Proverbs about winter are the ancestral sayings of our ancestors who for centuries have watched nature, studied it and made conclusions. Nowadays, this folklore genre has moved into the category of children's literature, but without noticing it, people use sayings and proverbs in their daily lives. This suggests that centuries-old folk wisdom will continue to live in new generations.
The meaning of folk wisdom
The instructive sayings, which were called proverbs, and short, steady combinations called proverbs, were passed on from mouth to mouth for a long time. Until real connoisseurs of folk literature were found and recorded.
Interestingly, each Russian province had its own proverbs about winter or summer, good and evil. But in general, they conveyed the sayings of the sages who lived in these parts many centuries ago.
Winter in the old days was a time of rest and fun, if summer came out fruitful. As a rule, at this time, people gathered in a common big hut, sang songs, told fairy tales, women spun yarn and weaved linen, men weaved nets, made wooden utensils.
When someone went out into the yard, they were advised: "Take care of your nose in severe frost." This meant that it was better to dress and cover your face. For people of that time, proverbs and sayings about winter often determined the passage of time. For example, “the year ends - winter begins”, “January is on the threshold - added a day to the passerine gallop”.
Symbols of the future crop in proverbs about winter
Experienced farmers of antiquity could determine in winter what spring and summer will be. “Winter without snow, summer without bread,” the proverb says. The signs that people noticed when working in the fields or hunting in the forest, then became the basis of folk wisdom. Proverbs about winter are proof of this:
- "Snow will inflate, then bread will come."
- "Fierce winter - hot summer."
In ancient times, those who were engaged in cultivation, hunting or fishing, largely depended on the weather, on the season and harvest. No wonder the people said that "the winter has a great belly." This meant that with a poor harvest, all stocks were eaten during the cold months, so people with such hope were waiting for the spring to come, counting the days before the heat arrived: “February adds 3 hours to the white day.”
The life of our ancestors was then simple and was divided into periods before the harvest and after it.
Proverbs - Warnings
In many ways, sayings and proverbs of yesteryear were a warning to lazy or negligent hosts. “Summer is picking, and winter is picking up,” is a warning to those who are swinging away from work. The larger the harvest of wheat, vegetables and fruits, the more time to make salts, to dry mushrooms and berries. This will be the winter that eats up all the supplies.
“In winter I would eat a fungus, but the snow is very deep,” people said when they regretted that they had made small reserves for the winter. Nowadays, these are the proverbs about this time of year that are relevant only because of cold weather (“frost paints your nose”), because you can not keep supplies, and everything you need is sold in a supermarket.
Modern children know this, but through proverbs about winter for schoolchildren, they learn about how their peers lived many centuries ago.
The image of winter among the people
Despite the cold, and often hunger, our ancestors loved and accepted winter as part of the natural cycle: “Don’t scare, winter, spring will come.” During this period there were many holidays, for example, New Year, Christmas time, Pancake week and others.
They were the very rest for which people worked hard in the fields and gardens. Festivities with dances, songs, jokes and feasts, girlish fortune-telling to the suitors, all this was part of the life and relaxation of people of those times. They worked hard, but also had a nice rest.
“Thank you for the frost that brought the snow,” - so the people praised the winter for the future harvest. Thanks to our ancestors, today we can get to know their life through proverbs and sayings that they left us as a legacy.