Maslenitsa. Or to the mother-in-law for pancakes

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

In the ancient tradition of our ancestors, the most important calendar points of the year: winter (December 22) and summer (June 22) solstices, spring (March 22) and autumn (September 22) equinoxes were combined into the symbolic "Cross of the Year". This conclusion is confirmed by the data of the "Vlesovaya Kniga", which speaks of the four most important holidays of the year: Kolyada, Yaro, Krasnaya Gora and Ovseni (Small and Great).

Carols, of course, are our Winter Christmastide with ritual songs - "carols" and mummers performing them - "carols", "carols". The very term "Kolyada" ("pounding", that is, giving a circle "is directly related to the completion of the circle of divine days, when the Night of the Gods, which ends on the night of December 21-22, is replaced by the New Day of the Gods, beginning on December 22nd. The entire period of Winter Christmas (December 19 - January 19) is dedicated to the worship of the Divine Light - the Creator of the Universe, whom our ancestors called the Immutable Law or Grandfather. ie, those who have joined the Absolute Truth of the Cosmic Law Thus, the Winter Christmastide is a period of worshiping the Wisdom of the Creator, summing up the results of the annual circle and meeting the new Colo-Sun.

Yaro or Yarilin day (Kupalo) - June 22 - summer solstice and the beginning of the Night of the Gods. We have yet to talk about him. We only note that this is a holiday of young people, those who had to find a mate and pass the test by the Divine Fire for the right to marry with their chosen one or chosen one. And, having entered into marriage, fulfill the cosmic law of reincarnation, giving life to new people - children.

The next most important holiday in the list of the "Forest Book" is Krasnaya Gora, followed by Ovsen (Avsen, Usen, Tausen), i.e. the holiday of the autumn equinox. But here we stop at a paradox - today's Red Mountain has nothing to do with the vernal equinox. A holiday close to this calendar date - March 22, we do not have at all. However, it is known from historical sources that earlier such a ritual cycle as Maslenitsa (or Maslyanitsa) lasted not a week, but a whole month, starting on February 20 and ending on March 21. Krasnaya Gora today is a holiday of the Easter forty days. In most cases, Red Mountain is called either Fomin's Sunday (the next after Easter), or the first three days of Fomin's week (including Sunday), or the entire Fomin's week. The ethnographer IP Sakharov wrote in 1848 that “Red Mountain in Russia is the first spring holiday.

Turning to Maslenitsa, we can note a strange circumstance that the ancient name of this holiday was unknown to us until recently. "Generous Shrovetide, fat Shrovetide", etc. just stated the presence of ritual food - pancakes and butter. And no more. "Vlesova Kniga" put everything in its place. And today we can confidently assert that the ancient sacred Red Mountain and our Shrovetide are one and the same. This is evidenced by the fact that it was during Oil Week that the newlyweds went to their "mother-in-law for pancakes". The mother-in-law, in the archaic tradition, is not only the wife's mother, but also the oldest woman in the house. A ritual play song (Vologda Oblast) speaks of an oak tree on which "an owl sits, she is my mother-in-law, she grazed horses." Archaeologist E. V. Kuzmina notes that "the horse played an important role in the cult of the mother goddess." In the Indo-European tradition, the image of the goddess - the mistress of horses was widespread. "She was represented standing between two horsemen", personifying the opposite elements - life and death, over which the Goddess - Mother is in control. Sometimes, instead of horsemen, simply two horses were depicted - black and white. Note that one of the most important and colorful rituals of Maslenitsa was the rite of riding around on horseback and in a sleigh.

It is worth remembering that in the ancient Greek tradition, in its most archaic part, Zeus (Dyaus), the head of the pantheon of gods, was personified in the image of an oak by the water (Zeus of Dodonsky). And his daughter, the embodiment of wisdom and sacred knowledge Athena, came out of the head of Zeus and was called the Owl, since her zoomorphic incarnation was an owl. The image of an owl in the Vologda ritual song is much more archaic than the ancient Greek one, since here she is not a maiden - a warrior, but a foremother - a mother-in-law. Note that the owl is a nocturnal bird associated with the most ancient lunar cult, and the Foremother is the one who embodies divine thought in the manifested world. In the Russian North, in the archaeological sites of the Mesolithic (10-7 thousand BC), figures of women made of stone and bone, ending with an owl's head, are often found.

And, finally, in the ritual text related to the preparation for the wedding, the orphan bride addresses her deceased mother, calling her "My Red KrasiGora".

Shrovetide is not only a festive cycle associated with the cult of the Foremother - Red Mountain, it is also a celebration of the glorification of newlyweds who got married last year. It was for them, first of all, that the ice mountains were built, from which every young couple, after a three-time kiss, had to slide down.

Thus, Maslenitsa - Red Mountain of the "Vlesova Kniga" is a ritual cycle dedicated to the cult of the Foremother - the maternal principle of the Universe, as well as to those who serve the manifestation of this principle on Earth - young married couples.

In ancient times, the New Year (agricultural) began with the spring equinox - the night of March 21-22. It was to this time that the rituals of Maslenitsa were timed - "the only major pre-Christian holiday that was not timed to coincide with a Christian holiday and did not receive a new interpretation." The antiquity of the Maslenitsa rites is confirmed by the fact that this holiday (in one form or another) has survived among many Indo-European peoples. So, in Switzerland, Maslenitsa is associated with dressing up. These are, first of all, terrifying masks, the origin of which was associated with ancient beliefs. These include "smoke", "motley", "shaggy", or "coming out of the chimney" (in beliefs, perfume penetrated through the chimney). For the holiday, painted wooden masks were made with bared teeth and scraps of wool and fur, which made an eerie impression. The appearance of the mummers on the street was preceded by the ringing of bells hanging from their belts. The mummers were holding long sticks with attached bags of ash and soot. The sounds they made were like roars, growls, or grunts. According to the Swiss ethnographers R. Weiss, K. Hansemann and K. Meili, these masks served in ancient times as the embodiment of the dead, were associated with the cult of ancestors and belonged to male unions. The mummers smeared the oncoming ones with soot or doused them with water - actions associated in the past with the magic of fertility.

In Poland, the mummers dressed in inverted casings, and took "turonya" and "goat" around the courtyards. They also smeared soot on their faces.

Maslenitsa processions of mummers were common in Czechoslovakia. In Slovakia, this procession was led by the Turon. The mummers smeared the passers-by with soot and sprinkled them with ashes.

In Yugoslavia, mummers dressed in sheepskin clothes, with fur outside, "decorated" with thorny branches, animal tails, bells. Masks were made of leather, wood, and even metal. Among zoomorphic masks, masks with horns are especially widespread. Moreover, masks and bells were inherited from father to son.

In the Netherlands, on Shrovetide, farmers collect unbroken horses. They are carefully cleaned, and bright paper flowers are woven into their manes and tails. Then the participants of the holiday get on the horses and gallop to the seashore, and the horse must soak his feet.

In Germany, mummers and girls harnessed to the plow and walked with him through all the alleys of the city. In Munich, when transferring butchers' apprentices to apprentices on Oil Monday, the apprentices were dressed in sheep's fur trimmed with calf tails. They tried to spray everyone around with water from the fountain. The former meaning of these actions is a fertility spell.

The number of oil mummers often included a married couple or a groom and a bride, and earlier elements of the wedding ceremony were also included. (Celibacy among the people was often perceived as a vice that could affect the fertility of the soil). In the oil dances of the Luzhich people, it was believed that one must dance briskly, jump high, so that the flax was born high.

In Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, after an oil supper, when the whole family got together, they hung a boiled egg on a string above the table and swayed it in a circle: each of those present tried to touch it with their lips or teeth. They believed that this custom contributed to a good harvest, an increase in the number of livestock and poultry.

In Slovenia, on Shrovetide, everyone, both old and young, had to dance and jump in order for the turnip to grow well, and the higher the dancers jump, the more abundant the harvest was. For the same purpose, the mummers danced and jumped. It was believed that swinging on a swing, on ropes woven from plants, or directly on the branches of trees, also contributes to the fertility of the earth, the health of people and the fight against evil forces.

In a number of places in Slovenia, dishes that were in use on the last day of Maslenitsa were not washed, but during sowing they sown from them - they believed that this would bring a rich harvest. And, finally, in Bulgaria during the cheese week they swayed on a swing, which, according to belief, brought health. Throughout the whole cheesy week, the boys and girls went out of the village in the dark, sat down on some level place, facing the east, and sang songs. Then they had a round dance and continued to sing songs of love content. The folk explanation for the custom is "for fertility and health."

All these facts indicate that Maslenitsa, as a holiday of the beginning of the year - spring, took shape back in the common Indo-European period, no later than the turn of the 4th - 3rd millennium BC. This is evidenced not only by the traditions of European peoples, preserved up to the present day, but also by the traditions of India, which came from ancient times.

In ancient Indian rituals, many elements of Maslenitsa (and subsequent Easter) are traced in one of the brightest holidays on the border of winter and spring - Holi, which was celebrated in February-March (the end of the cold season). N. R. Guseva emphasizes that "all ritual actions of the holiday are inseparable from the magic of fertility and historically go back to the pre-Indian period of the life of the Aryans. Ritual and magical manifestations associated with vernal equinox, have a character extremely close to Easter, going directly back to paganism, which turned into the Easter ritual of the Slavic peoples. "As an example of such common rituals of Easter and Holi, N. R. among the Indians. Moreover: “in both those and others, red is necessarily used as the color of reproduction of people and animals, and this serves as one of the clearest remnants of the magic of fertility.” In addition to Easter elements, in the Indian holiday of Holi there are a large number of ritual actions These are a number of behavioral manifestations that, apparently, developed in ancient times: singing obscene songs of erotic content, performing fertility dances, drinking alcoholic beverages, preparing ritual food from dough and cottage cheese. Holi must burn the Holiki effigy, which is made of straw. collect brushwood, straw, old things, cow dung. The bonfire is set on fire with the fire that everyone brings from home, and everyone dances around it.

But, according to Russian tradition, on Shrovetide it was allowed to sing obscene songs full of erotic allusions. VK Sokolova writes: “On the farewell to Maslenitsa on the Tavda River, the main managers stripped naked and pretended to wash in a bath. In the Ishim district 60 years ago there was a "Maslenitsa king" who made "speeches in the costume of Adam". It is interesting to note that they were exposed even in severe frosts, and this was done not by boys, not inveterate mischievous people, but by elderly respected people. " In the Belozersk district of the Novgorod province, girls secretly tried to get hay and straw by stealing from neighbors. An effigy of Maslenitsa, like Kholiki, was made of straw and burned. In the Vologda province, such a rite was widespread in Kadnikovsky, Vologda, Kubensky and Nikolsky districts. also smeared with soot and sprinkled with ashes and ashes of all participants in the ceremony. In Indian tradition, there is a custom during Holi to take a handful of ash from a fire, sprinkle it on the floor in the house and throw a pinch and ash into each other.

Ritual actions on Maslenitsa in the Russian North were varied. So V. K. Sokolova, in connection with the wires of Maslenitsa, notes the following main points:

1. Lighting bonfires
2. Seeing off - funeral
3. Customs associated with newlyweds
4. Horseback riding and ice mountain riding
5. Festive meal - pancakes
6. Remembrance of departed parents.

Lighting bonfires

Some reports say that the material for the fire had to be stolen. It is possible that this is a very ancient relic - to collect everything for the sacred fires in secret (this custom was observed when collecting materials for the Kupala bonfires of Ukrainians and Belarusians). The material for the fires was taken to a fallow field, to a hill, and a fire was lit at dusk. Under the influence of the custom of stealing material for a fire, they also began to steal logs for an ice slide - "coils". This was done in the village of Kokshenga, Nikolsky district, Vologda province.

Seeing off - funeral

Shrovetide is a holiday associated with the commemoration of the dead. The fistfights that are held on Shrovetide are also one of the elements of the memorial rite. Bonfires that are burned on Shrovetide (from straw and old things) were also in ancient times associated with the cult of ancestors, since it was believed that ritually a person necessarily should have died on straw. Among the characters of Shrovetide (as well as Christmastide) were necessarily: ancestors ("elders", "deceased"), strangers ("beggars"). They were the ones who "buried the dead", who was portrayed by one of the men. All the girls were forced to kiss him on the lips. This funeral service was very often expressed in the most sophisticated "square" swearing, which was ritual and, it was believed, contributed to fertility. The mummers dressed in tattered clothes, rags, in tattered fur coats, attached humps ("elders"), covered themselves with a canopy ("horse"), smeared with coal and soot. Arriving at the hut, they danced in silence or imitated the howl and the sound of musical instruments with their voice. The mummers could ride around the village on a broomstick, on grips.

Customs associated with newlyweds

DK Zelenin believed that some elements of the Maslenitsa rituals "testify to the fact that once this holiday coincided with the end of the wedding period. punishments for those who failed to take advantage of the just ended wedding period. " He noted that Vyunishnik, that is, singing songs with congratulations to the newlyweds, in some places also falls on Shrovetide. One of the most common in the XIX - early XX century. customs - riding the newlyweds from the mountain on a sled "rolling". The skating of young people from the icy mountains has been especially stable in the Russian North (Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Olonets provinces). This skating was of particular importance here. The young one, as a rule, having climbed the mountain, bowed low three times and, sitting on her husband's lap, she kissed him. Rolling down the mountain, the young woman once again kissed her husband. It was believed that for the fertility of the young, it was necessary to plant directly on the snow, everyone who rolled down the mountain piled on them, they were buried in a snowdrift. In this ceremony, the newlyweds were clearly demonstrated the truth: "To live life is not a field to cross." In ancient times, skiing from the mountains was attributed to magical significance. Until the beginning of the 20th century, in many regions of Russia, people continued to ride from the mountains on spinning wheels (or the bottoms of spinning wheels) "on a long flax." So in the Kubensky district, married women rode from the mountains.

Horseback riding

They were decorated with ribbons, painted arcs, expensive bells. Sleds were traditionally covered with sheepskin fur outside, which were also considered to stimulate fertility.

Festive meal - pancakes

VK Sokolova writes: “Some researchers saw in pancakes an echo of a solar cult - a sign of the reviving sun. But this opinion has no serious basis. Pancakes are indeed ritual food in origin, but they were not directly connected with Maslenitsa and with the sun, but with the cult of ancestors, which was part of the Shrovetide rite. " The Saturday before Maslenitsa was celebrated as parental. On this day, pancakes were baked (they began to bake). In some villages, the first pancake was put on the goddess - "parents", this pancake was smeared with honey, cow's butter and sprinkled with granulated sugar. Sometimes the first pancake was carried to the churchyard and laid on the grave. It must be remembered that pancakes are an obligatory meal at funerals and at the commemoration of the souls of the dead. Moreover, pancakes became a sign of Maslenitsa only among Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians did not have such a thing. In connection with ritual pancakes, it is worth paying attention to the fact that the inhabitants of the mountains of Afghanistan - Kalash, who are considered the heirs of "the most ancient pre-Vedic ideology of the first Indo-European immigrants on the subcontinent", bake three cakes during the holiday "chaumos" (an analogue of the Russian Maslenitsa), intended for the souls of the dead. And here it is worth remembering the text of the Mahabharata, which tells the ancient myth of how the sacrifice to the ancestors appeared and why the ancestors are called "pinda", that is, cakes. This myth says that when "the land surrounded by the ocean once disappeared," the Creator raised it, taking the form of a boar-boar. (Recall that one of the Christian saints who replaced the ancient god Veles-Troyan was named Vasily and was the patron saint of pig breeding). So, having raised the primordial matter from the depths of the cosmic ocean, the Creator saw that three clods of earth had adhered to his fangs. Of these, he made three cakes and uttered the following words:

Remembrance of departed parents

The preparation of ritual food - pancakes is directly related to the commemoration of deceased parents. Even P. V. In the 19th century, Shane emphasized that peasants believed that "the custom of baking pancakes is a reliable way of communication with the other world." This is an obligatory meal for funerals, commemorations, weddings, Christmastide and Shrovetide, that is, days, in one way or another, associated with the worship of ancestors. VC. Sokolova notes that: "In the first half of the 19th century, the custom of giving the first pancake to deceased parents or remembering them with pancakes, apparently, was widespread." Probably, here we have an echo of the ancient myth cited above, according to which the first ancestors arose from three lumps of earth, turned by the Creator into cakes. Thus, the first pancake, apparently, is a symbol of a lump of earth and great-grandfather, that is, the Creator or Santa Claus.

Therefore, ritual feeding with pancakes is the prerogative of Santa Claus and the days associated with his ritual worship.

Since Maslenitsa was associated with the commemoration of deceased relatives and was characterized by the ritual atrocities of mummers, there is nothing surprising in the fact that up to the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. some archaic elements of the behavior of the mummers were preserved in domestic rituals. It has already been noted that mummers "sorcerers" could ride naked on a stick, broom, poker. But on the borderline of centuries in Totemsky uyezd there was a custom in which naked women went around the house on a hook three times before sunrise (to survive bugs and cockroaches). And in the Cherepovets district, every owner of the house was obliged "to go around the hut on the broomstick in the morning so that no one would see, and there would be every good in the house for a whole year."

As a holiday associated with the cult of ancestors, givers of fertility, Maslenitsa could also mark the day of the ancestors who returned to the living world to help their descendants (the day of the ancestors is the lunar month). The fact that already in the Christian era Maslenitsa lasted 14 days is evidenced by the message of one of the foreigners who visited Russia in 1698. He wrote that "Shrovetide reminds me of the Italian carnival, which at the same time and in the same way is sent." Coming to the world of the living just for a day from their own world, the "parents", led by Troyan, not only increase the life-giving power of the Earth, but also acquire new powers themselves. After all, pancakes, oatmeal jelly, honey, colored eggs, milk, cottage cheese, cereals are food not only for the living, but also for the ancestors who came to visit them on Shrovetide. Tasting the ritual meal, Santa Claus turns from the lord of cold and night into the Lord of spring and morning of the year - Troyan. He has yet to show again all three of his faces: youth - spring - creation; summer - maturity - conservation; winter - old age - destruction, and hence the possibility of new creation.

Based on the foregoing, all Shrovetide events should not go beyond the tradition, these are:

• Ritual evening or night bonfires made of straw on hills, fields or poles (bonfires in the form of "Segner's wheel" are possible);
• Swinging on Russian swings, throwing boards, fistfights;
• Horseback riding and sleigh rides;
• Riding from icy mountains on the bottoms of spinning wheels, on spinning wheels, in baskets, on wooden dies, swinging on a Russian swing;
• Treats: pancakes, oatmeal jelly, beer, honey, cottage cheese, milk, cereals (oatmeal, barley, wheat);
• Ritual rounds of mummers.

Characters of Maslenitsa dressing up:

1. Ancestors - "elders", "deceased", "tall old women".
2. Strangers - "beggars", "hunter", "devil" (all black with horns).
3. Young - "bride and groom", "pregnant woman".
4. Animals - "Bull", "Cow", "Horse", "Goat", "Elk", "Bear", "Dogs", "Wolves".
5. Birds - "Goose", "Goose", "Crane", "Duck", "Chicken".

The mummers "baked pancakes," "churned butter," "threshed peas," "ground flour," "measured straw." They "married the young", "buried the dead". The "grandfathers" put the girls on the laps of the guys, "married them". Those girls who did not obey them, the "grandfathers" beat with brooms, forced to kiss themselves. They poured water over everyone.

This is the ancient Maslenitsa holiday.