Mari is a Finno-Ugric people, which is important to be called with an accent on the letter “i”, since the word “Mari” with an emphasis on the first vowel is the name of an ancient ruined city. Plunging into the history of the people, it is important to learn the correct pronunciation of their name, traditions and customs.
The legend of the origin of the mountain Mari
Marie believe that their people come from another planet. Somewhere in the constellation of the Nest, there lived a bird. It was a duck that flew to the ground. Here she laid two eggs. Of these, the first two people were born, who were brothers, as they came from the same duck mother. One of them turned out to be good, and the other - evil. It was from them that life on earth began, good and evil people were born.
Mari know space well. They are familiar with the celestial bodies that are known to modern astronomy. This people still retain their specific names for the components of the cosmos. The Big Dipper is called the Elk, and the Pleiades is called the Nest. The Mari Milky Way is the Star Road along which God travels.
Language and writing
The Mari have their own language, which is part of the Finno-Ugric group. It has four adverbs:
- oriental;
- Northwest;
- mountain;
- meadow.
Until the 16th century, the mountain Mari did not have an alphabet. The first alphabet in which their language could be written was Cyrillic. Its final creation took place in 1938, thanks to which the Mari received writing.
Thanks to the appearance of the alphabet, it became possible to record the folklore of the Mari, represented by fairy tales and songs.
Mountain Mari religion
Mari's faith was pagan before getting to know Christianity. Among the gods there were many female deities left over from the time of matriarchy. There were only 14 mother goddesses (ava) in their religion. They did not build temples and altars to the Mari, they prayed in the groves under the guidance of their priests (karts). Having become acquainted with Christianity, the people switched to it, retaining syncretism, that is, combining Christian rites with pagan ones. Part of the Mari converted to Islam.
Legend of Ovda
Once upon a time in a Mari village lived a stubborn girl of extraordinary beauty. Arousing God's wrath, she was turned into a terrible creature with huge breasts, coal-black hair and feet turned out the other way around - Ovda. Many avoided her, fearing that she would curse them. It was said that Ovda settled on the edge of villages near dense forests or deep ravines. In the old days, our ancestors met her more than once, but we are unlikely to ever see this frightening-looking girl. According to legend, she hid in dark caves, where she lives alonethis day.
The name of this place is Odo-Kuryk, it is translated as Ovda Mountain. An endless forest, in the depths of which megaliths are hidden. Boulders of gigantic size and perfect rectangular shape, stacked to form a battlemented wall. But you will not immediately notice them, it seems that someone deliberately hid them from human sight.
However, scientists believe that this is not a cave, but a fortress built by the mountain Mari specifically for defense against hostile tribes - the Udmurts. The location of the defensive structure - the mountain - played an important role. A steep descent, followed by a sharp ascent, was at the same time the main obstacle to the rapid movement of enemies and the main advantage for the Mari, since they, knowing the secret paths, could move and shoot back unnoticed.
But it remains unknown how the Mari managed to build such a monumental structure from megaliths, because for this you need to have remarkable strength. Perhaps only creatures from myths are able to create something like this. Hence the belief appeared that the fortress was built by Ovda in order to hide his cave from human eyes.
In this regard, Odo-Kuryk is surrounded by a special energy. People with psychic abilities come here to find the source of this energy - Ovda's cave. But the locals try once again not to pass by this mountain, afraid to disturb the rest of this wayward and rebellious woman. After all, the consequences can be unpredictable, like her character.
Famous artist Ivan Yamberdov,in whose paintings the main cultural values and traditions of the Mari people are expressed, he considers Ovda not a terrible and evil monster, but sees in her the beginning of nature itself. Ovda is a powerful, constantly changing, cosmic energy. Rewriting paintings depicting this creature, the artist never makes a copy, each time it is a unique original, which once again confirms the words of Ivan Mikhailovich about the variability of this feminine natural principle.
To this day, the mountain Mari believe in the existence of Ovda, despite the fact that no one has seen her for a long time. Currently, local healers, sorcerers and herbalists are most often named after her. They are respected and feared because they are the conductors of natural energy into our world. They are able to feel it and control its flows, which distinguishes them from ordinary people.
Life cycle and rituals
The Mari family is monogamous. The life cycle is divided into specific parts. A big event was the wedding, which acquired the character of a universal holiday. A ransom was paid for the bride. In addition, she was sure to receive a dowry, even pets. Weddings were noisy and crowded - with songs, dances, a wedding train and festive national costumes.
Funerals were distinguished by special rites. The cult of ancestors left an imprint not only on the history of the mountain Mari people, but also on funeral clothes. The deceased Mari was always dressed in a winter hat and mittens and taken to the cemetery in a sleigh, even if it was warm outside. Together with the deceasedobjects that could help in the afterlife were placed in the grave: cut nails, branches of prickly rose hips, a piece of canvas. Nails were needed to climb the rocks in the world of the dead, thorny branches to drive away evil snakes and dogs, and cross the canvas to the afterlife.
This people has musical instruments that accompany various events in life. This is a wooden pipe, flute, harp and drum. Folk medicine is developed, the recipes of which are associated with positive and negative concepts of the world order - the life force originating from space, the will of the gods, the evil eye, damage.
Tradition and modernity
It is natural for the Mari to adhere to the traditions and customs of the mountain Mari to this day. They greatly honor nature, which provides them with everything they need. When adopting Christianity, they retained many folk customs from pagan life. They were used to regulate life until the early 20th century. For example, a divorce was formalized by tying a couple with a rope and then cutting it.
At the end of the 19th century, the Mari had a sect that tried to modernize paganism. The religious sect Kugu Sort ("Big Candle") is still active. Recently, public organizations have been formed that set themselves the goal of returning the traditions and customs of the ancient way of life of the Mari to modern life.
Mountain Mari economy
The basis for the food of the Mari was agriculture. This people grew various grains, hemp and flax. Root crops and hops were planted in the gardens. From the 19th century massively begangrow potatoes. In addition to the vegetable garden and the field, animals were kept, but this was not the main direction of agriculture. The animals on the farm were different - small and large cattle, horses.
Slightly more than a third of the mountain Mari had no land at all. The main source of their income was the production of honey, first in the form of beekeeping, then self-breeding of hives. Also, landless representatives were engaged in fishing, hunting, logging and rafting of timber. When logging enterprises appeared, many Mari went there to work.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Mari made most of the tools of labor and hunting at home. Agriculture was carried out with the help of a plow, a hoe and a Tatar plow. For hunting they used wooden traps, horns, bows and flintlock guns. At home, they were engaged in wood carving, casting of handicraft silver jewelry, women embroidered. The means of transportation were also home-grown - covered wagons and carts in summer, sledges and skis in winter.
Mari life
These people lived in large communities. Each such community consisted of several villages. In ancient times, small (urmat) and large (nasyl) tribal formations could be part of one community. The Mari lived in small families, crowded were very rare. Most often, they preferred to live among representatives of their people, although sometimes they came across mixed communities with Chuvashs and Russians. The appearance of the mountain Mari is not much different from the Russians.
In XIXFor centuries, the Mari villages had a street structure. Plots standing in two rows along one line (street). The house is a log house with a gable roof, consisting of a cage, a vestibule and a hut. Each hut necessarily had a large Russian stove and a kitchen, fenced off from the residential part. There were benches against three walls, in one corner - a table and a master's chair, a "red corner", shelves with dishes, in the other - a bed and bunks. This is how the winter home of the Mari basically looked.
In the summer they lived in log cabins without a ceiling, with a gable, sometimes single-pitched roof and an earthen floor. A hearth was arranged in the center, over which a boiler hung, a hole was made in the roof to remove smoke from the hut.
In addition to the master's hut, a cage used as a pantry, a cellar, a barn, a barn, a chicken coop and a bathhouse were built in the yard. We althy Mari built cages on two floors with a gallery and a balcony. The lower floor was used as a cellar, storing food in it, and the upper floor was used as a shed for utensils.
Ethnic cuisine
A characteristic feature of the Mari in the kitchen is soup with dumplings, dumplings, sausage cooked from cereals with blood, dried horse meat, puff pancakes, pies with fish, eggs, potatoes or hemp seed and traditional unleavened bread. There are also such specific dishes as fried squirrel meat, baked hedgehog, fishmeal cakes. Beer, mead, buttermilk (skimmed cream) were frequent drinks on the tables. Who knew how, he drove potato or grain vodka at home.
Mari clothes
The national costume of the mountain Mari is a long tunic, trousers, an open caftan, a waisttowel and belt. For tailoring, they took homespun fabric from linen and hemp. The men's costume included several headgear: hats, felt hats with small brim, hats resembling modern mosquito nets for the forest. Bast shoes, leather boots, felt boots were put on their feet so that the shoes would not get wet, high wooden soles were nailed to it.
Ethnic women's costume differed from men's by the presence of an apron, belt pendants and all kinds of jewelry made of beads, shells, coins, silver clasps. There were also various headdresses that only married women wore:
- shymaksh - a kind of cap in the shape of a cone on a frame made of birch bark with a blade on the back of the head;
- soroka - reminiscent of the kitchka worn by Russian girls, but with high sides and a low front hanging over the forehead;
- tarpan - head towel with headband.
National outfit can be seen on the mountain Mari, photos of which are presented above. Today it is an integral attribute of the wedding ceremony. Of course, the traditional costume has been somewhat modified. Details have appeared that distinguish it from what the ancestors wore. For example, now a white shirt is combined with a colorful apron, outerwear is decorated with embroidery and ribbons, belts are woven from multi-colored threads, and kaftans are sewn from green or black fabric.
