Of course, our most beloved characters of the New Year's holiday are Santa Claus and Snegurochka. But if some similarities of our Russian pagan God Santa Claus under different names exist in many countries, then the Snow Maiden is our purely Russian heritage, the product of a great and generous truly Russian spirit.
We have long been accustomed to the annual appearance of this fabulously beautiful, forever young, cheerful and infinitely kind Russian Goddess at New Year's celebrations and every time we chant with pleasure: “Snow Maiden! Snow Maiden! Snow Maiden! And it's even difficult to imagine that no one can answer our call.
Until recently, the origin of the Snow Maiden was shrouded in deep mystery. Everyone knows that she is the granddaughter of Santa Claus, but who her father and mother were until recently was known very confusingly and vaguely. For this reason, the editors of SuperCook.ru conducted their own fundamental scientific and historical research, which finally clarified this great ancient secret.
Our all-powerful Russian pagan God Santa Claus is mighty and great in everything, including the ability to drink great in Russian - everything is in order with his divine health, no ailments and intoxication take him …
Once the great Russian God-Father Santa Claus and the divine Snow Blizzard-Blizzard was born the God-Son Snowman. Due to conception in a state of strong New Year's drink of parents, he was born with a somewhat weak mind, but very kind and sympathetic. He did not take over the habit of drinking from Father, therefore he does not drink at all, and prefers ice cream to any food.
At one fine moment, the daughter of the Snow Maiden was born to the winter God-Son of the Snowman and the Russian goddess Spring-Red. Since the teetotal Snowman with divine genetics is all right, his daughter was born wonderfully well!
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All the Snow Maiden came out - and the unprecedented divine beauty, and the mind, and ingenuity, and the kindness and disinclination to alcohol taken from the Snowman, taken from Spring-Red.
Divine mothers of the God-Son of the Snowman (the son of Santa Claus and the Snow Blizzard-Blizzard), and the Goddess-Granddaughter of the Snow Maiden (the daughters of the Snowman and Spring-Red) quickly fled from this merry riotous New Year's company and do not appear there often. Wise Spring-Red prefers to communicate with Santa Claus, Snowman and Snegurochka only briefly, just before the spring warmth, when our merry New Year's God-Father Santa Claus, God-Son Snowman and Goddess-Granddaughter Snegurochka are already getting ready to leave for the whole summer in their fiefdom in the Wild Far North. But the more daring and decisive divine Snow Blizzard-Blizzard occasionally visits its New Year's relatives throughout the winter, and in the summer, too, sometimes drops in to visit them in the northern Land of Eternal Snows.
But what is known about the Snow Maiden from other, earlier sources
The image of the Snow Maiden is not recorded in the Russian folk rite. However, in Russian folklore, she appears as a character in a folk tale about a girl made of snow, who came to life.
The tales of the Snow Maiden were studied by A. N. Afanasyev in the second volume of his work Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature (1867).
In 1873 A. N. Ostrovsky, under the influence of Afanasyev's ideas, wrote the play The Snow Maiden. In it, the Snow Maiden appears as the daughter of Santa Claus and Spring Red, who dies during the summer ritual of worshiping the sun god Yarila. Has the appearance of a lovely pale blonde girl. She is dressed in blue and white clothes with a fur trim (fur coat, fur hat, mittens). The play was initially unsuccessful with the public.
In 1882, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov staged an opera of the same name based on the play, which was a huge success.
The image of the Snow Maiden was further developed in the works of teachers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, who prepared scripts for children's New Year trees. Even before the revolution, the figures of the Snow Maiden were hung on the Christmas tree, the girls dressed up in the costumes of the Snow Maiden, and fragments from fairy tales, Ostrovsky's play or the opera were staged. At this time, the Snow Maiden did not act as a leading.
The image of the Snow Maiden got its modern look in 1935 in the Soviet Union, after the official permission to celebrate the New Year. In the books on organizing Christmas trees of this period, the Snow Maiden appears on a par with Santa Claus, as his granddaughter, an assistant and mediator in communication between him and the children. At the beginning of 1937, Santa Claus and Snegurochka first appeared together for the holiday of the Christmas tree in the Moscow House of Unions (i.e., the most important Christmas tree of the Soviet Union).
Snow Maiden's story
The Snow Maiden is a Russian New Year character. She is a unique attribute of the image of Santa Claus. None of his younger or foreign brothers have such a sweet accompaniment.
The image of the Snow Maiden is a symbol of frozen waters. This is a girl (not a girl) - an eternally young and cheerful pagan Goddess, dressed only in white clothes. No other color is allowed in traditional symbolism, although from the middle of the 20th century, blue tones were sometimes used in her clothes. Her headdress is an eight-pointed crown embroidered with silver and pearls. The modern costume of the Snow Maiden most often corresponds to the historical description. Violations of the color scheme are extremely rare and, as a rule, are justified by the lack of opportunity to make the "correct" suit.
The image of the Snow Maiden is not recorded in the ancient Russian folk rite. The Snow Maiden is a relatively recent achievement of Russian culture.
Nowadays there is often a deeply erroneous, unscientific opinion that the image of our Snow Maiden arose from the image of a certain pagan goddess of winter and death, Kostroma.
Here we recall that in historical science there is the term "armchair mythology", in which well-known scattered facts are artificially "pulled by the ears", powerfully supplemented by the "researcher's" own fantasy, and as a result, a quasi-historical essay in the style of fantasy arises, which has nothing to do with reality … Often, such scientists-mythologists work under the order of the authorities - local or state.
In historical science "armchair mythology" did not appear yesterday and will not disappear tomorrow. In all sciences, there have always been and are lovers to compose a gag that is not related to reality. The connection between the image of the Russian Snow Maiden and Kostroma was "found" by the Kostroma ethnographers, when the authorities of Kostroma decided to declare their places the birthplace of the Snow Maiden.
Note that the supposedly "ancient" rite associated with the image of Kostroma was first noted and described only in the 19th century, so the antiquity of information about it is very small. Much later, from these descriptions, local Kostroma "armchair mythologists" concluded that the myth of the Snow Maiden originated from the "ancient" Slavic rite of the Kostroma funeral, which was carried out by peasants in the areas around the city of Kostroma.
But consider who Kostroma is in this rite.
The word "Kostroma" has one root with the word "fire". According to the descriptions of the researchers of the XIX century, at the end of winter the effigy of Kostroma was buried in different villages by peasants in the vicinity of the city of Kostroma in different ways. A straw scarecrow depicting Kostroma, joyfully, with hooting and jokes, was either drowned in the river or burned.
From the diligent descriptions by the researchers of the 19th century, it can be seen that the rite of destroying the effigy of Kostroma to the smallest detail repeats the rite of festive destruction of the annoying evil Winter-Marena in spring, which existed since ancient times, in different localities also called Morena, Maran, Moran, Mar, Marukh, Marmara.
It is clearly seen from the descriptions of the rite that the goddess of winter Kostroma is not a separate independent deity, but only the local (local) Kostroma name of the all-Slavic Marena (Morana), the pagan goddess of death, winter and night.
Morana (Marana, Kostroma …) was personified in a frightening image: relentless and fierce, her teeth are more dangerous than the fangs of a wild beast, her hands are terrible, crooked claws; Death is black, grinds its teeth, quickly rushes to war, grabs the fallen warriors and, plunging its claws into the body, sucks the blood out of them.
The plurality of the names of Morana-Kostroma in Russian is not surprising. In the 19th century, many local features of the Russian language still existed in Russia, which by the middle of the 20th century had practically disappeared due to the introduction of a single standardized education. For example, the same ancient pagan harvest festival, traditionally celebrated on the day of the autumn equinox, was called Veresen, Tausen, Ovsen, Avsen, Usen, Autumn, Radogosh in different parts of Russia.
The burning of the effigy of Winter (Marena, Kostroma, etc.) is the farewell of the annoying winter, practiced in the spring by all the peoples of Europe, including the Slavs, who in pre-Christian times had a common religion of Druids / Magi (among the Slavs, the pagan clergy-druids were called “Magi ).
In pre-Christian times, the effigy of Winter was destroyed by drowning in water or by burning it on the vernal equinox during the pagan holiday of Komoeditsa (see details). Later, when the victorious Christian Church, under pain of heavy punishment, banned the pagan Komoeditsa and instead introduced the Christian holiday Maslenitsa (in Europe called "carnival"), people began to destroy the effigy of Winter on the last day of Maslenitsa.
The rite of burning on Komoeditsa on the day of the spring equinox (later in Christian times - on the last day of Maslenitsa) a stuffed animal of the annoying Winter Marena (and not Maslenitsa, as some mistakenly believe) was intended to ensure the fertility of the land.
Of course, there is no reason to associate the image of our Russian Snow Maiden with the image of the ancient evil and cruel goddess of winter, death and night Morana (Kostroma) - these are just ridiculous anti-scientific exaggerations of the overly witty Kostroma ethnographers who acted under the order of the local authorities.
It is also senseless to try to look for the roots of the Snow Maiden's kinship in the pre-Christian mythology of the Slavs, which by the 13th century was completely and irreparably destroyed by the churchmen, and about which practically nothing is known today.
In the cruel medieval times of the introduction of Christianity on the conquered and enslaved by alien Scandinavian bandits-Varangians (Vikings) Russia, the Russian people lost their mythology, and the ancient Slavic runic writing, and together with the runic writing - and all their historical chronicles, which were led by the Magi. It was then that the history, beliefs and customs of the Slavs of pre-Christian times for several centuries were diligently destroyed by the churchmen and the Varangian authorities and became unknown.
Let's turn to the real story of the origin of our Russian Snow Maiden
It is known that gods will be born sometime, live in the minds of people for some time, and then die, being erased from memory.
In the great Russian culture of the 19th century, the miracle of the birth of a new Goddess took place, which will never disappear from the memory of the Russian people, as long as our Russian people exist.
To understand this Russian cultural phenomenon, one should not mistakenly believe that only the cunning Jewish people are capable of creating new gods, and other peoples in their creativity and traditions must certainly dance to the tune of only Jewish religious fantasies. As the history of culture of the 19th and 20th centuries shows, the Russian people are also not bastards. It would be nice if Russians did not forget about this in the current 21st century.
Since ancient times, people have made likenesses of a person from different materials (i.e. sculptures), sometimes imagining their sculptures come to life (recall the ancient myth of Pygmalion and Galatea).
The image of the revived ice girl is often found in northern fairy tales. In the 19th century Russian folklore recorded by researchers, the Snow Maiden also appears as a character in a folk tale about a girl made of snow who came to life.
Most likely, the Russian folk tale about the Snow Maiden was composed somewhere in the middle of the 18th century, possibly under the influence of northern legends that came through the Russian northern pomors, and then interpreted in the oral works of various storytellers. This is how versions of this fairy tale appeared in Russia.
In Russian folk tales, the Snow Maiden miraculously emerges from the snow just like a living person. The great Russian playwright A. N. Ostrovsky made the Snegurochka a Slavic Goddess in 1873, giving her as parents the Slavic gods Santa Claus and Spring-Red. And the gods, as you know, are born gods.
The Russian fairy-tale Snow Maiden is an amazingly kind character. In Russian folklore, there is not even a hint of something negative in the character of the Snow Maiden. On the contrary, in Russian fairy tales, the Snow Maiden appears as an absolutely positive character, but who has fallen into unsuccessful environmental conditions. Even in suffering, the fabulous Snow Maiden does not show a single negative trait.
The tale of the Snow Maiden, born of the creativity of the Russian people, is a unique phenomenon in the entire world of fairy tale creativity. There is not a single negative character in the Russian folk tale The Snow Maiden! This is not found in any other Russian fairy tale and in the fairy tales of other peoples of the world.
The amazing Russian culture of the 19th century gave rise to another similar unique work - the opera Iolanta, in which there is not a single negative character, and the whole plot is also built on the struggle of good noble heroes with unfavorable natural circumstances. Only in the opera "Iolanta" the heroes (with the help of the achievements of science) win, and in the folk tale "The Snow Maiden" the heroine dies under the influence of the irresistible force of earthly nature.
The modern image of the pagan Goddess Snegurochka, whose name is the same root with the words "snowman" and "snow", is a relatively recent product of the great Russian culture of the 19th century.
Our divine Russian Snow Maiden emerged as a literary character
AN Afanasyev conducted the initial research of folk tales about the Snow Maiden (see the second volume of his work "Poetic views of the Slavs on nature", 1867).
Under the influence of information about the fairy-tale snow girl received from Afanasyev, in 1873 A. N. Ostrovsky wrote the poetic play The Snow Maiden. In it, the Snow Maiden appears as the daughter of the Slavic gods Santa Claus and Spring-Red, who dies during the festive ritual of worshiping the Slavic god of the spring sun Yarila, who comes into its own, on the Day of the vernal equinox (on the day of the beginning of the astronomical spring, which our ancient pagan ancestors had and the first day of the New Year).
Later, writers and poets turned the Snow Maiden into a granddaughter - the gods are not born as a result of a single creative act of an individual person, but always cumulate in themselves many ideas of the people.
Many people liked the lyrical, beautiful story about the Snow Maiden. The famous philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov wanted to stage it on the home stage of the Abramtsevo circle in Moscow. The premiere took place on January 6, 1882.
Sketches of costumes for her were made by V. M. Vasnetsov (in a light-colored sundress with a hoop or bandage on his head), and three years later, the famous artist makes new sketches for the production of the opera of the same name by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, based on the play by N. A. Ostrovsky.
Two more famous artists were involved in creating the appearance of the Snow Maiden. M. A. Vrubel in 1898 created the image of the Snow Maiden for a decorative panel in the house of A. V. Morozov (in white clothes woven of snow and down and lined with ermine fur). Later, in 1912, N. K. Roerich (in a fur coat), who participated in the production of a dramatic play about the Snow Maiden in St. Petersburg.
The image of the Snow Maiden was further developed in the works of teachers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, who prepared scripts for children's New Year trees. The story about a girl from the snow who came to people became more and more popular and "fit" very well into the programs of the city's Christmas trees.
Even before the revolution, the figures of the Snow Maiden were hung on the Christmas tree, the girls dressed up in the costumes of the Snow Maiden, and fragments from fairy tales, Ostrovsky's play or the opera were staged. At this time, the Snow Maiden did not act as a leading.
During the repressions of 1927-1935, the Snow Maiden suddenly disappeared.
The image of the Snow Maiden got its modern look in 1935 in the Soviet Union, after the official permission to celebrate the New Year. In the books on organizing Christmas trees of this period, the Snow Maiden appears on a par with Santa Claus, as his granddaughter, an assistant and mediator in communication between him and the children.
At the beginning of 1937, Santa Claus and Snegurochka first appeared together for a Christmas tree celebration at the Moscow House of Unions. It is curious that in early Soviet images the Snow Maiden is often depicted as a little girl, in the form of a girl they began to represent her later. Why is still unknown.
During the war period, the Snow Maiden was again forgotten. As an obligatory constant companion of Santa Claus, she was revived only in the early 1950s thanks to the efforts of children's classics Lev Kassil and Sergei Mikhalkov, who wrote scripts for the Kremlin Christmas trees.
Grandfather Frost and Snow Maiden entered the public life of the country as mandatory attributes of the coming New Year. Since then, every New Year, the Snegurochka has been shifting responsibilities that Santa Claus successfully copes with on the American and Western European Christmas tree. And on New Year's Eve, students of theatrical universities and actresses often worked as Snow Maidens. In amateur performances, older girls and young women, more often fair-haired, were chosen for the role of the Snow Maidens.
Following our wonderful Russian New Year's tradition, now a wonderful granddaughter also began to accompany the European New Year's Grandfather.
The residence of our Father Frost, as everyone knows, is located in the Vologda region, in Veliky Ustyug. The Snow Maiden does not live with him. Where is it?
Two places apply for the title of the "family nest" of the daughter of Frost and Spring. At the Shchelykovo estate in the Kostroma region, Ostrovsky invented his own play based on an old fairy tale - this, it seems, is the birthplace of the Snow Maiden.
But on the other hand, in the village of Abramtsevo near Moscow, Viktor Vasnetsov gave birth to the image of an ice beauty. Here, the artist created the scenery for the first theatrical production based on Ostrovsky's play and, again in Abramtsevo, on the stage of Savva Mamontov's home theater, Rimsky-Korsakov's opera was performed for the first time.
The Snow Maiden is mysteriously silent and does not reveal her address. Probably afraid of annoying reporters.
However, two of Snegurochka's secret addresses are already known: Russia, 156000, Kostroma, st. Lenina 3, Snegurochka and Russia, 156000, Kostroma, st. Lagernaya, 38. Terem Snegurochka These addresses can be sent to Snegurochka in the hope of getting an answer from Snegurochka or from her kind helpers.
But Santa Claus has several official residences at once
In 2006, another residence of Father Frost was opened in Moscow's Kuzminki Park. A two-story house was also built here for his granddaughter. The wooden tower is made in the "onion" style according to the project of the Kostroma craftsmen. They say that the Snow Maiden also really likes it.
If you want to send a letter or a postcard to Santa Claus by regular mail, write to a very simple address: Where: North To: Santa Claus (no index is needed - everyone knows this address in the post office, and the letter will certainly reach, you can be sure).
Or you can write on the letter the full mailing address of Grandfather Frost: Russia, 162390, Vologda region, Veliky Ustyug, Grandfather Frost.
