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.