Russian Christmas time is a period of time usually dedicated to the so-called winter solstice. Usually they open the national solar year. Currently, 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 in Russia spend their holy days? Let's talk about all this in more detail.
What kind of holiday is Christmas time?
What are holy days? This is a whole holiday complex of Slavic origin. The Christmas period consists of 12 holidays (according to the number of months) and continues from the appearance of the first star (on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, in Kolyada) until the Baptism of the Lord. The famous Christmas holiday has such a Christian tradition.
What is the Christian tradition in this case? Everything is simple! Under the influence of the Christian Church in Russia, the original Slavic holiday - Svyatki - merged with many January Christmas rites. All this led tothe fact that it 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 Epiphany. If everything is clear with holy evenings, then why did terrible evenings begin after them?
The fact is that in the old days, Russian peasants blindly believed in evil spirits. They believed that before the Baptism of the Lord, a dark force begins to walk on the ground so that the smoke goes in a yoke. True, not everyone understood that young boys and girls, who were actively mischievous on these holidays, acted as evil spirits. For example, at Svyatki it was customary to plug chimney pipes with something, as well as roll firewood into the yards of civilians.
How was Christmas time in Russia?
For a series of January holidays, the village youth in the old days began to prepare in advance. Girls and boys wanted to spend their time these days as much fun 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 Christmas chants go?
For carols to be successful, young people had to walk around the villages holding a star glued from silver paper in their hands. Girls and boys knocked at different houses, and when they opened the doors, they happily sang (caroled) and congratulated the owners on the currentholidays. In return, the guys received some edible (and not so) gifts.
In the old days, it was customary not only to give gifts to caroling youth, but also to hospitably invite young men and women to their home, seating them at their table and treating them to Christmas dishes. What can I say: it was a pleasant job - caroling at Christmas time!
What are Christmas masquerades? Learn more about this later.
Christmas Masquerades
On the second day after Christmas, the so-called Christmas masquerades began. Each of the guys tried to make some kind of original mask-mask. For example, young men dressed up as wolves and bears, and girls dressed up as chickens and goats. The essence of such a masquerade was to dress up as skillfully as possible: no one from the whole village was supposed to recognize you!
To do this, it was necessary not only to sew an animal costume, but also to prettyly make up. The guys rubbed their cheeks with black soot, tied a long washcloth to their chin, attached mustaches under their noses, fastened horns on their heads, cut fangs out of turnips, etc. Then a whole horde of disguised youth wandered through the villages, singing and dancing, frightening the children. Passers-by tried to see in them their acquaintances, children, grandchildren. Whoever was recognized had to take off his mask-mask.
The most important thing to do on holy days
What else is winter Christmas time famous for? Of course, guesswork! You can't think of a better time than the January holidays for this. As you know, young people in Russia were known for their enviable zeal to know their immediate future:young men and especially curious girls liked to lift the veil of the mystery of their fate on holy days.
Girls, for example, were eager to know when their wedding day would come and who they were - their suitors. The guys, in turn, were interested in the character of the future bride, her external data. At this time, young people mainly accumulated in churches, in baths and at the so-called evenings, in a word, in places intended for fortune-telling.
Divination and spy songs
Christmas in January are known for many fortune-telling, it is simply impossible to list all of them, so we will only talk about one. One of the brightest Christmas divinations was the so-called divination with sing-along songs. The girls had to dress up and sit down on benches along someone's hut. Across from them were the young men. Between them stood a table with a tablecloth laid on it. A huge dish of water was placed on it.
You had to throw your jewelry into this dish: earrings, rings, rings. When a girl threw, for example, a ring into the water, she had to make a wish and sing a song. Such songs were called subservient. When the song ended, the young men shook the dish, after which they pulled out any one decoration from there. According to the content of the sung song, they judged the future fate of the owner of this jewelry.
Interesting facts
So, in this article we learned what Christmas time was like: what this holiday is, how and when it was held. But something weyou don't know yet! For example, at one time in the Russian Empire there was a law according to which on holy days “playing according to old idolatrous legends” was strictly prohibited, as well as “dancing along the streets and singing seductive songs, dressing up in idol and demonic clothes.” Fortunately, these are all relics of the past now.
