If today one child in a family is a common phenomenon, then in antiquity in Russia everything was completely different. Families were large, there were many relatives, and the person was constantly surrounded by brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and other close people. And after marriage, this circle expanded even more: there appeared father-in-law and mother-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law, brother-in-law and brother-in-law. Who they are, not everyone knows. If jokes about mother-in-law are in the arsenal of any married man, then many people find it difficult to say, for example, about who the sister-in-law is. Today we’ll try to figure out tangled kinship.
Brotherhood - who is it? The answer to such a question should be known to a girl who is about to get married. After all, if her future husband has a sibling - he will be a brother-in-law in relation to her. A woman, in turn, will be considered a daughter-in-law for her husband’s brother, as, indeed, for the rest of the senior members of his family.
By the way, brother-in-law is not just a husband’s brother. This man used to have great authority for a young family, and he was assigned an important role in the wedding ceremony. For example, during the matchmaking, when the parties agreed on a wedding (and this was called a “handshake”), it was the brother-in-law (who we are, we already figured out) who was a witness from the groom. If the young one did not have a sibling, his role was played by another relative, always married. Then it was called "manual brother-in-law". Whoever it was, the responsibility of this family member was to accompany the bride to her parents to receive their blessings. By the way, if the groom asked the relative to be his brother-in-law, he did not have the right to refuse.
After the wedding, the bride was surrounded by new relatives. In relation to them, she became a daughter-in-law or daughter-in-law. The husband’s father and mother became father-in-law and mother-in-law, brothers, as we have said, become daughters-in-law. And if the husband had sisters, they became the sister-in-law of the young
wife. The brother-in-law's
wife was also called the sister-in-law in some places. This name is associated with an interesting rite of "zolomaniya", which consisted in sprinkling the bride with ashes from her native stove. With what just did not rhyme the sister-in-law in old Russian songs and proverbs! “The sister-in-law is an adder’s head”, “the sister-in-law is cunning for tricks”, and simply “sister-in-law” ... Apparently, the newlywed’s relations with her were often not friendly. But with the brother-in-law, as a rule, the opposite. It is not without reason that in ancient times there was a custom among many peoples according to which a woman should marry his sibling if her husband died.
What about the youngest husband? After all, he also had new relatives. And a strict father-in-law, and mother-in-law, not descending from the language of folk jokers. But the brothers and
sisters of the wife became the newlywed brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Who is brother-in-law and brother-in-law? It turns out that the first is the brother of the wife, and the second is the husband. As you can see, understanding family relationships is quite simple. It is much more difficult to live in peace and harmony in such a large family. But some still succeed. And then relatives replace a loving mother, a caring father, siblings.