Gatherings, conversations, evenings - the rules of peasant rest

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

The spring and summer of the Russian people were hot at times - it was necessary to grow the harvest. In the fall, hard work gave way to rest. Therefore, from the beginning of autumn and throughout the winter, young people gathered for gatherings, conversations, evenings.

Vladimir Dal described this activity as "gathering peasant youth on autumn and winter nights, under the guise of needlework, yarn, and more for stories, fun and songs." This form of youth communication was widespread practically throughout Russia and was called differently in different areas. A huge number of names have appeared associated with the verb sit: pisidki, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, saddle, sit. The names of vechorka, evening, evenings, evening parties, parties, evenings, parties give a temporary description: young people were at home during the day and only gathered together in the evening. The words of a gazebo, conversation, conversation in folk culture reflect the nature of the pastime of youth. And from the verb "spin", denoting activity, the name of the super row comes from. In some places, gatherings are called cells, (after the name of the room in which the youth gathered).

What made the youth get together? This is the desire to communicate, have fun, and exchange of experience, and most importantly - the opportunity to choose and show oneself in front of the future bride and groom.

The timing of youth gatherings largely depended on the climate: in the North, in many areas, they began in late September or early October. In Siberia, even in its southern part, super-rows began as early as mid-September. In some of the northernmost regions, evenings were held all year round. In the middle lane, gatherings began after the end of the autumn work. "As soon as the potatoes were picked, we have grasses."

Two types of gatherings can be distinguished: everyday (work) and festive. At workers' gatherings, the girls spun, knitted, sewed, told fairy tales and events, sang lingering songs. Guys were also allowed on them, but they behaved modestly. Gogol wrote about them: "In winter, women gather in someone's (hut) to spin together." Festive gatherings were different from everyday ones: they were more crowded, and at festive gatherings they almost never worked, but sang, danced and played different games. And refreshments were often arranged.

Depending on the venue, three types of gatherings can be distinguished: gatherings organized in turn in the girls' houses ("from hut to hut"); gatherings in a specially rented, "bought-off" house; gatherings in the bath.

The gatherings were arranged in turn by all the girls, and occasionally by the guys. The line went from one end of the village to the other. “One week for one, a week for another - whoever walks holds the evening.” If the family has several daughters, then the gatherings were arranged several times in a row. And if the parents of the waiting list for some reason could not or did not want to host the conversation, they bought a house from some grandmother for a set period of time. The girl, the hostess of the gatherings, cleaned the hut herself before and after, and her friends could help her. The first day of the super row opened like this: the day before, one of the housewives went door-to-door and invited the girls to her place. They came to her dinner, dressed as usual, and got to work.

Sitting in the baths is known in the Bryansk region, in the Kaluga, in the Irkutsk provinces, in some villages of Pomorie. Here is how an elderly peasant woman described such gatherings: “Girls collecting from the towers in the baths: they will heat the bathhouse, and if it’s crowded in one, then they’ll also heat the other, well, they scratch, they sing songs. Another time the guys are sobertsa joking. As girls a lesson, as they are asked, they finish - they play. They will make a joint, eat something sweeter, put the samovar on, drink tea. (Zhizdrinsky district of Kaluga province)

Gatherings in rented premises were most often arranged with old grandmothers, old maids and widows, or with a poor family. The girls found a house in advance and agreed on the terms of its payment.

Since for some time the “purchased house” became a second home for the girls, they tried to keep it clean and cozy: “every Saturday we washed the floors”, “we will dress the cell with newspapers, pictures, wash it cleanly”, “they decorated the hut with branches, towels, all sorts of drawings."

Heating and lighting of the hut where the gatherings take place, as well as the rent for the premises, are borne by all the participants in the gatherings. They usually rent a room for the whole winter and often pay for it with the labor of all participants, for example, harvesting in the summer ("they helped the hostess dig potatoes"), spinning, firewood, food: potatoes, tea, bread, flour, grain, etc. In a number of places in the fall, the girls all together squeezed out several strips of rye in favor of the owner of the house, in which they had “sat” the previous winter. The harvest took place most often on a feast day after dinner. Elegant girls gathered in a crowd and went to the field, accompanied by guys with an accordion: they sang and sometimes danced along the way. They took to work “cheerfully and zealously”: the youth also tried to turn the work off for conversations into entertainment. It's a pity only for the girls, the guys took up the sickle only as a joke. But they started fussing, running around, entertaining the reapers with witticisms. The work progressed quickly, as each girl wanted to show herself as a good reaper. Old people also came to see this harvest.

Although in some places there was also just a cash settlement with the owner of the hut at certain stable prices. In many villages, they paid weekly: boys - for weekdays, and girls - on Sundays. And, finally, there were also evening fees: guys - 10 kopecks, girls - 5, teenagers - 3. guys from a foreign community, and even more so from a foreign volost, made a double “sexual” fee. It was possible to attend the gathering without paying anything, but such a guy did not dare, according to local tradition, "neither sit down with any girl, nor dance with her." In some places it was accepted that the house was rented, that is, the guys paid for it. But most often it was the girls who paid for the place for gatherings. “And the guys, one in different cells, they didn’t pay - they will go there and they will go here … And if he is a friend of the diva - in this cell, and threw the divka - he went to another, he stays there. Why should he pay something !? " The guys only tried to come with gifts - "pockets full of seeds, nuts, gingerbread." The payment necessarily included heating and lighting the house - the girls seemed to support it: "they themselves heat and illuminate the houses where they gather every day." Everyday contributions were also made in different ways: either each girl, going to gatherings, carried a log ("two logs per person"), a handful of splinters, a loaf of bread, or the norm for the whole season - a cart from the participant. Sometimes, during the whole winter, the guys carried firewood, and the girls cooked torches and washed the floors in a rented hut.

Usually there were two main groups of girls in the village: marriageable girls and teenagers. Conversations between the elders ("brides") and the younger ones ("grow up") were organized accordingly. Girls began to visit gazebos at the age of 12-15, when the age corresponds to the accepted boundaries separating girls from girls. However, the beginning was determined not only by age and physical development, but also by the girl's labor skills in female work - spinning. “They began to go to cells from the age of 12-13, when the girl could already spin.” Mothers gave their teenage daughters work by the day (for every evening or for the whole season): "here, to strain you 25 talc" (talcum is a hand reel for winding yarn), "in the evening shob the bobbin was yarn", and strictly monitored the fulfillment of " lesson ". The younger ones had no right to spend the night in someone else's house. "The younger ones only spun and sang, and the guys went to the rest." The younger ones sometimes went to the middle school "to see, to learn."

Married women in many places came to work gatherings. In the entertainment gatherings of young people, married and married, as a rule, did not take part. Sometimes their participation provoked protests from single youth. It is not for nothing that there is a Russian proverb: "A married man is driven with a spindle from gatherings." There are references to the settlements of old women: “They gather from all over the village and even from other villages into one house and spin in the moonlight … old men, girls and boys come to them. There are a lot of all kinds of stories, fairy tales, legends and memories”. "They sang here … they told the youth about their" pre-Julian "life, taught them to guess." Therefore, girls willingly attend "old lady's conversations".

Also, "overcooked" girls also gathered, that is, those who did not manage to get married on time (usually after 20 years). Most of them were ugly or too depraved, about whom there was a bad reputation: “From 23 years old - old maidens. They all put on black, ugly, could no longer put on red girls' headscarves."

Everyday gatherings included work and entertainment. The work was the structural core of the gatherings. “The girls came first, they were going to get a little dusk. We sat down on the benches and got to work. " At the gatherings, they spun, knitted, weaved lace: "tea, we all spun", "who knits, who weaves, who spins", "knitted lace, stockings, socks, mittens, who faq." Knitting and weaving of lace was a side job, the main one was spinning. And they turned to sewing and embroidery when the flax runs out. In order to hide more quickly, some “started on tricks: she spins her own, but is lazy to work, and maybe she’s still rich - they will take and burn a tow, but we, who lived in people, did not dare to do that”. Sometimes the guys also worked at the gatherings: some weave bast shoes, some knit a net, some knit a net, some winter tackle for a sleigh - to go to the woods. Usually the guys came to the gatherings at a time when the girls had already managed to do a significant part of the daytime. Unlike the girls' collective, the guys were not "tied" to a certain place. During the evening, the guys bypassed several girls' companies and even entered the neighboring villages. But in the hut at the gatherings, girls played the leading role. The dependent position of the guys was already expressed in the fact that they often sat on the floor, each in front of the one that he liked. The custom of kneeling down with the girls remained. But again, the girl herself decided whether to allow her to sit next to her, even on her knees or not. "Girls spin on benches, our brother sits on the floor." “The guys will come with accordions. They will all sit on the floor, only the accordion player sits on the bench."

The famous folklorist P. I. Yakushkin described in detail the gatherings not far from Novgorod. The girls came to the gatherings first, sat down on the benches and began to spin. The guys came up one by two and in groups; then cheered, "Hello red girls!" In response, a friendly was heard: "Hello, good fellows!" Many guys brought candles. The guy lit a candle and put it on the girl he liked. She said with a bow: “Thank you, good fellow,” without interrupting work. And if at that time they sang, she only bowed, without interrupting the song. The guy could sit next to the girl; if the place was occupied by another, then, putting a candle, he walked aside or sat down next to another. Many spinners had two candles burning. They talked in an undertone, at times sang. The song was accompanied by a pantomime game depicting the actions that the song told about. A guy who walked around the singers with a handkerchief, one of them threw it on their knees ("He throws, he throws a silk handkerchief on the girl's knees …"). The girl came out in the middle, the song ended with a kiss. Now the girl threw the handkerchief to one of the seated, etc. Throwing a handkerchief right away to a guy or girl who (or who) had just chosen was considered shameful. The guys at the gatherings were looking for brides: "she is both hard-working and beautiful, and will not go into her pocket for a word."

For Belarusians at such gatherings, there is no difference between a rich and a poor guy, handsome and ugly. All are equally equal. The poorest and most ugly one can sit down with a beautiful and rich girl, joke with her, regardless of whether she sympathizes with him or not. A girl should not insult a guy, she also cannot prevent a guy from joining her, while at any other moment even the most innocent jokes with girls are not allowed to guys and can cause displeasure, abuse and beatings.

In the Kaluga province, where any gatherings were arranged only with the knowledge of the old people, only single boys and girls, occasionally young widows, gathered for festive gatherings. Married and married did not visit them. We had fun with dances, songs, games. The guys usually treated the girls to nuts, sunflowers and gingerbread. The communication style was quite free (kissing, fussing), but it didn't go further.

In the Oryol province, winter festive gatherings were held in a spacious hut, along the walls of which benches were placed. Adult youth sat on the benches, while teenagers sat on the beds. It was widely accepted here that young widows and soldiers' women attended gatherings along with girls. Older fellow villagers, as a rule, did not come. We played neighbors, beads, tanks, cards. During this game, the guys were slowly putting into the sleeves of the neighbors "gruzdiki" (mint gingerbread) or "bowlers" (pretzels baked in a boiling cauldron); the girls cleverly hid them and ate them at home - it was considered indecent to eat in front of everyone.

The Russian North knew the gatherings organized by the guys. Young people worked together to buy candles and pay a small rent for a room from a lonely old woman or poor fellow villagers. Not everyone agreed to rent the hut. There was an idea here that letting a party into your house meant letting in evil spirits for three years. Little guys were sent for the girls - to call ("nail down", "announce"). Molodtsov was not accepted to call in: they had to "know by their own spirit." An indispensable feature of entertaining gatherings here, as well as almost everywhere, was the game of "neighbors". Often they started a "rope": all the participants, holding hands, led a round dance with complex loop-shaped figures to various songs. "Rope" rolled out into the passage, returned to the hut. Those who were the first to lead the round dance gradually uncoupled from the "rope" and sat down on the walls. After some time, they again joined the game - the "string" twisted and twisted, and the songs replaced one another.

The etiquette of courtship at gatherings boiled down to the fact that the guys interfered with the girls' work: they loosened the threads, confused them, sometimes set fire to the tow, took away the spindles and spinning wheels, hid or even broke them. “They made a difference: they would set fire to the tow, they would drag the spinning wheel, take away the yarn”; “The guys pampered: they burned the earlobes, or another girl, a mischievous girl, would call the guy some name. His surname is Miney, then "Miney - graze the pigs!" he will steal a towel from her - all her work "," they will stretch the yarn around the hut and shout: "Whose phone?" "; climb onto the roof and lay the glass on the pipe. The little ones will flood, smoke and pour it all into the hut."

A significant place in the Nizhny Novgorod gatherings was occupied by games and fun, including whipping with a belt and obligatory kissing. In stories about gatherings, games are mentioned: "in crackers", "in a column", "in bundles", "first-borns-friends", "in the industry", "in the tip", "in rimen", "zainku", in "gates ", In" little white bunny ", in" boyar "," in a ringlet "," in blind man's buff "," in slammers "," doves "," goat "," tree "," grapes "," in a deer ", etc. In this case, the list under different names may contain the same game.

The choice of a partner in some games was based on the principle of drawing lots. Such was the game "with the tip": the leading girl collected handkerchiefs from all the playing friends and held them in her hand, sticking out the tips; the guy, stretching out one, should have guessed whose it was. If you guessed right, then the couple kissed. Each prepared a handkerchief for the game in advance and came with it to the gazebo.

In the sitting game "goat", the guy walked around the rows of girls sitting on benches, then sat on a chair in the middle of the hut, and, pointing to one of the girls, said: "Goat!" times as much as he says. If the girl refused to go out, one of the guys would whip her with a belt. The girl remained in the chair, and the choice now belonged to her.

In the game “Drowning” (“Drowning”), which is widespread in the Russian North as well, the person entering came up to a guy or a girl, took something from them (usually a guy’s hat, a girl’s headscarf), threw it on the floor and shouted: “… is drowning ! " (called the name of the owner of the thing). All in unison asked: "Who will pull you out?" The one or the one named by the owner of the thing had to pick up the thing and kiss him.

In Karelia, the game of "kinglets" was known. The girl asks the guy: "The king is a service, what do I need to do?" He comes up with any task, and the girl must complete it. "He will say - kiss, so he will say - kiss twelve or several times."

A popular game among the games was the game "in the doves", the same game was also called "in the neighbor", "in the eye", "oblique", "turntable". They played it in the following way: “put a bench in the middle of the hut. On one end the guy sits down, on the other the girl he calls. Another guy, leading as it were, whips three times in the middle of the bench. As it whips three times, and the girl and the guy must turn around. If they turn in one direction, then they are forced to kiss, and if in different directions, the guy leaves, but the girl stays and calls the guy for herself. This is repeated again."

In some games, the final kiss was preceded by some test of the guy. For example, in the game "grapes", the girl stood on a chair, and the driving guy had to contrive and reach her to kiss. In another version, the guy was helped by two drivers who sat him higher in their arms. The game began with the driver's question: “Who wants grapes? Who will get the grapes? " Sometimes the girls were not allowed home until the "grapes" were harvested.

Dances were also common at the gatherings. The girls "sing songs, the boys play the harmonica, they dance a square dance to the accompaniment of the game." Also danced Krakowiak, lancer, polka, six, waltz. "They will gather in the next hut, play songs and have fun until the roosters."

In Ukraine, there was a custom of “completing” or “overnighting”, when a guy, sometimes even two or three guys, stayed with a girl until the morning. Only the communication of a girl with a guy from a foreign village was strictly prohibited. This custom persisted even into the 1920s. In the Kharkov province for the whole night, only those guys who are asked by the girl - not personally, but through a friend, remain. If there remains a guy who has not received an invitation, they hang colorful shreds on his back or pour soot and crushed chalk into his hat, etc. An ancient Ukrainian custom requires that chastity be maintained. A couple who violate this requirement are immediately expelled from society. And in such cases, the guys remove the gate from the hinges in the girl's house, hang a cradle at the gate, smear the house with soot, etc.

Among Russians, joint overnight stays of young people are found only in very few places as an exception. However, at Russian gatherings, the mores are quite free: kissing and sitting on your knees are the most common phenomena. "The hug of a girl by a guy during a conversation has nothing reprehensible in the eyes of the population, but a hug by a girl of a guy is considered the height of immorality." The girls were allowed to spend the night in the ransom house. In this case, they each brought their own "bed" in advance. “Right in the cell and slept, on the floor or on the canvas. You twist your horns and sleep "," The guys left at 3, and we lay down on the floor."

There is information that in a number of places it was customary for boys to stay overnight. "The guy lay down next to the one he liked." “Girls and boys spent the night in the cells - everyone spent the night together. Shall we go home at one in the morning? " “The guys were exhibited for the night. And slept with women. Well, they didn’t give me anything.” There was a custom that the "destroyer of girlish beauty" was forever expelled from girlish society and deprived of the right to marry an innocent girl. At the same time, to form the opinion of the community, there were enough rumors that the young people were "loved", and then the guy "abandoned" the girl. Public opinion was no less harsh with regard to girls: if it was noticed at a gathering that any of their participants liked to "rush from one to the other," she acquired a reputation as "misguided" and lost all her charm in the eyes of young people. " Her friends avoided her, and the guys laughed at her. To fall in love with a girl with such a reputation was "ashamed of her comrades," and to marry her was "a shame in front of her parents, a gap in front of the world." "Even a widower will disdain such a girl," as he considers that she "will be a bad mother and an unreliable mistress."

Girls who lost their innocence were subjected to special punishments, as, for example, at a wedding: guys at night secretly smeared the gates of such girls' parents with tar, cut off their braids, publicly beat them, cut their dresses into shreds, etc. (Kirsanovsky district of the Tambov province). In the Samara province, lovers caught at the crime scene were forced to exchange clothes, i.e. the woman put on a man's dress, and a man put on a woman's, and in this dress they were taken through the streets of the city.

The gatherings have long been exposed to accusations of immorality and persecution, first by the clergy, then by the administrative authorities. So, in 1719 the Kiev spiritual consistory ordered to see to it that "the hateful festivities called evening parties would stop … God and man." disobedient persons were threatened with excommunication. The book about the Christian life directly says that "to gatherings with a worldly person … it is pernicious to eat for Christian souls and more pious to faith, it is harmful and reproachful and reproachful to all Christ's servants according to Holy Scripture."

AV Balov, a connoisseur of the life of the Yaroslavl province, wrote about this: “About seven years ago, the local provincial administration seemed to be village conversations both immoral and disorderly. This view was expressed in a number of circulars to the county administrators. The latter "tried", and as a result, a number of community sentences appeared about the restriction of peasant conversations. All such sentences remained only on paper and are now completely and completely forgotten. " A. V. Balov's manuscript is dated 1900, so. In this case, the judgments of the communities, adopted under pressure from the authorities, could not resist the tradition: the gatherings remained.