* TEMPLE *

After the terrible devastation of the Polish-Lithuanian rule in the first quarter of the XVII century, Russia was dominated by chaos and lawlessness. The state body was disintegrated and took a formless image, becoming ugly.
 One of the first efforts of the young Mikhail Romanov to return to the state and government was his order for the census. Besides other information about population, those census books also show that the wooden churches in the early XVII century were two types: dome and rectangle-based.
 In all probability, in the XVII century and earlier in Russia, many wooden churches were built using both right and obtuse angles. The wooden churches of the North breathed, gave light, and led the conversation with a man on owning their own ground, together with houses, threshing floors, bathhouses. They seemed the only natural along with the village, which has been completed and crowned by it.
 No wonder the concept of composition is inherent in such eternal types of human activities, like literature, music and architecture. Compositional perfection cannot be achieved only by knowledge of mathematical laws; we must have more special flair, a sense of rhythm, imagination, in short, the talent of the builder.
Proportionality ... The sense of beauty - it must be repeated repeatedly - does not depend on the greatness of the structure. The enormous size and emphasized the smallness of (the shod flea, the city in a matchbox, etc.), although appealing to the sense of beauty, remains outside of aesthetics. In their pure form, they impress us with something else, without regard to the artistic way. Similarly, a talent-less singer or a talent-less band compensates for the lack of performing talent and skill of a microphone, amplifiers, speakers, naively assuming that the louder, the more beautiful and exciting.
A sense of architectural proportionality is probably preceded by an unerring ability to set the height, width, length, amount of volumes, and lines and planes, in particular, only a right relationship with each other. Until now, we hope that this will not happen in the future; no most powerful computer cannot replace the architect's intuition.
Is the church of the Intercession on the Nerl-river big? Suzdal city was built only in one-, two-, three-story buildings.
It is noteworthy that when it comes to the size, many of the masterpieces of stone architecture (at least in Kirillov or in Pereslavl) are much smaller, for example, the wooden church of the Assumption or now destroyed Anhimov many-headed temple. Yes, and the principal monuments of the Kizhi museum-reserve suggest that Russian carpenters were not afraid of heights. But, of course, a significant height will not impede the talented architect, but he will not be embarrassed by the small size.
Museums are dead and silent; exhibits rarely speak and do not speak to all the people. However, an excellent museum of architecture in the Small Korella nearby Archangelsk still gives some idea of the Russian villages, which lie thousands of boundless North in the days of the Novgorod Republic.
 In their ancient boundaries, the villages surrounded by the native landscape tell the soul more than the wealthiest museum. And you still need to have some imagination to see the overall architectural appearance of the Northern village, even of the pre-war period. The image formed not only with the construction of houses, chapels, mills and churches but of other architecturally significant sites.
Threshing floors were built separately but stood nearby with slightly higher barns surrounding each village, stretching one, two (and sometimes three) parallel rows. The rows were not always straight; they repeated the bends of rivers to adjust to the terrain. Haylofts ran far into the fields close to the forest, barns were built closer to the houses. Bathhouses, standing side to side to each other, clung close to the water, on the slopes of the hills, descending to the shores of rivers or lakes.
In the village center, especially when they started to set up collective farms, men built a wooden scale for weighing loaded carts. The weights were carefully balanced boulders. Large covered carved crosses were set up at the roadside and on the crossroads.
It is difficult to imagine the village's architecture without the well's cranes, cellars, nurseries, hedges with bends and seams, and bridges and lavas of various sizes.
Large covered carved crosses were placed on the roads and at crossroads. The hop yards at the houses and circular swings decorated the street, and haystacks at summer meadows and straw stacks in fields in fall changed the surrounding view.
In the total dominance of wooden architecture, the stone architecture and the associated stone art held in people's lives, apparently, a few unique places. Among carpenters ' teams, a crew of mason architects looked something like a stone church among the wooden houses. All the male population mastered carpentry skills, but masonry studied comparatively few. This is not inferred that the stone architecture in Russia was at a disadvantage.
However, under a good, regularly maintained roof, the wooden building lives up to two hundred years and more. Rotting came from earth because the ancient builders cut short with ventilated foundations. Wood, as already stated, can not coexist with the soil, so the land and the building would be connected with the stone, which feels the same way in the ground and on its surface. Standing on these rocks, a house or a church hung in the air, sailing into the wind. The better was the roof, the longer it lasted for such a voyage. Boarding also improved the durability of the building, but with a very different, not suitable old carpentry architectural style.
Traditions of stone and wooden construction in Russia are mutually intertwined. The presence of beautiful pre-Mongolian monuments of stone architecture speaks for itself.
Even after the Mongol-Tatar yoke stone building could not come from nothing, from scratch. Apparently, the Russian national genius in the period of military and economic subjugation kept the main "gene pool" of original artistry in architectural art. Otherwise, we would not see churches in Belozersk, Kargopol and Vologda - these fantastic, like sale ships creations of unknown architects. There would probably not be Totemski churches with their unique style, no strong Solovetsky island ensemble, nor lyrically serene Ferapontovski ensembles …

THE FOLK CARVINGS ***

A late Uliana Babkina from Kargopol used to say about her clay toys: "Take it, take it, the Lord allows I will bake them some more." "Baking" her beautiful creations, she had no idea that she had made something special. As a pervasive and integral part of everyday life, beauty was not put in the rank of exclusivity.
 Uliana Babkina believed that a toy can be made and painted by anybody; there just had to be a desire and a good clay. To some extent, this is true. But grandmother, in her traditional-folk modesty, ignored the degree of talent, not noticing that one would do well, secondly do better, and the third encompasses both of them.
A peasant household environment allowed to identify more artistically inclined in childhood, although talent was not constantly developed and strengthened in subsequent periods of life. The first sculptural experience could be building a snowman. A born modeller secretly from the adults sculpted "people" from breadcrumbs, only after chewing them, to throw out or misuse bread considered the greatest sin.
In the spring, when barely showed up under the sun golden-yellow eyes of the colts-foot flowers, children extracted clay from the clay pits left by clay miners. They sculptured birds, human figures, houses.
Nobody knows what looked like a wooden sculpture of a pagan god Perun. But, according to the chroniclers, the ancient people of Kyiv were thrown into the Dnieper river during the baptism, beaten with iron bars and pushed from shore.
 Artistic sculptural tradition, rooted in the thick of paganism, appears to have been interrupted. In the bosom of the Orthodox religion, the art of sculpture was almost wholly superseded by painting. But the need for 3D skills has lived in many ways: in the clay and wooden child's toy, consumer and religious wooden sculpture, in small objects made of metal, seal tooth (i.e. ivory).
Wood was the best material, bringing an ordinary artisan on the same level as the artist. It links folk art to make a smooth, fuzzy transition from one trade to another.
 For example, making gingerbread and print boards, for a good master possessing the artistic ability, does not cost much to create sculptures on religious themes. Graphics of wood carvings, floral and geometric ornament of wooden architectural decorations themselves were, to some extent, 3D art. From ubiquitous wood carving to the high stone relief is just one step. The usual "chicken" holding on the roof the flow, had a purely constructive role, was at the same time an architectural detail. But it also harboured, although a very generalized, but still a sculptural image. Utensils made from birch burls in birds also have sculptural art elements, visible even with the inexperienced eye.
The planar woodcarving and bone carving in good hands transformed into the spatial, three-dimensional, evident in the numerous carved altar doors, revetments, so-called "meagre" candles, etc.
However, the carving masters, for some reason, did not rush to become sculptors; the Altar Gates with three-dimensional shapes are very rare.
 A sculptural image is a worthy rival of a colourful toy in the vast world of children's toys. These inseparable friends and rivals could not do without each other, especially in clay toys. A sculptured and fired Polkan (dog name) is yet not the Polkan; it becomes the Polkan only in the painted form.    
  Symbol, simplicity and conciseness in traditional clay toys are equally present in sculpture and painting. Painting and sculpture are fused together and are impossible to separate. It is inherent in the entire Russian clay toy. Style as artistic features evolved in different places in different ways. It would be a mistake to think that, except for Vyatka Dymkovo settlements (which now, incidentally, has deservedly become world-famous), clay toys never made anywhere else. They were made wherever there was pottery.
The wooden toy was a traditional part of folk life. Along with bast, utensils, spoons, spindle production, wood masters developed the toy industry. Also, in every house with at least one child, you can be sure to get into a wooden horse with a flax tail or a toy carriage. We loved to cut out birds and bears, and bears are often involved in the combination toy. Bear-sawyer, bear-smith and now are not uncommon in the gift sections of department stores.
Sculptural images, non-religious or toy themes, are very rare, but sometimes some naughty carpenter carved a wooden dummy and gave him a name. Sometimes beekeeper made a hollow in the form of an old man and woman. When from the mouth of a peasant or the ear of wooden women, bees flew - it was pretty funny.
The favourite figures of sculptors of religious subjects, in addition to Christ, were St. Paraskeva-Friday, and St. Nicholas, of course, St. George killing the Serpent. Christ is often depicted as not on the Cross but in a dark prison cell.

*BORN UNIQUE ABOUT THE ARTISTIC IMAGE

An aching spirit is healed by hymns,
The mysterious harmony power
A grave mistake atones
And tames rebellious passion.
~ E. Boratynsky

- How is life? - Ask people when they meet each other.
- All right.
The answer is correct if indeed everything is all right. A good life is permeated by mood, tone, rhythm, consistency in diversity. This kind of life has an inherent organic interrelationship of all phenomena, the natural outflow of one to another. Conversely, and just opposite, a bad is a discord, chaos, mess, failure, absurdity, futility.
 They say that it goes through the deck of stumps, tipsy-curvy about that kind of life. A wrong way of life is accompanied by all the haste and lack of consistency; the result is a bad quality that impacts the beauty of life.
This immediately brings a rather dangerous for rationalism and consumerism conclusion: a lot of the same - it means ugly, unattractive. A few things, but with the feelings and in different ways, means, beautiful and unique. And we talk here is not about just work, but also about everyday life, about the style of life in general.
 Harmony and beauty when they are present at work, let's avoid the crushing gravity of labour. But, of course, it is difficult and beyond your abilities when you do not know how to work beautifully, when somebody is dumb or when there is not enough imagination and patience. But is it not the same, for example, in everyday life or in public life? It's all precisely the same.
Beauty in the world is a diversity of otherness. The idea that mankind is supposedly a crowd of the ordinary and the same people who are led by exceptional individual and vivid personalities; such view is contrary to the rule of beauty and aesthetics.
No, there are no absolutely identical, in other words, thoroughly mediocre people! On the contrary, everyone is born into the world with the stamp of talent. The need for creativity is as natural as the need to drink or eat; it is hidden in each of us, even under the most incredibly tricky conditions. Each person in his own talent, in other words, is peculiar.
 Fortunately, people who are absolutely evil internally and externally do not exist. The need for creativity inherent to each of us can be seen from the fact that in childhood, even in infancy, the child needs games. Every child wants to play, which is to live creatively.
 Why, over the years, has creativity gradually disappeared from our lives? Why the creative principle is not maintained and developed in each of us?
 Roughly speaking, either we have not chosen our profession properly (not found themselves, our personality, our talent), or have not learned to live and work (not developed skill). The second is often dependent on the first, but the first is not always independent from the second.
 It is impossible to know what kind of gift nature gave to you without learning how to work. If the spiritual potential is weak, identity is erased, levelled, loses individual, inherent traits. To the rising of spirit, the creative emancipation of the individual, any spiritual, family, social or global discord, any disorder, are detrimental. For example, one case when there are no shoes to walk to school (and even there is no school itself), and quite another when you are forced to study music notation.
 Of course, the second case is preferable, but the disorder is a disorder. And so, we see that the social orientation is not always faultless and that trends can be harmful in such cases as finding yourself.
 Why, in fact, is only the creative life of an actor or artist? For you can be an artist in any trade. A halo of exclusivity of one or another profession, hierarchical division of labour and life on such principles as "honourable or low," "interesting - not interesting," perpetuates social indifference and identity, promoting the idea of the inaccessibility of creativity for all and for each. But such behaviour is entirely appropriate for the person as a supporter of the individualistic philosophy, as a bureaucrat-dogmatist, who is ready today to arrange people in order of size for the common good.
The qualitative diversity of parts is often better than anything else for the strength of the whole. But, of course, the antagonism of the elements generally destroys the whole, which can also be called diversity, as cited by supporters of levelling. But diversity and hostility are different things.
Outside of the dispute between "antagonists" and "levellers," so to speak, quite separately stands the artistic image.
Probably none of us doubt the unity of the whole in Moscow Protection Church (better known as The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed). But how are different are its components! Every part, every detail lives by itself, does not repeat itself and is not like another part.
It still wants to be explainable ... It is avoiding us... it, like the rainbow, moves away from us exactly as soon as we approach it. It is as the swift, which can not fly from the ground and which must always need height. A child's toy loses its delightful sense when a child, moved by curiosity, takes it apart to see what is inside. So no matter how talented the is artist, if he relies only on inspiration, ignoring the artistic tradition, he will still be fruitless. But what is a culture without the inspiration of the artist?
The artistic image is elusive, although it always lives next to us. It immediately disappears; as soon as you begin to study and decompose it into parts, it never repeats itself.
Born a unique ...
Comparing different classical art forms, you can find some eternal qualities of the artistic image. For example, the rhythm.
As was already mentioned, the magic power of rhythm allows for singing - beautifully and easily – for stutterers who cannot say words without effort and stress. Moreover, quarrelling with a neighbour, i.e. sinning, many women cannot free themselves from the rhythm of the imagery, which further strengthens the emotional dissonance since the image is always more willing to serve good than evil.
There are instances of infantile cries with the beginnings of artistry: a cry of a weeping child suddenly begins to be wedded with a semblance of rhythm and melody ...
Music and literature need rhythm, as do painting and sculpture, dance and architecture. Rhythm, as we see, is a requisite of life in general ...
Another sign of the artistic image can be called composition (in Russian - proportionality) present in all types of creativity. Proportionality. Do you feel in this word some kinship with the rhythm? To be educated means to appear, be born, and identify yourself.
  Education is a process of learning to acquire knowledge, but the word initially meant formation, formed, means to become someone and get own face. Recall an eternal "all be sorted out" of Stephen Oblonsky, equivalent to the fact that everything sooner or later comes back to normal. The ugliness is about not having the face, something abstract, disgusting. Here we come again to the definition of "art" and the mystery of the artistic image as it was, still remains ...
After all of the above said, can we conclude that the academic study of creation can never rise on a par with the artistic perception of the product. Great art is great because it is accessible for everyone, at least for the majority. It is unnecessary to be a renowned expert in reading "War and Peace" or watch and listen to "Swan Lake." A mediocre artist sometimes masks a lack of talent with complexity and inaccessibility of the form. This does not mean that the works of great artists are never complicated and confusing. The difference between the complexity of mediocre and complexity of the genius is that in the first case, the complexity of marking time in one place is static; in the second - it is moving, self-revealing, discovering all the new features of a great artist's work.
The perception of the artistic image is essentially and qualitatively the same as that of its creation. The difference here is probably only in the magnitude ...
Undoubtedly, that perception of art is a creative process in any case. This circumstance is fraught with great danger of cultural dependency.
Is hidden cowardice or plain laziness under the guise of modesty ("who are we really?"). A person only uses established artistic values, not even trying to create something of their own.
 Let it be not brilliant, but one's own! Notorious maximalism (either becoming a Michelangelo or not engaging in creative work) has never contributed to the welfare of public culture. Ignoring your own talent (whatever it may be of value) because there are people more capable of you, turning off your own creative impulses is immoral as it is unethical to engage in self-promotion, noisy exaggerating their own, often feeble abilities.
"Self-humiliation is worse than pride," - says the proverb. To find your own individuality is a moral obligation of everyone. But how to treat more talented people without losing your face. The real artist expects from others, not servility but respect. He does not have a sense of superiority. The higher the talent, the less arrogance and pride of its owner. There is a direct relationship between the magnitude of talent, the strength of the artistic image, and the level of morality. Shame, conscience, modesty, spiritual and physical purity, love for people, excellent knowledge of the difference between good and evil are all moral properties reflected in the artistic image. The creative image can not be created by a shameless, unscrupulous artist, a man with dirty hands and thoughts, hatred for people, a man not knowing the difference between good and evil.
 And in general, is it possible to have true creativity in the troubled or evil state of mind? Hardly ... a wicked man is more inclined to destroy than to create and should not confuse the creator's inspiration with the inspiration of Herostratus ...
An actual artistic image is always new, bashful, like a bride, chaste and pure. Its freshness is not tarnished. The artist seems to us too shy, after all, and creativity itself requires solitude and mystery. Carrying on and giving birth of the image can not occur publicly for all to see. Publicly known to all should be the artist's creation, but not himself. That's why probably the brilliant creations of the ancient Russian artists are not signed? Some old artists and architects chose to remain nameless. There should be a meaning in this fact and not an accidental circumstance.
On this, perhaps, and it's most appropriate to finish our occasionally chaotic, more often fragmented reflections on the Northern folk aesthetics ...

A LIFE-LONG JOURNEY DRAMATIZED CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

In the heart of any nation lies a thirst for great perfection, an aspiration to embody the ideal. One of its proofs is the existence of art in all times and among all nations.


However, producing great and minor artists, none of the nations renounced any artistic activities, not subcontracted them entirely to the geniuses, satisfying the thirst for beauty only with masterpieces. It is rare to see the summit without the other mountains and ridges. Still, it is impossible to have an ingenious artist without the emergence of many of his less gifted colleagues. Masterpieces of art could not be created for no reason, from nothing. They appear only on a sufficiently prepared ground enriched by everyday folk art.


Separating the masterpieces from the people's lives is impossible. No matter how we try, they will still be only a manifestation of the rarest and most successful satisfaction of a national thirst for the ideal in beauty. But the dream is impossible to achieve - a skeptic will slyly remind. Yes, the dream is impossible, but why not try to reach it?


 And then, in this aspiration, we learn what is right, what is not good, and what does not get us anywhere?


Of course, not every peasant was able to build the Dom church, as not every girl could make silk embroidery. But, by no means in every home, there were order and cleanliness, and not every village had enough bread until the new harvest.


However, there was a great aspiration to the beauty of life in the nation's heart. And where there's a will, there's a way - a realization which measure of accomplishment would not be apparent without the ideals of beauty and order. Therefore, it is difficult to take apart folk art from the whole entity of a peasant's way of life.


Established folk art was tightly intertwined with the labour, household and religious traditions. The desire for beauty is illustrated, in particular, in dramatized customs and rituals, from which the whole annual life cycle of a person, and consequently, of the entire village and the ethnic group consisted.


Until now, domestic and some work traditions have had ritual nature. A ritual is always an act, and an act is already a drama. Drama, according to Aristotle, always has the beginning, the middle and the end. They cannot be reversed without destroying their very essence.


Many folk customs and rituals gravitate to such metaphoric similarities. For example, the rumour always strives to have a plot that feeds incredible gossip exaggerations. Usually, a folk ritual could be called a mini-drama. But here, perhaps, our abilities to borrow from the high culture would stop. So, "tragedy" and "comedy" are no longer suited to this or that custom. However, it is very appealing, for example, to refer to a funeral to the genre of tragedy and the Yuletides to the style of comedy.

* WORKDAYS AND HOLIDAYS SCHEDULE *

 "Sleep is the foundation of everything" - say lazy people, justifying their own carelessness. "Sleep is a brother of the death "- thinks a too zealous worker after he makes himself wake up too early. The folk custom did not encourage either one.

 First went to sleep, children. Bring and unfold for them on the floor wide, stuffed with straw mattresses, skin coat or down quilts, pillows from the frost into the house. After some horse-playing, kids climb in some linen pants and shirts under the blankets. On the edge of them added one of the elders. If in the house for any reason is cold, the bed is made on the bunk, there's really adults lie on both sides so that none of the children wouldn't drop off in sleep.

The proverb "Drunks and the little ones God is watching" is not always justified, but falls from the stove or from the bunk for sleepy children often ended without any injuries.

 On the stove, behind the oven and on the bunk slept elderly. Husband and wife - on the bed, behind the cupboard, adult bachelors were content sometimes with just benches. The gates were not locked until the return of young people from social events, the last person was obliged to lock up, but sometimes it was not required since the lady of the house got up very early.

An infant was asleep in the cradle; screamers were rocked the whole night in turn by mother or grandmother. Thus, no matter how big the family, all slept in one hut in winter. However, there was also something good and necessary; the family got together and rallied. Adults and children are learned about each other, identified fraught with quarrels ambiguity. Members of the family as if overgrown with the virus of estrangement, gaining over winter the strength of kindness and tolerance.

Summer place of sleeping dispersed throughout the house. The girls moved into their tiny rooms and home workshops. For adults and children were Also, people slept in the barn and closets, and in late summer - in the attic.
 It is hard to describe, and even a small fraction of all the sounds, smells, and sensations that accompany dreams of summer sleep outdoors, whether it is a sensitive sleep of an old man, strong of tired person, or soundly of youngsters! A sigh of cows, the smell of sweat and milk, creep into the dreams of sleeping under the canopy. A man hears the cries of crake in the meadow and chirping of the dove family under a roof, muffled bells in a distant pasture, and a mosquito near the ear.

When the elderberry blossoms in the maiden attic gets in a sweet scent, drowning out the smell of clothes and the chest. The aroma of dry hay and dewy hop blows in the morning at the barns, in closets and hay barns. All of these sounds, smells and sensations are continually changing depending on the weather, time of day, and the nature of the field and household work.

The rooster in the house is the main alarm clock, despite the cock stupidity. Not having a rooster means the same as getting up on a neighbour's alarm clock in modern times. First roosters sang at midnight; they were heard by some keen to sounds old men and women. This singing confirmed the night was calm; everything was okay. The second singing forced housewives to get up and check the dough, and the third roosters singing finally made them get up for real. The devout old people rose earlier than the housewives. They made the Morning Prayer before the icon, trying not to wake the children, and went out of the house.

Thus, already mentioned Michael G. from the village Timonikha all his life got up shortly after the second cock singing. He lit the kerosene lantern in winter and chopped down pine needles in the yard, quite loudly chanting psalms. In the summer, it is bright and without a lamp, and there is a lot more any kind of work than in winter.

 After the prayer, women first looked at the dough; for a rare day, they did not put "to walk "bread or cakes. Pancakes and oatmeal were also set to ferment in the evening.

The hostess opens the vent and fires up the stove. Cracks and the smell of a kindled torch are woven into a dream of sleeping children; it made men wake up. A young woman did not immediately master the art of kindle of the stove. Ability, however, stood there in the background; the first was the quality of firewood and kindling. Logs of equal length, thickness and dryness required a half times less than heterogeneous, unevenly dried. Mastery of a burning kindle by an experienced hostess was just a virtuoso. Holding a burning splinter of wood in her mouth, she contrived to carry two full buckets in the barn and the yard, on the stairs and into the pen. The splinter stuck in the wall crevice was burning until the women fed cattle.

In the dark autumn nights and in the cruel, cold night, people would walk from one village to another with a glowing beam of a torch. It was burning actively, evenly and illuminating the way for a long time and protecting from the cold and the beast. While the stove heats up, the man manages to harness a horse and go for the hay, if not far. The hostess warmed yesterday's soup for breakfast; now, it is called soup du jour. A peasant custom to serve soup or borscht for breakfast and dinner is partially preserved in the Russian Navy.

In summer, long before breakfast, people began to mow, plow fallow. The hostess sends children to carry food for the workers or, after changing the clothes, she brings it by herself.

Carpenters during long daylight days also started to work before breakfast. But to imagine peasants squat or making the sideways movement for fitness is impossible. Moves for the sake of exercise, even for the current working peasant look, if not blasphemous, then ridiculous.

While the oven was started, the hostess had time to warm by the fire several large iron pots for the cattle (brewed tops, cabbage leaves, added oil-cake, and bran). She was rolling the dough into loaves or cakes, rolling into the fire-extinguisher place hot coals.

The awakened family, after washing, were wiping with the towel, which was changed during the week. For drying the hands, it was hung a special hand towel. Canvas cloth on the table was even in the most impoverished homes. After crossing herself, the hostess threw the tablecloth on the table and put one big communal dish with the cabbage soup. Each had their place at the table. The master cut bread, put salt in the soup, tame excessively, and encouraged too contemplative. To drop and not lift a piece of bread was considered a sin; to leave him half-eaten, leave the table ahead of time is also not supposed to. Strict order in eating can be waived only during the field harvest. The system of eating correlated with industriousness and order in general. Nobody had the authority to cancel lunch or breakfast. Even during a bread-less time, I mean the usual famine, the family observed the time between breakfast, lunch, before-dinner and dinner. The tablecloth could be unfolded for just a potato dish.

 A good eater rarely has not been a good worker. But he never ate hurriedly and in reserve. Greed was not forgiven even to children. A typical working day after breakfast was attractive because work was to be done. Work before lunch excited the most inveterate idlers, which cannot be confused with slow starters. Sometimes, someone with short legs was lazier than a slow one that delayed the beginning of work in every way but then was reluctant to leave it. Then, there had to be summoned for dinner.

Even during the harvest, lunch was made relatively long, two or even three hours; in wintertime, it was the end of the workday. In summer, workers enjoyed the short afternoon nap in most families, gaining back strength and courage. It was delightful sleeping in the hayloft on the fresh hay during haymaking time. People would curl up somewhere in the barn or in the hayloft at the field and sleep until the horses were fed. At lunch, the whole family got at the table, but in the old days in the North, peasants often gathered at a team lunch, called the feast. Refectories were built close to the wooden churches. During these dinners was, melted accumulated for some time estrangement. At them were solved important military and socio-economic affairs. The soundness of such decisions depended on under which roof they were adopted.

In the short winter days, people were twilighting. Twilighting meant sitting quietly or lying down before dinner and, even after, not lighting the lamp. "Pauzhna" is a relatively light meal between lunch and dinner, later replaced with a five 'o clock teatime. Dinner is arranged just before bedtime. According to the Russian folk, the custom to sleep on an empty stomach is not accepted.

People just come in from the fields; in the winter evenings, even old people went for gatherings…They ended the day with a prayer. Young as they returned from the games, meetings and other festivities, rarely thought of the icon, lit by a tiny flame of the lamp. The religiosity of the youth manifested itself in different qualities and actions.