor (on Rugen Island) pantheon with the god Svyatovid and the Kiev pantheon.

The main gods in it were Svarog, the god of heaven and fire, Dazhdbog, the god of the sun, the giver of benefits, Perun, the god of lightning and thunder, and Veles, the patron saint of the economy and livestock. The Slavs made sacrifices to them. The nature spirits of the Slavs were anthropomorphic or zoomorphic, or mixed anthropo-zoomorphic in the images of mermaids, divas, samodivs - goblin, water, brownies.

Mythology began to influence the oral poetry of the Slavs and significantly enriched it. Songs, fairy tales and legends began to explain the origin of the world, man, animals and plants. Wonderful, human-speaking animals acted in them - a winged horse, a fiery serpent, a prophetic raven, and a person was portrayed in his relationship with monsters and spirits.

In the preliterate period, culture artistic word Slavs were expressed in works of folklore, which reflected social relations, life and ideas of the communal-clan system.

An important part of folklore was composed of labor songs, which often had magical meaning: they accompanied the ceremonies associated with agricultural work and the change of seasons, as well as with major events human life (birth, marriage, death).

In ritual songs, the basis is requests to the sun, earth, wind, rivers, plants for help - about the harvest, about the offspring of livestock, about luck on the hunt. In ritual songs and games, the beginnings of drama arose.

The oldest folklore of the Slavs was diverse in genres. Fairy tales, proverbs and riddles were widespread. There were also toponymic legends, legends about the origin of spirits, inspired by both oral tradition and the later tradition - biblical and apocryphal. The echoes of these legends have preserved for us the most ancient chronicles.

Apparently, the Slavic peoples were born early and heroic songs, which reflected the struggle of the Slavs for independence and clashes with other peoples (when moving, for example, to the Balkans). These were songs to the glory of heroes, outstanding princes and ancestors. But the heroic epic was still in its infancy.

The ancient Slavs had musical instruments, to the accompaniment of which they sang songs. In the South Slavic and West Slavic written sources, gusli, horns, flutes, pipes are mentioned.

The oldest oral poetry of the Slavs largely influenced the further development of their artistic culture, but it itself underwent historical changes.

With the formation of states, the adoption of Christianity and the emergence of writing, new elements entered folklore. Songs, fairy tales and especially legends began to combine the old pagan mythology and Christian ideas. Christ, the Mother of God, angels, saints appear next to witches and divas, and events take place not only on earth, but also in heaven or in hell.

On the basis of the worship of Veles, the cult of St. Blasius arose, and Elijah the Prophet took possession of the thunders of Perun. New Year and summer ceremonies and songs were Christianized. New Year's rituals were attached to the Nativity of Christ, and the summer ones - to the feast of John the Baptist (Ivan Kupala).

The creativity of peasants and townspeople experienced some influence of the culture of feudal circles and the church. In the popular environment, Christian literary legends were revised and used to denounce social injustice. In folk poetry, rhyme and stanzaic division gradually penetrated.

Of great importance was the distribution in the Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian lands of the legendary and fairy tales from Byzantine literature, literature of Western European and Middle Eastern countries.

Slovenian folk art already in the 9th-10th centuries. learned not only literary plots, but also poetic forms, such as the ballad - a genre of Romanesque origin. So, in the X century. in the Slovenian lands, a ballad with a tragic plot about the beautiful Vida became popular.

The song about her originated in Byzantium in the 7th-8th centuries. and then through Italy came to the Slovenes. This ballad tells how an Arab merchant lured the beautiful Vida to his ship, promising her medicine for a sick child, and then selling her into slavery. But gradually the songs intensified motives reflecting reality, social relations (ballads "The Imaginary Dead", "The Young Groom").

There were popular songs about the meeting of the girl with the overseas knights, the fight against the "infidels", which was, obviously, a reflection of the crusades. The songs also contain traces of anti-feudal satire.

A new and important phenomenon of the Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian folk art in the XII-XIV centuries. there was the emergence and development of epic songs. This process went through two stages: first, songs of everyday content appeared, reflecting the originality of social relations and the way of life of early feudal society, and heroic songs were formed almost simultaneously with them.

Subsequently, with the creation and strengthening of the state, with the beginning of the struggle against Byzantium and the Turks, young heroic songs began to be created and gradually took first place in the epic. They added up folk singers shortly after the events sung in them.

The South Slavic epos was created with the creative cooperation of all Balkan Slavs, as well as with the participation of individual non-Slavic peoples. The epic songs of the South Slavs are characterized by common plots, which are based on the events of the struggle with neighboring peoples, common heroes, general expressive means and the forms of the verse (the so-called ten-syllable). At the same time, the epic of every nation has its own distinctive features.

The Serbo-Croatian epic is historical at its core. Despite the presence of anachronisms, fiction and exaggeration, the texts that have come down to us contain historically correct information. The songs reflected the peculiarities of early feudal relations, political system and the culture of that time. In one of the songs, Stefan Dušan says:

I have restrained the obstinate commander,

Subdued them to our royal power.

The songs express thoughts about the need to maintain state unity, the attention of feudal lords to the people. Stefan Dechansky, dying, bequeaths to his son: "Take care of the people like your own head."

Songs vividly depict feudal life, relations between the prince and his retinues, campaigns, battles and fights, military competitions.

The earliest songs, the so-called Dokosov cycle, are dedicated to the events of the reign of the Serbian princely (from 1159), and then the royal (from 1217) Nemanjic dynasty. They are religiously colored and tell about the "holy deeds" and "righteous life" of Serbian rulers, many of whom were canonized by the church as saints: the songs condemn feudal strife and civil strife.

Many songs are dedicated to Savva, the founder of the Serbian church. These earliest songs are a valuable cultural monument. They provide a vivid artistic generalization of the fate of their native land, are distinguished by a great content of plots and images, and a wonderful mastery of poetic words.

Unlike the folklore of the Eastern and Southern Slavs, Western Slavs- Czechs, Slovaks and Poles, apparently, did not have a heroic epic in such developed forms. However, some circumstances suggest that heroic songs probably also existed among the Western Slavs. Historical songs were widespread among Czechs and Poles, and the predecessor of this genre is usually the heroic epic.

In a number of genres of Czech and Polish folklore, especially in fairy tales, one can find plots and motives characteristic of other peoples heroic epic(fight-duel, getting a bride): individual West Slavic historical figures became heroes of South Slavic heroic songs, such as Vladislav Varnenchik.

In the historical chronicles of Poland and the Czech Republic (Gall Anonymous, Kozma Prazhsky, etc.) there are plots and motives, apparently, of epic origin (legends about Libusz, Krak, about the sword of Boleslav the Bold, about the siege of cities). The historiographer Kozma Prazhsky and others testify that they drew some materials from folk legends.

The formation of a feudal state, the idea of ​​the unity of the Polish lands and patriotic goals in the struggle against foreign invaders determined the popularity of historical legends, the appeal of chroniclers to them, thanks to whom these legends are known to us.

Gallus Anonymous pointed out that he used the stories of old people, Abbot Peter, the author of the "Book of Henrykowska" (XIII century), named the peasant Kwerik, nicknamed Kika, who knew many legends about the past of the Polish land, which the author of this book used.

Finally, the chronicles record or retold these legends themselves, for example, about Krak, the legendary ruler of Poland, who is considered the founder of Krakow. He freed his people from the man-eating monster that lived in the hole. Although this motive is international, it has a clear Polish flavor.

Krak dies in a fight with his brothers, but his daughter Wanda inherits the throne. The legend about her tells how the German ruler, fascinated by her beauty, tried with gifts and requests to persuade her to marry. Having failed to reach his goal, he started a war against her. From the shame of defeat, he commits suicide, throwing himself on the sword and cursing his compatriots for succumbing to female charms ("The Great Polish Chronicle").

The winner, Wanda, not wanting to marry a foreigner, rushes into the Vistula. The legend about Wanda was one of the most popular among the people. The role in this was played by both its patriotic meaning and the romantic nature of the plot. Dynastic legends are also the legends about Popel and Piast.

Popel - the prince of Gneznensky, according to legend, died in a tower in Krushvitsy, where he was bitten by mice; a similar motif is common in medieval literature and folklore. Piast, the founder of the Polish royal dynasty, according to legend, a peasant-wheelwright.

The chronicles mention songs to the glory of princes and kings, songs about victories, the chronicler Vincenz Kadlubek speaks of "heroic" songs. The "Wielkopolska Chronicle" tells the story of the knight Walter and the beautiful Helgund, which testifies to the penetration of the German epic into Poland.

The story about Walter (Valgezh Udal) from the Popele family tells how he brought the beautiful Helgunda from France, whose heart he won by singing and playing the lute.

On the way to Poland, Walter killed a German prince in love with her. Arriving in Poland, he put Wieslaw in prison, who intrigued him. But when Walter went on a two-year campaign, Helgunda freed Wieslaw and fled with him to his castle.

Walter, on his return from the campaign, was imprisoned. He was rescued by his sister Wieslaw, who brought him a sword, and Walter took revenge on Helgund and Wieslaw by chopping them to pieces. Literary historians suggest that the legend of Walter and Helgund goes back to the poem about Walter of Aquitaine, which was brought to Poland by spielmans, participants in the Crusades.

However, there were legends in Polish folklore, which were original works of plots, type of heroes and form.

Chronicles and other sources attest to the existence of songs about historical heroes and events. These are songs about the funeral of Boleslav the Bold, songs about Casimir the Renovator, about Boleslav Kryvoust, about the latter's battle with the Pomorians, Schlensk songs from the time of Boleslav Kryvosty about the attack of the Tatars, songs about the battle of the Poles with the Galician prince Vladimir, songs about the Polish knights who fought the pagans by the Prussians. The report of the 15th century chronicler is extremely valuable.

Jan Dlugosha about songs about the battle of Zavikhoste (1205): “the meadows sang this victory [...] in various kinds of songs that we still hear to this day”.

The chronicler noted the emergence of songs shortly after the historic event. At the same time, historical ballads, or thoughts, began to emerge. An example would be the thought of Ludgard, the wife of Prince Przemyslav II, who ordered her to be strangled in the Poznan castle because of her sterility.

Dlugosz notes that even then a “song on Polish". Thus, Polish folklore is not characterized by heroic songs such as epics and South Slavic youth songs, but historical legends and historical songs.

History world literature: in 9 volumes / Edited by I.S. Braginsky and others - M., 1983-1984.

Ritual folklore

Life was accompanied by various rituals: wedding, funeral, calendar, magic (conspiracies), etc. The rituals and those accompanying them reveal such traits of thinking ancient man: animism (belief in spirits and the existence of the soul), anthropomorphism (humanizing animals, plants, natural phenomena, death, disease) and magic (the belief that special actions and words affect events in a person's life).

Birth rites

Childbirth rites are very ancient. Their purpose is to protect the newborn from misfortune, disease, evil eye and damage and lay a program for happiness, wealth and health. Bathing the baby, the midwife says: “Handles, grow, get fat, be vigorous. Legs, walk, wear your body; tongue, speak, feed your head. " Later, these conspiracies were replaced with lullabies, in which a secure and happy life was predicted for the child: "You will walk in gold, wear pure silver."

Wedding ceremonies

Wedding ceremonies were accompanied by lamentations of the bride, wedding songs and sentences of friends. The lamentations of the bride during the matchmaking, at the bachelorette party, during the departure for the wedding. The meaning of lamentations: parting with home, with parents, with youth, with girlfriends and fear of new life on a stranger's side, in a stranger's family. During the wedding feast, songs were sung describing marriage rites: conspiracy, gifts, bachelorette party, braiding, etc. Great songs at the wedding glorify the beauty, youth of the bride, intelligence, wealth, and prowess of the groom. The friends' sentences were accompanied by jokes and jokes. The friend "leads" the wedding, giving it wholeness and gaiety with his sentences. When asked about the health of the groom's father, he can say that not only everyone is healthy in his house, but everything is so safe in the household that even geldings are pregnant and bulls are milked.

Conspiracies

The function of conspiracies is practical: by actions and the magical power of words to attract, cause what you want. These can be conspiracies for a good harvest, for recovery, for love and marriage. The most ancient conspiracies are associated with the farming of the peasants.

Fairy tales

Fairy tales contain amazing and mysterious events of an adventure nature, they show ideal heroes, fantastic creatures, magic items, miraculous phenomena. In fairy tales, dreams of justice, of the victory of good over evil, of alleviating difficult living conditions (flying carpet, running boots, self-assembled tablecloth, invisible hat, etc.) are displayed.

Animal Tales

The meaning of the most ancient fairy tales about animals: to convey the experience of hunters, trappers, cattle breeders about animals, their habits, habitat. Later, fabulous animals are credited with human traits character: a hare - cowardice, a fox - cunning, a bear - gullibility, etc.

Fairy tales

This type of fairy tale has plots full of miracles. They reflect the belief in the other world, in the revival of the dead, the phenomena of nature are humanized ("Frost"), animals and plants speak, objects have magical properties.

Epics

Epic songs with heroic plots - epics - special genre Old Russian folklore. In the center of the plot is a hero and his feat, a duel with the enemy and victory. The bogatyr embodies the power and patriotism of the Russian people. The epics depict the military-political and social situations characteristic of Ancient Russia. The main idea that unites all the epics is the need for the unity of Russia and its protection from enemies. Enemies were personified by fantastic characters: the Serpent, Tugarin Zmeevich, the Nightingale the Robber, the Filthy Idolische. Epics were especially relevant during the endless raids of nomads and the Mongol-Tatar yoke. Other genres of Old Russian folklore: proverbs, sayings, riddles, traditions, legends, myths, bylichki, etc.

What is folk art? This is the creativity of the people. But here the question arises: what do we mean by the word people?

Firstly, by the people is meant an ethnos, then its creativity is ethnic creativity, which was naturally born in the corresponding eco-ethnosystem, it is conditioned by the natural, climatic and historical factors of a given area. But today, can we talk about such creativity? Ethnic culture is a pre-industrial culture, and a modern city is a melting pot for various ethnic groups, and there can be no talk of the natural development of its culture. Then what bears the name of folk art, i.e. ethnic creativity is a stylization, deliberate folklorization. What is hidden under it? Professional art, inspired by ethnic motives, is hidden, amateur art, the tautology of mass culture or the art of handicraftsmen are hidden. Although the latter, folk crafts, is a rather interesting phenomenon, which carries both the features of professional and ethnic creativity, here this production seems to be put on a conveyor belt, but leaves the possibility of improvisation and development.

What else is meant by the word people? Secondly, it is understood as the entire population of a particular country, i.e. nation. For example, despite the fact that China is inhabited by many ethnic groups, folk art here means some common features that are in the works of these ethnic groups. Such common features have been comprehended by elite culture. This interpretation has become the property of the lower classes, it is a certain product for export, which is a visiting card. Such creativity is a rather late product of self-reflection, in which the nation understood itself as such, it is an attempt to look at itself from the outside, opposing itself to another country and the search for common things for unification within the nation.

Also, folk art as part of the culture of a particular country builds its identification on the opposition to the professional culture, i.e. this is an amateur creativity. It can be a work of the highest skill or just a hobby. This is the creativity of the common people.

Here the following meaning of the concept "people" is revealed. Thirdly, the word people means the people, as common people, and folk art here is the creativity of the social lower classes. This is creativity born of urban culture, creativity of emigrants from villages to the city, creativity of fairs and booths, closely associated with carnival culture. In this sense folk culture opposed to the official elite. With the advent of mass culture, folk culture in this capacity began to overlap with it in many ways.

It is worth mentioning one more meaning of the word "people", which was used in the USSR. Fourthly, the people are the "people of working people." However, the first years of Soviet power, this word had a negative meaning associated with something backward and pre-revolutionary, the ideas about the people of romantics were still remembered (where the people were meant both as an ethnos and as common people). Instead of the word "people" then the mass was used, for example, "revolutionary mass". But when works on mass culture began to appear in the West, then there was a change in concepts. In this understanding, a people is the culture of a certain class, and folk art here is either reflection elite culture in relation to these classes, or amateur creativity. Amateur creativity was extremely censored, emasculated. His repertoire was selected by special commissions, the teams were managed by professionals. The participants in the amateur performances did not engage in real creativity, it was a tautology of mass culture.

So, folk art is:

1. ethnic creativity (or deliberate folklorization);
2. amateur creativity;
3. creativity of the common people;
4. amateur creativity.

P.S .: What can be aesthetic activity person?

1. Art. This is the property of an elite, professional culture, for the fulfillment of which it is required extraordinary talent, whose works are indicators of the higher nervous activity of a person and the level of aesthetic development of all mankind.
2. Creation. This is the heritage of the traditional culture, which is an indicator of the development of not an individual person, but the entire team and develops along with him.
3. Hobby. The result of mass culture, a mold set by a professional for repetition by the masses, is an aesthetic activity designed to relieve stress from the main, often mechanical, work.

It is a pity that much of all this wealth of Russian fantasy has not survived, not only because it was too late to write it down: the first collection of epics was published only in the 18th century, when much had already been lost.

A fatal role was also played by the hostile attitude towards folklore on the part of the Russian Orthodox Church, which sought to eradicate the remnants of paganism by all means available to her. [Kryanev Y. V., Pavlov T. P. Dvoverie in Russia. M-1988 p.366]

And, nevertheless, in spite of everything, this has not left us without leaving a trace. "From deep antiquity, folklore persistently and peculiarly accompanies history" - writes M. Gorky.

Significant place in folklore Russia was occupied with ideas about nature, life and death, cult rites. All ceremonies were accompanied by specially timed songs and dances, fortune-telling and spells.

Of course, songs were especially widespread. People always sang at work and at holidays, at funerals and feasts, crying, entered funeral rites... In conspiracies and spells, they saw a means of influencing the outside world. They appealed to the forces of nature, to the spirits that contributed to recovery, harvest, successful hunting.

And fairy tales! Serpent-Gorynych, Baba-Yaga, Koschey, Leshy. ... They all came to us from time immemorial. In all fairy tales there is an eternal struggle between good and evil. And good, of course, wins. This is the eternal desire of people by the power of words, a conspiracy to influence the spontaneous hostile forces. Isn't Christian prayer, to some extent, an incantation? It may sound a little rude, but prayer has the same character: requests for help, protection.

And the dream of a good, happy life is also expressed in fairy tales. Hence the flying carpet, and running boots, self-assembled tablecloth, palaces that grow overnight.

Russia still knows and loves proverbs and sayings, riddles. They are woven into written sources. In some cases, these are a kind of notes for the described historical events, in others, sayings of historical figures.

RUSSIAN FOLK HOLIDAYS

Ritual folklore was, as already mentioned, closely associated with calendar and non-calendar holidays. Celebrated the meeting of winter - carol and farewell - Maslenitsa. The holiday of Krasnaya Gorka and Radunitsa meant the meeting of spring, which was seen off at seven o'clock. There were summer holidays - Rusalia and Kupala.

For a long time people lived in the villages on three calendars. The first is natural, agricultural. The second - pagan also correlated with natural phenomena. And the third, the latest calendar is Christian, Orthodox, in which there are only one great holidays, not counting Easter, there are twelve, the rest are innumerable.

Some Russian holidays have changed their dates more than once over the years.

For example, New Year in Russia until the middle of the XIV century. celebrated on March 1, and then postponed to September 1, and in 1700. Peter I ordered to celebrate the New Year on January 1, and even with a Christmas tree. However, in ancient times, Christmas was considered the main winter holiday, not New Year.

Especially mysterious was the Christmas night, full of what was believed to be unusual phenomena. And at Christmas - Christmastide. They started on December 25 and ended on January 5, old style. At this time, they gathered, arranged carols, mummers' games, fortune-telling.

Fortune-telling on Christmastide was the girls' main entertainment: they threw a slipper out of the gate so that, according to where the sock pointed, they would find out from which side the betrothed would come, if he pointed to the house of the local fortune-teller, it meant that they had to sit in girls for another year; threw the snow up and watched it fall: if it is even and loud, the girl will soon be married. One of the most widespread was subtle fortune-telling. The girls, putting their rings in a dish and covering it with a handkerchief, sang songs of fortune-telling. After each such song, the dish was shaken and one ring was pulled out at random. The content of the song just performed, predicting fate, belonged to its mistress.

Fortune-telling on wax candles, fortune-telling with a mirror and with a candle, fortune-telling from someone else's conversation, when, thinking about life in marriage, they went to eavesdrop under the windows of houses. If the conversation was heard cheerful, then life was expected not boring, and the husband - kind and affectionate.

On Christmastide we went to caroling. Stopping under the windows of someone's hut, they sang special songs - carols. Their content was traditional - glorifying the owner, wishing his family and home well-being and prosperity.

There was a reward for this. If the carolers did not receive it, then they sang songs of a different - threatening content, frightening the owners with crop failure and cattle diseases. Among the carolers, there was also a special carrier for a gift bag - a mehonosha.

Of course, the most pagan remained the ancient Russian buffoonery of the game of the mummers. Persecuted by the church and the authorities, this tradition has survived the centuries and has become an inseparable part of the holidays. They dressed up in costumes and masks (hari), a fur coat turned out with fur - a bear, the same fur coat with a poker inserted into the sleeve - a crane, girls dressed up as guys, guys - as girls. Groups of mummers enjoyed particular success - a horse with a rider, a bear with a leader, and with him a wooden goat. The mummers went into the huts and had fun as they could: tumbling, fooling around, yelling in a voice that was not their own, and sometimes playing out whole performances. [Ryabtsev Yu.S. Travel to Ancient Russia. M-1995 p. 197, 198, 199, 200]

On the first spring holiday of the magpie (March 9, the day of the forty martyrs), children gathered in the gardens and brought sandpipers with them, which were baked from wheat or rye dough. They were sometimes called larks. These waders were tied with threads to poles that were stuck in odonki. The wind shook the waders, so that they seemed to be flying, and the children sang, inviting spring. [Andreev. Russian folklore. p.67]

And the most noisy holiday was, of course, Maslenitsa. She, too, has been known since pagan times as a holiday of seeing off winter and welcoming spring. In the Christian tradition, she became a harbinger of Great Lent before Easter.

It is no longer allowed to eat meat during Shrovetide week, but dairy products, including butter, which are abundantly poured over pancakes, are not banned yet.

In Russia, Maslenitsa was celebrated for a whole week. Each day had its own name: Monday - meeting, Tuesday - flirting, Wednesday - gourmands, Thursday - revelry, Friday - mother-in-law's evenings, Saturday - sister-in-law's gatherings and, finally, Sunday - seeing off Maslenitsa, the forgiven day.

On the first day of the holiday, a straw effigy was made - the personification of Maslenitsa. He was taken on a sleigh with songs and dances. This day ended with a fist fight: at the signal wall to wall, two teams converged.

It was forbidden to use any weapon, it was forbidden to hit the recumbent, to catch up with the fleeing one. There were also tragic outcomes, so in late XVII century, the king issued two decrees banning fistfights. However, this measure had no effect. Cruel fun existed almost until the beginning of the 20th century.

On Tuesday, for flirting, boys and girls rode down the ice slides or in a sleigh. These skates were accompanied all week. In the process, the guys looked after their brides, the girls - grooms.

On Wednesday, mother-in-law invited their sons-in-law to pancakes, demonstrating mutual love and respect.

On Thursday, the very height of the holiday came: they again carried the stuffed animal, accompanied by a sleigh train with mummers. They sang, played, grimaced.

Collective feasts were often arranged - brothers.

On Friday, it was the turn of the sons-in-law to treat their mother-in-law with pancakes. And the next day, sister-in-law's gatherings, the young daughter-in-law received her husband's relatives.

Vyunishnik is associated with Shrovetide - the custom of glorifying the young. The fact is that in the winter, the time free from agricultural work, there were many weddings in the villages, so they honored the young - the vines and the vines, who had recently married. Friends came to visit them and sang health resorts to them.

On the last day of Maslenitsa it was accepted, and it is still accepted now, to ask each other for forgiveness. The farewell to Maslenitsa was arranged. Once again, a straw effigy was taken around the village, and beyond the outskirts of it they burned and dispersed to their homes. Shrovetide revelry ceased, on Monday Great Lent began:

"Every day is not Sunday!". [Ryabtsev Yu.S. Travel to Ancient Russia. M-1995 p.201, 202, 203, 204]

Even in the spring, around the end of April, in Russia, in many localities, yariks were celebrated. Already this holiday was directly associated with paganism. Yarilo is a sun god, strong, emotional, fertile. He was introduced as a young man. And the image of the head that Yarilo held was probably associated with the fact that, like the Egyptian Osiris, he belongs to the annually dying and resurrecting gods of fertility. [Semenova M. We are Slavs! C-P-1997]

His influence was so strong that many centuries after the baptism of Russia, the rituals associated with the name of Yarila survived until the 19th century. In addition, this word has penetrated into our lexicon: rage, ardent, furious - means a character with demands, unaware of obstacles, striving without limits.

In the pagan myth - Yarilo can be described as something that belongs to spring and its beneficial effect on nature. It is not surprising that the beginning of the year in antiquity was in the spring, because it was then that nature was revived.

In Kostroma, for a long time, it was customary to bury Yarila during the all-holy conspiracy. So, for example, some poor man, a beggar, took it upon himself to bury a man's doll, with extremely developed productivity accessories, put in a coffin, and drunk, and sometimes sober, but very superstitious women saw off this coffin and cried unfeignedly.

There was also a Yariliy holiday near Galich. Even at the beginning of the 19th century. there they still did this: they gave the peasant a drink and joked with him as they wanted, demanding that he play Yarilo as himself.

Not everywhere Yarilin holiday was designated by one number. In the villages of the Ryazan and Tambov provinces, it was timed either to the day of all saints, then to Peter's day. In Vladimir on the Klyazma - on Trinity Day, in the Nizhny Novgorod province, the holiday of Yarila on June 4 was combined with a fair.

In Tver, this holiday began on the first Sunday, after Peter's day. Passed in Trekhsvyatsky garden, where young people gathered in the evening. They sang, danced blanja (dance of 8 pairs). Taking advantage of this, many families let their daughters go there to visit. There, this holiday was destroyed by archpastors Methodius and Ambrose in the 19th century.

In Voronezh until 1763. Yarila's folk games were annually celebrated before the Petrovsky Lent. There was a fair on the square of the city, a person chosen by society to be a deity was decorated with flowers, ribbons, bells. In this outfit, he walked around the city. All this was accompanied by games and dances, drunkenness and fist fights.

These holidays continued until the Monk Tikhon destroyed the holiday forever. [Zabylin M. Russian people. His customs, rituals, traditions, superstitions and poetry. M-1989, p.80-83]

Among the spring and summer holidays, three were especially revered among the people - Semik, Trinity and Ivan Kupala. Trinity is celebrated to this day on the 50th day after Easter, and Semik was celebrated the day before - on Thursday. Since it was the seventh post-Easter week, the holiday was also called "seven". He was associated with the cult of nature. Houses, courtyards, temples these days were decorated with flowers and branches of trees, mainly birch. Trinity week in Russia was called "green".

Wildflowers collected on Trinity were dried and stored behind icons in the red corner, placed in barns from mice, in attics, protecting houses from fires. The girls, putting on their best outfits, went to birch grove, found a young beautiful birch tree, twisted its branches, decorated them with ribbons and flowers, danced in circles, sang songs praising the birch.

The rite of boom was performed. The girls made wreaths, exchanged them, and this meant that they became the best and most faithful friends.

Gossips gave each other colored eggs, exchanged rings, earrings, wondered. Wreaths were thrown on the water. The wreath is calmly floating - it will fold happily, it will spin - the wedding will be upset, it will sink - there will be trouble, someone close to you will die. Here is one of the legends confirming the popular omen: “In the vicinity of the ancient town of Aleksin, lovers, having decided to get married, threw wreaths into the Oka. At first they swam calmly, then suddenly the water swirled and pulled to the bottom. The guy and the girl rushed into the river to save their happiness, but they themselves drowned. They say that on the same day, drowned wreaths emerge from the bottom of the river. [Ryabtsev Yu.S. Travel to Ancient Russia. M- 1995, p. 204, 205, 206]

In the village of Shelbovo, the former Yuryevsky district of the Vladimir province, on Troitsyn day, a ceremony was performed, which was called "spikelet". Only girls and young women took part in it. They took hands in pairs, forming dense squares from their hands. All the couples stood side by side, and a girl of about twelve, dressed in an elegant sundress and decorated with multi-colored ribbons, walked along their arms. The couple, which the girl passed, moved forward, and thus the procession advanced towards the winter field. The girl was brought to the field, she picked a handful of rye, ran to the church and threw the plucked ears near her (earlier, when the church was wooden, the ears were placed under it. [Andreev. Russian folklore. P.70]

The holiday of Ivan Kupala was celebrated by almost all the peoples of the world. It falls on the time of the summer solstice - June 24, the eve Christian holiday Nativity of John the Baptist. Kupala - pagan holiday human worship of water elements. Two of them, fire and water, participated in the festive ceremony.

It was believed that fire cleanses a person, and water washes it, so they made sure to kindle fires and arrange bathing. Fire had to be obtained by the ancient method - by friction. Among her favorite games were bonfire jumping. It was believed that if a guy and a girl did not open their hands, they would soon get married. They believed in another sign: the higher you jump, the better the bread will be born.

In some places they made a straw doll - Kupala. They dressed her up in a woman's dress, adorned her. According to popular beliefs, bathing night is a mysterious time: trees move from place to place and talk to each other, the river becomes covered with a mysterious silvery sheen, and witches flock to the Sabbath. And it blooms at midnight magic flower fern.

It lasts only one moment, everything around lights up bright light... Anyone who can catch this moment and pick a flower gains magic power find treasures. They also looked for a magical herb-break, which supposedly destroyed iron and opened any locks. [Ryabtsev Yu.S. Travel to Ancient Russia. p.206-207]

And here is the legend associated with this holiday: “One guy went to look for Ivanov's flower, to Ivan Kupala. He stole the Gospel somewhere, took a sheet and came to the forest, to the clearing. He outlined three circles, spread the sheet, read prayers, and exactly at midnight a fern bloomed like an asterisk, and these flowers began to fall on the sheet. He picked them up and tied them in a knot, while he himself reads prayers. Only out of nowhere bears, a storm has risen…. The guy does not let out everything, he reads to himself. Then he sees: dawn, and the sun rose, he got up and went. He walked, walked, and held a bundle in his hand. Suddenly he hears - someone is driving behind; looked around: he was rolling in a red shirt, straight at him; swooped down, but as soon as he hit it all, he dropped the bundle. Looks: again it was night, as it was, and he has nothing. " [Andreev. Russian folklore. p.138]

Thus, a person went to a pagan holiday with the Gospel, to a Christian one - he worshiped nature and divined. And after that, someone else will argue that paganism was not a serious part of the ancient Slavic culture and died out at the time of the adoption of Christianity.

SUPERSTRY IN RUSSIA.

What should be attributed to the fact that not only in Russia, but throughout Europe, there are so many superstitious concepts and beliefs? They can neither be forgotten nor destroyed, from century to century one generation passes on to another with all the little things, often attributing incomprehensible properties to completely insignificant things.

From time immemorial, all imaginary miracles were done with the help of knowledge inaccessible to the people and were kept in the hands of priests or shamans of ancient tribes.

When Christianity came into its own, the former order and way of life of the peoples changed, and a struggle began over the new doctrine. Then there were favorable conditions for the development of everything miraculous and supernatural. With the fall of paganism, the priests, who were the main keepers of mystical secrets, exiled and desecrated, spread their knowledge throughout the world.

But they were in charge, if I may call it that, the scientific knowledge of the ancient Slavs. For example, where did the recipes for traditional medicine come from?

Do we not know that: "Whoever drinks a heavy drink, and from that the disease will pass — a spoonful of sheep's milk, and bear's bile the size of a pea grain, and wipe it off to drink on your heart and drink it twice"; or from a toothache: “Get a living snake, take out the living bile from it; but if there is a living serpent without bile from that grease, and in that hour the sacs (worms) will disappear. " [Zabylin M. Russian people. His customs, rituals, traditions, superstitions and poetry. M-1989 p. 417, 418]

And where did the brownie come from? People always believed that someone was guarding their homes. The brownie is the soul of the hut, the patron saint of the building and the people living in it.

There were all kinds of myths about its origin. For example, as in the Voronezh province, there was a story about the appearance of brownies, intertwining with the biblical legend: “In the Babylonian pandemonium, God punished the people who dared to penetrate the secret of its greatness by mixing languages, and having deprived the main of them of their image and likeness of eternal times to guard the waters, forests, mountains, etc. Whoever was in the house at the time of punishment became a brownie. " [Zabylin M. Russian people. His customs, rituals, traditions, superstitions and poetry. M-1989 with. 245]

According to other legends, the brownie was born from the souls of trees cut down and used for construction. Brownies had wives and children: therefore, a brownie for a new dwelling could be born “naturally”.

If you do not respect, offend the soul of the hut with something, the little owner will build all sorts of dirty tricks until you obey. However, he himself, sometimes playing naughty, crossed the boundaries of what was permissible. In this case, he had to be reassured: “Why are you, grandfather-sibling, throwing a cat on the ground! What farm is there without a cat? "

Perhaps such exhortations will be able to work on a modern drummer, or in German, a "noisy spirit" - a poltergeist. And then there will be peace and well-being in the house. [Semenova M. We are Slavs! C-P-1997 with. 54, 55]

And now about bread. Everyone has heard the words that bread is the head of everything. This is not easy because a lot of work is spent on making bread, and the fact is that now few people remember the deep mythological roots that our views on bread have.

V fine arts In ancient cultures, a sown field was depicted with the same sign as a pregnant woman. This sign (a rhombus divided into four parts, each of which has a dot) has survived to our times in traditional embroidery on clothes. From this it follows that bread was a sacred gift for the Slavs. It was forbidden, by the way, to hit the table with a fist: the table is God's palm!

And in order to cook the simplest porridge, you need to ensure the "union" of Fire, Water and Grain - the product of the Earth. Sweet (boiled in honey) porridge, seasoned with wild berries, was the most ancient pagan ritual food, it carried the powerful idea of ​​fertility, victory over death, and the eternal return of life.

Is it any wonder that pagan porridge, perfectly fitting into Christian rituals, still lives under the name of kutya, which I treat at the commemoration. Unless they put sugar instead of honey, instead of forest berries raisins, and rice instead of whole wheat. [Semenova M. We are Slavs! C-P-1997 p.63, 65]

Of course, many superstitions were associated with the animation of inanimate nature and its gifts. So, for example, if God had mercy on the peasant from all kinds of misfortune, and good bread was born, the time of the harvest came. The people called her "zhinka" and was accompanied old rituals... The first sheaf, "bastard", like the last, autumn, was decorated with flowers and ribbons, brought into the house and placed in a red corner. Later, this sheaf was threshed first, and miraculous powers were attributed to its grains. [Ryabtsev Yu.S. Travel to ancient Russia. M-1995 p.164-165]

Wedding traditions, too, were distinguished by a kind of primitiveness.

For example: the bride and groom, going to get married to church, were stuck in a dress, in a shirt, in a collar and in a hem, earless and headless needles and pins, and scraps of hemstitch were screwed over the body. All this was done so that the newlyweds would not be spoiled during the wedding. It is impossible for any healer to spoil a person who has headless and earless needles and pins, and even more so if he has a cape on his body, on which there are countless nodules.

During the wedding, when a fly is under the feet - a canvas or a scarf, the one that steps on it with a foot in front of it will be the big one - the highway in life. And with whom of the spouses the candle will soon burn out, that one will die first. During the wedding, one should not look at each other, and if they do, in particular they look into each other's eyes, they will not love each other, or someone will change in their married life. [Andreev. Russian folklore.]

And here are superstitions directly related to Christian holidays.

More precisely, not superstitions, but folk omens. So, in the Mesyatseslov, compiled by VI Dal, all Russian holidays are traced and this is what happens: “On the Epiphany night, before the morning, the sky opens. Snow flakes - for the harvest. A clear day is a bad harvest. Starry Night on Epiphany - Harvest for peas and berries ";

or: “At the meeting, winter met with summer. Sun for summer, winter for frost.

On the Meeting of Drops - a harvest for wheat ”[V.I. Dahl. Proverbs of the Russian people. GIHL-1957]

Here, you and the animation of inanimate nature and interweaving with the Christian tradition. And everything in this is so perfectly harmonized that it seems wonderful how two such different things merge so beautifully and harmoniously with each other.

In general, the variety of pagan customs that have survived almost to our days (although, who knows, maybe they have survived) is striking, and, moreover, they not only survived, but, moreover, did not change for centuries. Is it necessary to talk about the adaptation to Christianity of such a custom as stone veneration? This phenomenon took place for a long time, for example, in the Odoevsky district, Tula province. There were two stones (and maybe they are to this day) Bash and Bashikha or Bashi, who were honored on about Peter's day. It was believed that these were people, a man and a woman, who quarreled among themselves and Bashikh for disobedience to their Bash, received a blow with a boot. From this blow, for a long time, even everyday life can be seen the imprint of the foot and the nails of the heel. However, in Bashikh, in addition to revenge for the offense, they also noticed miraculous power. For this in summer time, around Peter's Day, people flocked to the village in droves, at first they served a prayer service to the Mother of God - Tenderness, and then they went to bow to the stones. They left things, money, etc., at the stones, and then the church head collected them, and these donations went to the church. [Zabylin M. Russian people. His customs, rituals, traditions, superstitions and poetry. M-1989 with. 87]

Is this not a proof of the vitality of paganism and at the same time of its solidarity with the Christian tradition?

A. N. Tolstoy. wrote: “The Russian people have created a huge oral literature: wise proverbs and tricky riddles, funny and sad ritual songs, solemn epics - chanted to the sound of strings - about the glorious deeds of heroes, defenders of the land of the people - heroic, magical, everyday and ridiculous tales. It is in vain to think that this literature was only the fruit of the people's leisure. She was the dignity and intelligence of the people. She became and strengthened his moral character, was his historical memory, with festive clothes of his soul and filled with deep content his whole measured life, flowing according to customs and rituals associated with his work, nature and reverence for fathers and grandfathers. "