Ladies, Lados, Ladies

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

Traditionally, it is believed that "palms" are distorted "palms". Actually, a simple game that accompanies the nursery rhyme seems to really involve the palms, so everything is logical. However, the word "palm" in Russian is relatively young, earlier it was pronounced differently - "dolon" (compare with the well-known old Russian "Hand").

It sounds similar in Ukrainian and Belarusian even now. The song itself has existed for much longer and in all versions it speaks specifically about "sweethearts".

It turns out that the "palms" have nothing to do with it.

The word "ladushki" itself contains the Slavic suffix -ushk-, which gives the words a diminutive-affectionate coloration. Let's say: "grandfather" - "grandpa", "baba" - "grandmother", "children" - "kids". So "LADUSHKi" is something diminutive from "Lada (Lada)".

What is this word?

We can find it in Russian folklore and even chronicles. In them, the word "fret" or "lado" is used to refer to the wife or husband, and sometimes the bride or groom. The very same word from Proto-Slavic paganism. It was then that a goddess with the beautiful name Lada existed (and was highly revered). She was responsible for love and family well-being, so that her name was preserved both in the forgotten name of the wedding ceremony - "Ladina", and in the usual designation of family happiness - "Ladin".

Ladies, Lado, Ladies, Where were you? - by Grandma.

What if? - Koshka.

What did you drink? - Mint.

- Makarov, Mikhail Nikolaevich, Russian Legends, ed. 1838

Folklorist Mikhail Makarov (1785 / -1847) in the word "Lado" recognized an appeal to the Slavic northern god Lada (Lado). Alexander Afanasyev (1826-1871) specified: the god Lad (or Lado) was the male personification of the goddess Lada.

The most common variation of this nursery rhyme:

- Okay, okay!

- Where were you?

- By Grandma.

- What did you eat?

- Koshka.

- What did you drink?

- Mint.

Kashka buttery, Sweet brew

Nice grandma, We drank, we ate

We flew home

They sat on the head, Ladies began to sing!

In explaining the meaning of this seemingly simple children's nursery rhyme, two semantic series can be distinguished.

The first semantic row

Ethnographers have the opinion that if they went to a living grandmother (which is not a fact), then they went to a ceremony of worshiping the Family, that is, deceased relatives. Hence the porridge with the mash: to this day, ritual porridge (kolivo) is eaten at the commemoration, and the "mash" has changed - a glass of vodka or wine is drunk at the commemoration or at the cemetery. Also in favor of this hypothesis is the strange "flew, sat on the head" - we are talking about the souls of their ancestors, which, according to the beliefs of the Slavs, appeared in the form of birds flying to Vyri / Iriy.

Playing with the child in "okay", the mother, as it were, introduced him to the Family and the customs of worshiping ancestors, in which the little man will surely take part when he grows up a little.

In this regard, it is interesting how this semantic series is voiced by the lips of a minister of a Christian cult:

Second semantic row

From some sources it can be understood that Lada was included in the three "female" goddesses - women in labor (women in labor). Despite such a seemingly modest name, women in labor are not at all petty deities; they answered no less - for the whole Universe! And Lada did not just suit families - through the love of a man and a woman, she created and maintained world harmony.

In the pagan worldview, the Lada-goddess was reflected and repeated in all men and women in love. And they became her semblances - frets. So they were called. The word "fret" was also encountered in the meaning of "child", "child", but it was much less common.

So our "okay" is a couple in love, a groom and a bride.

What kind of grandmother do the future spouses visit?

Apparently, this does not mean the native grandmother - the mother of one of the parents of our couple - but the "common grandmother", the "progenitor." Our ancestors lived in a big family - a family in which not just mom-dad-children, but also aunts-uncles, half-siblings and cousins … up to the seventh generation! Somewhere in the depths of time, this family included the very first relatives - the progenitors. Naturally, they had been in another world for a long time, but here on earth they had substitutes - those who represented them. And, as a rule, it was a woman, moreover, aged and with many children.

Why a woman? Because who, if not a woman who bears and brings new children into the world, should keep the ancestral memory.

Why aged? Because the years passed have brought wisdom and experience.

Why large? Because having given birth to many children herself, the woman carried within herself the power of fertility, which she could share with others.

Such a woman truly became a "common grandmother" - an older and revered relative to all. She often served as the head priestess of the clan. And no less often - midwives.

No wonder: a woman in labor “opened” the door between the world of the living and the world of souls; childbirth was a partly sacred event. And who else can help in such a matter if not a wise woman (who has given birth more than once), endowed with knowledge and experience of past years, a woman! This is almost a ceremony, and in it she is a priestess, helper and guide.

“Touching” the other world, the midwife helped to give birth to children and she herself carried a supply of sacred powers. Consequently, she could share them - to give the Lada-bride with children.

So it was very logical for the future family to visit the midwife, to receive a generous gift from her - the promise of future children.

What do they do when they visit grandma? They eat porridge and drink mash.

Porridge - in ancient times, not just food, it is a whole alchemy

First, it is boiled from grains. The grain lays down in the ground (“dies”), but gives rise to a sprout, which then develops into a large adult plant - and ears grow on it, in which there are many grains. So the seed is a powerful symbol with many meanings. Here is the triumph of life, and rebirth, and the idea of cyclicality, and multiplication-fertility.

Secondly, in order to obtain porridge, grain must at least be boiled, i.e. to ensure the union of water and fire - also strong and multifaceted elements. In addition, fire is a god in itself, one of the most revered - the Sun's younger brother, who, moreover, lived not somewhere in heaven, but on earth, next to people - in every hearth.

Thirdly, berries (in symbolism - the "wild" equivalent of grain) and honey, considered as "the concentrated sun", "food of the gods" were often added to the porridge.

Mash is not just a drink either

In almost all religions (especially those that are classified as pagan) there is a sacred drink that gives healing, prolongation of life, inspiration and equates a person with gods.

Taken together, porridge and braga carried a very powerful message: communion with divinity, ensuring fertility, accumulating vitality and the promise of rebirth …

So it is not surprising that future spouses, when visiting the chief priestess of the clan, partake of the sacred food. This allows them to temporarily stand next to the gods and receive part of their power, necessary to ensure the birth of healthy and strong children.

Against this background, the last words of the song seem meaningless and even alien. But this is not the case.

The Slavs believed: in the fall, birds migrate to Iriy, the heavenly abode of the gods. When the time comes, they open the gates of heaven and release Spring - a new year is coming and life is reborn.

Birds bring warmth, so in the spring people performed a special rite - calls. At this time, figures of birds were baked from dough, they were taken out into the street - they were shown to the sun, raising them higher (on poles or just on the head). And at the same time they sang invocative words - they called out. Real birds will see their likenesses, think that some of their relatives have already arrived, and rush to them - spring will come.

The chants are part of the rites of the calendar cycle related to spring. But wedding ceremonies also belonged to spring. More precisely, in the spring, people were looking for a couple, courting, talking about a future wedding and "playing love games." Well, yes, exactly the same thing: these actions were not debauchery; people shared the power of fertility with the land and took from it themselves.

The rituals could well be combined into one ritual that calls for spring, warmth, life. It was quite logical that its participants were those who could accept the power of life and give it a hundredfold - young girls and boys. They embodied Lada, called the birds and ate the sacred porridge with the main priestess of the clan and thereby contributed to the revival and renewal of the world.