Russian Christmas time is a period of time usually associated with the so-called winter solstice. Usually they open a folk sunny year. At present, Christmas time is celebrated throughout Russia and, as a rule, is considered a youth holiday. The favorite entertainment of young people during this period is carols and various fortune telling. But how did young people spend their holy days in Russia? Let's talk about all this in more detail.
What kind of holiday is Christmas time?
What are wedding days? This is a whole holiday complex of Slavic origin. The holy season consists of 12 holidays (by the number of months) and lasts from the appearance of the first star (on the eve of Christmas, in Kolyada) to the Baptism of the Lord. This Christian tradition has the famous holiday of Christmas time.
What is the Christian tradition in this case? Everything is simple! Influenced by the Christian church in Russia, the original Slavic holiday - Christmas time - merged with many January Christmas rites. All this led to the fact that he began to be celebrated according to the church calendar - from the Nativity of Christ (on the first star) to the Baptism of the Lord.
Christmas time in Russia has always been divided into 2 periods: holy evenings and terrible evenings. The first period began with Christmas and lasted a week. The second began immediately after the first and continued until Baptism. If everything is clear with the holy evenings, then why did terrible evenings begin after them?
The fact is that in the old days Russian peasants blindly believed in evil. They believed that before the Baptism of the Lord, a dark force begins to walk on the ground so that the smoke goes in balance. True, not everyone understood that young men and women, who were actively mischievous during these holidays, acted in the role of evil spirits. For example, at Christmas time it was customary to plug chimney pipes with something, and also to roll firewood in the yards of civilians.
How was Christmas time in Russia?
By the turn of the January holidays, rural youth in antiquity began to prepare in advance. Girls and boys wanted to have fun these days as much as possible. Their favorite pastime was, of course, the legendary caroling. By the way, we owe this custom to the ancient pagan god - Kolyada. So, how did the hymns go in winter Christmas time?
For the carols to be successful, young people had to walk through the villages, holding a star glued from silver paper. Girls and boys knocked on different houses, and when they opened the doors, they joyfully sang (carol) and congratulated the hosts on the current holidays. In exchange, the guys received some edible (and not so) gifts.
In the old days, it was customary not only to present caroling youth, but also to hospitably invite young men and women to their home, sitting at their table and treating them with sacred foods. What can I say: it was a pleasant work - Christmas caroling!
What are the Christmas masquerades? Learn more about this later.
Masquerades on Christmas
On the second day after Christmas, the so-called Christmas masquerades began. Each of the guys tried to make himself some kind of original mask-mask. For example, boys dressed up in wolves and bears, and girls dressed up in hens and goats. The essence of such a masquerade was to dress up as skillfully as possible: no one from the whole village should have recognized you!
To do this, it was necessary not only to sew an animal costume, but also to make up pretty much. The children rubbed their cheeks with black soot, tied a long washcloth to their chins, attached a mustache under their nose, put horns on their heads, cut fang teeth from turnips, etc. Then a whole horde of mummers of youth roamed the villages, sang and danced, scaring the kids. Passers-by tried to make out their acquaintances, children, grandchildren in them. Whom they recognized, he was obliged to remove his mask-mask.
The Most Important Occupation On The Holy Days
What else are famous for winter Christmas time? Of course, fortunetelling! You can’t imagine a better time than the January holidays . As you know, young people in Russia were known for their enviable zeal for knowing their immediate future: young men and especially curious girls loved to unveil the veil of secrets of their destiny on holy days.
Maidens, for example, were eager to find out when their wedding day would come and who they were - their suitors. The guys, in turn, were interested in the nature of the future bride, her external data. At this time, young people mostly gathered in churches, in bathhouses and at so-called evenings, in a word, in places intended for fortune telling.
Vorozhba and obscene songs
Christmas time in January is known for a lot of fortune-telling, it is simply impossible to list all of them, so we’ll tell you about only one. One of the most striking divine fortune-telling was the so-called divination with obscure songs. The girls needed to dress up and sit down on benches standing along someone else's hut. Opposite them, young men sat. Between them stood a table covered with a tablecloth on it. A huge dish of water was placed on it.
In this dish you had to throw your jewelry: earrings, rings, rings. When a girl threw a ring into the water, for example, she had to make a wish and sing a song. Such songs were called observable. When the song ended, the young men shook the dish, after which they pulled out one piece of jewelry. According to the content of the sung obscene song, they judged the future fate of the owner of this jewelry.
Interesting Facts
So, in this article we learned what Christmas time was: what is this holiday, how and when it was held. But something we don’t know yet! For example, at one time in the Russian Empire a law was in force, according to which, on holy days, "games according to ancient idolatrous traditions", as well as "making dances and singing seductive songs along the streets, dressing up in idol and devilish clothes" were strictly forbidden. Fortunately, now all this is a relic of the past.