Feasts in Russia were different - honest, in honor of someone, worldly, if the whole community, which was called "the world", was walking, tables were laid for the whole world. There were also feasts of Soused, when those who lived in the neighborhood, fraternal, wedding, memorial and others, for all occasions, sat at the table.
From time immemorial, honey was the basis of many traditional Slavic "feasts and drinks", in the preparation of which our ancestors achieved great art. The real decoration of the table was "nutritious honey", a blood-hot, intoxicating drink prepared in many ways. The fairy-tale saying “I was there, I drank honey-beer” is not just a clever set of words, but a remembrance of feasts called feasts.
Princely honey
The main drink in the old days at feasts was honey, prepared by masters (medical supplies and mead brewers) in many ways. Among others, the most delicious, useful and expensive was the set honey, prepared by mixing two parts of honey and one part of the juice of berries, usually lingonberries, raspberries or cherries. No
water or hop was added to the resulting mixture. Fermentation proceeded only in a natural way, which saved the final product from the release of fusel oils and heavy alcohols, giving the nasty hangover state the day after the fun.
Initially, the honey mixture fermented in open vats, and when it began to "play", it was filtered, poured several times from container to container, and then sealed in oak tarred barrels, which were buried in the ground. The minimum aging period for the put honey was eight years, but that was too soon. Usually, barrels were dug out only after 15-20 years, and for special occasions honey was kept in the ground for half a century. In fact, the honeys prepared by their grandfathers were drunk by their grandchildren, leaving their descendants barrels of homemade honey. Now, having read in some legend that the prince treated the guests with "hundred-year-old honey", we can more fully imagine the scope of the festivities and the generosity of the owner of the house.
Grape wines were brought to Russia even before the time of Rurik, but they had to be transported from the Greek lands, they cost a lot. They drank them only at the prince's court, but there they were not going to give up honey in favor of the Rhine and Greek Malvasia. The stocks of such "drinks" at the prince's court were always very impressive. According to the inventory, dating back to 1146, in the cellars of Prince Svyatoslav Olgovich there were kept "500 Berkovtsy honey", and each Berkovtsian is a barrel or korchaga of 150 liters.
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Commoner drinks
A wonderful drink, put honey, cost a lot, it took a long time to wait for its readiness, and therefore, only a select few from the category of the mighty of this world could afford it. Less noble people, who also wanted to wet their throats with something like that, had to simplify the technologists by adding hops to the mixture of honey and berry juices to speed up the fermentation process. This reduced the aging period from 3 to 10 years and increased the strength of the drink. If the put honey had from 10 to 16 degrees, then "intoxicated honey" was stronger, however, the risk of suffering from a hangover, having drunk it at the feast, increased sharply.
Boiled honey made using beer technology was quite cheap. It could be drunk already three weeks after preparation, but at feasts, boiled honey was served only on the lower tables, where the "young brothers" were treated to - poor and casual people who were treated to the bounty of the owner. And now Pushkin's phrase "And I was there, drinking honey beer, flowing down my mustache, but I didn't get into my mouth" reveals to us what the poet wanted to tell us, who presented himself as a random wanderer at an ancient feast, who was allowed to and there he had only to moisten his mustache with cheap drink. But he saw the feast with his own eyes and heard the story of the adventures there, which he then told us. This is how he chose for himself an image - a beggar, a wandering poet-storyteller, surrounded by a cup of honor at the feast of life, but not grumbling, but grateful and for a little mercy.
Trace of gray antiquity
Of all the traditions of ancient feasts, the brothers lived the longest in Russian life. Initially, these were commemorative feasts that were carried on from pagan times, when memorial rituals, called funeral feasts, were performed on the burial mounds, during which they organized military competitions, fought, sang songs, danced and feasted.
In later centuries, the brothers got along without dancing and revelry, and beer became the main drink of these memorial feasts. The organization of the brotherhood was decided by the whole community or a circle of old friends. For example, several princes, who met in Moscow in winter, when all the serving people gathered in the capital for the tsar's reviews, and at the same time for monetary and other allowances released from the tsar's treasury, could arrange a brotherhood. First of all, the members of the brotherhood chose the "headman" who was responsible for preparing everything necessary and arranging the feast. Then the "headman" was collecting the "bulk". So - from the word "pour" - was called the contribution to the brotherhood of community members, made by barley or malt. Sometimes the natural "bulk" was replaced by the collection of money "fold", using these fees for the purchase of everything necessary for the feast.
Beer for the brothers was brewed in secular breweries, usually built on the backs of peasant villages. The organization of these public institutions was not difficult. In a wooden covered frame, a stone hearth was formed, with a wooden gate, which was used to raise a large copper vat. This hearth was heated in black - the smoke came out through the "drag windows" under the ceiling.
They began by sprouting malt in a trough made of a large pine log, which was mixed with water, and "started" beer wort, immersing stones hot in the hearth into it, which were snatched out with special wooden tongs. Hops and brewer's yeast were added, then boiled in cauldrons.
Rituals and customs
The finished beer was served on the table in brothers, valleys or jugs - copper or wooden vessels with lids and handles that could hold up to half a bucket. From them, beer was scooped up in ladles, poured into piles and mugs.
Usually, the brothers were timed to coincide with church holidays, which were easier to celebrate with the whole world. The "Christmas brotherhood", "Nikolskaya", "Pokrovskaya", "Petrovskaya", "Ilyinskaya", etc. were arranged. This tradition did not change until the 16th century, when vodka and new rules for wine drinking, established by the authorities, appeared in Russia, which had a very significant impact on the entire further development of Russian civilization.
The trade in strong drinks was monopolized by the state, which gave this trade to the mercy. In order to increase government revenues, they began to put pressure on competitors, passing the appropriate laws. Worldly mead and breweries were taxed, and bratchins were obstructed. They were allowed to be held only four times a year to commemorate relatives.
Such feasts were called "eves". Since the cemeteries (graveyards) were usually located at the church, which was considered a parish for several neighboring villages, the formula for expressing the memorial action “to go to the churchyards to rule on the eves” appeared. The copper cauldron in which the beer was brewed was kept at the church. In the same place, at the churchyard, beer was prepared.
On the days of the "Eves" parishioners who came to the churchyard brought with them special memorial pies. Panikhida served together, went to the cemetery, performed memorial services there, and then the whole world sat down at the tables to commemorate the dead.
This is where the current rituals came to us - the products brought "on the eve" in the temple are an echo of the former Slavic "pile", and the cake for dessert at the memorial table, kutia, honey fed, distribution of sweets "for commemoration" - all this what remains of the former memorial brotherhood. The overwhelming majority of modern Russians do not understand the essence of their own actions when performing funeral and memorial rites, but they do them diligently, because "it has been done for centuries." And that's okay. People are trying to keep the traditions of their ancestors, which is already good. But, of course, it is better to know their history and act consciously.
Valery YARHO
