Symbolism in the Russian hut

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

The village house is a kind of cradle of peasant Russia. At the beginning of the 20th century, most of the country's population lived in villages and numerous villages in wooden houses. Dozens of generations of ordinary Russian people were born and lived in village huts, whose work created and augmented the wealth of Russia.

Naturally, in our country, which was rich in forests, ordinary wooden logs were the most suitable material for construction. A wooden house built according to all the rules was enough for the life of two or even three generations. It is believed that the lifespan of a wooden house is at least one hundred years.

In the vast expanses of Russia, a peasant house in different regions can differ significantly in shape, design, building traditions of its external decoration, various decorative details, carvings, etc.

Third tier- roof, pediment (symbolizes the sky, the firmament)

Second tier - part of the log house below the pediment (the part of the house where people live symbolizes the world of people)

First tier - basement, or basement, subfloor

(symbolizes the underworld, the land of the ancestors)

Each tier was decorated according to certain rules.

Triangular pediments were erected above the end walls of the house.

They were laid on them slugs - horizontally arranged logs running along the side walls.

The ends of the bed were covered with a pile-up - a special board (from the Old Russian "brow" - forehead).

The roof was covered with planks. Tesin (gaps) - smooth boards processed with an ax. They relied on a watercourse. From above, they were pressed with a heavy log - we’ll stupid. Okhlupen - a hobbyhorse, a shell. The end of the oglupnya was cut out in the shape of the head of a horse, bird, etc. There was a towel under the ridge, covering the junction of the moorings.

Roof like the vault of heaven

The roof design symbolizes the legend of the sun god flying across the sky in a golden chariot, the reflection of which we find in various elements of the design of the house.

At the very top, on the main log of the roof - the neck and chest are sharply curved. horse - birds. A horse, like a bird, is an ancient image of the sun. The roof slopes were like wings. “The horse, as in Greek, Egyptian, Roman mythology, is a sign of striving. But only one Russian peasant thought to put him on his roof, likening his hut under him to a chariot,”wrote S. Yesenin.

Reasons decorated the slopes of the roof, symbolizing the "heavenly abyss". Our ancestors believed that above the firmament of the earth is the firmament of the sky with the sun, above the sun and the moon - "the abyss of heaven", where huge reserves of water are located and from where they are poured onto the earth. Ancient farmers presented a picture of the world just like that. The elegant ornamental rows on the quays are the figurative expression of heavenly water. Wavy lines of carving, sometimes depicted in two or three rows, reflected the depth of the "slabs", small circles - symbolized drops of water.

Towel - a carved board hanging from the junction of the piers.

The ridge and sun signs on the towel symbolize the midday sun at its zenith, the left end of the pricelin is the morning rising, and the right end is the evening setting. The sun is shown in its daily movement across the firmament. Solar rosettes were depicted as a circle with six radii (the wheel of Jupiter), a circle with a cross inside, or a circle with eight rays. Next to the sun symbols, there are signs of the earth and fields (a rhombus or a square drawn up and down).

Windows are the eyes of the house

Windows are the eyes of the house. They were decorated with platbands and shutters. The closed shutters indicated that everyone was asleep, or that no one was at home. The window connected the world of home life with the outside world, and therefore the decor of the windows is so decorated. But windows are not only an exit to the outside, but also an opportunity to get inside. Each owner tried to protect his home, to provide the family with satiety and warmth, safety and health. How could he do this? One way to protect yourself is to surround yourself with signs and spells. And the platbands not only closed the cracks in the window opening from drafts and cold, they protected the house from evil spirits. Platbands were decorated with mermaids-bereginas, outlandish birds, maned lions-dogs … They all personified the heavenly sphere, the water element. The images of animals sometimes barely guess how decorative they are, as if they develop into a floral pattern. The decorative composition was complemented by signs of water, sun and mother earth.

Read more in the article Russian hut windows

All these patterns and images once had a certain meaning, being inherently protective signs. They are used to decorate ancient ritual objects, and they also adorn the platbands. Folk tradition has carried these signs through the centuries. But over time, they have lost their magical meaning and their essence has been forgotten. Ancient archaic patterns have turned into decorative elements, diluted with modern ornaments that are not related to their past meaning. It is very difficult to read these ornaments, to understand their deep meaning and to unravel magic spells. That is why they so beckon to themselves …