Slavic traditions

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

Charm wreath

Since ancient times, girls have adorned themselves with wreaths of flowers. Flowers in a wreath - fragility and fragility, purity and purity.

The wreath for the girl was a symbol of maiden honor, girlhood, he protected her from the "evil eye", from "evil spirits."

In the summer, the wreath was woven from fresh flowers: cornflowers, poppies, daisies, marigolds.

But besides flowers, multi-colored ribbons are also woven into a wreath:

The light brown ribbon is the earth-nurse.

The yellow ribbon is the sun.

The green ribbon is beauty and youth.

Blue and blue ribbon - water and sky.

The orange ribbon is bread.

The purple ribbon is human wisdom.

The pink ribbon is well-being.

White ribbon - memory of ancestors.

There is every reason to believe that the Ukrainian wreath with ribbons, which since ancient times has been an integral part of the Ukrainian national costume, is a wish for a "clear, peaceful sky" over the head of the one who wears it. This is a kind of amulet against everything bad and unkind.

Wreaths were left on trees and attics from lightning, put under the first sheaf to increase the next harvest, put hens in the nest, in the cradle of a newborn, hid under clothes from witches, hung in the fields and vegetable gardens. Girls washed themselves with water from a wet wreath for beauty and health.

Our ancestors realized that it is with their “head” that they understand the world around them and influence it. Therefore, with the help of hats, they tried to protect themselves from the evil eye and other spells of malicious people. It was believed that the wreaths nailed on the doors provide the whole family with health for the whole year.

The wreath was given to men as a talisman if they went to war.

To make a talisman for love, childbirth, wealth and happiness, garlic, onions, ribbons, ears of bread, sweets, rings, and special magical herbs were woven into the wreath.

A wreath - made of artificial flowers and threads - was often worn on the groom's hat, protecting him from the evil eye.

It was the custom of giving a beloved (beloved) a wreath as a sign of matchmaking that later grew into an exchange of rings - engagement. Earlier, after the wedding, the bride threw not a bouquet into the crowd of girlfriends, but her wreath. Whoever catches - he is more likely to marry others.

Today, the wreath is increasingly used in wedding floristry in romantic ways.

Ornament on clothes

Clothing isolates a person from the external environment. And any kind of protection, according to the beliefs of our distant ancestors, could be preserved, strengthened with the help of magical actions, often encrypted in ornament drawings, in the forms of works of art. From generation to generation, embroidery or weaving patterns that adorned folk clothes were passed on. They were by no means accidental.

Randomness in the ornament appeared only at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries in places where there was a fairly strong influence of the city. In deep times, in epochs that are far from fully studied by us, people conveyed the visible world, their ideas about it, their relationships with it, their ideas about it, their relationships with it in a conventional pictorial language. It was the first code system invented by humans that had a magical meaning to them.

Perhaps, according to the beliefs of our ancestors, the conventionality of the image protected the depicted from evil. Gradually, this system turned into an artistic ornament, in addition to the magical, received an aesthetic content, which still retains and makes you admire this beauty. So from time immemorial our ancestors send us signals - symbols about their life, about their worldview, about their attitude to the forces of nature. Deciphering of these signals began to be dealt with relatively recently, and many more interesting and unexpected things remain to be revealed to people of future generations.

The ornament is complex in design, rich in rich colors, adorned folk clothes. At first glance, it is difficult to understand its distant innermost meaning. The tranquil beauty of geometric shapes is not associated with the system of the universe that existed in the imagination of our ancestors, and yet here we find the sign of the sun with its complex curved ends, and the sign of the field in the form of rhombuses with a dot in the middle, and the sign of a person.

There were other patterns in which simpler images of people, animals, birds alternated, but they all originate from ancient Slavic mythology.

Nettle clothing

From time immemorial, there were craftsmen in Russia who weaved and spun from everything that came to hand: from willow tea, burdock, burdock, quinoa and even boiled pine needles.

In the old days, the so-called "forest wool" was known - a fibrous material extracted from pine needles. To obtain "pine wool", the needles were steamed, boiled in lye, combed, washed and dried. The resulting fiber was used to make warm knitted items. "Pine" clothing was considered not only warm, but also very useful, preventing rheumatism.

Nettles were also used to make fabrics. They were quite widespread.

Spinning nettles are harvested in spring. This is a ready-made trust, the quality of which has been taken care of by nature itself - autumn rains and fogs, winter frost and spring thaw.

Thick canvases were woven from long and thin fibers - tows - then sundresses, shirts, towels, bed linen were sewn - everything needed for a worthy dowry. The canvases were bleached in dew and snow, boiled in a decoction of wood ash, or tinted with a decoction of chamomile and cornflowers.

From short and coarse fibers - rags and piles - a coarse and rarer cloth was woven - the so-called rownin, which was used for sacks, blankets, bedding and capes for carts.

Ropes and ropes were made from non-spun fibers. First, the fibers were soaked for 24 hours in a decoction of oak bark for strength. Then it was divided into two parts, one of which was painted black with a decoction of rusty moss. The ropes twisted from fibers of two colors amazed with the intricacy and uniqueness of the pattern!

Flax, hemp, bamboo, nettle have an antiseptic, antifungal effect, relieve electrostatics.

For a city person, such an outfit is a step towards nature.

Waste nettle was used as tow, for laying between logs and filling up cracks in the construction of a new hut. Coarse socks-slippers were knitted from nettle yarn, which they wore, without removing, in case of rheumatism, belts that warmed the lower back with sciatica, and hats, from the appearance of which on the head any migraines passed.

Nettle has several advantages over flax.

- Firstly, the yarn made from it is softer, because it is not made from leaves, but from hollow stems.

- Secondly, due to the same cavity, it has better thermal conductivity than linen. It is cooler in summer and warmer in winter.

- Thirdly, nettle yarn is much cheaper than linen yarn and the process of its production does not pollute the environment so much.

Like flax and hemp, nettle is one of the oldest fibrous plants that humans have learned to process.

Now, nettles and other plants have been replaced by flax and cotton, which are grown commercially and in huge quantities. But growing cotton is very damaging to the environment. About a quarter of all pesticides used in the world are used on cotton plantations, depleting the soil, polluting the air and water! In addition, cotton grows only in certain climates and has to be transported over great distances.

Nettles are much softer, thinner, silkier and more elastic than hemp, cheaper to grow and produce than flax, and there is nothing to say about the environmental side of the issue. What chemicals, fertilizers, specific climate - this is a weed! Nettles are not afraid of either rains or droughts, just give it free rein - it will cover the entire territory of Europe with its thickets. And in these thickets, more than 40 species of insects and small birds will immediately find shelter.

Last year, the Italian fashion house Corpo Nove launched the production of nettle clothing. The first fabrics were made from German nettles from the banks of the Rhine. Nettle jackets and jeans are an overwhelming success. Indeed, in addition to the exoticism of the raw materials used, new clothes also have a healing effect - it relieves attacks of rheumatism and relieves allergic reactions. A collection of jeans, jackets, skirts and shirts was released. It is impossible to burn yourself with such clothes, since stinging hairs are not used in production. The main concern of fashion designers now is to find farmers who believe that growing this weed can be beneficial not only ecologically, but also economically.

In fairness, it should be said that nettle fibers were not forgotten by all adults. Even in our time, they are used for spinning threads, preferring purchased ones, by the indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka and the Amur region. Strong and durable threads are used for weaving bags, baskets and various boxes.

In the manufacture of traditional products, along with nettle threads, willow twigs, stalks of wild rye (tuweiki) and birch bark are used. Quite often they use another fibrous plant growing on wastelands and burnt-out areas - narrow-leaved fireweed, popularly called Ivan-tea. From the stalks of ivan-tea harvested in the fall, carefully peel off the skin, divide it into fibers, dry and put away for storage.

Part of the harvested material is painted black with a decoction of rusty moss collected in a swamp, containing iron oxide. To give the fibers a gloss, fish oil is added to the dye solution. Alternating dark and light fibers in a certain order, craftsmen decorate the surface of products in geometric patterns.

Slavic Easter egg

Slavic Easter Egg is a tradition of painting bird eggs with beeswax and paints that has come down to our days. Previously, Easter eggs accompanied a person throughout his entire life - from birth to death, protecting him from evil.

For many peoples, the egg is a sign of Life and birth. The patterns that were applied to the egg are not accidental - each has its own meaning. Easter egg patterns, color combinations have been passed down from generation to generation.

The pysanka was kept in the house as a talisman.

It was believed that the Easter egg gives strength to everything that gives birth to something new - the earth, man, animals, plants. Brings beauty, health and wealth.

Easter eggs will not let you lie - they are fragile and sensitive to the state of the craftswoman, if you sit down to write in confusion or irritation, the egg can slip out of your hands and break.

There are a lot of rituals and customs associated with Easter eggs.

Now painted eggs are associated mainly with Easter. Previously, Easter eggs were written all year round. - and bees, so that there is honey in the hives, and in the field - so that the harvest will be born. A woman, expecting a child, painted Easter eggs with flowers or birds - these are symbols of the soul that should come to this world. The pysanka was put in the cradle for the baby, it was given for the wedding with the wishes of the young, it was used to commemorate the ancestors. Easter eggs were given to young children - for an easy and carefree life - with bloodworms. Or "with suns" - so that life is bright.

The girls were given an Easter egg with the image of blossoming buds so that they could grow and blossom. And the boys - with oak leaves and pine twigs - so that they grow strong, strong and healthy, like these trees.

Easter eggs with flowers and stars were given to women so that they bloom and illuminate the world around them. Soldiers who went on a campaign were also given Easter eggs with them, so that they would protect them on the road and in battle.

Easter eggs were treated. By giving a pysanka, one could express one's gratitude or love.

Pysanka occupied an important place in the rituals of the brace.

Most of the Easter eggs were written in the spring, since the spring solstice. At this time, more red Easter eggs, the color of the sun, were written. It was believed that in this way people help the spring sun gain strength for the summer. Spring Easter eggs carry images of the rebirth of nature - plowed and sown fields, plants, seeds and fruits - symbols of the future harvest. This Easter egg was kept for a whole year until next spring.

The very writing of the Easter egg occurs as a ceremony. A woman paints Easter eggs in solitude, before taking water from seven sources, or at the confluence of three streams. He writes in concentration, in a state of ritual, with wishes of good, good luck, health to those to whom these Easter eggs are intended.