The life of the peasants consisted not only of righteous labors. The village knew how to relax. We prepared for the holidays ahead of time; not only adults, but also children were waiting for it. Children - even especially. And not only for the sake of gifts or plentiful treats, although here it is probably appropriate to say that any festive table due to frequent and long-term exhausting fasts. For the peasant, many, if not all, folk and church customs, traditions, rituals naturally and naturally fit into his circle economic activity and spiritual life, serving as a kind of reward for difficult, sometimes exhausting everyday life.
How our ancestors rested
Girls came to parties with spinning wheels, but they did it, as they say, to divert attention: how much can you strain if the accordion is so flooded that your legs ask to dance. Most often they danced a four-legged quadrille. During breaks, they sang songs and ditties, had conversations, cracking nuts (later seeds appeared). Guys sometimes indulged in wine at parties, but they indulged, not got drunk. Having thus walked for an evening or two, they moved to another village, got acquainted, took a closer look at their neighbors and neighbors, lingering where they found personal interest.
Festive, and any ordinary parties usually dragged on until well after midnight.
Visit the Malye Karely open-air museum on a weekend or a holiday, and you will see with your own eyes how our ancestors rested.
However, the youth were not bored during the day. They set up ice slides and rode down them in special sleds. The slides were built on the high bank of the river, the sleds flew off them along the ice for 300-400 meters. Every guy, if he started getting married, had to give his girlfriend a ride down such a hill. It was such a game - with squeals and laughter if the couple flew into a snowdrift, which was sometimes done deliberately.
Celebrations on Maslenitsa
And on Maslenitsa, in addition to chunka rides, there were sleigh rides around the village, and not alone, in whole trains. It was a wonderful sight. In the village there was a real amateur holiday, your own performance, in which you were both a spectator and an artist, you yourself had fun and amused others. Their owners wove bright ribbons into the mane of each horse, attached a ringing Valdai bell to the arch, and the sleigh was decorated - whoever was so inclined. Such a train rushing through the village - thirty to forty sleighs at a time - is absolutely breathtaking! Even frail old people came out to see this fun. And the train flew through the village, stopping for a while at the ice slide, where they again rode in chunks, and rushed to the next village of the society. And so on - until he travels around the entire district, galloping around with noise, ringing, din, songs and cheerful music. An unforgettable sight...
Patronal holidays
The old village celebrated holidays in the summer, even on the days of suffering. These were mainly patronal feasts - in honor of one or another saint to whom the village church was dedicated. So every village, if it had a temple of God, also had its own patronal holiday. 
On throne days, beer was brewed in every house, snacks were prepared and feasted for two or three days. Adults usually spent holidays at home, and young people chose a place in a meadow near the river. As a rule, boys and girls from four or five surrounding villages gathered for such parties. They danced the same quadrille to the sound of discordant harmonies, sang songs, in groups, in a row, and walked through the meadow. The party began at noon and ended late in the evening, but it often continued the next day. Older people also came to the meadow in the evening, but not to sing and dance, but, above all, to look for a bride for their son.
Christmas holidays
But the main holidays are joy and decoration village life fell out for the winter. And first among them in seniority and veneration was Christmas. It was some kind of bright and joyful holiday, expected by the whole family. Of course, the religious element gave it an unusually strong, leading, one might say, color: after all, the date of the birth of Christ is still the starting point of our chronology. But at the same time popular consciousness, guided by the echoes of some vague, even more ancient ritual customs, associated with this day both the completion by the peasant of the eternal cycle of arduous work on the land, and the desire to predict whether next year favorable for the farmer or not.
On this day (or the eve of it), the peasant took note of many natural phenomena: is there frost on the trees, is it a clear day or a blizzard, is the sky starry, is the sled path good, believing that thick frost promises abundant grain, a blizzard means swarming of bees , and the stars are the harvest for peas. This whole system of customs and beliefs endowed Christmas with a special meaning - mysterious, enigmatic, going back to unspeakably hoary antiquity and full of vague hopes.
But the universal desire to finally have a tasty meal and take a walk after a dull, boring and exhausting fast completely deprived him of all mysticism, made him close and understandable in an earthly way, and how close and understandable it was.
Try it, sit week after week on jelly and butter, you won’t want to, but you will remember how your grandmother told you: “Wait, fasting, it will put your tail between your legs!”
What is true is true, the post had its tail between its legs, although both the barn and the cage were not empty. But with the onset of the holiday, both yesterday’s bread on the table and boring potatoes in the pot came to an end. The meat plot allowed everything: the long-awaited cabbage soup with meat, and lush, oiled pies, shangi. But before sitting down at the table, it was necessary to go to church and take communion.
Weddings in the village
Weddings in the countryside most often took place in the spring or autumn. In order to ensure the happiness of the newlyweds, resistance was shown throughout the wedding. Until the very wedding day the bride resisted what was happening, even if she wanted to get married. Hence her lamentations, which were always improvisation, not violating strict traditional forms. Lamenting, the betrothed girl “screamed loudly,” lashing her hands on the bench and the floor.” And everyone took it for granted, they told her: “If you don’t cry at the table, you’ll cry at the post.”
Resistance to the wedding came not only from the bride, but also from the “comers” - fellow villagers who saw off the bride from native village. They blocked the way for the wedding train, sang so-called reproach songs, in which they reproached “the groom, scolded and ridiculed the “matchmaker” (or “topman” if he rode a horse, leading the wedding train”).
Matchmaker, matchmaker,
Yes, the crafty devil of a matchmaker,
Yes, the crafty devil of a matchmaker,
He kept walking around and pretending,
Not by way, not by road,Oh, not by way, not by road -
Side by side,
Side by side,
Yes, dog trails,Oh, all the dog trails,
Yes, by animal standards,
All animal holes,
Everyone walked around and praised,Everyone walked around and praised,
Someone else's far side
Someone else's far side.
All the villain is unfamiliar,
Oh, evil - the miracle of the father's son
It is impossible to imagine the old village without songs. There were a great variety of songs: round dances, games, love songs, wedding songs. During lullabies, the cradle with the baby was rocked; during funeral songs, they said goodbye to the deceased.
Used sources:
(Based on materials from the books by N. Plotnikov “Exhibition Relics” and E.I. Arinian “Religion Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, as well as the memories of old-timers).
Entire life working people was at work. They sowed and reaped grain, cut down huts. They plowed with roe deer and plows, harrowed with wooden harrows, sowed by hand from a basket, reaped with sickles, threshed with flails, and mowed the grass with pink salmon scythes. Since the land could not feed the peasant, he was forced to look for income on the side. Many peasants left the village every year to go fishing - they walked on foot to get hired at timber mills in Arkhangelsk.
Daily routine of a peasant family
The peasant family was the basis for the transmission of all labor skills, customs, and morals. The husband did men's work - plowed, mowed, transported firewood, hay: the horse was under his complete control. 
The wife - mother led everything women's work. She stung, threshed, spun, weaved, looked after livestock, prepared food, and kept records of supplies. 
Boys were accustomed from the age of 8 to 10 to do men's work, girls - to do women's work. The daily routine in a peasant family has been sanctified for centuries. And he hardly changed. 
Morning of the hostess
In the house, the housewife gets up first. Having washed herself, she begins to fuss around the stove: she opens the damper, throws dry firewood crosswise into the stove - and the flame quickly embraces the entire back half of the stove. 
Just before the fire, she places cast iron with water for brewing feed for the animals: This is an unshakable rule in the household, the cattle always come first, they need to be given food before you sit down at the table.
Women walked around with a lighted torch when dressing up with livestock. Since we had buckets of swill and water in our hands, we had to carry the splinter in our teeth. In the courtyard it was inserted into a slot in the wall. Having watered and fed the cow, we began milking.
List of used literature:
Bostrom L. Arkhangelsk Museum wooden architecture. Arkhangelsk, 1984. Volkov V. Russian village. “White City” M. 2005.
Gnezdov S.V. The ringing of your bells Russia. 1997
Kostomarov N.I., Home life and the morals of the Great Russian people. M., Economics, 1993
Opolovnikov A.V. Huts in the North // Forest and Man. M. Timber industry. 1980
Plotnikov N. Exhibition dates. /Chronicle of the North. Historical and local history collection. Arkhangelsk. 1990
Historians believe that from ancient times the Eastern Slavs settled in the 6th century in the middle reaches of the Dnieper, approximately where the city of Kyiv is now located. The settlement of Slavic tribes went up the Dnieper and its tributaries.
Dense forests began here - first deciduous, and to the north - mixed and coniferous (about this natural area we talked to you). The settlers found themselves in unusual conditions.
In a new place, the Slavs usually settled along the banks of rivers and lakes in several large family groups. True, families then consisted of 15-20 people: the head of the family with his wife, their adult sons and wives, their children, and sometimes grandchildren. Three or four households settled together.
In the houses of the Slavs, the floor was a meter deep into the ground, the walls were made of thin tree trunks - poles, cleared of branches and bark. The poles are connected to each other with wooden spikes and bound with flexible bark for strength. The roof is also made of poles, and there is a thick layer of straw on it.
In the corner there was a stove made of stone - it heated the house and cooked food on it. The stove was fired black - this means that there was no chimney, and all the smoke came out through windows, doors, holes in the roof. Inside such a house it was always cool, dark and damp. The windows cut into the walls were covered with boards or straw at night and in cold weather - after all, there was no glass then.
Everything in the house free place occupied a table and 2-3 benches. In the corner lay several armfuls of hay covered with animal skins - these were beds.
Life for the settlers was not easy. Like all primitive peoples, the Slavs were engaged in gathering and hunting. They collected honey, berries, mushrooms, nuts, hunted wild boars, moose, bears, and fished in rivers. Now we also go to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries and fish. But for us it’s a rest, but for our ancestors it was a lot of work, and not easy. After all, food had to be prepared for the whole family.
Since ancient times, the Slavs have been engaged agriculture. They plowed with wooden plows on oxen. They sowed rye and wheat.
However, in the dense forest, clearings suitable for farming are rare, and the land is infertile. it was necessary to burn down forests to clear space for arable land and fertilize the ground with ash. In addition, forest predators and “dashing people” - robbers - were constantly threatening.
In addition, the ancient Slavs had developed beekeeping (beekeeping). Where did this word come from? Since ancient times, honey has been a commodity, medicine and one of the main delicacies. But it was very difficult to get it. The Slavs lured bees with honey, and then traced their path to a hollow. Finally came up with an idea board- a tree stump with a hollow or a hollowed out block.
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| Bort |
Since ancient times in Rus' traded surplus crops, exported them to greek cities on the Black Sea coast (in the Cuban studies lesson we talked about them in great detail).
The anciently famous trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” passed along the Dnieper. Varangians in Rus' were called warlike people from the coast and islands of the Baltic Sea. Why did cities arise along the trade route? Look at the map.
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| The path "from the Varangians to the Greeks" |
The caravan was accompanied by strong security. There were river rapids in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, and the boats had to be pulled ashore again and dragged again. Here the steppe nomads waited for the caravans, robbed merchants and captured travelers.
Having passed the rapids, the caravan went out into the Black Sea and sailed to the city of Constantinople (Istanbul).
New cities and various industries arose along the trade route, and surrounding residents were drawn to them. And travelers introduce the population to new goods, the culture of other peoples, and news in the world.
When settling new lands, people gave names to new rivers, cities, towns, and mountains.
Settlement of the Eastern Slavs in Eastern Europe was peaceful, but they were often attacked by nomadic tribes. Therefore, the Slavs were forced to master the science of war. The tall, strong Slavs were known as brave warriors. Fighting with enemies, they lured them into impenetrable forest wilds and swamps.
The constant struggle with nomads claimed thousands of lives and distracted them from peaceful work. And yet the Slavs slowly but persistently moved towards the formation of a state.
And now I propose to test the acquired knowledge by answering the quiz questions.
Let's remember how our ancestors lived, what they ate and what they dressed in. If anyone thinks that life was sweet at that time, they are greatly mistaken.
Before this, the life of a simple Russian peasant was completely different.
Usually a person lived to be 40-45 years old and died as an old man. He was considered a grown man with a family and children at the age of 14-15, and she even earlier. They did not marry for love; it was the father who went to marry his son.
People had no time for idle rest at all. In the summer, absolutely all the time was spent working in the fields; in the winter, preparing firewood and Homework for the manufacture of tools and household utensils, hunting.
Let's look at a Russian village of the 10th century, which, however, is not much different from the village of both the 5th century and the 17th century...
We came to the Lyubytino historical and cultural complex as part of a motor rally dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Avtomir group of companies. It is not for nothing that it is called “One-Storey Russia” - it was very interesting and educational to see how our ancestors lived.
In Lyubytino, at the place where the ancient Slavs lived, among the mounds and burials, a real village of the 10th century was recreated, with all the outbuildings and necessary utensils.
We will start with an ordinary Slavic hut. The hut is made of logs and covered with birch bark and turf. In some regions, the roofs of the same huts were covered with straw, and in some places with wood chips. Surprisingly, the service life of such a roof is only slightly less than the service life of the entire house, 25-30 years, and the house itself lasted about 40 years. Considering the time of life at that time, the house was just enough for a person’s life.
By the way, in front of the entrance to the house there is a covered area - this is the same canopy from the song about the “new, maple canopy.”
The hut is heated black, that is, the stove does not have a chimney; the smoke comes out through a small window under the roof and through the door. There are no normal windows either, and the door is only about a meter high. This is done in order not to release heat from the hut.
When the stove is fired, soot settles on the walls and roof. There is one big plus in a “black” firebox - there are no rodents or insects in such a house.
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There were bottom pits built in the barn, remember - “I scraped the bottom pipes...”? These are special wooden boxes into which grain was poured from above and taken from below. So the grain did not sit stale.
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When defending against the enemy, the basic equipment of a warrior was chain mail, a shield, and a helmet. Weapons: spear, hatchet, sword. Chain mail is not to say that it is light, but unlike armor, you can run in it. Well, we ran around a bit.
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If you think that people in the past were less eccentric than the current generation, then remember their fashion and traditions - there are many surprising things there.
website I compiled a small list of what our ancestors considered normal, and found out that you and I are not so strange.
First and second dream
Europeans living during the Middle Ages practiced what is now called biphasic sleep. The first sleep began at sunset and lasted until about midnight, then people woke up and stayed awake for 2-3 hours. Some were praying or reading at this time, while others were communicating with household members or neighbors. Then came the time of the second sleep, which lasted until sunrise.
Live alarms
Knocker-up, or alarm clock man, is a profession that existed from the late 18th century until 1920. The duties of such people included waking up those who had to go to work. The "alarm clocks" would bang on their clients' windows with sticks or shoot peas at them from a blowpipe. It is not entirely clear who woke up the knocker-ups themselves, but there is a version that they did not go to bed at all before work.
Boys' dresses
Starting from the 16th century and until about 1920, it was customary for boys up to a certain age (4-8 years) to be dressed in dresses, and this did not bother anyone. Probably the main reason for this was the high cost of clothing, and dresses were easier to sew for growth. The tradition did not escape even the family of Nicholas II - in the photo his son Tsarevich Alexei is wearing a dress similar to those worn by his sisters.
Chopins
Chopins, also known as zoccoli and pianelli, are a type of platform shoe whose height could reach 50 cm. It is not surprising that those who wore these shoes required the help of servants so as not to literally fall victim to fashion. However, they wore chopins not only out of a desire for beauty, but also in order not to get their clothes dirty in the street dirt.
Bleeding for all diseases
Fear of water procedures
In the Middle Ages, in some countries it was believed that water only brought illness to humans, and lice were called “God’s pearls.” These beliefs were shared by the monarchs. Isabella of Castile was proud that she washed only twice in her life: at birth and before her wedding. Once the gentleman drew attention to her dirty hands and nails, to which the queen replied: “Oh, you should have seen my feet!”
Postmortem photographs
Another custom that in our time looks, if not creepy, then at least very strange. But in the 19th century, it was a way to preserve the memory of departed loved ones. As a rule, the deceased were given a “living” appearance before being photographed: they were seated in natural poses and their eyes were drawn on closed eyelids - just like in this photograph.
Radioactive products and cosmetics
At the beginning of the 20th century, radiation was perceived by people as an exclusively positive phenomenon, which scammers did not fail to take advantage of: cosmetics, foods and drinks enriched with radium and thorium, radioactive souvenirs, and even devices for saturating water with radioactive elements appeared on sale.
Alas, there were victims: the athlete Eben Byers drank huge doses of the Radithor drink, as a result of which he died. The Wall Street Journal responded to this sad event with a snide note: “The radium water worked great for him until his jaw dropped.”
Heroin as a cough medicine
Surprisingly, 100 years ago, heroin was considered a harmless alternative to morphine and was sold in pharmacies as a cough medicine. Moreover, it was recommended even for children. It was subsequently discovered that heroin was converted to morphine in the liver, and its use was banned in 1924, but