Slavic building rituals and signs. Slavic traditions of home improvement How Russian traditions are manifested in home improvement
The interior of Russian huts is for the most part very similar and includes a number of elements that can be found in any home. If we talk about the structure of the hut, it consists of:
- 1-2 living spaces
- upper room
- closet
- terrace
The first thing a guest encountered when entering the house was the canopy. This is a kind of zone between the heated room and the street. All the cold was retained in the hallway and did not enter the main room. The canopy was used by the Slavs for economic purposes. The rocker and other things were kept in this room. Located in the entryway closet. This is a room that was separated from the entryway by a partition. It contained a stall with flour, eggs and other products.
The heated room and the canopy were separated by a door and a high threshold. This threshold was made to make it more difficult for cold air to penetrate into a warm room. In addition, there was a tradition according to which the guest, entering the room, had to bow, I greet the owners and the brownie. The high threshold “forced” the guests to bow down when entering the main part of the house. Since entry without bowing was ensured by hitting the head on the doorframe. With the advent of Christianity in Rus', bowing to the brownie and the owners was supplemented by making the sign of the cross and bowing to the icons in the red corner.
Stepping over the threshold, the guest found himself in the main room of the hut. The first thing that caught my eye was the stove. It was located immediately to the left or right of the door. The Russian stove is the main element of the hut. The absence of a stove indicates that the building is non-residential. And the Russian hut got its name precisely because of the stove, which allows you to heat the room. Another important function of this device is cooking. Still no more useful way cooking than in an oven. Currently, there are various steamers that allow you to save maximum useful elements in food. But all this is not comparable to food cooked from the stove. There are many beliefs associated with the stove. For example, it was believed that it was a favorite vacation spot for the brownie. Or, when a child lost a baby tooth, he was taught to throw the tooth under the stove and say:
“Mouse, mouse, you have a turnip tooth, and you give me a bone tooth.”
It was also believed that garbage from the house should be burned in a stove so that the energy does not go outside, but remains indoors.
Red corner in a Russian hut
The red corner is an integral part of the interior decoration of a Russian hut. It was located diagonally from the stove (most often this place fell on the eastern part of the house - a note to those who do not know where to install the red corner in modern home). It was a sacred place where towels, icons, faces of ancestors and divine books were located. A necessary part of the red corner was the table. It was in this corner that our ancestors ate food. The table was considered a kind of altar on which there was always bread:
“Bread on the table, so the table is a throne, but not a piece of bread, so the table is a board.”
Therefore, even today tradition does not allow sitting on the table. Leaving knives and spoons behind is considered a bad omen. To this day, another belief associated with the table has survived: young people were forbidden to sit on the corner of the table in order to avoid the fate of celibacy.
Shop with a chest in a hut
Everyday objects in a Russian hut played their own role. A hiding place or chest for clothes was important elements Houses. Skrynya was inherited from mother to daughter. It included the girl’s dowry, which she received after marriage. This element of the interior of a Russian hut was most often located next to the stove.
Benches were also an important element of the interior of a Russian hut. Conventionally, they were divided into several types:
- long - different from the others in length. It was considered a women's place where they did embroidery, knitting, etc.
- short - men sat on it during meals.
- kutnaya - installed near the stove. Buckets of water, shelves for dishes, and pots were placed on it.
- threshold - walked along the wall where the door is located. Used as a kitchen table.
- ship - the bench is higher than others. Intended for storing shelves with dishes and pots.
- konik - a square-shaped men's bench with a carved horse's head on the side. It was located near the door. Men were engaged in small crafts there, so tools were stored under the bench.
- The "beggar" was also located at the door. Any guest who entered the hut without the permission of the owners could sit on it. This is due to the fact that the guest cannot enter the hut further than the matitsa (a log that serves as the basis for the ceiling). Visually, the matica looks like a protruding log across the main laid boards on the ceiling.
The upper room is another living space in the hut. Wealthy peasants had it, because not everyone could afford such a room. The upper room was most often located on the second floor.Hence its name, the upper room - “mountain”. It contained another oven called a Dutch oven. This is a round oven. In many village houses they still stand today as decoration. Although even today you can find huts that are heated by these ancient appliances.
Enough has already been said about the stove. But we cannot fail to mention those tools that were used in working with Russian stoves. Poker- the most famous item. It is an iron rod with a curved end. A poker was used to stir and rake coals. The pomelo was used to clean the stove from coals..
With the help of a grabber it was possible to drag or move pots and cast iron pots. It was a metal arc that made it possible to grab the pot and move it from place to place. The grip made it possible to place the cast iron in the oven without fear of getting burned.
Another item used when working with the stove is bread shovel. With its help, bread is placed in the oven and taken out after cooking. And here is the word " Chaplya“Not many people know. This tool is also called a frying pan. It was used to grab a frying pan.
The cradle in Rus' had various shapes. There were hollowed out ones, wicker ones, hanging ones, and “vanka-standers”. Their names were surprisingly varied: cradle, shaky, coli, rocking chair, cradle. But a number of traditions are associated with the cradle, which remained unchanged. So, for example, it was considered necessary to install the cradle in a place where the baby could watch the dawn. Rocking an empty cradle was considered bad omen. We still believe in these and many other beliefs to this day. After all, all the traditions of our ancestors were based on their personal experience, which the new generation adopted from their ancestors.
Feng Shui in Slavic.
Feng Shui is a popular Chinese science of harmony with environment and the ability to arrange your life in accordance with the laws of nature. In our Slavic culture There is a system of ideas about the structure of the house.
Unfortunately, it has been practically forgotten and remains in our lives only in the form individual signs and superstitions. We know that we cannot sit on the corner of the table, say goodbye across the threshold, hand a knife and fork to a neighbor with a sharp end, and so on. Without knowing, however, why this cannot be done. All these things are just a small part of the ancient science of spiritual development and the interconnection of all phenomena and objects.
At all times, the house was considered a nest, protection from bad weather and evil. No wonder the proverb was born: “Houses and walls heal.” Our ancestors brought the endless world of space closer to themselves with the help of images, building their lives in accordance with natural rhythms.
When starting to build our own home, both literally and figuratively, we can use many of the rules that guided our grandfathers and great-grandfathers.
Construction should begin after the new moon - on the waxing moon. Simultaneously with laying the foundation, a tree should be planted in the middle of the future yard. Previously, birch or rowan trees were planted. In general, all trees, in the minds of our ancestors, had certain qualities: ebony symbolized the ability for magical protection, oak - strength and luck, pine - money and recovery, cherry - love, cedar - longevity, maple - love and material well-being, and walnut - health.
Since time immemorial, a sign has remained: to ensure happiness and wealth, scraps of wool, grain or money were placed under the corners of the first logs. Before laying the ceiling, an inverted bear fur coat and a loaf of bread, a pie or a pot of porridge were tied to the base, and a green branch was placed in the front corner - it would “ensure” the health of the family.
A special place in the houses of our ancestors was occupied by a threshold, high and strong, since under it in pagan times the ashes of their ancestors were buried after burning. And then the threshold began to be considered as the habitat of ancestral spirits. The tradition has still been preserved - not to talk on the threshold. It is customary to hang or draw a horseshoe, a symbol of happiness, or a Christian cross above the threshold of the front door - as protection from negative energies.
The hallway should be spacious and bright, because this is where guests are to be received, this is where people return tired from work, and through it the energy of the house itself and the outside world is exchanged.
Windows also connect us with the surrounding nature, so they should be oriented towards the sunny side. East and south symbolize life and warmth. Therefore, it is better that the windows of rooms and bedrooms face south and east, and the front door, kitchen, bathroom and toilet face west and north.
The central place in almost any Slavic house is the kitchen-dining room (in ancient times - the stove). Life is always in full swing here: the whole family gathers for lunches and dinners, talks with guests, raises children, “pours out” their souls to friends, and according to legend, the guardian spirit, the brownie, lives here. Therefore, it is the kitchen, sometimes the most comfortable and “habitable” place in the house, that should be beautiful and clean. Here, according to tradition, you can hang amulets: spoons, symbolizing a satisfying life, decorative keys - a symbol of dowry, wealth, hatchets - a sign of pagan Perun - the patron of the harvest, bells, whistles, spatulas, brooms - protection from various troubles, corn cobs and caps of dried sunflowers - “children’s” amulets and so on. Both beautiful and useful!
According to Slavic customs, a table should connect two spaces in the house - living and working, and on its main side, under the icons, the owner-breadwinner is seated. On the table there was previously a samovar with a beautiful hot-water bottle doll, sewn by the hands of the mistress of the house, the eldest woman in the family. Among the Slavs, the doll had a deep meaning: it protected and resembled an idol. Bereginya (a magnificent doll) was also placed above the porch and on the windows. They believed that she protected children's sleep and protected them. The doll was dressed up, but the face was not painted. By folk beliefs, a doll with a face acquired a soul and could cause harm. Many dolls were filled with grain - a symbol of prosperity and health. A house without toys was considered soulless and empty.
Elegant linen towels were known in Slavic Russian culture as perhaps the most popular amulets and home decorations (kitchen-dining room, living room and even bedroom). The towel is a symbol of human life, like a stripe of fate.
The mirror symbolizes monetary well-being. Hang a mirror next to the table in the living room or kitchen - it will attract wealth to your home. IN lately It has become very fashionable to decorate bedrooms with mirrors. You should never hang a mirror near your bed - in this case it can destroy your life, taking away all your strength and energy! You should also not place shelves, cabinets or paintings with negative images or scenes above the bed. Innocent home flowers in pots - geranium, aloe, delicate violets - will come in very handy.
Our ancestors generally gave great value plants, which were treated, fed and watered. They were used as amulets: for example, ferns, lilies, marigolds, and juniper were grown at the entrance to protect the house from evil spirits and the evil eye.
There should be no unnecessary things in the house. According to the ideas of the ancestors, each thing serves a specific purpose and should be filled with love and the great meaning of serving the material to the spiritual. And unnecessary things create chaos and disorder, so you should systematically get rid of them. As a rule, this is done before Christmas and Easter.
The tradition of decorating your home dates back to pagan times, when in this way a person sought to protect his family from evil forces. Therefore, images of sacred animals and birds were located in the places most vulnerable to negative energies: windows, gates, doors, chimneys or fireplaces. Since the house expresses a triune system, then the amulets correspond to the three worlds - earth, water and air.
U Eastern Slavs Especially popular were images or figurines of a dove - the personification of kindness and beauty, the Holy Spirit, a chicken - a symbol of fertility, a bear - a symbol of wealth, a horse - the personification of the sun and life (a wooden horse was planted on the roofs of houses), a bull - the embodiment of earthly strength and reliability, and so on further. Also popular are carved, painted and wooden (clay, glass, porcelain...) images of the sun, moon, fish, palms and nesting dolls.
Since ancient times, the naturalness of the materials used, poetic images and spiritual ideas embodied in everyday objects helped our ancestors make their lives more beautiful and warmer. They will also help us, because the structure and spirit of the house depend only on the owners themselves, on their good thoughts, desires and hard work.
In our fast-paced age, people especially need to feel protected and safe somewhere. And the natural place that gives such a feeling is one’s home. No wonder folk saying says: “my home is my fortress.” But for a house to be a home, it must be properly built and equipped. Today everyone is hearing about the art of home improvement, Feng Shui, which came to us from China, a little fewer people knows the ancient Indian Vastu Shastra. However, our Ancestors – the Slavs – had their own art of home improvement, which developed over thousands of years and was in tune with our ancestral Spirit. In the ancient Slavic Volkhov art “VoyYarg” there was a whole section dedicated to the design and arrangement of a house, which was called “Lady House” or “House-Amulet”.
If we turn to the worldview of our Ancestors, we will see that the entire universe for them was built on the principle of similarity, where the small - Yar, reflects the great - Yarg. So the house was a likeness of the Universe, a kind of universe created by the owner and connecting him with outside world. But in order for a house to become a semblance of a living Universe, it must be filled with Life Force - Vein. To do this, it was necessary to meet a number of conditions, the first of which was the choice right place for future housing.
There are strong, neutral and bad places. It is impossible to build housing on the latter; such places include cemeteries, places near existing temples and sanctuaries, or places where temples and sanctuaries stood and were destroyed. Also, places where one should not settle included steep bends of rivers, places where the road used to pass - it was believed that in such a place happiness and wealth would not linger in the house. The strong place is rich in underground springs, trees and bushes grow even and tall on it.
There was also a special ritual that helped determine whether the place was chosen to build a house.
The location of the house was also important; it was consistent with the cardinal points and, accordingly, with the so-called. geomagnetic network or, in the old way - Navi Lines. The house itself was built in the traditional span system of measures, which was tied to the human body. This means that it was initially friendly with its owner and was created exclusively for him. And a person in such a house felt free and comfortable. Internal layout at home was consistent with the Kolovrat, generated by the elemental Streams of Heaven and Earth. The external decoration of the house was framed with protective patterns in order to attract positive elemental Currents into the house and eliminate the impact of bad Currents. In the rooms of the house special Objects of Power were placed, dedicated to the patron Gods of these parts of the house.
When building a house, a mortgage was placed under its foundation - special amulets with runic symbols and spells that were supposed to attract Zhilot into the house. The same amulets and signs were placed or drawn on the floor under the top covering, placed in corners, under baseboards and under the jambs of doors and windows.
The house itself was arranged according to a certain principle and every part of it was interconnected with the Gods. Horizontally, the house was divided by Perun's cross into four sectors, correlated with the four Gods - the organizers of the home space. Moreover, each of these sectors could also be divided according to the principle of nested spaces. Vertically, the house repeated the three-part structure of the world: the lower part - the foundation and the underground or cellar - Nav, the past, the foundation; the middle part is residential - Reality, the place where the life of the household takes place; attic and roof - vault of heaven, Rule - monastery higher powers. Heavenly Streams flow through the roof into the house, which is why in the old days the roof of any house had slopes, so that the Power flowing from Heaven would not stagnate and create unnecessary tension, but would wash the house like rain. The gable roof was usually located in the east-west direction, and horse heads were carved on the skates, symbolizing the chariot or boat of Dazhbog the Sun, in which he sails across the Sky.
The southern side of the house was considered the strongest, the side in which the Strib (element) of the earth ruled along the earthly Kolovrat elements, and the Strib of solar fire ruled along the heavenly Kolovrat. It was on the southern side, along which the Sun walks, that the facade was located - the face of the house. This side usually had the most windows.
On the south side of the house there was also a living room and a kitchen, since the south side is the side of fertility, prosperity and health. Moreover, the living room connected with the eastern side, for the eastern side carries wandering, nomadic streams - just to welcome guests. The patrons of the living room were Belobog - the organizer of obvious life and Striver - the owner of space, the Father of the winds. That's why all important family matters were decided in the living room, family councils and here guests who came to the house were greeted. The kitchen merged with the western side, since the west carries Streams of material wealth and stability. The kitchen is under the control of Chislobog - the keeper of time, numbers and the Deity of counting and calculations and Mokosha - the heavenly spinner, the patroness of women. The kitchen space from the stove to the southern wall was called the women's quarters - here the woman was a full-fledged mistress. The kitchen also contains one of the most significant places The powers of the house are the stove. According to ancient Slavic legends, the first thing that the heavenly forge Svarog cooked was a stove. And his first words were: “Let there be fire in this hearth!” And the light, already from the fire, appeared on its own. The first stove maker was God Svarog, that’s why all stove masters are Svarog’s brothers. The stove is the gateway to Nav - ancient world humanity. Behind every furnace lives the God of the beginning, our First Ancestor. He still lives there, but people have forgotten about it; those who are friends with the stove can see Him. He usually appears in flames as the Fireman. The female womb is designed in the image of the furnace, inside which Svarog placed the Life-giving fire. You put something raw into it, but you get it ready, with Spirit and Soul. The oven takes you from death to life, from the past to the future. The hearth in the house is life in the house. A house without a hearth is not a home at all; even a temporary home has a hearth. IN modern apartments The kitchens have gas and electric stoves. Fire can have any nature. Any furnace is a child of that Divine First Furnace. Any fire by which you warm yourself and on which you cook food turns your house into a temple. You need to handle the hearth with understanding, according to all the rules: keep it clean, just as you keep your body clean, wipe it down every day. If you ask for the stove well, it will protect the house from all evil spirits, and it will drive away illness and all kinds of sadness. You can burn your sadness in the oven, drive away any misfortune. You can also tell bad dreams and bad premonitions to a stove fire. The oven is almost like God, omnipotent! Prabog lives in a world called Nav, the Navyas - the Souls of the Ancestors - live there, and we will go there after death. From there new Souls come into the world. The stove is an image of Mother Earth. At the stove they pray for future children and bake the premature and sick. In the oven, wild fire turns into tame fire and serves man.
From the west to the south side there was usually an enclosure or veranda. Moreover, the entrance to the house should be from the rear side, so that Streams of material wealth and stability flow into the house. The hallway and entrance are under the control of Perun - he rules the streams flowing into the house. And standing guard over the boundary separating the space of the house from the alien world behind the house, he rules the flow of Lives in the house. From the outside on the porch above front door They usually hang potkova, which has certainly been under a horse and found independently. To attract happiness and prosperity, they hang it with its horns up. A horseshoe placed in this way also symbolizes a full cup in the house. But on the inside, under the casing, needles or a knife are usually stuck in order to interrupt the flow of bad streams and discourage those who come into the house with bad intentions. The platbands themselves above the front door and the pediment of the porch are decorated with carved signs of Perun - Gradins.
All material assets should be located on the back side of the house, be it money, jewelry or pantries with food supplies. Then prosperity and well-being will continuously reign in the house. In the West, you also need to develop a business place, then any business will bring tangible material results.
These are just some of the principles of arranging a Good House by our Ancestors, which can be a talisman and a real family nest for those who inhabit it. The Slavic knowledge on home improvement itself is very extensive, and includes information about the creation of home amulets that ward off misfortunes and illnesses, and bring goodness, ancient rituals that call into the house the Power and Grace of the Gods and the Elements. And much, much more.
And even if you don't live in own home, and in a high-rise apartment, using the wisdom of our Ancestors, you can turn it from a gray typical cold crypt into a native corner that warms the Soul and Heart.
Perunov - a cross is one of the variants of a protective sign placed in the house. Place. Landscape.
Our Ancestors had different views than ours on that place called home, where they were to live, raise children, celebrate, love, and receive guests.
Let's try to turn to their experience, to restore for ourselves their sense of the space of being, which they “did” in compliance with customs and rituals in order to serve their lives as successfully as possible.
First of all, the choice of location was not accidental. The Russian village, as a rule, is very picturesquely located. A settlement was established on the banks of a river, lake, on a hill near the springs. The place was well ventilated and washed by energy flows of air and water.
When building a house, the peasant gave it orientation to the cardinal points. He placed the hut where the rays of the sun gave more warmth and light, where from the windows, from the porch area, from the yard there was the widest view of the lands he cultivated, where he good approach and the entrance to the house. For example, in the Nizhny Novgorod province they tried to orient houses to the south, “towards the sun”; if this was impossible, then “face” to the east or southwest. The houses of single-row settlements are oriented only to the south. The natural shortage of places on the sunny side during the growth of the settlement led to the emergence of a second row of houses, with facades facing north. On a flat and dry area, he built a barn and a threshing floor, “before his eyes” - he placed a barn in front of the house. He raised a windmill to the top of the hill, and built a bathhouse below by the water.
It was impossible to build housing where the road used to pass. Space former road it was piercing, “blowing”; the energy of life did not accumulate in the house, but passed through it along the old route.
A place was considered unfavorable for construction if human bones were found there, or someone was injured with an ax or knife until they bled, or other unpleasant, unexpected events occurred that were memorable to the village. This threatened misfortune for the residents of the future home.
It was impossible to build a house on the site where the bathhouse stood. In the bathhouse, a person did not simply wash off the dirt from himself, but, as it were, plunged into a vessel with living and dead water, was born anew each time, subjecting himself to the test of fire and water, steaming under high temperature, and then plunged into an ice hole or river, or simply doused himself with ice water. The bathhouse was both a maternity hospital and a habitat for the spirit of the bannik. The bathhouse is an unconsecrated place - there are no icons there. The bathhouse is a place where a lot happens, if you do not adhere to the rituals of visiting it.
Based on all this, the house, built on the site of the bathhouse, was built in a space where a lot of things happened and it continued to preserve the memory of it. The consequences of living on the site of the bathhouse were unpredictable.
The place where one lies down to rest was considered favorable for construction. cattle. The people attributed to him the power of fertility. Animals are more sensitive to the energy characteristics of a place. The ancients knew this and used it widely in life. The peoples of the world have many similar signs and rituals that use the senses of animals.
The entire house-building process was accompanied by rituals. One of the obligatory customs is making a sacrifice so that the house stands well.
Here it would be appropriate to recall that Orthodoxy has pagan roots, which Christianity has not destroyed. The paganism of a Christian reflects the reality of his existence among living nature, which he perceived as spiritualized, that is, manifesting itself as a subject equal to him. Our ancestors, the Slavs, as a rule, clothed knowledge in mythological metaphors, proverbs, sayings, and signs. This did not in any way reduce the value of the knowledge they accumulated, which today is forgotten and little used. We tend to turn to to the modern designer, relying again on traditional, but Chinese Feng Shui, rather than using the experience of one’s own ancestors.
Fragments of the worldview of the ancient Slavs were preserved by the Russians almost until the end of the 19th century. Speaking about the construction of a house, we can observe its manifestations in the ritual described below.
At the site of the future log house, a tree was installed, usually a birch or rowan tree, which symbolized the “world tree” - the “center of the world.” In our opinion, this ritual reflects the idea of our ancestors about their own time and place in the world. Let us note that the peasants of the 19th century hardly did this consciously or with understanding. The archaic meaning of the ritual could mean that it was here, in the space of the future house, that all the most significant events for the owner of the house would take place, his life, the life of his children and, possibly, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The ritual tree was replaced by a living one, planted near the house. It carried sacred meaning the world tree, and besides this, the person who planted the tree demonstrated that the space around the house is not wild, but cultural, mastered by him. It was forbidden to cut down specially planted trees for firewood or other household needs. The choice of tree species - most often rowan was planted - was also not accidental. Both the rowan fruit and the leaf have the graphic of a cross, which means, in the Russian worldview, they are a natural amulet.
Particular importance was attached to the laying of the first crown: it divided the entire space into domestic and non-domestic, internal and external. Out of chaos surrounding nature, the elements, the promised island stood out - the macrocosm of human life.
Estate. HOUSE.
Let's consider the typical form of traditional housing. A hut is a cage, which is a rectangle, above which rises a gable roof. Let's try to read this in the Feng Shui system. According to the elements, it is earth heated by fire. That is, energetically the house was like a continuation of the element Earth, but so that it was not washed away by the element of water pouring from above, the roof - the fire - protected and warmed. Fire connected the space of the house with the Fire of Heaven, the Sun, the Light of the Stars and the Moon. By gable roof energy flows onto the house, washing it. For comparison: our today's box houses lack verticality, which would facilitate, like an antenna, connection with the energy of the Cosmos. This is directly related to the well-being of a person living in such a house and among such flat architecture. In the architecture of Nizhny Novgorod, for example, over the last 10 years they have been trying to create a tower, a spire, a high roof reaching towards the sky, both for residential buildings and for administrative ones. This is an intuitive desire to compensate for a long period of a kind of gray stagnation in external decoration and well-being. What can we remember from the “architectural styles” of the Soviet period? “Stalin buildings”, “Khrushchev buildings”, panel construction. How are they appearance, and the interior decoration cannot be called comfortable for humans.
On the facades of the houses of our ancestors, for example, in our forest Nizhny Novgorod region, the picture of the world of the ancient ancestors was reflected in the wooden carving or its individual details were present, as if hinting at it. The essence of ornamental decoration is the image of the three worlds. The pediment is the upper world, the middle part of the facade is the earth. The lower part, as a rule, not filled with ornaments, is the chthonic, unmanifested world. The abundance of solar signs, signs of fertility, the world tree - everything was intended not to decorate, but to carry certain meanings through which space unfolded required quality. That is, it was assumed that the house should be a full bowl, its space should contribute to health and happy life family. This was what the façade ornaments served.
Interior.
Sacred meanings in a simple Russian hut, manifested in rituals, dominated over cleanliness and comfort from our modern point of view.
Almost everything home space seemed to “come to life”, participating as a place for holding certain family rituals associated with the growing up of children, weddings, funerals, and receiving guests
Let's start, as usual, from the stove.
The Russian stove is the largest volume in the interior of the house. They occupied an area of 2.5 - 3 square meters. m. The heat capacity of the stove ensured uniform heating of the living space around the clock, making it possible to keep food and water hot for a long time, dry clothes, and sleep on them in damp and cold weather.
The stove, as we have already noted, is a home altar. It warms the house and transforms food brought into the house with fire. The oven is a place near which various rituals take place. For example, if a smartly dressed woman comes to the house and, almost without words, approaches the stove and warms her hands by the fire, it means that a matchmaker has come to make a match.
And a person who spends the night on the stove becomes “one of our own.”
The point here is not the oven as such, but the fire. Of all the elements, fire is the most revered. Not a single pagan holiday was complete without the lighting of ritual bonfires. Then the fire migrated to the Orthodox church: the lights of lamps, candles lit with prayer. In traditional Russian culture, a room without a stove was considered non-living.
Let us note that, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod region the stove was heated black, and there was no talk at all about any convenience in our understanding - cleanliness, fresh air. The white furnace fire transformed the house. At the same time traditional furniture and the interior of the Trans-Volga peasant hut remained unchanged. Back in the middle of the 19th century, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky wrote: “The Great Russian hut in the north, east and along the Volga has almost the same location everywhere: to the right of the entrance in the corner there is a stove (rarely placed to the left, such a hut is called “non-spinner”, because on the long bench opposite the stove, It’s not easy to spin from the red corner to the bunk - right hand close to the wall and not in the light). The corner to the left of the entrance and the counter from the door to the corner is called “konik”, here is a place for the owner to sleep, and harness and various belongings are placed under the bench. The front corner to the right of the entrance is the “woman’s kut”, or “cooking room”; it is often separated from the hut by a plank partition. The shop from the holy corner to the cooking corner is called “big”, and sometimes “red”. The counter from the woman’s kut to the stove is a “cooking shop”, next to it up to the stove itself is a “cooking station”, like a cupboard and a table together, on which dishes are prepared.” (5, p. 199)
Each family member had their own space in the house. The place of the housewife, the mother of the family, is at the stove, which is why it was called “woman’s kut.” The place of the owner - the father - is at the very entrance. This is the place of the guardian, the protector. Old people often lay on the stove - a warm, comfortable place. The children were scattered like peas all over the hut, or sat on the flooring - a flooring raised to the level of the stove, where they were not afraid of drafts during the long Russian winter.
The infant swung in a sway attached to the end of a pole, which was attached to the ceiling through a ring fixed in it. This made it possible to move the shifter to any end of the hut.
Red corner .
An obligatory accessory of a peasant home was a shrine (“tyablo”, “kiot”), which was located in the front corner above the dining table.
This place was called the “red corner”. It was a home altar. A man began his day with prayer, and prayer, with his gaze turned to the red corner, to the icons, accompanied his entire life in the house. For example, prayer was required to be read before and after meals.
The red corner - the Christian altar and the stove - the “pagan” altar, created a certain tension, located diagonally across the space of the house. It was in this - the front part of the hut - that there was a red bench, a table, and food was prepared in front of the stove. The events of everyday life took place in a very intense energy space. A guest entering the house immediately saw the icons of the red corner and crossed himself, greeting the owners, but stopped at the threshold, not daring to go further into this habitable space, preserved by God and Fire, without an invitation.
In addition to the first level of the interior already described above, there was a second one, located on the stove column, which was located at external corner stove - almost in the middle of the hut and reached the height of the stove's shoulder. From the stove pillar, leaning on it, there were two thick beams - one to the front, the other to the side walls opposite the stove. They were located approximately at a height of 1.6 - 1.7 meters from the floor. The first is a ward one, since he served load-bearing structure ward flooring - traditional sleeping place. The bread beam limited the height of the “babiy kut” oven. Freshly baked breads and pies were placed on the bread beam as if on a shelf. As we can see, the second residential tier is directly related to the life processes of household members - meals and sleep. If you open the door and look into the hut, then what is going on in the tents will not be visible at all - they are located above the head of the person entering, and the place near the stove will be hidden by a protruding stove pillar and a curtain, which was sometimes used to fence off a woman’s kut just along the upper border, marked by a beam of bread . Naturally, many rituals are associated with the stove pillar - as if it were the strongest supporting structure in the house. For example, when a child stood on his feet and took his first steps, a midwife visited him. She placed her pet with his back to the stove pillar with the sentence: “As the stove pillar is strong, so be you healthy and strong.”
Among the movable furniture we can name only a table and one or two saddle benches. The space of the hut did not imply excesses, and they were not possible in peasant life. A completely different space in the house of wealthy Volga region or always free northern peasants.
Windows and doors.
The entrance to the hut was preceded by a vestibule, the entrance to the house was preceded by a porch. The porch is a few steps up, then a door leading to the vestibule, a vestibule, and a door leading to the hut. The doors were never located on the same straight line. The flow of air and everything it carried seemed to swirl, weaken, and enter the hut itself, already “purified,” filled with the good aroma of herbs drying in the hallway and the smell of a cow coming from the yard.
Windows and doors, like some kind of highways, passages into and out of the house were always framed externally and their intersection was accompanied by rituals. Before the owners went outside, she could have been like this: “God bless you for a good day, protect you from bad ones, evil people! Before entering someone else's house, a prayer was also read.
These customs are connected with the fact that a person, on a subconscious level, distinguished between the space of the house, where nothing threatened him, and the external space, where anything could happen.
The window is also a connection with the world of the dead. For example, dead unbaptized children were carried out through the window: they died, although they had not yet been accepted by the world of the living. "God gave - God took." That is, there is almost no time in their earthly life and the child’s soul is returned to the world from which he just came.
Through the window they will serve Christmas carols to the carolers - that is, to those who brought divine wishes to the owners.
Space exploration.
The house was, as it were, a model of man himself and by its very design was designed to help life in it.
The dwelling was likened to the human body. Forehead, face (platbands), window (eye), mouth (mouth), forehead, backside, legs - etc. general terms to describe a person and a home. This is reflected in rituals. For example, at the birth of a child, the doors of the house, which was thought of as a woman’s body, opened.
A fully rebuilt house is not yet a living space. It had to be populated and settled properly. A house was considered inhabited by a family if any event important for the household took place in it: the birth of a child, a wedding, etc.
To this day, even in cities, the custom of letting a cat in front of you has been preserved. In villages, in addition to the cat, the house was traditionally inhabited by a rooster and a hen left overnight. folk beliefs, the house was always built “on someone’s head”: this meant the possible death of one of the household members. Therefore, the house was inhabited in a certain sequence, first by animals, then by people.
The transition to a new residence was preceded by rituals associated with the “relocation” of the brownie.
To this day, the brownie in villages is revered as the owner of the home, and when moving into new home, asking his permission:
“Master of the brownie, let us stay” or:
"Master and Mistress,
Stay with us
Give life a good one.
It's not a night for us to spend the night,
And the century will last forever.” (3, pp. 24, 21)
The Russian hut has always been nice, solid and original. Its architecture testifies to fidelity centuries-old traditions, their durability and uniqueness. Its layout, design and interior decoration were created over many years. Not many traditional Russian houses have survived to this day, but you can still find them in some regions.
Initially, huts in Russia were built from wood, with their foundations partially buried underground. This ensured greater reliability and durability of the structure. Most often there was only one room, which the owners divided into several separate parts. An obligatory part of the Russian hut was the stove corner, to separate which a curtain was used. In addition, separate areas were allocated for men and women. All corners in the house were lined up in accordance with the cardinal directions, and the most important among them was the eastern (red), where the family organized an iconostasis. It was the icons that guests were supposed to pay attention to immediately after entering the hut.
Porch of a Russian hut
The architecture of the porch has always been carefully thought out; the owners of the house devoted a lot of time to it. It combined excellent artistic taste, centuries-old traditions and the ingenuity of the architects. It was the porch that connected the hut with the street and was open to all guests or passers-by. It’s interesting what’s on the porch in the evenings after hard work The whole family, as well as neighbors, often gathered. Here the guests and owners of the house danced, sang songs, and children ran and frolicked.
In different regions of Russia, the shape and size of the porch were radically different. So, in the north of the country it was quite high and large, and the southern facade of the house was chosen for installation. Thanks to this asymmetrical placement and the unique architecture of the facade, the whole house looked very unique and beautiful. It was also quite common to see porches placed on pillars and decorated with openwork wooden posts. They were a real decoration of the house, making its facade even more serious and solid.
In the south of Russia, porches were installed from the front of the house, attracting the attention of passers-by and neighbors openwork carving. They could be either two steps or with a whole staircase. Some home owners decorated their porch with an awning, while others left it open.
Seni
In order to retain the maximum amount of heat from the stove in the house, the owners separated the living area from the street. The canopy is exactly the space that guests immediately saw when entering the hut. In addition to keeping warm, canopies were also used to store rockers and other necessary things; this is where many people made storage rooms for food.
To separate the entryway and the heated living area, a high threshold was also made. It was made to prevent cold from entering the house. In addition, according to centuries-old traditions, each guest had to bow at the entrance to the hut, and it was impossible to go inside without bowing before the high threshold. Otherwise, the guest simply hit the doorframe naked.
Russian stove
The life of a Russian hut revolved around the stove. It served as a place for cooking, relaxation, heating and even bathing procedures. There were steps leading up, and there were niches in the walls for various utensils. The firebox was always with iron barriers. The structure of the Russian stove - the heart of any hut - is surprisingly functional.
The stove in traditional Russian huts was always located in the main area, to the right or left of the entrance. It was considered the main element of the house, since they cooked food on the stove, slept, and heated the entire house. It has been proven that food cooked in the oven is the healthiest, since it retains all the beneficial vitamins.
Since ancient times, many beliefs have been associated with the stove. Our ancestors believed that it was on the stove that the brownie lived. The garbage was never taken out of the hut, but burned in the oven. People believed that this way all the energy remained in the house, which helped increase the family’s wealth. It is interesting that in some regions of Russia they steamed and washed in the oven, and were also used to treat serious diseases. Doctors of that time claimed that the disease could be cured simply by lying on the stove for several hours.
Stove corner
It was also called the “woman’s corner”, since it was precisely to do kitchen utensils. It was separated by a curtain or even a wooden partition. Men from their family almost never came here. A huge insult to the owners of the house was the arrival of a strange man behind the curtain in the corner of the stove.
Here women washed and dried things, cooked food, treated children and told fortunes. Almost every woman was engaged in needlework, and the calmest and most convenient place That's what the stove corner was for. Embroidery, sewing, painting - these were the most popular types of needlework for girls and women of that time.
Benches in the hut
In the Russian hut there were movable and fixed benches, and chairs began to appear in the 19th century. Along the walls of the house, the owners installed fixed benches, which were secured using supplies or legs with carved elements. The stand could be flat or tapered towards the middle; its decoration often included carved patterns and traditional ornaments.
There were also mobile benches in each house. Such benches had four legs or were installed on solid boards. The backs were often made so that they could be thrown over the opposite edge of the bench, and used for decoration carved decor. The bench was always made longer than the table, and was also often covered with thick fabric.
Men's corner (Konik)
It was located to the right of the entrance. There was always a wide bench here, which was fenced on both sides wooden planks. They were carved in the shape of a horse's head, which is why the male corner is often called "konik". Under the bench, men stored their tools intended for repairs and other men's work. In this corner, men repaired shoes and utensils, and also wove baskets and other products from wicker.
All the guests who came to the owners of the house for a short time sat down on the bench in the men's corner. It was here that the man slept and rested.
Women's corner (Seda)
This was important in women's fate space, since it was from behind the stove curtain that the girl came out during the viewing party in elegant attire, and also waited for the groom on the wedding day. Here women gave birth to children and fed them away from prying eyes, hiding behind a curtain.
Also, it was in the women's corner of the house of the guy she liked that the girl had to hide the sweeper in order to get married soon. They believed that such a sweeper would help the daughter-in-law quickly become friends with her mother-in-law and become a good housewife in her new home.
Red corner
This is the brightest and most important corner, since it was considered a sacred place in the house. According to tradition, during construction, he was allocated a place on the eastern side, where two adjacent windows form a corner, so the light falls, making the corner the brightest place in the hut. Icons and embroidered towels always hung here, as well as in some huts - the faces of ancestors. Be sure to put it in the red corner large table and ate food. Freshly baked bread was always kept under icons and towels.
To this day, some traditions associated with the table are known. So, it is not advisable for young people to sit on the corner in order to start a family in the future. It's a bad omen to leave dirty dishes on the table or sitting on it.
Our ancestors stored cereals, flour and other products in hay barns. Thanks to this, the housewife could always quickly prepare food from fresh ingredients. In addition, additional buildings were provided: a cellar for storing vegetables and fruits in winter, a barn for livestock and separate structures for hay.
