The image of Santa Claus, as noted by such well-known researchers of Indo-European mythology as V. V. Ivanov and V. N. “Frost, Morozko is a character of Slavic fairytale ritual folklore … The Eastern Slavs have a fabulous image of Frost the hero, a blacksmith who“fetters the water”with iron frosts … and on the Great Day with jelly ", which is associated with the custom of feeding this ritual dish to the deceased grandfathers, they write in the 2nd volume of the encyclopedia" Myths of the peoples of the world."
Santa Claus, as a character of Russian folk tales and rituals, is associated with the period when "the sun turns to summer, winter to frost", that is, with the winter solstice. He is the Lord of the winter cold and in this capacity he is, first of all, the Lord of the Waters, which in the winter cold appear before people in all their forms: snow, ice, frost, steam, fog and the waters of rivers, lakes and seas flowing under the ice. Santa Claus freezes water bodies, covers the forests and the floor with snow, decorates tree branches with snow and frost. Being the Lord of winter, Santa Claus brings with him not only cold, snow and ice, but also night and darkness, since the daylight hours in winter in northern latitudes are extremely short, and the night is great (not to mention the three-month polar night). As the Lord of the Night, Santa Claus commands the stars and the Moon, the winter sky is subordinate to him, he decorates it with flashes of the Northern Lights.
Its wealth - silver, diamonds, pearls - everything that is associated in traditional views with purity, cold, moonlight, tears and magic. It is no coincidence, as Academician B. A. Rybakov notes, that there is never any Christian symbolism on silver Slavic jewelry up to the 12th - 13th centuries. Perhaps this is due to the fact that silver has long been associated with the moon, moonlight, lunar cults, and in many alchemical texts it was directly called the moon.
Associated with silver, moonlight, moon and night, Santa Claus is directly associated with "that light" - the world of ancestors. It is well known that among many peoples of Europe the Moon was considered the "Sun of the Dead". Santa Claus, the Lord of Waters and the Lord of the Night, the stars and the moon, even with his name testifies to the connection with the world of the dead. It is not without reason that the words “death, moraine, moraine”, “sea” and frost are so close. To die is tantamount to the concept of "cool down", "freeze", that is, freeze. It is worth noting here that all the Indo-European peoples of Europe celebrate the New Year by holding carnivals with mummers. Scientists suggest that the very origin of the word "mask", and this is one of the main components of dressing, is associated with the cult of ancestors, since the word "eye" means "soul of the dead." Italian ethnographer Paolo Toschi believes that carnival, as the main holiday of the beginning of the year,assumed the return to our world for these days of the beings of the afterlife, the world of ancestors. In the Russian tradition, in addition to dressing, as noted earlier, there was a custom according to which, on the eve of Christmas, the eldest in the house leaned out of the stove into the trailing window or went out on the threshold with a spoonful of oatmeal jelly and called: “Frost, Frost! Come eat jelly! " Even today, old people and old women in the North Russian outback, when asked who Santa Claus is, answer: "These are our ancestors, parents." Oatmeal jelly is a specific ritual dish associated with memorial rituals. Frost! Come eat jelly! " Even today, old people and old women in the North Russian outback, when asked who Santa Claus is, answer: "These are our ancestors, parents." Oatmeal jelly is a specific ritual dish associated with memorial rituals. Frost! Come eat jelly! " Even today, old people and old women in the North Russian outback, when asked who Santa Claus is, answer: "These are our ancestors, parents." Oatmeal jelly is a specific ritual dish associated with memorial rituals.
Thus, summing up, we can say that the Russian Santa Claus is: the Lord of the Waters in all their manifestations (snow, frost, ice, steam, water); The Lord of the Night and its attributes - the starry sky, the moon, aurora, darkness; Lord of Silver (symbol of the moon, moonlight, magic, sacred knowledge); The ruler of the world of ancestors and Grandfather, that is, the ancestor.
Such an archaic image, natural, could have formed only in ancient times, and this name of him "Santa Claus" most likely replaced the more ancient, taboo or persecuted by the Christian church.
Speaking about the historical roots of the image of Santa Claus, we cannot but refer to such an interesting and generally forgotten character of Slavic mythology, like Troyan. Troyan, captured in the "Lay of Igor's Campaign", which some researchers associate with the Roman emperor Mark Ulpius Trayan, other researchers consider the ancient Slavic deity of the Moon, which got its name from the three phases passed by this star. In the folk tradition, Troyak was associated with the idea of winter, snow, snowdrifts, snowy whiteness and paths trodden by wild tours. Yu. M. Zolotev writes:
"In Russia, the horned month was apparently considered the master of winter … In ancient times, the month, apparently, was deified in the form of a bull or a round." But Troyan was not only the god of winter, snow, roads. As the god of the moon, he did not belong entirely to the circle of the bright, benevolent gods of the ancient Slavs. Associated with the cult of ancestors and fertility, Troyan was also a deity of the darkness of the night, dark forces and horrors. And he was also a great judge, one who rewards and punishes both the living and the dead. It is no coincidence that in the folk tradition the path to the "other world" - the Milky Way - is called the "Troyanova path".
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In the North of Russia in the pre-Christian period, the analogue of Troyan was a deity who bore the name of Veles (Volos). BA Uspensky notes that on Maundy Thursday, Holy Week, they performed a ritual "calling out" to the dead. “On this day, early in the morning, they burned straw and called the dead” (Stoglav, 1890, p. 193). At the same time, the hostesses called cattle by name in the chimney. But on the same day Frost was "called out" with an invitation to a meal and a request not to beat the harvest. BA Uspensky notes that Moroz "reveals an undeniable connection" with Veles-Volos. At the same time, the cult of Veles-Volos was characteristic precisely for the Russian North. In ancient Russian sources (the treaty of Russians with the Greeks in 907) Veles is defined as "the god of all Russia", in contrast to Perun, who was only the god of the princely squad. The base "Veles-Volos" in Russian is used to denote power. "Veles" - the sovereign,manager, pointer; "Hair" - to rule. It was Veles who was asked to give more grain, cattle, children, to protect from fire and an evil person. Stars, in particular the Pleiades, in the Old Russian language - "hairs, hairs, whipworms." Veles (Volos) the lord of waters. So in the "Legend of the construction of the city of Yaroslavl" it is said: "These people mourn their unfaithfulness with tears to their Hair, let it bring rain down to the earth" (from which it follows that Volos-Veles gave rain and disposed of heavenly waters). In addition, the stars obeyed him. It is Veles-Volos in the "Legend of the construction of the city of Yaroslavl" the enlightener of the Church of the Prophet Elijah, "behold, many weeping and sighing", calls "your god." The same "Legend" says that a temple was "created" for Veles-Volos and a sorcerer was given to support the unquenchable fire. Through the smoke of "sacrificial incense" the sorcerer comprehended the secrets of the future and then spoke on behalf of Veles. But if the sacred fire was extinguished, then the priest himself was sacrificed to the same god. BA Uspensky writes: "This passage in the Tale, along with the name of Boyana" Velesov's grandson "in the Lay, remains an indirect argument in favor of the connection between Volos-Veles and the tradition of shamanic-poetic syncretic action." In the light of the North Russian terms, such as “volkhat, volkhite, volkhatka - the sorcerer, we can consider the terms - magician, magician, magician as associated with the cult of Veles-Volos. Veles sacrificed in special cases "calf and heifer" and called him "a formidable god." Whiter was in the Russian North in ancient times the patron saint of pastoralists and farmers. So, even in the second half of the 19th century, in the Cherepovets district of the Novgorod province, there was a rite described by E. Barsov:“When they are squeezed out, they leave a small bush of ears on the field and say to one of the harder ones:“You twirl your beard for Volos, or Veles, they will say differently”. She walks around the bush three times and, grabbing strands of 30 ears of grain with a sickle, sings:
"Bless me, Lord, Yes to twirl a beard: And the plowman is strong, And the seed is cowed, And the horse is the head, and Mikula's beard."
BA Uspensky notes: "Volos and Nikola act here as equivalent names, and it is remarkable that when addressing each other, they speak of Volos, but turning to the Lord - about Nicholas." This situation is not accidental, because “Christian saints - including St. Nicholas turned out to be substitutes for pagan gods … The process of replacing pagan gods with Christian saints is very typical and characterizes not only Slavic countries, but it is especially important for the study of Slavic paganism. " B. A. Uspensky's studies convincingly prove that in the Russian North in the process of Christianization Saint Nicholas or Nikola (Mikola) replaced the ancient god Volos-Veles. It is generally known that Nikola (St. Nicholas) occupies a completely exclusive place in Russian religious consciousness. This special position of Nikola in Russia was constantly noted by foreigners,who came to our country in the XVI-XVIII centuries. They stated that the Russians give Nicholas the worship that befits God himself. Thus, in the 17th century, a certain monk Athanasius declared that "Nicholas … like God is worshiped in Orthodoxy." S. Moskevich wrote in 1609 that "in case of … a convincing request, the Russians do not pray for the sake of God or Christ the Savior, for the sake of Nikola". Back at the end of the 18th century. there were priests who "confess Nicholas as God." De Tu, who found himself in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century, was surprised that the feast of St. Nicholas Veshnii (May 9) was preferred by superstitious Muscovites to Easter itself, and another foreigner, Martin Berg, also reported at the beginning of the 17th century that “Palm Sunday … after Nikolina's day considered (among Russians) the most important holiday. " Feofan Prokopovich noted,that the commoners "idolize St. Nicholas" and "the memory of St. Nicholas is higher than the Lord's holidays." In spiritual verses one could find such appeals as “Saint Mikola, our God is mighty”, or “From the desire of the Lord you will pomolise, to that Mikola and from the sleep…”. It was to Nicholas that they addressed them with the following wording: "Give me the Lord-Master, Light, you are merciful." Note that even in the 16th - 17th centuries, Russians avoided giving the name Nikolai at baptism and associated this with the fact that it was impossible to baptize a child with the name of Christ or the Mother of God. Foreigners who lived in Russia in the 17th century called any Russian icon "Nikolai"."Give me the Lord-Master, you are merciful Light." Note that even in the 16th - 17th centuries, Russians avoided giving the name Nikolai at baptism and associated this with the fact that it was impossible to baptize a child with the name of Christ or the Mother of God. Foreigners who lived in Russia in the 17th century called any Russian icon "Nikolai"."Give me the Lord-Master, you are merciful Light." Note that even in the 16th - 17th centuries, Russians avoided giving the name Nikolai at baptism and associated this with the fact that it was impossible to baptize a child with the name of Christ or the Mother of God. Foreigners who lived in Russia in the 17th century called any Russian icon "Nikolai".
Once again, we note that the cult of Nikola, like the cult of Volos-Veles, is characteristic of the Russian North. (For the south of Russia, the cult of St. George - Yegorii was more characteristic). Like Veles-Volos, Nikola's functions in the popular mind were extremely multifaceted.
He is the patron saint of cattle. In case of death, a vow was made to "magnify Mikole", who was promised a newborn bull called Mikolec. He was raised for three years, and grain was collected from all over the area to feed the Mikolts before the spell. The best piece of meat from this bull was donated to Nikola to the church, the rest was eaten by the whole world, celebrating the so-called. mycolycin. The celebration of Mikolshchyna was associated with a prayer service and the sprinkling of holy water on cattle. Here it makes sense to recall the message of the Byzantine author of the 6th century. Procopius, who wrote about the Slavs that "only God, the creator of lightning, they honor as the ruler over themselves and sacrifice bulls to him." It is well known that the personification of lightning in Slavic paganism was Perun (this is how “Perun” is called lightning in some dialects). As the embodiment of the smashing power of weapons, Perun was the god of the princely squad. But the Creator of the lightning was, apparently, the Supreme God Veles-Volos, the creator of the Peruns - lightning, whom Saint Nicholas replaced in the Christian Russian consciousness. It should be noted that during the holiday "Volosya" or "Volosye" (late 19th - early 20th centuries) on Thursday, during oil week, "working cattle were freed from work and before sunset they go round" a young bull, about a stallion. " In this regard, the story "Chyudo of St. Nicholas, Chyudo a Hedgehog About a Bull", compiled in Pechora in the late 18th - early 19th centuries, dedicated to the motive of a sacrificial bull, is also characteristic.) on Thursday, in oil week, “the draft animals were freed from work and before sunset they were circling the“young bull, about a colt”. In this regard, the story "Chyudo of St. Nicholas, Chyudo a Hedgehog About a Bull", compiled in Pechora in the late 18th - early 19th centuries, dedicated to the motive of a sacrificial bull, is also characteristic.) on Thursday, in oil week, “the draft animals were freed from work and before sunset they were circling the“young bull, about a colt”. In this regard, the story "Chyudo of St. Nicholas, Chyudo a Hedgehog About a Bull", compiled in Pechora in the late 18th - early 19th centuries, dedicated to the motive of a sacrificial bull, is also characteristic.
Nikola (and Volos-Veles) is the patron saint of agriculture. Here it is worth recalling the ritual curling of the beard by the harvesters in the Cherepovets district for Volos-Veles (Mikula) for a good harvest, which was mentioned earlier. On May 10, when the "name days of the earth" were celebrated, in the popular mind they were associated with the image of Nikola (Veles). The Russian proverb is indicative: "There is a common god on the Nikola field" or "There is one god on the Nikola field."
Nikola (like Veles-Volos) is the lord of the waters, both earthly and heavenly. So B. A. Uspensky notes that in the Russian North Nicholas was called "the Apostle Cloud-Terrible" (that is, a cloud that generates thunder and lightning as mentioned above). Nikola irrigates the fields with dew, "Rain on Nikolin's day is considered a particularly auspicious omen … great mercy to the peasant on Nikolin's day when the field will rain down." Being connected with rivers, lakes, seas and waters in general, Nikola is in the Russian religious consciousness "the sea god" (hence the temples of Nikola of the Sea). So in the epic about Sadko it is said: "Yes, Sadko prayed to the Lord God, like the one now Mikola is to the saint", or in the epic about Mikhail Potyk: "By the bail he gave me the Savior's image of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker." There is evidence that “according to the schismatics, the spirit rests on the waters,whom they worship not only over wells, but also in houses over vats filled with water; they throw silver money into both”. It is worth paying special attention to the fact that the Slavs have a belief that a drowning person cannot be saved, because to drown is happiness, a symbol of chosenness and it is easiest for the soul to get to the next world by water. BA Uspensky cites the old Czech expression "K Velesu za more" (to Veles - beyond the sea), referring to death and meaning, in fact, "to the other world." It is also interesting that in the Russian North, during a fire, they go around a burning house with an icon of St. Nicholas in their hands, saying: "Saint and Christ Father Nicholas, save and have mercy, extinguish the fire" (this entry was made in 1980 in the village of Pongoma, Kemsky district of Karelia). It is worth paying special attention to the fact that the Slavs have a belief that a drowning person cannot be saved, because to drown is happiness, a symbol of chosenness and it is easiest for the soul to get to the next world by water. BA Uspensky cites the old Czech expression "K Velesu za more" (to Veles - beyond the sea), referring to death and meaning, in fact, "to the other world." It is also interesting that in the Russian North, during a fire, they go around a burning house with an icon of St. Nicholas in their hands, saying: "Saint and Christ Father Nicholas, save and have mercy, extinguish the fire" (this entry was made in 1980 in the village of Pongoma, Kemsky district of Karelia). It is worth paying special attention to the fact that the Slavs have a belief that a drowning person cannot be saved, because to drown is happiness, a symbol of chosenness and it is easiest for the soul to get to the next world by water. BA Uspensky cites the old Czech expression "K Velesu za more" (to Veles - beyond the sea), referring to death and meaning, in fact, "to the other world." It is also interesting that in the Russian North, during a fire, they go around a burning house with an icon of St. Nicholas in their hands, saying: "Saint and Christ Father Nicholas, save and have mercy, extinguish the fire" (this entry was made in 1980 in the village of Pongoma, Kemsky district of Karelia). Ouspensky cites the old Bohemian expression "K Velesu za more" (to Veles - beyond the sea), which refers to death and means, in fact, "to the next world." It is also interesting that in the Russian North, during a fire, they go around a burning house with an icon of St. Nicholas in their hands, saying: "Saint and Christ Father Nicholas, save and have mercy, extinguish the fire" (this entry was made in 1980 in the village of Pongoma, Kemsky district of Karelia). Ouspensky cites the old Bohemian expression "K Velesu za more" (to Veles - beyond the sea), which refers to death and means, in fact, "to the next world." It is also interesting that in the Russian North, during a fire, they go around a burning house with an icon of St. Nicholas in their hands, saying: "Saint and Christ Father Nicholas, save and have mercy, extinguish the fire" (this entry was made in 1980 in the village of Pongoma, Kemsky district of Karelia).
Nikola (like Veles-Volos) is associated with the world of ancestors, that light. He is the Master in the kingdom of the dead. So BA Uspensky, speaking about funeral feast (memorial meal), notes the connection between the words “funeral feast, funeral service” with the slaughter of the three-year-old sacrificial bull “Mikolts”. The funeral custom, preserved in the Russian North, when the relatives of the deceased donated a cow to some poor man, while saying: “The cow of the dead man,” or gave it to a monastery, should be regarded as one of the vestiges of the funeral feast. Running a little ahead, we note that this custom, apparently, comes from the deepest antiquity, because in India, a similar rite is preserved, when, after a person's death, his relatives donated a black cow (associated with the symbolism of the night sky) to a brahmana priest, whose status is similar to that of a beggar or a monk. One of the holidays dedicated to St. Nicholas, is correlated in Russia with Great Thursday. It was to this day that the slaughter of cattle was timed, which probably dates back to the ritual sacrifice of Volos. This day is also characterized by the ritual washing of people and cattle ("Maundy Thursday"). The custom of washing the hut on this day can be correlated with the custom of washing the hut after the deceased. The salt, ashes and ashes of Maundy Thursday were preserved, and healing and fruitful power was attributed to them. It was already noted earlier that Nikola is the patron saint of cattle, but Veles-Volos is also constantly called the “cattle god”. These functions of Veles-Volos (and Nikola) correspond to the common Indo-European concept of the afterlife as a pasture where God grazes the souls of the dead. On Maundy Thursday, during Holy Week, they performed the rite of "calling out" or "calling out" the dead. On this day, early in the morning, they burned straw and called the dead (Stoglav, 1890, p.193). But, we repeat, on the same day, dedicated to Nicholas, they called Santa Claus's ritual and invited him to a meal with a request not to beat the harvest. Note that the very term "grandfather" in ancient times referred only to the ancestor, and in everyday speech it was forbidden and was replaced by the address "uncle" or "dedko".
Thus, Santa Claus reveals an undeniable connection with Veles-Volos and Nikola.
Veles-Volos in folk ideas is associated with gold, silver, with the idea of abundance, accumulation of profit. He can be represented as a "golden man, a huge grandfather." Volos-Veles is dressed in gold or red (initially) clothes, but even Danilov in 1909 pointed out the connection between red and death in folk customs, and an equal sign is put between gold and blood, gold and red in folk ideas. Note in this connection that St. Nicholas is often called "Mikola the Golden" and this is perhaps one of the few Christian saints whose iconic images were sometimes performed on a red background. Nikola, like Veles-Volos, performs the most important function of a fruitful beginning, and thus, we can say that both Veles and Nikola are associated with both death and birth. In this regard, the veneration of Nikola is expressed in special rituals of boiling and dyeing eggs. So, in Siberia, they go to the forest to cook eggs and paint them on Nikola Veshny (May 9). Eggs were also boiled on Nikolai Zimny (December 5) These eggs in the ritual are associated with the cult of the dead and fertility. Eggs were boiled in the forest or on the banks of the river of lakes on Trinity, Ascension, Peter's day, May 8 - Veshny Nikola's eve. All these days are correlated with the cult of Beles. Such a holiday as "Volosya" or "Volosye" is celebrated on Thursday of the first week of Great Lent. And although he is associated in the Christian calendar with St. Nicholas, his name testifies to more ancient ties with Veles-Volos - the Lord of the universe of the pre-Christian North Russian pantheon. These eggs in the ritual are associated with the cult of the dead and fertility. Eggs were boiled in the forest or on the banks of the river of lakes on Trinity, Ascension, Peter's day, May 8 - Veshny Nikola's eve. All these days are correlated with the cult of Beles. Such a holiday as "Volosya" or "Volosye" is celebrated on Thursday of the first week of Great Lent. And although he is associated in the Christian calendar with St. Nicholas, his name testifies to more ancient ties with Veles-Volos - the Lord of the universe of the pre-Christian North Russian pantheon. These eggs in the ritual are associated with the cult of the dead and fertility. Eggs were boiled in the forest or on the banks of the river of lakes on Trinity, Ascension, Peter's day, May 8 - Veshny Nikola's eve. All these days are correlated with the cult of Beles. Such a holiday as "Volosya" or "Volosye" is celebrated on Thursday of the first week of Great Lent. And although he is associated in the Christian calendar with St. Nicholas, his name testifies to more ancient ties with Veles-Volos - the Lord of the universe of the pre-Christian North Russian pantheon.its name testifies to more ancient ties with Veles-Volos - the Lord of the universe of the pre-Christian North Russian pantheon.its name testifies to more ancient ties with Veles-Volos - the Lord of the universe of the pre-Christian North Russian pantheon.
Here it is worth noting the important circumstance that another of the names of the pre-Christian Slavic Creator and Ruler of the Universe - Svyatovit was transformed into a principality - Svyatoslav. But the cross name Nikolai was characteristic in the early Middle Ages in Russia precisely for the princes who bore the name Svyatoslav.
Veles-Volos (like Nikola) is associated in the North Russian folk ideas with illness and healing. So, in the event of an epidemic, it was in honor of Nikola that live fire was produced by friction.
The custom of celebrating "mycolycin", which was mentioned earlier, was associated with advice, which was given in case of illness of a cattle or a person. Nikola is often mentioned in Russian conspiracies designed to treat diseases. BA Uspensky emphasizes that at the same time Nicholas appears in conspiracies surrounded by gold: “On the okyan-sea there is a golden chair, on a golden chair sits St. Nicholas, holding a gold bow, pulls a silk bowstring, puts a red-hot arrow, lessons and prize-winners will shoot "or" There is a sea of gold, a sea of gold ship in gold, St. Nicholas rides on a gold ship, opens the sea depth, raises the iron gates, and gets it from a slave God's name (name) must stick to hell in the jaw. " Unlike other holy healers, they can turn to Nicholas for any illness. But Veles-Volos is also associated with medicine and disease,some of them are called "hair". Here, both Volos and Nikola come close to the ancient Greek Apollo the destroyer and healer, also associated with gold. In the Russian folk tradition, more precisely the North Russian one, Veles-Volos is associated with spinning, weaving, since the thread appears in folk performances and ritual actions as the closest analogue of a hair. It is enough to give an example of a ritual wedding song, when a matchmaker is combing the newlywed's hair, and the boyars sing: "In the field, flax, flax the wind blows, flutters." The very name Veles-Volos already clearly indicates that the focus of a person's life force is hair, this is a gift and possession of the supreme deity of the Universe. Veles-Volos is associated with spinning, weaving, as the thread is the closest analogue of hair in folk performances and ritual actions. It is enough to give an example of a ritual wedding song, when a matchmaker is combing the newlywed's hair, and the boyars sing: "In the field, flax, flax the wind blows, flutters." The very name Veles-Volos already clearly indicates that the focus of a person's life force is hair, this is a gift and possession of the supreme deity of the Universe. Veles-Volos is associated with spinning, weaving, as the thread is the closest analogue of hair in folk performances and ritual actions. It is enough to give an example of a ritual wedding song, when a matchmaker is combing the newlywed's hair, and the boyars sing: "In the field, flax, flax the wind blows, flutters." The very name Veles-Volos already clearly indicates that the focus of a person's life force is hair, this is a gift and possession of the supreme deity of the Universe.it is the gift and possession of the supreme deity of the universe.it is the gift and possession of the supreme deity of the universe.
But in the same relationship with yarn, thread, hair, as the ancient Veles-Volos, is St. Nikolay - Nikola. This can be traced in the fact that Nikola is correlated in the popular consciousness with the patroness of spinning and yarn St. Paraskeva Friday, which replaced the ancient goddess of fate Mokosh (Makosh) in the Christian pantheon. Friday is the day of celebration of both Paraskeva and Nikola. So, for example, on the ninth Friday after Easter, i.e. on Friday, the first week of St. Peter's Lent, as Edemsky reports, pilgrims flocked to the church, which bore the double name of "St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and Paraskeva Pyatnitsa." Ninth Friday appears often in the sense of Semik, i.e. day of pardon for "pledged" (unclean) dead. It was Nikol and Paraskeva Friday who, as a rule, were depicted in carved wooden sculpture. It is worth highlightingthat in the popular perception of Paraskev Friday is "water and earth mother." Despite the fact that on the days associated with the celebration of Friday (Friday and Sunday), it was forbidden to spin, weave or twist anything at all, since it was believed that the spinners did not spin flax, but the hair of Paraskeva Friday or the Week, namely Nikola in a fairy tale plot helps to do the job set by Friday - to spin yarn in one day.
Thus, to summarize, we can also name Santa Claus, Troyan, Veles-Volos in the series. Nicholas. But the functions of Veles were performed in the Christian version not only by Nikola. Some features of the ancient Creator God Veles were transferred to other Christian saints. Such are Saints Blasius and Basil, as well as Florus and Laurus and Kozma-Demian.
The image of St. Blasius was placed in cowsheds and barns to guard livestock. On St. Blasius was hailed by the stars to increase the herd. So in the Tula province, when stars appeared in the sky, shepherds went out into the street, stood on the fleece and sang: "light up, a clear star, across the heavens to the joy of the baptized world … You light up, a clear star, to the courtyard to a slave so and so …" and asked that there be as many sheep as there were stars in the sky. It is interesting that in the Kadnikovsky district “Vlasyev Day” was celebrated for three days - December 4, 5, 6, ie. in the so-called "Nikolina svyatki", despite the fact that these days of December and especially the day on the eve of the New Year were clearly associated with Veles, B. A. Uspensky believes that "it is noteworthy that Moroz is called" Moroz Vasilievich ", and Basil and St. Blasius in the popular mind, as a rule, merge into one image. In the Velsky district - a placeespecially noted in relation to the cult of Veles, on the first Sunday after Peter's Day, the feast of the patrons of the horses Flora and Laurus was celebrated. But Peter's day itself in ancient times was associated with the cult of Veles. Sinking further into the depths of time, in search of the prototype of Santa Claus - Troyan - Veles, we come across another archaic image of East Slavic mythology - the god Rod. BA Uspensky believes that the name Rod in the Slavic pagan pantheon can be considered along with the name Volos (Veles), and correlates with the "milk" or "fiery" river, that is, the Milky Way, and the world tree.we meet another archaic image of East Slavic mythology - the god Rod. BA Uspensky believes that the name Rod in the Slavic pagan pantheon can be considered along with the name Volos (Veles), and correlates with the "milk" or "fiery" river, that is, the Milky Way, and the world tree.we meet another archaic image of East Slavic mythology - the god Rod. BA Uspensky believes that the name Rod in the Slavic pagan pantheon can be considered along with the name Volos (Veles), and correlates with the "milk" or "fiery" river, that is, the Milky Way, and the world tree.
Academician B. A, Rybakov in his book "Paganism of the Ancient Slavs" writes the following about him: "The most mysterious and least studied of all Slavic deities is Rod - a deity known only to the Eastern Slavs and not survived in ethnographic material." Speaking about the cult of the Family, he notes how extremely interesting attempts of the author of the "Word of Idols" of the XIV century. explain the origin of the Rod cult and find analogies in various world religions. So Rod is compared in this text with Osiris, Baal, Apollo and the Christian god - the creator of Hosts. What do all the gods listed above have in common:
OSIRIS - "divine first water", is associated with the cult of the night. He is a judge in the kingdom of the dead and his living embodiment was Apis - a black bull with white spots, a symbol of the night starry sky.
VAAL - the god of fertility and life, is closely associated with the cult of water, moisture. Depicted in the guise of a bull.
APOLLO is an archaic chthonic deity in which various functions, both destructive and beneficial, were combined. He was a soothsayer, a guardian of cosmic and human harmony. The image of Apollo connects heaven, earth and hell. His favorite animal was a bull.
SAVAOF - Christian God - Creator of the Universe. Speaking about the God Rod, B. A. Rybakov notes that:
Rod is the creator of the universe, Rod is the god of the sky and heavenly waters, Rod is the lord of earthly waters, Rod - associated with blood, red, Rod is the lord of the kingdom of the dead, Rod - blows life into people, Rod - associated with fire and lightning.
The cult of the Rod included the use of horns in the ritual, about which V. M. Vasilenko wrote: “it is no coincidence that the horns became a sacred object - they were the horns of a sacred beast”. He emphasized that “the silver lunars with their brilliance repeated the brilliance of the young, emerging moon” and at the same time symbolized the horns of a cow or a bull. Speaking about the pendants in the shape of a strange horned beast, V. M. Vasilenko asked "is not a lunar bull in front of us?" Until the XIV century. was preserved among the Eastern Slavs (in connection with the cult of the Rod - Troyan) the rite of kissing silver lunettes, which caused an angry tirade of Metropolitan George: "Cursed be he who kisses the month." The ritual of preparing the first dough for pancakes - a ritual meal associated with the cult of ancestors - from the snow in the light of the month with the sentence: “Month, month! Your golden horns! Look out the windowblow on the dough! " Judging by those teachings against paganism, in which Rod and his cult were mentioned, he ruled over the waters, was closely connected with the night, the moon, the bull, ruled the world of the ancestors, judged, punished and rewarded the living and the dead. KN Bestuzhev-Ryumin said about him in 1872: “As for the Family, there is nothing to look for an ancestor in it … The family is the personification of the family (gens), and the creator himself.” Like any polysemantic supreme deity, Rod embodied diametrically opposite functions. And along with the destroyer Perun, he was also the god of world order, cosmic harmony, expressed in the eternal cycle of births and deaths, in their constant balance, and also the god of happiness, fertility and wealth. In this hypostasis of his, he surprisingly closely merges with the "cattle god" Veles-Volos. B. A. Rybakov, speaking about Veles, emphasizes: “Veles was the god of wealth,cattle breeding, there may be fertility. The expression of the idea of wealth through the polysemantic word "Cattle" (equivalent to the Latin "pecunia" cattle, wealth) leads us to a very specific historical era, when the main wealth of the tribe was precisely cattle, herds of cattle, "beef", i.e. into the Bronze Age”. And further: "However, in addition to indicating cattle breeding and wealth, the name of Veles has another semantic connotation - the cult of the dead, ancestors, souls of the dead."in addition to indicating cattle breeding and wealth, the name of Veles has another semantic connotation - the cult of the dead, ancestors, souls of the dead. "in addition to indicating cattle breeding and wealth, the name of Veles has another semantic connotation - the cult of the dead, ancestors, souls of the dead."
In addition, Rod - Veles (Lord), like another chthonic deity - an analogue of Rod - Apollo, was the patron saint of singers, poets, musicians (which at that distant time was the same). It is no coincidence that the great poet Boyan was named Veles' grandson by the author of The Lay of Igor's Host. In this capacity, Veles-Volos clearly outgrows the narrow framework of the chronicle "cattle god", turning into a "god of wealth", embodied not only in "beef", "cattle", but also in the wealth of wisdom, knowledge, which has long been valued by mankind infinitely high.
The genus (like Veles-Volos) is embodied in the calendar rituals in the form of a bull-tour: this is the second (starting from New Year's Eve) half of the winter Christmastide, dedicated to animals and cattle, and representing the “Veles days”; it is the “ox holiday” celebrated by the Bulgarians on January 2; this is the presence in the Slavic Christmastide rituals of the Tour, driving a bull through the villages, the name of the masquerade horned masks "tour", the glorification of the "tour" and "turitsa" in Christmastide songs. B. A. Rybakov, noting the connection between Veles-Volos and the winter Christmastide, gives a very important, in our opinion, description of the Christmas masquerade, when people “at their same law-abiding cathedrals and a certain Tura-Satan … remember their faces and all the beauty human (created in the image and likeness of God) by some mugs or scarecrows, attached to the devil's image, are closed … ".
NN Veletskaya writes: “The evidence that in the old days an oil train was attached to a sleigh with a bull, which thus ended up at the head of the procession, deserves the closest attention. There is no reason to regard it as an ordinary sacrificial animal intended for a common village ritual meal, as it happened, for example, at the “brothers” on Nikolin's day. This is incredible for the very reason that on Shrovetide - "cheese week" - meat, as you know, is excluded from food. " Thus, we can conclude that the god Genus of teachings against paganism was embodied in the guise of a bull and was closely associated with the night, the night starry sky and the moon - "the sun of the dead." Being the ruler of "the other world", Rod is the giver of fertility and life. This is evidenced by the words of the Old Russian church teaching: “That is not a Genus,Sitting in the air throws heaps on the ground (rain, dew) and children rejoice in it. God is the Creator of everything, not Rod. " Here, the medieval preacher is indignant at the persistence of the people of the belief that the souls of the dead return to earth with rain or dew, which Rod casts from heaven. Let us recall that in the Russian folk tradition, St. Nikolai also "watered the fields with dew," and "rain on Nikolin's day is considered a particularly auspicious omen" and "great mercy to the peasant on Nikolin's day when the field will rain down." These ideas have their roots in the deepest Indo-European antiquity, as evidenced by the ancient Aryan beliefs preserved in India. So the Indians believe that "the deceased follows the path of the ancestors to the moon and returns to Earth in the form of raindrops, and then is born again as cereals, trees, animals and children."
Speaking about the large number of relics of the ancient cult of the bull among the Slavs in general, and among the Eastern Slavs, in particular, it should be noted that in folklore and mythological representations, ritual practice and pictorial motifs associated with this cult, the East Slavic and Indo-Iranian peoples have much in common. So B. A. Litvinsky notes: "In the most ancient Iranian myths, echoes of the idea of a water" bull of heaven "- a source of moisture, whose productive power is expressed in its power over the clouds passing through the heavens before rain have been preserved. Let us recall again that St. Nicholas was called "the Apostle Cloud-Terrible", and in the Russian North the pre-thundercloud was called "bull." B, A. Rybakov, analyzing the image of the god Rod, comes to the same conclusions that KN Bestuzhev-Ryumin made a century before him, who considered Rod the Creator God, the Lord of the Universe. B. A. Rybakov writes: "For medieval Russian people, the word" Rod "was an all-embracing designation of the Universe in all its vital spatial and temporal manifestations." Thus, "we should regard the ancient god Rod as the deity of the Universe."
Santa Claus, dressed in a red fur coat, silver boots, with a sparkling ice staff in his hand and in a horned hat, punishing and bestowing, accompanied by mummers in horned masks, coming to people with a tree hung with sparkling stars - is he not too similar to the ancient god Rod Vladyka of Three Faces (Rod-Veles-Troyan), who was replaced by St. Nicholas - Mikola in the process of Christianization in the north of Eastern Europe? Moreover, in the same direction there were transformations of the cult in the north of Western Europe, where also the ancient God - the Lord of the Universe (possibly Odin-Wodan) was replaced by the gray-haired old man of Sita Klaus - Saint Nicholas.
But the presence of such a character in the New Year's rites of almost all European peoples makes us look for a certain common initial mythological image rooted in Indo-European antiquity. In this search, one must take into account the fact that such an image could have developed only where the cold winter and long winter night largely determined the life of people, caused fear and forced to worship those forces that stopped the movement of rivers, froze everything around and put a person on the brink between life and death. And here it is worth remembering that in the middle of the 19th century O. Spiegel placed the most ancient ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans in the north of Eastern Europe. In the middle of the 20th century, A. Sherer came to the conclusion that the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans, that is, the ancestors of most modern peoples of Europe, was located at latitudes 50 ° N. - 69 ° N in Eastern Europe. And even after the collapse of the Indo-European community at the turn of the III - IV thousand. BC. the territory of Eastern Europe for a long time remained the habitat of various Indo-European tribes: the Germans, Celts, Italians occupied the north and northwest; Balto-Slavs - northeast, and Proto-Greeks - southeast. It should be noted that the sacred texts of ancient India "Vedas", as well as the ancient Iranian "Avesta", place the most ancient ancestral home of the Indo-Iranians or Aryans in the Polar region, in the north of Eastern Europe, that is, those lands that are today called the Russian North.that the sacred texts of ancient India "Vedas", as well as the ancient Iranian "Avesta", place the most ancient ancestral home of the Indo-Iranians or Aryans in the Polar region, in the north of Eastern Europe, that is, those lands that are today called the Russian North.that the sacred texts of ancient India "Vedas", as well as the ancient Iranian "Avesta", place the most ancient ancestral home of the Indo-Iranians or Aryans in the Polar region, in the north of Eastern Europe, that is, those lands that are today called the Russian North.
It was here, judging by the hymns of the Rig Veda and the Avesta, that common Indo-European myths were created, ceremonies and rituals, gods and goddesses of the "older generation" were born. Among them the god Varuna stands out. Like the later ancient Greek Uranus (the father of Chronos - Time and the grandfather of Dyaus - Zeus, the god of the shining ancient sky), Varuna is the personification of the night sky (from the Sanskrit var - cover, black), the god of heavenly and earthly waters, the world order. In hymns, he is glorified as the "Almighty", the supreme god and the basis of the universe. In the hymns of the Rig Veda, water is the original basis from which everything gradually developed. The primary waters carried an egg in their womb, from which the Creator of the world emerged. The epic Mahabharata says that in its original state the world was shrouded in darkness from all sides. There was a belief that everything came from the night, that she was the first product of chaos. According to the Rig Veda, "water is generated by night, chaos or air", "from the night sea waters were born, wavy, a year came out of the sea waters, the lord of days and nights …" In general myths, the creation of the earth often begins with a thunderstorm, flood or flood. By the way, Maori in New Zealand revered the "Mother of the Night", from which heaven and earth were born. On the islands of Tahiti, it was believed that originally there was a deep night, from which the gods arose who created light. Therefore, the highest gods were called "born at night." In Homer, the night appears in the form of a great goddess, whom Zeus himself gazes at with awe. So, Varuna is the personification of the night starry sky, the most ancient single god of the Indo-Europeans, the lord of all waters - both earthly, heavenly, and cosmic. The Rig Veda says in the “Hymn to the Power of the Gods”:wavy, a year came out of sea waters, the lord of days and nights …”In myths in general, the creation of the earth often begins with a thunderstorm, flood or deluge. By the way, Maori in New Zealand revered the "Mother of the Night", from which heaven and earth were born. On the islands of Tahiti, it was believed that originally there was a deep night, from which the gods arose who created light. Therefore, the highest gods were called "born at night." In Homer, the night appears in the form of a great goddess, whom Zeus himself gazes at with awe. So, Varuna is the personification of the night starry sky, the most ancient single god of the Indo-Europeans, the lord of all waters - both earthly, heavenly, and cosmic. The Rig Veda says in the “Hymn to the Power of the Gods”:wavy, a year came out of sea waters, the lord of days and nights …”In myths in general, the creation of the earth often begins with a thunderstorm, flood or deluge. By the way, Maori in New Zealand revered the "Mother of the Night", from which heaven and earth were born. On the islands of Tahiti, it was believed that originally there was a deep night, from which the gods arose who created light. Therefore, the highest gods were called "born at night." In Homer, the night appears in the form of a great goddess, whom Zeus himself gazes at with awe. So, Varuna is the personification of the night starry sky, the most ancient single god of the Indo-Europeans, the lord of all waters - earthly, heavenly, and cosmic. The Rig Veda says in the “Hymn to the Power of the Gods”:Maori in New Zealand revered the "Mother of the Night", from which heaven and earth were born. On the islands of Tahiti, it was believed that originally there was a deep night, from which the gods arose who created light. Therefore, the highest gods were called "born at night." In Homer, the night appears in the form of a great goddess, whom Zeus himself gazes at with awe. So, Varuna is the personification of the night starry sky, the most ancient single god of the Indo-Europeans, the lord of all waters - earthly, heavenly, and cosmic. The Rig Veda says in the “Hymn to the Power of the Gods”:Maori in New Zealand revered the "Mother of the Night", from which heaven and earth were born. On the islands of Tahiti, it was believed that originally there was a deep night, from which the gods arose who created light. Therefore, the highest gods were called "born at night." In Homer, the night appears in the form of a great goddess, whom Zeus himself gazes at with awe. So, Varuna is the personification of the night starry sky, the most ancient single god of the Indo-Europeans, the lord of all waters - earthly, heavenly, and cosmic. The Rig Veda says in the “Hymn to the Power of the Gods”:the oldest single god of the Indo-Europeans, the lord of all waters - both earthly and heavenly and cosmic. The Rig Veda says in the “Hymn to the Power of the Gods”:the oldest single god of the Indo-Europeans, the lord of all waters - both earthly and heavenly and cosmic. The Rig Veda says in the “Hymn to the Power of the Gods”:
“And this land is the king of Varuna, And it's a high sky whose limits are far away
And these two oceans are two sides of his womb, And in this little water Varuna is hidden, And who will slip beyond the sky
Not free from King Varuna.
The sky rangers approaching steadily.
Thousand-eyed, they look across the ground."
In this hymn, Varuna appears as the embodiment of the unlimited power of the gods. His spies are stars who look out from the sky for Varuna the affairs of people on earth. The Hymn to Varuna says:
“Generations have been wise with power, Who strengthened both worlds separately, no matter how huge they are, He pushed the firmament up high, With a double swing, the luminary pushed and spread the earth."
It is said about him in the ancient hymn: "Varuna the king blasts the roads of the Sun and rivers towards the sea of water." In the text "Brahman" "The Tale of Shunahshep"), the numerous functions of Varuna are listed:
“Your kingdom, and power, and zeal, Varuna, Not a single bird can reach in its flight, Not to these ever-flowing waters
Nor the mountains, whose strength the wind subdues.
Bright in thought, King Varuna holds
The crown of a tree in a bottomless space;
The roots are up, and the branches look down, May their rays penetrate into our hearts.
King Varuna made a wide way, According to which Surya (Sun) moves in the sky.
And he gave him legs without legs, Varuna, averting evil from the heart."
The same legend says:
“A golden cloak will be thrown over Varuna
An expensive dress is his attire, His spies are sitting around,”
Let us remember that Veles-Volos in the North Russian tradition can be represented as a “golden man, grandfather of great height”.
We emphasize once again that in the ancient Aryan hymn "Varuna, the king treads the roads of the Sun and rivers towards the sea of abundant water." It was Varuna who created “a wide path along which the sun moves in the sky. And he gave him legs without legs, Varuna, who averts evil from the heart. " Note that it is from December 22, from the winter solstice, that the day begins to arrive in the north, so it is from this time that the roads of the Sun really rush. Varuna is the guardian of truth and justice, autocrat, king over the world, lord of the world of ancestors, giver of fertility, Prajapati is the father of yarn, i.e. the master of destinies, the patron saint of poets and priests (which is one and the same), the Lord of the moon - the habitat of the ancestors He is the god of magical conspiracies, has wonderful witchcraft power and is embodied in the guise of a bull or a horned month. Vedic god Varuna,which many researchers consider the most ancient single god of Indo-Europeans - this is the night, the night starry sky, the moon, water, destructive and creative elements and the bull. It is Varuna who holds in his hands the cosmic tree of the Universe, the roots of which are directed upwards and the branches downward. Stars hang on the branches of this tree, turning to which the ancient singer asked: "Let their rays penetrate into our heart!" The analogies with the Christmas tree are striking. It is worth remembering that the wonderful tree "karcolist", which is located in the sacred space of "the other world" - "Buyan Island" and also grows "upside down, downward branches", in Russian folk conspiracies is closely connected with St. Nikolay (Mikola) or Beles.whose roots are directed upwards and branches downward. Stars hang on the branches of this tree, turning to which the ancient singer asked: "Let their rays penetrate into our heart!" The analogies with the Christmas tree are striking. It is worth remembering that the wonderful tree "karcolist", which is located in the sacred space of "the other world" - "Buyan Island" and also grows "upside down, downward branches", in Russian folk conspiracies is closely connected with St. Nikolay (Mikola) or Beles.whose roots are directed upwards and branches downward. Stars hang on the branches of this tree, turning to which the ancient singer asked: "Let their rays penetrate into our heart!" The analogies with the Christmas tree are striking. It is worth remembering that the wonderful tree "karcolist", which is located in the sacred space of "the other world" - "Buyan Island" and also grows "upside down, downward branches", in Russian folk conspiracies is closely connected with St. Nikolay (Mikola) or Beles.in Russian folk conspiracies is closely associated with St. Nikolay (Mikola) or Beles.in Russian folk conspiracies is closely associated with St. Nikolay (Mikola) or Beles.
Varuna (like Nikola and Bele) sends diseases and brings deliverance from them. Referring to Varuna, he is called "the best doctor", who owns all medicinal means. So the Atharva Veda says:
“You are the best of medicinal means, The fairest of plants
Like Soma (Moon - S. Zh.) - master at night, Like Varuna among the gods."
It should be noted that Soma is not only the Moon, but also a ritual intoxicating drink - a mixture of beer, honey and milk. And it is Varuna, paired with Mithra - the god of the daytime sky and the social organization of people - “contracts” are associated in the hymns of the Rig Veda with this sacred drink of the ancient Aryans. Addressing them, they said:
“May this catfish be the most blessed, For Mitra, for Varuna, (he is) a drinking party
God, (their) participant among the gods.
May everyone enjoy it
The gods are unanimous today!"
Another hymn dedicated to Mithra Varuna says:
“We squeezed it out - come - with stones.
Mixed with milk these intoxicating, These are intoxicating catfish juices.
O two kings touching the sky
Come to us, here!"
Returning again to the Slavic Nicholas, who replaced the ancient Veles-Volos, an analogue of Varuna, we note that in the Russian North there was a custom to honor Nicholas with beer at the brothers. It was Nicholas who was called the "beer god" in Russia. Witnesses noted that drunkenness on Nikolin's day was widespread and ritualistic. "They (the Russians) consider it indecent and indecent not to get drunk on this day with wine or vodka." Hence the verb "nikolit" in the meaning of "to drink, walk, get drunk", nikolitsya - "get drunk, celebrating Nikolin's day." BA Uspensky notes that "participation in fraternities generally had a pronounced religious character: it is significant that in pre-Petrine Russia, excommunication deprived both of the right to enter the church, and equally the right to be present at fraternities and feasts."
Varuna is the patron saint of poetry and poets, obligatory participants in ritual "drinking". He is called the "poet of heaven" in the hymns. Under the leadership of Varuna, the poet "would like to go around difficulties like pits", he praises God in hymns and asks him: "May the thread not break in me, weaving the work!"
It makes sense to recall that the legendary singer Boyan (Prophetic) in the "Lay of Igor's Campaign" is called "Veles's grandson", and another analogue of Varuna - the Scandinavian god Odin (Wodan) was the patron saint of poets and nailed himself with a spear to the cosmic tree on which hung for nine days, after which he drank the sacred honey of poetry and comprehended the runes - the focus of higher knowledge. Note that Veles (Nikola) in the Russian tradition, like the Scandinavian Odin (Wodan), is associated with honey. In Russia, bees were called "Nikolina's mercy", meaning by Nicholas the Supreme God of Heaven, and the so-called "Honey Savior" is entirely connected with the cult of Nikola (Volos-Veles).
In the hymns of the Rig Veda, images of Heaven and God the Creator are also associated with honey. So the hymn "To All Gods" says:
“Honey (blow) the winds to the pious, Rivers flow honey
Let the plants be honey for us!
Let Heaven be honey - our father!"
Speaking about the ancient god of night and water, Varuna, it should be emphasized that he is paired with the deity of day and fire Mithra “carry three earths and three heavens. Inside they have three vows during the sacrifice … They support the three bright heavenly spaces , Abureikhan Biruni in the 10th century, speaking about the beliefs of the Indians, noted that in their view, “abstract matter is in the middle between matter and a higher (world) of spiritual and divine ideas: three primary forces are contained in abstract matter in potency. Thus, abstract matter, together with everything that it contains, is like a bridge (going) from top to bottom.
The first force (Brahma, Prajapati) is nature in full bloom of its activity; creation. Everything that arises under the influence of the second force is called Narayana - nature at the moment when its activity reaches its limit; preservation. Everything that arises through the third force is called Mahadeva and Shankara, but its most famous name is Rudra: destruction. “However, all this was preceded by only one source, and therefore the Indians combine in it three categories of beings, without distinguishing one of them from the other. They call this (single) source Vishnu … Here they follow the same path as Christians, since the latter distinguish from each other the names of (three) persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and (at the same time) their essence is one " … It is worth noting here that Creation in the Russian popular consciousness is associated with spring (youth),preservation with summer (maturity), and destruction with winter (old age) death. Thus, in ancient times, a model of the year was built, consisting of three seasons of four months each: November-February - winter; March-June - spring; July-October - summer. But B. Ya. Volchok speaks of the presence of a specifically Indian model of the year, consisting of three four months (catur-masya). Such a three-season year does not occur in countries adjacent to India. In the Rig Veda, three Ribhu are considered the personification of three seasons - the patron gods of four months. In "Shatapathabrahman", for example, it is reported: sacrifices should be repeated regularly, every four months (caturmasya) honor of Indra (god of thunder), Savitri (deity of light - the female hypostasis of the life-giving power of the sun, savior), Varuna (god of waters). Three hubs of the "wheel of time" are probablysymbolized three four-month seasons. The same structure of the year is reflected in mythology: the sun and some of the higher gods are characterized as "three-headed" or "three-faced" beings. Varuna in this system acts as the patron saint of the four-month rainy season. But this is during the Indian period of the life of the Aryans. And during their stay in the Eastern European circumpolar ancestral home, Varuna closed the year. He is the patron saint of the four-month season of heavenly waters (rain and snowfall), i.e. Santa Claus. Varuna - Night, Winter, night starry Sky, i.e. the beginning of all beginnings. All three hypostases of the year and Time in general begin with him and rest in him. From the same it is necessary to proceed, probably, explaining the name of the Slavic god of winter Troyan (analogue of Varuna, Rod, Veles), and not only in connection with the three phases of the moon. This conclusion is confirmed by the apocrypha (XII or XIII century.) "The Virgin's Walking Through the Torments", which says: "From that stone, arranging Troyan, Khors, Veles, Perun", which can be understood as "from that stone they created Troyan - the Golden Lord of Lightning", which is quite consistent with the image of the common Indo-European Ruler of the Universe Varuna. Medieval authors, speaking of the Pomor Slavs, noted that “the most important god in the Pomor region was Triglav, whose idols were located in Stetin, Volyn and other places … It was an idol with three heads on one body. A golden band covered his eyes and mouth. It stood on the highest of the three hills on which the city was built (Stetin - S. Zh.), In the main of the four sacred buildings. Like Svyatovit of Arkon, Triglav was a warrior-rider, one of the attributes of his sanctuary was a huge black horse, which, like Svyatovit's horse, was considered so sacred,that no one dared to sit on it. " Thus, it is once again confirmed that it is Varuna who is the God of Winter and the prototype of the Sort - Troyan - Veles - Santa Claus, who were completely or partially replaced in the Christian period by St. Nikolay. Note that it is Nikola in the North Russian tradition that combines all three persons of the Trinity. So B. A. Uspensky notes that in the old conspiracy "The Lord, the Mother of God and Nikola agree with the verb in the singular!" Moreover, even in 1975, an expedition led by N. I. Tolstoy in Polesie to the question "Who is Mikola?" (referring to a spiritual verse) the answer was received: "Mikola himself was the Lord." In the manuscripts of the XVI - XVII centuries. foreigners directly call Nikola “Russian God”. Moreover, God does not mean Jesus Christ, but the Creator Almighty.that it was Varuna - the God of Winter and the prototype of the Sort - Troyan - Veles - Santa Claus, who were completely or partially replaced in the Christian period by St. Nikolay. Note that it is Nikola in the North Russian tradition that combines all three persons of the Trinity. So B. A. Uspensky notes that in the old conspiracy "The Lord, the Mother of God and Nikola agree with the verb in the singular!" Moreover, even in 1975, an expedition led by N. I. Tolstoy in Polesie to the question "Who is Mikola?" (referring to a spiritual verse) the answer was received: "Mikola himself was the Lord." In the manuscripts of the XVI - XVII centuries. foreigners directly call Nikola “Russian God”. Moreover, God does not mean Jesus Christ, but the Creator Almighty.that it was Varuna - the God of Winter and the prototype of the Sort - Troyan - Veles - Santa Claus, who were completely or partially replaced in the Christian period by St. Nikolay. Note that it is Nikola in the North Russian tradition that combines all three persons of the Trinity. So B. A. Uspensky notes that in the old conspiracy "The Lord, the Mother of God and Nikola agree with the verb in the singular!" Moreover, even in 1975, an expedition led by N. I. Tolstoy in Polesie to the question "Who is Mikola?" (referring to a spiritual verse) the answer was received: "Mikola himself was the Lord." In the manuscripts of the XVI - XVII centuries. foreigners directly call Nikola “Russian God”. Moreover, God does not mean Jesus Christ, but the Creator Almighty.that it is Nikola in the North Russian tradition that combines all three persons of the Trinity. So B. A. Uspensky notes that in the old conspiracy "The Lord, the Mother of God and Nikola agree with the verb in the singular!" Moreover, even in 1975, an expedition led by N. I. Tolstoy in Polesie to the question "Who is Mikola?" (referring to a spiritual verse) the answer was received: "Mikola himself was the Lord." In the manuscripts of the XVI - XVII centuries. foreigners directly call Nikola “Russian God”. Moreover, God does not mean Jesus Christ, but the Creator Almighty.that it is Nikola in the North Russian tradition that combines all three persons of the Trinity. So B. A. Uspensky notes that in the old conspiracy "The Lord, the Mother of God and Nikola agree with the verb in the singular!" Moreover, even in 1975, an expedition led by N. I. Tolstoy in Polesie to the question "Who is Mikola?" (referring to a spiritual verse) the answer was received: "Mikola himself was the Lord." In the manuscripts of the XVI - XVII centuries. foreigners directly call Nikola “Russian God”. Moreover, God does not mean Jesus Christ, but the Creator Almighty. Tolstoy in Polesie to the question "Who is Mikola?" (referring to a spiritual verse) the answer was received: "Mikola himself was the Lord." In the manuscripts of the XVI - XVII centuries. foreigners directly call Nikola “Russian God”. Moreover, God does not mean Jesus Christ, but the Creator Almighty. Tolstoy in Polesie to the question "Who is Mikola?" (referring to a spiritual verse) the answer was received: "Mikola himself was the Lord." In the manuscripts of the XVI - XVII centuries. foreigners directly call Nikola “Russian God”. Moreover, God does not mean Jesus Christ, but the Creator Almighty.
The overwhelming majority of researchers believe that such first pairs of deities as Varuna - Mitra in the ancient Aryan tradition, or Ahura Mazda - Mitra in the ancient Iranian tradition, embodied the ideas of the ancient Indo-Europeans about the relationship between the laws of the cosmos and the social laws of human collectives. Indeed, if Varuna and Ahura Mazda (which means
literally "Lord the Wise") embodied the night starry sky, water, the moon and cosmic law, then Mithra in both ancient Indian and ancient Iranian traditions is the god of friendship, sun, fire, contract, social organization of society. But the supremacy of Varuna and Ahura Mazda is repeatedly emphasized by ancient texts. So in the Avesta, the sacred book of the ancient Iranians, Mithra, referring to Ahura Mazda, calls him "heavenly, holy, Creator of the Pure World." Varuna (and Ahura Mazlu) is glorified precisely as the Supreme God of the Universe. At the same time, Ahura Mazda says about Mithra: "I created him - as worthy of veneration and worship as myself." Here Mithra is spoken of as the Sun - the Creation of Ahura Mazda. Let us remember that in Rigvid Varuna “torments the roads of the Sun”, that he “pushed and spread the earth with a two-fold sweep of the sun”, “created a wide path,along which the sun moves in the sky, and he gave him legs without legs (ie, the sun - S. Zh.). It is worth paying special attention, in connection with the above, to the fact noted by A. S. Famintsyn in his "Deities of the Ancient Slavs" that "according to the idea of the Russian settlers, the sun is a fire supported by Grandfather, by whose name, therefore, in this case it should be understood the supreme heavenly god. " These ancient primordial mythological representations of the ancient Indo-Europeans were formed precisely on their circumpolar Eastern European ancestral home, where a long winter night, long cold weather and an abundance of snow provided all the prerequisites for the primordial deity to be perceived precisely as the Lord of the night, snow, cold, aurora - Varuna or Ded (Frost).in connection with the above, to the fact noted by A. S. Famintsyn in his "Deities of the Ancient Slavs" that "according to the idea of the Russian settlers, the sun is a fire supported by Grandfather, by whose name, therefore, in this case, one should understand the supreme heavenly god." These ancient primordial mythological representations of the ancient Indo-Europeans were formed precisely on their circumpolar Eastern European ancestral home, where a long winter night, long cold weather and an abundance of snow provided all the prerequisites for the primordial deity to be perceived precisely as the Lord of the night, snow, cold, aurora - Varuna or Ded (Frost).in connection with the above, to the fact noted by A. S. Famintsyn in his "Deities of the Ancient Slavs" that "according to the idea of the Russian settlers, the sun is a fire supported by Grandfather, by whose name, therefore, in this case, one should understand the supreme heavenly god." These ancient primordial mythological representations of the ancient Indo-Europeans were formed precisely on their circumpolar Eastern European ancestral home, where a long winter night, long cold weather and an abundance of snow provided all the prerequisites for the primordial deity to be perceived precisely as the Lord of the night, snow, cold, aurora - Varuna or Ded (Frost).in this case, one should understand the supreme heavenly god. " These ancient primordial mythological representations of the ancient Indo-Europeans were formed precisely on their circumpolar Eastern European ancestral home, where a long winter night, long cold weather and an abundance of snow provided all the prerequisites for the primordial deity to be perceived precisely as the Lord of the night, snow, cold, aurora - Varuna or Ded (Frost).in this case, one should understand the supreme heavenly god. " These ancient primordial mythological representations of the ancient Indo-Europeans were formed precisely on their circumpolar Eastern European ancestral home, where a long winter night, long cold weather and an abundance of snow provided all the prerequisites for the primordial deity to be perceived precisely as the Lord of the night, snow, cold, aurora - Varuna or Ded (Frost).
In connection with the image of Santa Claus and his historical roots, the ancient Iranian double of Varuna - Ahura Mazda, whose image, judging by the texts of the Avesta, was formed in antiquity in the Eastern European Circumpolar, is of exceptional interest to us. Like Varuna, Ahura Mazda (the Wise Lord) organizes the cosmos, fights against evil, chaos, creates the world with the effort of thought, he is the patron saint of singers and poets (priests) and the Lord of Waters. The ancient Avestan Iranians combined the image of God - the Creator (Ahura Mazda) with the sacred waters of the Ardvi River or Ardvisura Anahita (which literally means "double mighty immaculate water"). Sveta. This pristine ridge, from which the sacred river of the Aryans flowed,rushing to the Milk (White) Sea or (as the ancient Iranians called it) the Vourokash Sea, which means “having convenient bays”, was called the mountains of Meru (Indian tradition) or Khara (Iranian). They were spoken of as stretching from west to east and dividing rivers into flowing to the north, into the White Milk Sea, and flowing to the south, into the warm Caspian Sea. For almost 150 years, the question of the location of these mountains remained open. In 1986 S. V. Zharnikova, it was proved that the sacred northern mountains of the Indo-Europeans, the Meru and Khara of the Indo-Iranians, the Ripean and Hyperborean mountains of the ancient Greeks and the Alaun mountains of Ptolemy (II century A. D.) are the heights of the north of Eastern Europe, consisting of the mountains of the Kola Peninsula, the mountains of Karelia, Northern Uvaly and Sub-polar sublatitudes of the south of the Urals. Moreover, the main place in this arc of hills belongs to the Northern Uvals,which the ancient Aryans did not accidentally call "the primeval ridge in the divine kingdom of light." The outstanding Soviet scientist Yu. A. Meshcheryakov called the Northern Uvaly "an anomaly of the Russian Plain" and, saying that the higher elevations (Central Russian, Volga) give them the role of the main watershed boundary, he made the following conclusion: “The Central Russian and Volga Uplands arose in the newest (Neogene - Quaternary) time, when the Northern Uvaly already existed and were the watershed of the basin of the northern and southern seas. And even more than that, during the Carboniferous period, when the ancient sea splashed on the site of the future Ural Mountains, "Northern Uvaly were already mountains." As for the "divine kingdom of light", in which this "primordial ridge" was located, it is appropriate here to refer to the texts of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. It says here that on Suvarna (in the north) “the asura Agni is constantly shining” (that is, the fire is constantly shining), that the sun rises here every six months, and in general the north is called “Golden Land” and “Beautifully colored”. Academician BL Smirnov believed that all this "is a very important evidence of the familiarity of the ancient Indians with the polar countries." The following lines of the epic testify to the love and memory of this northern land:
“Above evil is that country where bliss is eaten.
She is ascended by force, and therefore is called Ascended …
This is the ascended Golden Bucket road;
It is believed to be midway between east and west …
In this vast northern region …
A person who is insensitive and lawless does not live.
There are seven rishis and the goddess Arundeati;
Here is the constellation Swati, here they remember its greatness;
Here, descending to the sacrifice, the Pole Star was strengthened by the Great Ancestor;
Here the constellations, the moon and the sun are constantly circling;
Here live ten apsaras named (Blistavitsy) The Emergence of the Radiance;
Here the zenith is Vishnupada, the trail left by the striding Vishnu;
Walking through three worlds, he reached the northern, ascended country …
Northern Territory, the best … for these and other properties
He is reputed to be "Ascended", for he rises in all respects …"
Here is the Golden Dipper or Seven Rishis - the constellation Ursa Major; Arundhati and Swati - constellations of high northern latitudes - Cassiopeia and Arcturus from the constellation Auriga or Medusa from the constellation Perseus; ten apsaras or Blistavitsy - Polar lights; Vishnupada - North Pole. Academician BL Smirnov wrote, in connection with this text of the Mahabharata, that: “Of great historical interest for solving the question of the homeland of the Aryans are the further messages of the text that the constellations closest to the North Star describe circles, the center of which is the North Star. The belt of non-setting constellations is definitely indicated: Ursa Major, Cassiopeia and even those located at even lower degrees of northern latitude: the constellations Bootes and, perhaps, Perseus. These constellations do not go beyond the horizon, that is, they describe a circle that can be traced almost all over the course of one night,especially in winter, only in countries located not further south of approximately 55e-56 ° N. The text speaks about the dangers of Arctic travel and points out directly; as soon as a person penetrates further north, he dies. " The Mahabharata is echoed by the ancient Iranian Avesta, a sister and the same age as the Rig Veda. So in the hymn dedicated to the holy Aryan river Ardvisur ("Ardvisur-Yasht") the following request sounds:
"Grant me such luck, Kind, powerful Ardvisura Anahita, To reach the regal Hvarno, Who shines among Vorukash, Which is involved in the Aryan countries, Present and future …"
Let us remind that in the Iranian tradition Vorukash or Vurukash, which means “having convenient bays”, was called the “Milk” (White) sea of the Indo-Aryans. It is into it that the sacred river Ardvisura flows, and the “regal Hvarno” is the northern lights that sparkle over the White Sea. In "Ardvisur-Yashta" the sacred double river of the Aryans is glorified with the following words:
“Pray to the great, glorious, Equal to
To all waters taken together
Flowing on the ground
Pray current powerfully
From the height of Hukarya
To the Vorukash sea.
From edge to edge worries
All the Vorukash sea.
And the waves in the middle
Uplifting when
They pour in water
Falling into it, Ardvi
With all a thousand ducts
And a thousand lakes”.
The prominent Bulgarian linguist V. Georgiev wrote: “Geographic names are the most important source for determining the ethnogenesis of a given area. In terms of sustainability, these names are not the same: the most stable are the names of rivers, especially the more significant ones. " He emphasized the Indo-European (and not Finno-Ugric) origin of such river names as Dvina, Istra, Uda, Viliya, etc. So, the name of Dvina arose before the turn of the 4th - 3rd millennium BC. e., when the Indo-European community disintegrated into various dialect zones. Note that at the beginning of the 16th century Sigismund Herberstein wrote that: “The region and the Dvina river received the name of Dvina from the confluence of the Yuga and Sukhona rivers, because Dvina in Russian means“two”or“two,”Similar information was reported by one 16th century author Alexandre Gvanini in his Description of European Sarmatia. He wrote:“The Dvinskaya province is located in the very North and was named after the Dvina River flowing (here). The river itself received the name Dvina from the junction of two rivers - the South and the Sukhona. For Dvina among Russians means "double" (river). This river, after the confluence of the South and the Sukhona, having received the name of Dvina, having passed a hundred miles, flows into the Northern Ocean with six mouths. So, the Northern Dvina is a double river. Let's remember that this is exactly how the name of the sacred northern river Ardvisura Anahita - “double water” sounds. In connection with the above-cited excerpt from "Ardvisur-Yashta", let's look at the Northern Dvina. So, “The Northern Dvina, which flows into the White Sea, is the largest artery in the North of the European part of the USSR. It is formed from the confluence of the rivers Yuga and Sukhona and flows into the Dvina Bay … The length of the river is 750 km. Its catchment area is 360,750 km2. The river network of the Northern Dvina includes about 600 rivers and streams”. It carries 110 billion m3 of water, which would be two Dnieper and three Don. Half of the waters of the White Sea are the waters brought by the Northern Dvina. During the drift of ice on the Northern Dvina, its waters are so rapidly directed to the White Sea that indeed "all the shores are in agitation, the whole middle of it rises in waves."
It is this river that the creator Ahura Mazda proposes in the hymn to praise Zarathushtra, saying: “It was I, Ahura Mazda, who produced them (that is, the waters of Ardvi): so that the house and village, district and country flourished, to protect and protect them, defend and protect them ". It is Ardvi, the double river at its source, that the ancestors of the Aryans, the sun-like Yama, and the first earthly king Paradata, whose name meant "set in front", "created to be the first", sacrifice to the double river at its source. The Avesta speaks of frost, snow and hail, feeding the waters of Ardvisur.
Ahura Mazda himself (the Wise Creator) asks:
Come down, come back to us again, O Ardvisura Anahita, From the stars to the earth created by Ahura, May the brave rulers, the rulers of the country, Let the sons of the rulers praise you.
Let the powerful riders
Asking you to own fast horses
And about increasing your glory, Let the priests in their prayers
[…] ask you for knowledge, for the achievement of holiness, About his victorious superiority:
Let the zealous girls ready for marriage […]
They ask you […] to succeed
And about the courageous master of the house, Let the young wives, let the women in labor
They ask you for an easy birth:
You, you give it all to them
For all this is in your power, O Ardvisura Anahita!"
And finally, in the same "Ardvisur-Yashte" there is a description of what Ardvi looks like:
“Anyone can see her, Ardvisur Anahit, In the form of a beautiful girl
Strong, slim, Straight, belted high, Noble family, eminent, In a smart cloak
With abundant folds, gold-weaved …
She flaunts with earrings
Tetrahedral, gold-forged;
The necklace was wrapped around the noble
Ardvisura Anahita
A lovely neck.
She tightens her camp, So that her wondrous breasts rise, To attract people's views to her.
The brow has crowned its
Ardvisura Anahita with a beautiful hoop, Hundreds of gems decorated, gold-forged, Octopal, like a chariot, Twisted with ribbons, wonderful, With a ring in the middle, skillfully crafted.
She is in a beaver coat, Ardvisura Anahita, Out of three hundred beavers […]
Done in due time;
Furs blind the eyes of the beholder
Glitter gold and silver."
It was this river - the virgin that the prophet Zarathushtra worshiped at its beginning, and was instructed in this worship by the Creator of the Universe Ahura Mazda (analogue of the ancient Indian Vedic god Varuna - the night starry sky, waters and the cosmic law of "mouth" or "art"). In the Russian tradition, Varuna - Akhura Mazda is Rod (Troyan - Veles - Svyatovit - St. Nicholas), and in his winter hypostasis - Ded Moroz. But, we note, even in the pre-Zoroastrian and ancient Persian supreme triad, along with Ahura Mazda and Mithra, the goddess of the waters Ardvisura Anahita entered. Winter is the kingdom of the lord of the night sky, cosmic law, of all waters in the Universe - Varuna (Santa Claus). Mithra - the god of the day, sun, fire recedes into the background. And next to Frost is the goddess of frozen waters, their embodiment Ardvisur. She really is a Snow Maiden, because Dvina is flowing waters, ice, snow, and fog,and frost - water in all its forms, covered with snow.
Thus, we came to the conclusion that our distant ancestors many millennia ago, when they were not only our ancestors, but also the progenitors of most of the modern peoples of Europe, worshiped God the Creator of the Universe - the night starry sky at the beginning of their sacred northern river carrying water to the White (Milky) Sea, "having convenient bays." Millennia have passed. The formidable god of the night sky turned into Santa Claus (Santa Claus), the sacred goddess of waters into the Snow Maiden. But everything also carries its waters to the White Sea, the river, which we, after many thousands of years, continue to call Dvina - double (because "dvi" - two in the language of the ancient Aryans - Sanskrit). And at the beginning of the Northern Dvina, at the confluence of the two rivers that form it, the Sukhona and the South, there is the ancient Russian city of Veliky Ustyug. It is he who can and should rightfully be called the "Motherland of Santa Claus",since it was here in ancient times that this image was formed, sung in the hymns of the Rig Veda and the Avesta, the most ancient cultural monuments of all Indo-European peoples.
Concluding our analysis of the historical roots of the image of Santa Claus in the Russian North, we can state that its origins go back to the gray-haired Indo-European antiquity and the addition of this image took place in the northern latitudes of Eastern Europe no later than the 5th - 4th millennium BC. e.
In this regard, the traditional appearance of Santa Claus (according to ancient mythology and color symbolism) suggests:
1. Thick silver hair and the same beard - a symbol of power, sacred knowledge, magic, happiness, wealth, prosperity;
2. White three-fingered gloves or mittens, embroidered with silver, with the sign of the "Segner wheel" - a symbol of the universal law and grace. Such gloves (mittens) are a sign of purity and holiness of everything that Santa Claus gives from his hands. (Three-fingered is a symbol of belonging to the highest divine beginning since the Neolithic, i.e. V - III millennium BC. The petroglyphs of the White Sea and Onega Lake are indicative in this respect, where images of three-fingered people are carved on the rocks in scenes with ritual, sacred character).
3. He is dressed in a long white linen shirt, decorated with white or silver geometric ornaments - a symbol of purity and belonging to the world of gods and ancestors.
4. A red or gold cloak is worn on top of the shirt (red is preferable, as more archaic than gold, a symbol of connection with the world of ancestors - "that light") or a red coat, embroidered with silver eight-pointed stars and trimmed with swan down. In the Indo-European tradition (and in the North Russian one too), the goose and the swan are symbols of heaven, higher knowledge, the soul that has comprehended the truth, the soul of the deceased and the union of the three elements - earth, water and sky).
5. On the head of Santa Claus there is a red hat, embroidered with silver and pearls. A fringe of swan down ends above the forehead with stylized horns. To the hat on the sides, silver lunars can be attached.
A necklace made of the same moon can adorn the chest (over a fur coat and shirt). The belt is white with a red ornament (a symbol of the connection between ancestors and descendants).
6. Boots of Santa Claus are red, sewn with silver or silver, sewn with gold threads.
7. The crystal staff of Santa Claus ends with a lunar with bells or a silver bull's head (symbols of power over water, the moon and the world of ancestors - givers of fertility and happiness to the living).
This color scheme is associated with the most ancient Indo-European color symbolism, where white is silver a symbol of the moon, light, holiness, north, water, sacred knowledge, purity.
Red is a symbol of vitality, creativity, death and reincarnation, fire, gold, "the other world." Crystal is a symbol of frozen waters, ice. Note again that Santa Claus comes to the human world after the winter solstice (December 22), when, according to ancient Vedic mythology, the Night of the Gods ended and the Day of the Gods began - the construction of a new time cycle. Being the messenger of "Morning of the Gods", Santa Claus administers divine judgment, sums up the results of the past year, gives everyone what they deserve; hence the punishments and rewards (gifts).
Since the image of Santa Claus originates in the ancient mythological Varuna - the god of the night sky and waters, the source of the image of the Snow Maiden, who constantly accompanies Santa Claus, must be sought near Varuna. Apparently, this is a mythologized image of the winter state of the waters of the sacred Aryan river Dvina (Ardvi of the ancient Iranians). Thus, the Snow Maiden is the embodiment of frozen waters in general and the waters of the Northern Dvina in particular. She is dressed only in white clothes. No other color is allowed in traditional symbols. The ornament is made only with silver threads. The headpiece is an eight-pointed wreath embroidered with silver and pearls.