Here's an interesting subject to think about: why did the words "sorcerer" and "wizard" change their original meaning? After all, now they designate those who are associated with magic. But they never were like that! Who were you? - The answer lies literally on the surface, and any person who is even a little interested in folklore should immediately figure out where the legs grow from. But this has not happened … for a very long time.
In principle, I have already touched on this topic in four parts of the article “Chaldean riddles. Russian Answers , giving quite a lot of information in order to direct the reader's thought in the right direction. But I think that I did not fully disclose this topic then, leaving too much in one single special case. Therefore, having prepared the ground with other articles, I return to the Sorcerers and Wizards.
Officially
Dahl's dictionary gives the following interpretations:
"Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language" has been published since 1863 and is one of the best sources on the everyday life of the people. But it turns out that already in the middle of the 19th century “sorcerers” and “wizards” were called various sorcerers, although at the same time a completely different tradition was widely known …
Promotional video:
A bit of Wikipedia:
There is also a very small particle of truth, and a bunch of fantasy speculations.
I'll make a reservation right away so that readers do not sharpen their pitchforks in vain, that I DO NOT DENY the existence of real magicians, witches, sorcerers and others. This article is SPECIFICALLY about "WIZARDS" and "WIZARDS" as names, this is my attempt to call things by their proper names. That is why I ask myself the question, who were called Sorcerers and Wizards in Russia?
Answer
It is enough just to look into the peasant tradition to immediately see who is who. And I already wrote that the "Sorcerers" trace their origins to "Kolyada", that is, a mumbled crowd of caroling people, which remained in a very rudimentary form only in countries such as the United States, where they still sing Christmas carols under windows and celebrate Halloween, threatening: "sweet or nasty" (which, in fact, was originally the same)
And it is a mistake to think that "carols" are a purely Christmas ritual. Because the spring and summer songs were also called carols. And they also had a different name - "Volochebny Songs", and those who sang were called VOLOCHEADS.
These are the Wizards and Wizards represented by Kolyaduns and Volochebniks.
Function
Many collections of carols and drab songs have been compiled, heaps of studies have been written, but so no one, in my not strong memory, even looked at WHY all these carols are needed in the villages at all? What is their function?
After all, reading the description of caroling in any encyclopedia, you are always convinced that the people were simply having fun as best they could. Which is not true. To understand the essence of this action, you need to know the very nature of the old way of life, about which I so often write here. Yes, you have to repeat the same thing over and over again, but only in order to step by step clarify the picture, which “is clear to everyone”.
But to begin with, a short description of the action itself, which is repeated without any changes when singing carols, vines, Lazarev's and volocular songs: a group of disguised or non-disguised young people walks from house to house and praises the owner of this house. The owner, in gratitude, gives something to eat to the group of carols. Sometimes he does this through the window, less often carols are allowed into the house, for example, when songs are sung for a young girl of marriageable age. Such detours are made in the spring (loaches) to call out to the newlyweds.
That is, the newlyweds are glorified, the owner is glorified, young people in the premarital age are glorified, and somewhere I saw a similar ceremony for newborns, but there it is a little different. At least from the Orthodox version of the Gospel of Matthew, we know that the Three Wise Men (magi from the east) came to the newborn Jesus with gifts (in the Greek version, the word "magos" is used).
You can, again, cite Wikipedia's worthless data on this score:
Well, "worthless" - I got excited, of course. After all, this is, no more, no less, the official version, going back to the 19th century, so this is, in fact, our level of knowledge today of this rite … A timid attempt to connect the rite with magic even … But this is superfluous, because here there is nothing "magic".
The previous time, I confess, I emphasized too much on the rituals of Christmas carols associated with the premarital age. But very interesting parallels were traced, and it was about the winter - wedding - period. Now I want to look at carols and carols from afar, as at the system as a whole.
Here we must clearly understand what “glory” is and why the carollers “glorify” the settlers. The word "glory" comes from a root that I can reconstruct as * hlω-; from him we also have “hearing”, “hearing”. That is, "glorified" is the one who is heard by everyone. Consequently, the ceremony of glorification is precisely loud (English "loud" - "loud" - the same root) glorification, pronouncing a person's name out loud so that everyone can hear.
From this simple position, a more interesting picture of Christmas carols is already emerging - a public announcement. What and why?
I will not give examples of winter carols, as I have already spoken about their most common motives in the article about "Chaldeans …") from the Notes of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Smolensk ethnographic collection, compiled by V. N. Dobrovolsky. Part 4, (1903):
Second example:
Third example:
These songs were sung on "Great Day", which is why such an Easter motive. And in it, by the way, there are curious peasant details, such as "resurrected on earth", and not ascended to heaven; instead of the cross on which "Sus" was crucified, there is a Cypress tree taken from the Pigeon Book:
The cypress tree is the father of all trees.
Why is cypress the father of all trees?
Because the cypress is the father of all the trees, -
Jesus Christ himself was crucified on it, That Heavenly King …
Anyway, the whole song is quite interesting. The very proposal of the husband, "Let us, wife, build a cathedral" is hardly so literal … All this deserves a separate article. So, in another variation of the song, the husband answers the question "what to do with good":
And there is also an important detail to illustrate the above obligatory Glorification:
Pane the owner, do you smell, you see, How we dignify you, We call you by your
name, We magnify by your
patronymic, And congratulations on the holiday?
There are a lot of songs describing, for example, how the owner goes to church with his family, or about a girl weaving a wreath, which speaks of her “marriageable” status. And there are scattered details in the different songs that together make for interesting juxtapositions. So, for example, an unmarried girl promises to "fishermen" (matchmakers, lovers):
To the first I cry a golden ring, To the other I cry a silk khusta, For the third I am going to marry myself …
"Silk" is the standard epithet of the herb that is associated with St. George, and here the silk is a scarf, which reveals the curious symbolism of the herb-veil, which the maiden usually washes in the river, during which she loses the wreath in bathing songs … and entertainment (erotic symbol), for which he receives "on the neck" from his mother (since the headscarf here is a symbol of parental protection, now it is used in the wedding tradition of wearing a veil). Then “I’m going to marry” is comparable to the “seeding” of St. Nicholas, and the golden ring - with the “red egg”, which is inseparable from Christ (in another song: “Happy Holidays, Christ's Day; Christ’s Day, Red Egg”), that, rather all, leads to the apocryphal theme of "Brides of Christ" … But I digress. This folk poetry is a real labyrinth of images …
There are also very specific spring carols:
In some of the songs, it is sung about marrying the harvest of the "life":
All the apostles gathered, disfigured a child for themselves …
They named the name Saint Ilya …
… Hostess, our father, Forge
golden sickles, You have young reapers …
As everyone knows, “Ilya finishes summer, he begins to live his life”, ie Ilya's day is the beginning of the harvest in July (it is impossible not to see the similarity between “Ilya” and “July”). And, apparently, the legend that Ilya sat on the stove for 33 years, until Nicholas the Wonderworker healed him, speaks of this "life" that was sown on Nicholas and blossomed by Ilyin's day. I will not say anything about why exactly “33 years”, because in poetry this may not refer to a specific number (especially, to years). But in folk songs, Ilya always walks through the fields and helps the peasants with the harvest.
In this situation, all the ins and outs of the notorious "12 apostles" are immediately visible - 12 months. And this perfectly demonstrates the meaning of all these dragging carols.
And there are several of them. First, these are calendar marks: a crowd of congratulators fixes a period. This is a kind of announcement to the whole village that it's time to sow, reap, marry, show off, etc. (wheel of the year). Official publicity of some dates and holidays.
Secondly, it is a kind of analogue of the “population census”. Here, look, one humorous winter sit-down carol:
Everyone knows each other who's going on. As in wolf songs, it is described where the owner is, whether at home, what he is doing. That is why they go home - to record each one, to call him by name. Who has that: somewhere it's time to marry a daughter, somewhere small children were born, somewhere a rich harvest, a lot of all sorts of facts noticed by carols. And all this is revealed in the main action:
Thirdly, the basis of the caroling-dragging ritual is glorification for food, money, and drink. I have already written in previous articles that any exchange, up to a handshake, especially an exchange of food, is bonding, linking to each other. This is one of the most important acts of the old society, which lived in small closed ("sacred") groups. Aby with whom they do not exchange anything. Exchange is acceptance into one's society (family, group …), an expression of trust. For ease of understanding of this deep philosophical and legal action, I always advise you to imagine an epic heroic feast, where the prince rests his squad, which stands like a mountain for the prince. This artistic image, in my opinion, ideally demonstrates the process of exchange, which is common in the old society. And this is a lesson for us, because we are too frivolous: we greet people we don't even know,we allow you to touch your things, etc., we let unverified persons into our personal space.
In the carols, we are apparently exactly the same: the carollers, who are representatives of the village youth, give their congratulations and wishes to the owner of the house, moreover, they give him the very "glory" - an announcement to everyone that this one lives here and he has Syo, "logging", so to speak. And the owner in return gives the volunteers food - he gives away the fruits of his economy, the accumulated benefit, as if a part of himself, of his labor. Thus, there is a periodic confirmation of the identity of the owner by representatives of the village, that is, by the village itself in the person of the volocortes. And the host demonstrates that he is part of this gated village community by giving away his food.
I will probably write another article on a parallel topic sometime to make it clearer what it is about, but here I will just note that all this is done for CONFIDENCE. One for all and all for one. The village community must trust its villagers, rely on them, because you can only live together, together. And all issues are resolved together (which was not the case in secular capitals). That is why we see wolfish songs like “who will plow and who will sow?”. Having designated all members of the community, confirming their social status (it's time to get married, a young family, a well-to-do owner, etc.), having received the owner's "autograph" in the form of an edible or monetary gift, volochebniks go to the next house. And so on until they go around the whole village and seal it with their "entertaining" legal action.
It remains only to add the main terms of the "update" of the hair data: winter Christmastide - the period of weddings, early spring - the birth of children conceived on Kupala, the first signs of pregnancy in winter newlyweds, late spring - a round dance period, also spring - planning of field work, summer - the height works, waiting for the harvest. I can't remember the autumn carols, but autumn is harvest time (not only literally, but also figuratively - new families have already been tacitly identified, it's time to send matchmakers) - the result of the year, one might say.
And, as you can see, no "special effects", purely social magic. Winter and summer carols differ in appearance, but this is only from additional functions. Therefore, the question remains: why were volochebniks and koladunov put on a par with enchantors, sorcerers, magicians and so on and on and on? What is the point of breaking a single, in fact, legal image into two parts, moreover, one of them is elevated to the status of "magic", and the other is attributed to entertainment. Is it just a misreading? Or, in order to introduce new orders of secular power in the village, it was necessary to destroy its internal ties, which were held together symbolically and spiritually by carols? But maybe everything is not so gloomy, and you just need to decipher the rest of the associated words to see the true "magic"?
Author: peremyshlin
