*YULETUDES *

The echoes of ancient customs are prevalent in the Northern villages. Yuletide is one of them, the most stable, having held out until the postwar years.

Have you ever had an inexplicable burning desire to go around dressed like a mummer in life? If you have not experienced this, then it is difficult to understand the whole meaning and originality of Yuletide.

The Christmas week falls on frosty wintertime when the economic affairs of the peasant kept to a mandatory minimum of care for the cattle. But, of course, the hard-working family was not sitting idly by even in winter, but at Yuletide, you could leave everything and go where you want, do what you want. Naturally, this wasn't recorded, but moral rights belonged to children, adolescents, young adults, more mature people, even the elderly.

The essence of Yuletide, which came down to our times, was mainly walking in costumes and masks, divination and the so-called fun. People's element, who could not bear the monotony of the ordinary, apparently, not in vain, selected these three festive customs.

Those who have read Gogol and spent at least pre-war childhood in the Northern village must see remarkable similarities between the festive spirit with the atmosphere, as described in the novel "The Night before Christmas." 

 In this sense, everything in "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka» of N.V. Gogol is entirely consistent with the spirit of our Northern folklife. It would seem all is different: the language, songs, nature and manners. But something important, unexplained is familiar; the relationship is striking. N.V. Gogol had never been in any Kadnikove or Kholmogory villages, had not heard of our Northern blizzards and songs, and had not seen our dances and fests. But the Northern storytellers still recognize themselves in Red-headed Panko; the mischief of Ukrainian lads is entirely similar to the Yuletide pranks. Drunken Kalenik personage still roams the countryside of Vologda province...

Fun during the Yuletide seemed to let out accumulated negative emotions that have, saying scientifically, a centrifugal direction. Apparently, it played the role of a kind of "vaccination" that prevents an actual "disease." After tasting the properties and actions of a bit of evil (the Christmas pranks), men lost interest in the great evil; they acquired moral immunity and immunity to severe infection. That's why jokes were usually doing small kids, adolescents and adult males, who for whatever reason have not achieved moral maturity in time, that is, in childhood.

A band of pranksters went at midnight to the villages, and all that was not nailed became the object of mischief. Thus, left on the street, wood-sled necessarily was put on its hind legs, on the road, and in the morning, the owner of the wood-sled had no sympathy. Rugs, dried by frost on the poles, served as material for plugging chimneys; bucket, left at the well, was used for carrying water and freezing the gates.

More serious indulgence was the destruction of firewood piles and bath heaters. Of course, no one would have dared to do this; it is considered a crime, but during Yuletide, it was forgiven, the owners were mad, but not seriously.

All kinds of divination particularly fascinated children, adolescents, women, girls and even adults, many married women. It is difficult also to list all types of divination. In Yuletide, oddly, everything took on special meaning; nothing was accidental. People would pay attention to minor detail. Any item turned into an omen, in a precursor of something definite. Everything was remembered and interpreted that no one would pay attention after the Christmas holidays.

Results of predictions rarely coincided with the subsequent reality. But the actual course of divination touched even people who did not believe in anything, responding to human needs that are obscure for us. However, the power of suggestion and auto-suggestion reached during fortunetelling and divination such proportions that people began to spontaneously seek to ensure that was predicted. Then a "prediction" indeed often came to pass.

Of course, mummers cannot be considered a random detail of people's everyday life. It was omnipresent. Few people in childhood and adolescence were not among mummers, and even in adulthood, most continued this ritual.

There was something strange to our modern view, aesthetic need, to turn yourself inside out. Perhaps with the help of anti-image / (festive mask, unnatural attire, fur coat turned inside out), our ancestors were freed from the power of hideous. Approximately the same need is felt and stupid limericks which have no rhyme, in poetic miniatures with a sense of meaninglessness and direct, deliberate absurdity.

You could feel in villages mild anxiety long before Christmas. Soon came the first day of Yuletide, on the street appeared first small mummers, in the evening dressed up teens, and in the evening at the games, conversations and dances were more spirits of performance.

We should ponder the word "performance.»

Performance is delivered prepared in advance; pretend to be someone else. This need probably is a need to periodically be transfigured, get rid of your own ego, see yourself from aside, and perhaps even get a respite from this "I" and turn at least to the opposite for a short time. It is not accidental the girls liked to dress up in men's clothes and boys - in the women's clothes. The comic effect is achieved in such cases by the discrepancy of attire and behaviour (gestures, mannerisms).

But most likely, dressing up, for example, like the devil, man, disassociated himself from everything terrible, concentrating in its new "twisted" form of all devilish stuff to get rid of it, dropping the dress. Thus, there is a peculiar, like a pagan "purification."

It was necessary to identify this evil, impersonate and imagine it, which happened during Christmas, to get rid of evil spirits.

People dressed up as per their own imagination, using various means. So, turned inside out, shrilling or sheepskin vest and trousers were sometimes half of the battle. Face smeared with soot, homemade locks made out of flax, inserts, cutout from turnip teeth, horns, masks turned a mummer into a terrible evil. People dressed up as a corpse, a gypsy, a soldier, a witch, etc. It was allowed to portray a real person known to all specific features.

A mask (lichina) was a necessary and ancient festive accessory. A variety of masks was made mainly from birch bark. On a piece of birch bark were cut out holes for eyes, nose and mouth, sewn bark nose, beard, eyebrows, mustache, rosy cheeks beet. The most colourful masks were stored until the following Christmas holidays.

In the evening, a crowd of mummers was going around some of the houses in the village. Burst into the house, frightening the children, the mummers immediately began to dance and buffoon.

The audience's task is to recognize who is dancing under one or another guise. An exposed mummer lost the purpose and took off the mask.

The beauty of walking mummers was that anybody could dress up. The shyest person boldly stamped his feet; the most mediocre dancer could dance, it was allowed to all.

Children and teenagers were waiting for the Christmas week, as indeed they were waiting for other events: carnival, drifting of the ice, the first snow, holiday, etc.

For Christmas time, people were preparing in advance. Married and youngish women went as mummers to other villages, proving that it was considered objectionable and even quite indecent in regular times.

Indulgence, masks, divination and fortunetelling continued over the Christmas week. You do not feel that harmony, order, and sequence inherent in other more prolonged folk customs at Christmas time. Of course, everybody tried to entertain the others as best as possible, but this 'disorder' was a stylistic feature of the Christmas holidays.

Inside of the very festive custom was born and evolved in its pure form, one of folk art genres - the kind of drama.

A folk drama cannot be viewed outside the Yuletide tradition; it is entirely out of the masquerade, though contrary to the spirit of the custom. Indeed, in each of the mummers is hidden the actor, but there is the actor, there is inevitable the viewers. But in the old days, acting was not significant; a mummer stopped being a mummer when his identity became known. At the same time, any person could dress up when he pleased.

In acting, in the artistic process were involved all. The people were not divided into two specific camps: the audience and performers, the creators of art and consumers.

With the division of creativity, we first meet in such actions as "Boat," "King Maximilian," "Kobylyak and burial," "Man and hatter."

Despite their artistic identity, these acts called "people's dramas" pale with the same tradition that was created them by science. 

* HOLIDAY *

 Every year in every village, sometimes in the whole parish, there were two traditional beer festivals. Thus, Timonikha village celebrated the Assumption of the Virgin in the summer; it was St. Nicholas Day in winter.

 In ancient times the congregation occasionally brewed beer from the church rye stocks. Although, for some reason, this beer was called "plea," it was transported to homes in small barrels. Often, part of the mash, brewed for a holiday, was, on the contrary, brought in the church, blessed and was given away to just anybody. So people drank wort saying: "Eve to the Holiday, good health to the brewer." The rest of the wort belonged to the priest or keeper.

 The holiday is very similar to the dramatized ritual, like the wedding. It began long before the festive days with grain soaking for malt. All the beer cycle - germination of grain, malting, drying and grinding of malt, finally, boiling the wort and brewing it was itself a ritual. Consequently, the festive act consisted of the beer preparation cycle, the eve of the holiday, the actual holiday and two days after holidays.

 Pre-festive preparations concerned and pleased people no less than the holiday itself. On the eve people went to church, the floors and ceilings were washed, cakes were baked, and jelly poured; during the summer, the canopy was hanged. Of great importance were festive new clothes, especially for children and women. Finally, the holiday was marked with a touching meeting of relatives and friends.

 Visiting is one of the oldest and most remarkable phenomena of Russian life.

 Children and the elderly came in first. People from faraway travelled on horses. By the evening would go in now adults. Bachelors were taken away from the street carnivals into the houses. All guests were welcomed with the bows.
 Usually, visitors were greeted, but only close relatives were kissed. First of all, the host would let everybody try the wort. Then, in the evening, without waiting for the people who were late, all sat at the table, men poured a glass of vodka, women and bachelors were given a glass of beer. The point of the feast for the owner was to be a gracious and generous host, and for visitors, this point boiled down to, as not to seem like a glutton or a drunkard, not disgrace himself in front of strangers. Ritual of the visit consisted of, on the one hand, treating well the guests, on the other - out of polite refusals. A talent of hospitality faced off with modesty and restraint. The more guest refused, the more the host insisted. Competition as an element of a friendly rivalry was ever-present here. But whoever wins in this competition -the guest or the host - in any case virtue and honour would win, leaving self-esteem intact.

 The beer was a favourite drink at the festival. "Wine," as vodka was called, was considered a luxury; it was not affordable to everyone. But it's not just that.

 My mother, Anfisa Ivanovna, says that the other guys went to visit with their glasses, not trusting the volume of host vessels. Most were afraid to drink too much and fall to disgrace. The host did not take offence to such a precaution. People's attitudes toward drunkenness do not allow two interpretations. In an old song that accompanies the groom to the wedding feast, there are words:


 You will go to Ivanushka.

 To a strange land,

 To look for a beautiful girl.

 They will meet you by the high court.

 On the wide bridge,

 Take the shawl handkerchief,

 Below, bow down.

 They will lead you

 To the oak tables.

 To a wonderful feast.

 Will they bring you

 The first glass of wine?

 Do not drink Ivanushka

 The first glass of wine,

 Pour this glass, Ivanushka,

 To a horse in the hoof.


 The second proposed glass also you do not drink, and pour it out "his horse in the mane."


 Will they bring you

 The third glass of wine?

 Do not drink it, Ivanushka,

 The third glass of wine.

 And give it, Ivanushka,

 To your wife, Maria"…


 After two or three rejections, the guest just tasted, but then everything was repeated, and the host spent a lot of time loosening up the guests.

 Regaling as abstinence was raised to the power of art, good hosts were known throughout the county, and if the beer on the table was sour and pies were callous, it was a shame to the family and the host.

 It was developed many methods of treating. Traditional sayings were appealing to logic and common sense: "have a drink for the second leg," "God loves a trinity," and "the house doesn't stand on three corners."

 Guests had their stock of arguments. By refusing, he said, for example: "As the host does so the guests do." However, the host could not drink, first, for the same reasons as for the guest. Secondly, he had to manage the party and stay sober. Thus, a glass of drink fell into a vicious circle, which hesitated to break all but the drunkards. Asking or provoking the host for a new drink looked even more disgraceful.

 Asking people to eat or drink was a continuous duty of the master of the house. The time between course rounds was spent in conversations and songs. Finally, more ambitious got out from the table to the dance circle. Dancing interspersed long songs throughout the whole evening. Guests came out on the street to see how young people were entertaining.

 Often in the holiday house, people would come without an invitation; it was allowed to acquaintances and strangers, rich and poor. Friends were seated at the table; the rest were served with beer or wort on the tray, depending on age, in turn, drawing from the large cup with the ladle. If somebody was passed, not served, that was the greatest insult. The host watched like a hawk that no one was accidentally bypassed.

 The main celebratory act concluded late at night with a lavish dinner with sheep gel in strong kvas (non-alcohol fermented drink) and ended with oatmeal in the mash.

 On the second day, guests went to other relatives; some just went home. The children, the elderly and the needy could stay with for a week or more.

 Visiting acquired the properties of chain reaction; stop visits between the houses were no longer possible; it lasted forever. Conceding the first places to new, closer relatives, who appeared after the wedding, families continued to visit each other for many decades.
A multiplicity of visits,  many relatives, near and far, tied each village, township and even
counties
.

* VILLAGE GATHERING*

VILLAGE GATHERING



 Novgorod and Pskov Veche, as known to every schoolboy, have been little studied. It is incomprehensible to modern Soviet people.
   What is it? A constitutional assembly? A parliament? The executive and legislative authority of the feudal republic? Neither one nor the other. The Veche can be understood only by making sense of the Russian communal self-government. Village gatherings were its practical realization. Note: self-government, not arbitrariness. In the first case, we are talking about common interests; in the second - about the selfish and personal.
 It is clear that such phenomenon of Russian life, as a village gathering, was implementing primary social, military, political and economic responsibilities and had it's own aesthetic, following the general notion of the Russian people of harmony and beauty.
   The necessity of a gathering ripened gradually, not immediately, but when it finally matured, was enough the smallest initiative to launch the meeting. People would gather themselves feeling such a need.
   In other cases, people were called by police constables or by a distinctive ringing of the bell (of the fire or the enemy raids were unique bell rings. A police constable nimbly and a bit solemnly walked through the street and heralded people to the gathering. Announcing is the first part of this custom. After announcing or bells ringing, people slowly, usually dressed up, come together at a predetermined place.
   Everybody had a right to participate in the gathering and express themselves, but not all dared. When the general commotion was raised, everybody began to yell, even kids. The elderly, often deliberately, was leaving such an uproar. However, the cries and the noise does not always mean a mess. When it came to serious matters, loudmouths stopped talking and joined the general opinion because common sense gained the upper hand even in violent and noisy gatherings. The most ancient kind of gathering is a meeting in the refectory when the adults came together at the table and decided military, trade and economic affairs. Later, this custom has teamed up with Christian Te Deum, as many wooden churches were built with the refectory - a particular room at the entrance to the church. As for us, strangely enough, at the rural peasant gathering was not a committee, neither the chairman nor the secretaries. The same common sense, tradition, and unwritten rule managed the proceedings. Since the opinion of the fairest, intelligent and experienced people was more important than all the other views, these people were listened to more, although sometimes brawlers took over. After listening to all and discussing the details, the gathering declares a so-called sentence (decision). On the need, money would be collected, and the most venerable and most reliable participant would be assigned execution of a case (for example, go with a petition).
 Of course, the decision was binding for all. Formal proceedings of village gatherings changed dramatically with the introduction of the paper documentation. If the meeting participants spoke open what was on their mind ( you cannot put a spoken word into the case ), then with the introduction of the paper logging, people began to speak gently, and this way and that way, some have ceased altogether to speak.
   The power of paper - the power of bureaucracy - has always been hostile to communal settings with its openness and directness, with its sometimes unruly but forgiving speakers.
 The bureaucratization of village meetings created new, utterly alienness to the Russian spirit speakers. Therefore, even such a supporter of European regulations and "politeness," as Peter the Great, had to issue a decree prohibiting talking from the paper. "So that stupidity of speaker was visible to everyone" - sounds like this final part of the order. Moreover, with the introduction of a paper trail on gatherings, many advocates of justice, in general, have stopped going to sincere people. Demagogues had all the more freedom. It is fascinating from all angles, including the artistic, how collective farm meetings were held. However, the protocols preserved in the archives reflect little of the peculiarity of these gatherings. Indeed, the collaborative farm meetings and the postwar years had a distant ritual attribute. The custom of festive gatherings existed until recently in most Northern collective farms. Those meetings were concluded with a heavy, everyday dinner meal. All participated in this dinner, from little kids to old folk. Those who could not come were brought food from the public table.

VILLAGE PARTIES

You could observe the order in the way of life in young people's parties that sometimes involved even children, adults, and the elderly, albeit in a different capacity.

Village parties can be divided into winter and summer parties. The summer parties took place on village streets during big Christian holidays.
Summer festivities would start before the sunset with discordant singing of local teenage girls, kids screaming, games and swings. Youth were coming from many counties. Married couples and older people participated only if they came here on a visit.

Before they came to the street, boys from other villages lined up and did a first "militant" pass by singing with the accordion. Behind them, too, in ranks, and also with the songs, went the girls. After going back and forth along the street, the visitors would stop where a group of locals gathered. Then, after a few pompous ritual greetings, the dancing would start. A harmonist or balalaika player was seated on a log or a rock on the porch. If there were mosquitoes, the girls took turns "fanning" the player with scarves, flowers or twigs.

Visiting relatives and friends were immediately taken away to homes, the rest of the public continued festivities. All-new "parties" at the night streets and alleys filled the festive crowd from different parts of the village. People danced simultaneously in many places; each "party" sang their own songs.

By the End of festivities, guys would come up to long-ago or just now chosen girls and were strolling in pairs along the street for some time.

After the party, couples would go-to hiding places to sit and talk, and finally, the boys escorted the girls home.

Shy or new guys walk back home singing. Only in the autumn, when it got dark early, they stayed the night in other people's bathhouses, in the hayloft, or in houses where friends were staying.

Street festivities continued on the second day of the patronal feast of beer, though it was not so crowded. On ordinary days or not significant holidays, youth were partying without beer, not so wide and not so long. Often the playground for young people was selected a beautiful hill above the river, at church, at the docks.

The old style of dances for young adults in the 20s and early 30-es of the XX century almost completely disappeared; festivities came down to walking, singing to an accordion and incessant dancing. Dance for married and elderly in the streets among the unmarried was no longer shameful.

The winter carnivals began in late autumn, subject to Lents, and ended in the spring. They were divided into the revels and the conversations.

The revels were held only between Lents. The girls, in turn, gave up their houses for the celebration, and that day, the family would escape for the whole evening to the neighbour's place. If the family was rigorous, the girl hired someone else's house with a necessary condition to provide the candles and wash the floor after the festivities.

At the revels first arrived the children and adolescents. Adults girls did not really like kids at the event and tried to get rid of them from the premises while managing to make fun of local and non-local suitors. If there was music, at once began to dance; if the music was not present, they played and sang. The arrival of strangers was quite ceremonious, even stiff at first; they shook hands, undressed, folded coats and hats anywhere on the shelf. Then they took their seats on the benches. If there were many people, guys were sitting on the girls' laps, not necessarily their own girlfriends.

Once the dancing started, the first round of the game was opened. This kind of a half-game came, probably from the far-forsaken time, gradually acquiring the traits of a ritual. Maintaining high chastity gave young people a place for the first excitements and delights of love and allowed them to select a lad and a gal. This practice is allowed to feel the full value of their own person to even the most conservative and the shyest guys and girls.

The game would start up as a joke. Two locals -a guy and a girl - sat somewhere in the back corner, in the dark scullery behind the stove. They were curtained with a blanket or bedding, behind which no one had a right look in. After some whispering, the guy would ask another young man to replace him, judging by his liking (or interest). After talking with the girl about this and that, the latter had the right to invite the one he liked or needed for a secret conversation. But he, in turn, also had to go away and send in the one she would like to talk to. Equality among sexes was absolute, and the right of choice was the same. To stay together at that place for the whole evening meant to identify the serious thoroughness of feelings that once all caught the eyes of the rest and brought a great responsibility on the young couple. Let young people stay alone for longer than usual, as a new place continued with the new game.

The game continued; participants did not want to sacrifice themselves just for those two.

Thus, this game presented a window of opportunity:

1. Meet somebody in whom they are interested.

2. See a loved one.

3. Get rid of a partner they didn't like.

4. To help a friend (girlfriend) get together with a person of their interest.

During Lent, girls get together doing spinning, knitting, weaving, embroidery, and talking. A place for girls' gatherings was chosen in rounds or rented from the people who lived alone ("bobyl"). People would pay for light and heat, but girls would bring together the spinning wheel under the arm and birch logs in tight times. In conversations, girls sang played games but, if outsiders came, it looked unfavourably, especially by devout parents.

"In the conversations, the girls span, - wrote Vasily V. Kosmachev, who lives in Petrozavodsk - knit and had fun at the same time, sang songs, danced and played various games. In our village, every evening was from four to six such gatherings. The guys walked through the village with an accordion and sang songs. We, too, were not one gang but several, and they were selected by age. We would drop by the girls' gatherings. After the party/gathering, we ordered a "pull" a girl to see her home. Somebody from the company goes to the house, looking for the girl of interest, pulls out from under the spinning wheel. Then he takes out the spinning wheel and gives it to the guy who ordered it. The girl comes out and looks at who took her spinning wheel. Then she decides to go out with this guy or not. If she likes him, then she goes back, puts her clothes on and walks out; if not, then she takes back the spinning wheel and then spins again."

[Dropped a sentence and a quote] Boys would come where girls were. However, they would typically go to the neighbour villages. At the gathering, girls wove the lace, and the guys (from another village) were joking, flirted with girls, and made a mess of the bobbins with the lace. The girls, while working, would sing limericks if there was an accordion; they sang with accompaniment.
 On Sundays, too, girls met for weaving, embroidery but often, the frame was put aside and entertained with songs, games, flirting and dancing. I liked winter gatherings for their ease sincerity. The Merry Party took place in winter and lasted for two days. This fest happened not every year and only in villages where many young people were. Guys and girls would rent a spacious barn with a hardy floor or free animal barns; they clean, decorate, and place benches along the walls. Girls from other villages, sometimes distant villages, came to visit at the invitation of relatives or friends, and guys went without requests. Girls from nearby communities, who had not been invited, came as spectators. Although the Merry Fest usually was carried out not during the holidays, the village organizer prepared for it as a great holiday, with a sumptuous feast and all the rest. The most solemn and crowded was the first evening. Around five or six o'clock, girls came in without coats, only in dresses, but with warm shawls (winter! barn had no heating!) The boys also came in light clothing, and winter coats or jackets were left in the huts. Village people wore felt boots, even on holidays, but they wore high boots, boots, and shoes at The Merry. And to be warm on the road, they wore over-shoes. In those years felt over-shoes were in high fashion, both for women and men. The girls sat on the benches, but the guys stood near the door.
The essential fun at the Merry fest was dancing. At that time in our area was performed the only dance - "zainka"- a little hare (instead of the word "dance," they said: "to play zainka"). This was a simplified kind of quadrille dance. The number of pas could be any and depended only on the willingness and skill of dancers. In "zainka" dance leading role belonged to the gentlemen; they competed among themselves in the dancing skills. It was danced in four pairs, in "cross." The order was placed and supported by the hosts, that is, boys and young men of the village (they did not participate in the dances). They also determined the order of entry of the dancers. It was always a complex and delicate matter. A great honour was thought to be the first couple, and nobody wanted to be the last. Therefore, when setting priorities, there were some with hurt pride. Invitation girls to dance did not differ from today's, but everything was different after the dance. Seeing the girl to the bench, the young man sat down at her place and put her on his lap. Both covered with a warm shawl and waited for the next round of dancing. Around 9 PM, girls went to drink tea and change clothes. Clothes change was the necessary procedure at the Merry Fest. This is why girls came to visits with large bags of clothes, 4-5 dresses.
Quantity and quality of a girl's clothes, her behaviour was the subject of discussion for village women; they observed everything happening, who wore what, who sat with whom and how they sat. Around midnight were dinner and a second change of clothes. The following days were day and short evening entertainments. The hosts invited boys from faraway villages to a feast and overnight stay. Many homes hosted up to ten guests. The level of the Merry Fest was to be judged by the number of couples, the number of accordions, but by the order, fun and pleasure for the guests and spectators." [End of a quote here]

In many villages, they hold big gatherings and minor, to which teenage girls came with his little spinning wheels. Imitation was not going beyond the spinning wheels and songs.

When the girl went from a bit of gathering to a large, she certainly was remembered her whole life.