Dmitry Baranov, head of the department of ethnography of the Russian people of the Russian Ethnographic Museum, told why on Christmastide they "programmed" their lives, communicated with the other world and had fun.
Christmas holidays, lasting 12 days, in the old days were of exceptional importance: this was the Christmastide period, during which it was necessary to have time to "program" your life in the new year, to communicate not only with friends and strangers, but also with the other world, having learned your future and taking steps to improve it. Methods for this were chosen very different - from direct contact with evil spirits during fortune-telling to "correct" food and telling fairy tales. The main condition: on these holidays, in no case should you shy away from fun and behave as usual, because this way you can bring trouble not only on yourself, but also on everything around.
"Saints" and "terrible" evenings
Christmastide unites three holidays: New Year (Vasilyev's Day), Christmas and Epiphany. The Christian tradition is connected in these holidays with the more ancient - pagan, which considered this period the beginning of a new agricultural year after the winter solstice on December 22. Evenings from Christmas to New Year's Eve were called “saints”, and from New Year's to Epiphany Eve - “terrible”: it was believed that at this time, evil spirits have special power.
“In the Slavic tradition, these twelve days are a kind of timelessness: the old year is leaving, the new one is just coming into its own,” explains Dmitry Baranov, head of the department of ethnography of the Russian people at the Russian Ethnographic Museum. - The word "holiday" itself comes from "idle", "empty", that is, it is emptiness. And this time of solstice, when the longest night of the year had just passed, people were not sure if spring, summer would come again, if everything would be fine, and therefore they took various ritual actions to ensure the continuation of the seasons.
They prepared thoroughly for Christmas: they carried out a general cleaning of the house, sometimes even with whitewash, brewed intoxicating and herbal beer, and on Christmas Eve they tried to finish all work by dinner, after which they should have time to the bathhouse before dark. A strict fast was observed up to the first star, especially the elderly. On Christmas Eve, they ate fast food (not lean - approx. TASS), including kutya. Before supper, a rite of "crying out" for the frost was performed: he should certainly be treated so that he would not get angry and did not come in the spring to ruin the harvest.
- Any ritual of these days is sacred, it symbolizes what happened before, at the beginning of time, - says Baranov. - Hence the belief: how you celebrate the New Year, so it will be, this is a very archaic performance.
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At Christmas, they always wore new clothes, albeit inexpensive ones. In many localities, it was customary to lay straw on the table on Christmas Eve - it was an element of the funeral decoration and on the holiday was supposed to provide a connection with the world of ancestors. Candles were lit.
At the end of the meal, the children carried part of the remaining kutya to the homes of the poor, and they did not remove the dishes, food, or tablecloth from the table until morning, leaving all this for "guests" from the world of their ancestors. On the spoons with which they ate that evening, they wondered about the fate of each of the family members. After supper we went to bed early.
Youth holiday
Among the people, Christmastide was considered a youth holiday, and if the adults in the village returned to their usual work on the third day after Christmas, then the young were completely freed from any work for all 12 days. On Christmastide, unmarried girls from remote or small villages came to visit large villages in order to increase their chances of finding suitors at the games.
- Games of youth on Christmastide were associated with the need to choose a mate, get married and provide wealth, - says Baranov. - The community was interested in procreation, and those who did not marry for a long time were reprimanded.
The games began at 5-6 pm, at first with the participation of people of all ages, and continued until the morning - the guys saw off the girls after four, after which they often continued their entertainment, including making fun of married men who were late to return home. From midnight, mummers appeared at the games, and when the adults went home, fortune-telling began.
They came to the games in the best outfits: the girls brought their clothes in knots directly to the hut where the festivities were taking place, because they had to change their dress several times during the gatherings. Even the poorest tried not to hit their faces in the mud and at least borrow clothes from their neighbors, otherwise they did not go to the games at all. It happened that all the girls dressed up in clothes of the same color: on the first day of Christmas they put on red, on the second - white, on New Year's - blue and blue, and on Epiphany - pink.
The games were treated with respect, but also with caution: it was believed that a fast dance with loud tapping and spinning made young people look like evil spirits, therefore, at the end of the game, all its participants lined up in the middle of the hut with a cross and changed places while singing songs.
The mummers visited the games: as a rule, these were groups of 5 to 20 people - not only boys and girls, but also teenagers and even children. When creating "masks" they tried to represent someone "alien": a representative of another world, nationality, social class, and so on. For example, girls and women could dress up as men, guys - in women's dress, children and youth dressed like old men, and the elderly - in wedding dresses, some chose the images of supernatural beings - Baba Yaga, kikimora, devil, as well as the dead and even Death itself …
Dressing up in animals was popular - bears, bulls, goats, wolves, other wild and domestic animals and birds, up to bees. There were mummers, depicting gypsies, Turks, Chinese, peoples of the North - depending on who was known as a "stranger" in the area. Costumes "with social overtones" chose the costumes of representatives of the authorities - governors, judges, police officers, or, conversely, asocial elements - beggars and vagabonds, wanderers who, in the minds of the people, possessed special knowledge and magical powers.
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Fairy tales and fortune telling
It was believed that on Christmastide the world order was formed anew, therefore in ancient times it was considered important to “speak” it, as if creating it from scratch. To do this, on Christmastide they told stories and made riddles, with the help of which they remembered the most important phenomena of life and the surrounding nature. In addition, the "tricky" fairy tales and riddles that passed on from generation to generation folk wisdom and knowledge, as a rule, were told to the younger generation by old people.
Thus, folklore became a means of teaching - it is not for nothing that almost all Russian fairy tales end in the same way: "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it - a lesson for good fellows." Fairy tales were told in the evenings, gathering with the family, or during youth teas at games, and riddles on Christmastide were also used in fortune telling.
- This is the time when the boundaries between our world and the other world disappear, from where all the spirits of cold come, including Santa Claus, and the boundaries between the past, future and present, - explains Dmitry Baranov. - Hence the tradition of fortune-telling - recognizing one's future, hence the tradition of communicating with deceased ancestors, with the past, because there are no boundaries that are relevant in everyday life, they are blurred. But this is also a dangerous time, because a person is vulnerable to the influence of evil spirits, hence the existence of terrible Christmastide stories.
Fortune telling: "scary" and not very
On the "terrible" evenings that followed the New Year, they tried to arrange fortune-telling, also called "terrible". They were considered the most dangerous, because at the moment of the passing of the old year and the arrival of the new, the world became more vulnerable to evil spirits, with which the fortunetellers had to come into direct contact. There were fears among the people that during fortune-telling the spirits could "drag" to the next world.
Basically, marriageable girls ventured into "terrible" fortune-telling. They made fortune-telling both individually and in a group, but if the "terrible" fortune-telling was carried out at home, then the fortuneteller had to be left completely alone. Often such fortune-telling was carried out in those places where evil spirits lived or could appear - in a bathhouse, a barn, at a crossroads, at an ice-hole or at the porch of a church, especially a remote one or near a cemetery.
When going to such places, the girls, as a rule, were accompanied by an elderly experienced woman to help carry out the ceremony with all precautions. They took a knife, poker or other metal object to the crossroads or ice-hole, relying on its protective magic.
And in front of the mirror, which was considered a direct exit to the other world, the girls sat with a rooster in their hands - at a critical moment, the bird was squeezed, forcing it to scream and drive away the evil spirits. When fortune-telling with a mirror, according to the ideas of the people, an unclean person appeared to a girl in the form of a betrothed, and she could see in detail the face of the future groom only if she was not yet familiar with him - only the back of the head of a friend could be seen.
Those who feared such direct contact with the other world could choose less dangerous fortune-telling - for example, under-dish, or fortune-telling for the harvest, in which, as a rule, the head of the family played a significant role.
If the result obtained by such fortune-telling did not suit the peasants, they tried to “correct” the future, for example, by preparing some “magic” food and treating the spirits with it. To this end, they cooked “Vasilyev's porridge” for the New Year, and if it did not work out, it was thrown into an ice-hole, which also served as a border between the real and the other world, in order to appease the spirits and thus get a chance to improve their future affairs.
- Man constantly interferes in the natural course of events, because, on the one hand, it seems that the world was once created by God, and it seems that a person should not do anything, because, according to tradition, everything that is established by God will continue. And yet, observing nature, how destructive tendencies are growing, increasing - the onset of cold, reduction of light time, the world seems to be dying, a person takes certain actions just in case, says Dmitry Baranov.
The Baptismal Mass was considered the last time boundary of the rule of evil spirits, and fortune-telling had to be completed before its completion.
The main thing is not to act as usual
A holiday is a time when it is important to emphasize your human appearance.
“A man is one who can speak and has no wool,” says Dmitry Baranov. - Hair was perceived as a remnant of the natural world from which we separated, a remnant of wool. Therefore, culture has always paid great attention to the cultural design of hair and beard.
Supernatural beings, on the other hand, had messy hairstyles, and if a person is unkempt, then this is a sorcerer or an evil spirits in general.
“The main goal of the festive actions is to realize and prove that you are alive,” the ethnographer explains. - Therefore, everything should be bright, food is not bland, with a pronounced taste. It is important not to do everything as usual, because those who do not participate in the celebration break tradition and let the whole community down.
Alcohol consumption is also allowed on a holiday, however, it should be remembered that this is also a channel of communication with the other world, so it is very important not to overdo it so as not to disrupt this communication.
“The festive drink was beer, which was consumed only during this period,” says the scientist. - It was considered, among other things, a drink of love. But we must remember that the fire from hops, on the one hand, gives rise to creativity, on the other, destructive. Therefore, the main idea of festive drunkenness is to know when to stop in quantity.
