Slavic "Magic Dolls" stored and passed on knowledge

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In ancient times, rag dolls were used both as ritual objects and as toys through which children got acquainted with the way of life and received cosmogonic, moral, symbolic and mythological knowledge.

According to custom, such dolls were made by women. Therefore, they belong to the female producing, purifying and protective household magic. This was explained by the fact that from ancient times, from the era of matriarchy, a woman was the main guardian of traditions. She kept and passed on knowledge and skills from generation to generation.

Ritual dolls were made for a special occasion. There were dolls that helped a woman in the household, or dolls that taught a child to be grateful, and there were those that could drive away the disease.

The woman did not make such dolls mindlessly, but emotionally tuned in, earnestly believing in the power of what was “done”. After all, the fate of the family and clan depended on the quality of her work.

Especially for those who are interested in the history of the emergence and creation of the Slavic ritual doll in Minsk, an interesting exhibition "Magic Dolls" was organized, which began its work on March 3 at the House-Museum of the 1st Congress of the RSDLP.

Vepsian doll

Such a doll was made from old things of the mother without the use of scissors and needles. This rule was observed with the aim that the life of the child was "not cut and not chopped."

Before the baby was born, the doll was placed in a cradle to “warm” it. After the birth of the child, the Vepsian doll hung over the cradle, protecting the baby from damage. When the child grew up, she was given to him to play.

Doll "Ten-Handle"

The “Ten-Hand” doll was designed to help the mistress of the house in household chores. Such a doll, made from the hem of the mother's dress, was given to the bride by the girlfriends for the wedding, so that she could do everything and everything went well for her.

Such a doll has many, many hands, so that all matters can argue, and there is always order and prosperity at home.

Doll "Gift for a gift"

Gift-for-gift doll - educational doll. She helped teach the child gratitude. It was the first doll that a child had to make himself at the age of 3-4 years.

Grandmothers taught children to make this doll so that they could give it to someone in return for a gift, or if someone did something important for them.

Children also made this doll for their parents, learning from an early age to be grateful to them for taking care of them and raising them.

Doll "Desire"

Every girl in the village had such a doll-friend. Nobody should have shown it, and if they wanted the wish to come true, they sewed a bead on the doll's dress as a gift or tied a ribbon, saying: “Look, what a beauty you are! And for a present, grant my wish:)"

Doll "Freckle"

With the onset of spring, the girls made and gave each other bright dolls with hair of unusual colors. These "Freckles" dolls had the power of a charm of youth and beauty.

Doll "Wealth, fertility"

The doll is a multicomponent composition: many children are tied to the body of the main mother-doll with a belt. It was believed that a large number of children lead to the prosperity of the clan, which means that in a house with many workers there will always be prosperity.

She, unlike most ritual dolls, was never burned, but was kept in the house somewhere higher - on a closet, on a shelf, not giving it to anyone else.

According to popular beliefs, such a doll helps to realize the desire to have a healthy child, and also affects the relationship between existing children and parents.

Doll "Kubyshka-hernitsa"

To keep the air in the hut clean, they made a useful pupa "Kubyshka-Travnitsa". The bag-skirt was stuffed with scented soothing herbs - oregano, St. John's wort, mint, yarrow or pine needles.

The herbal jug was usually hung over the child's bed so that he slept better, saying: "Sleepiness is insomnia, do not play with my child, but play with my doll!" Or filled with medicinal herbs and put at the patient's bed, so that the herbal smell drives away the spirits of the disease from him. Such is the ancient aromatherapy.

Doll "Goat"

It is based on a wooden cross, and the muzzle, horns, beard are made of bast and straw. The “Goat” was dressed in a bright special dress and a sheepskin coat (or fur coat), on top of which were attached ritual objects: pipes, barrel organs, tambourines, a horseshoe as a gift for luck, bells, bells, wooden beads, earrings, gift bags. The "Goat" doll was a symbol of vitality and she had to bring this strength to the owner of the hut and his land, his field, so that bread was born better.

Spiridon-Solstice

People said: "Spiridon-Solstice carries the wheel in his hands." The holiday of Spiridon is a holiday of the winter and summer solstice, a holiday of the rising or leaving sun. It took place with participation in the rituals of this doll.

At the festival, ceremonies dedicated to the sun were performed. They rolled a wheel off the mountain and burned it together with other symbols of the sun, saying: "Wheel, burn, roll, come back with a red spring!"

At the end of the holiday, the doll was burned without clothes, the clothes were tidied up for the next doll. They burned them with old stuff so that the doll would take with it everything old and useless, freeing up the strength for a new life.

The doll is male and is given to a man so that Spiridon-Solstice helps the owner of the house to "steer" in his affairs.

We have already talked about the Lovebirds doll on the pages of our project. But you can also make it in a different way, from a single piece of fabric.

Doll "World tree"

The world tree embodies the unity of the whole world. This is a kind of model of the universe and man, where every creature, object or phenomenon has its own place.

In the horizontal plane, the world tree and the space around it are divided into four parts, expressing the idea of time (morning, day, evening, night; spring, summer, autumn, winter) and space (east, south, west, north). Vertically, the tree is divided into three parts: the lower one is the root (the underworld), the middle one is the trunk (the earthly world) and the upper one is the crown (the heavenly world). Certain creatures belong to each of these parts. Below, near the root, snakes, frogs, fish, waterfowl and animals live, because the bottom of the tree symbolizes not only the underworld, but also water. In the middle part, on the ground, there are large animals: tours, deer, horses, bears, wolves. It is also the human world. Birds and bees settle on the top of the world tree, here are the heavenly bodies.

The world tree is also a family tree. That is why the wedding doll "World Tree" was made on a twig with two forks: on one fork the groom, on the other - the bride.

"Fevers", "Tryasovitsy", "Likhomanki" - this is how the spirits of diseases in the form of women - "sisters-shakes" were called in ancient Russian mythology.

In the monuments of the XVIII century. there are their names: Shaking, Otpeya, Glazeya, Avvareusha, Khrapush, Plump, Yellow, Aveya, Nemea, Glukheya, Karkusha, Old.

The images of the striking sisters are associated with the apocryphal motive of the daughters of King Herod - simple-haired women of demonic appearance.

"Shakers" are small pupae on a bundle. Thirteen of them were made. Thirteenth, older sister - Kumokh fever. Kumoha is a stout woman who lives in the forest with her twelve sisters, who look alike like twins.

The people believed that, on the orders of Kumoha, the sisters attack a weakened person. They penetrate into the huts through the chimneys, and they can only be protected by conspiracies. That is why the making of the doll was accompanied by a conspiracy, which was usually created either by the oldest woman in the family or by a specially invited witch.

The miraculous power of the conspiracy was considered effective if, during the entire process of making the dolls, the sorcerer never lost the rhythm, did not interrupt the recitative of the conspiracy, and at the last word tied the last knot on the doll. It was believed that when she saw the doll, the shaking sister would recognize herself and move into her instead of a human. Therefore, the enchanted dolls were placed in a row on the stove by the chimney and kept until the church feast of the Most Holy Theotokos. Before the holiday, they were burned.

Doll "Zernovushka"

After the end of the harvesting work, the peasants selected the best, selected cereals of the new crop to fill the doll-bag with it. The bag was dressed up and carefully kept until the next sowing in the red corner of the hut, in a place of honor next to the icons.

The people believed that only in this case the next year will be satisfying and sufficient.