What is ritual poetry? What is the history of the emergence of folklore, the features of this genre? Let's try to find answers to these questions together.
Introduction
Russian ritual poetry owes its appearance to folk art. Folklore is oral folk art. It is in it that the creative collective activity of the people is reflected, which characterizes its ideals, views, lifestyle.
Views
Folk ritual poetry has been created over many centuries. Epos, anecdotes, various fairy tales, ditties, legends, all this was passed down from generation to generation. It was in this oral activity that historical information about the traditions and way of life of the people was contained.
Ritual poetry was set to music, so there were plays, instrumental tunes. From them it was possible to understand what the life of the common people is like, to get acquainted with their hobbies, occupation.
Folk ritual poetry attracted many Russian writers with its melodiousness and length. Elements of folklore are used in the theater for staging satirical plays, drama performances, puppet shows.
History of the term
Russian folk ritual poetry is considered the cultural heritage of any nation. The term "folklore" itself came into scientific use thanks to the English scientist William Thomsom in 1846. He assumed a set of structures that are integrated by speech, by a word, regardless of the elements in which they are interconnected. Gradually, instead of the term "folklore", the expression "oral literature" began to be used.
Interesting facts
How did ritual poetry attract Russian writers? Epics, sayings, songs, proverbs, incantations, fairy tales, all this reflected people's idea of their historical roots, features of the world around them.
Russian ritual poetry is reflected in many works of art. For example, in the epics about Vasily Buslaevich and Sadko, many epics are used that glorify Novgorod, the trading activities of that time, the movement of caravans to overseas countries is mentioned.
The Russian people created ritual poetry, in which there were not only epics, but also cunning riddles, folk proverbs, magical, heroic, everyday tales. Literature was the real we alth and mind of the Russian people.
The meaning of this kind of folklore
It was ritual poetry that made it possible to strengthen the moral image of the people, was its historical memory. In such works one could learn about the peculiarities of the life of the Russian people, their customs and rituals. Each of them had a certain meaning, was carried out inspecific dates, and according to a special algorithm.
The rituals were permeated with respect for the ancestors, honoring one's historical roots, the desire to preserve and pass on traditions from generation to generation.
Relationship with seasons
Calendar-ritual poetry assumed accounting for the seasons. For each important holiday that was associated with church traditions, a special temple chant was used. In addition, there were also "semi-professional" genres, for example, in Russia there were buffoons, storytellers.
By the period of Russian Orthodox hymnography, folklore already had a long history, which was formed from a system of genres, as well as various means of musical expression.
Researchers' findings
How did ritual poetry attract composers? The heroic epic is reflected in instrumental music. For all the time of its existence, folk music has firmly entered the lives of people, has become a reflection of personal, social, family life.
Researchers are convinced that in that period, before the existence of Kievan Rus, the Eastern Slavs had a highly developed family and calendar ritual folklore, instrumental music, and also developed a heroic epos.
Epics, proverbs, songs, folk riddles have come down to the present, so it is quite difficult to distinguish the basis of a folklore work from subsequent works of the Russian people.
Ritual folklore
Scientists who are engaged in folk art, allocate the so-called ritual folklore, which is associated with ancient pagan times, the agricultural calendar, into one group. For example, they included dances and songs that were performed on Maslenitsa, Christmas carols, on the day of Ivan Kupala.
In addition, fortune-telling and wedding songs were considered ritual folklore.
Features of rituals
In order to fully realize the richness of Russian ancient ritual poetry, it is necessary to consider this issue in more detail.
What was the meaning of ritual poetry? Songs are considered one of the most ancient manifestations of folk art.
The content of such songs was closely connected with religious canons that have developed over many centuries. The rite, which originated in pagan times, was aimed at the deification of the natural elements. The most ancient historians consider calendar-ritual songs. Their content was closely connected with ideas about the agricultural calendar, the cycle of nature.
Such songs contained information about the various stages of life and activities of peasants engaged in agriculture. They were included in the summer, spring, winter rituals, corresponding to the turning points in the change of seasons. When performing the ceremony, people sincerely believed that the spells they cast would be heard by the mighty forces of Water, the Sun, mother earth, bring an excellent harvest, provide people with a comfortable life.
It was ritual songs that were considered an obligatory component of the rite. It was believed that the achievement of the goal directly depends on how correctly and fully all ritual actions will be carried out.
Ritual songs accompanied plowing and harvesting, wedding festivities, Christmas holidays, christenings.
Calendar-ritual songs are quite short in volume, they are not complex in poetic structure.
They included glee and anxiety, hope and uncertainty. One of the distinguishing features of this type of creativity, researchers consider the personification of the main image, which is associated with the essence of the ceremony.
For example, in old Christmas carols, Kolyada is depicted moving around the yards in search of an owner who will give her various goodies and benefits.
In the calendar songs there is Maslenitsa, Trinity, Spring. The songs contain a call for good, they reproach people for frivolity and deceit. In form, such songs can be called short poems, capable of designating a lyrical situation and conveying a mood in a few small verses.
Types of calendar ritual songs
Caroling started on the eve of Christmas, from December 24th. This was the name of the round of houses with the singing of special carols, in which the owner of the house wished a good harvest, we alth, happiness. Children sang carols, carrying a star on a pole. She symbolized the star of Bethlehem, which appeared in the sky at the time of the birth of Christ. hoststhey tried to give carolers money, delicious cookies, sweets. If the owners of the house were in no hurry to give gifts to children, they sang special ditties with funny threats against them:
Don't give us a pie, master -
We'll take your cow by the horns.
Don't give us a gut -
We are your pig by the temple.
Don't give the kids a blink -
Get it, boss, a kick.
Particular attention in folk art was paid to the beginning of the year. The Russian people sincerely believed that how they celebrate the New Year depends on how it will be spent. People tried to set the table so that it had a lot of delicious and delicious dishes. In the New Year, everyone had fun, wished each other happiness and he alth.
Short songlike carols were used as a background for such wishes.
For example, in the poem "Svetlana" V. A. Zhukovsky uses one of the songs dedicated to the blacksmith:
…Blacksmith, Forge me gold and a new crown, Forge a golden ring.
Based on a folk song about peasants, which he heard from his nanny, A. S. Pushkin wrote more than one of his poems.
Conclusion
Shrovetide in special songs was ridiculed, scolded, called to return, called her various female names: Izotievna, Avdotyushka, Akulina Savvishna.
B. I. Dal mentioned in his writings that for Maslenitsa every day of the week had a certain meaning:
- Monday was associated with the meeting;
- Tuesday was associated with flirting;
- Wednesday was considered gourmet;
- Thursday was associated with hospitality;
- Fridayconsidered mother-in-law evenings;
- Sat-in-law's get-togethers were arranged on Saturday;
- Sunday was dedicated to seeing off Shrovetide.
The Trinity cycle was also filled with various calendar and ritual songs, and therefore attracted many Russian poets and writers. For example, A. N. Ostrovsky used a ritual song about a cloud.
Composers did not stand aside either, they gladly used fragments of ritual songs in their work.
Spring rites were performed during Lent, so they lacked a playful festive character. Stoneflies were used as the main spring genre. These songs were not sung, but called, climbing the rooftops and hillocks. With their help, people tried to call for spring, say goodbye to winter.
Part of the stoneflies is associated with poems about the “Cockroach Fly” and “Cockroach” known to everyone since childhood.
After the adoption of Christianity, pagan beliefs gradually lost their semantic meaning. The meaning of those magical actions that gave rise to a certain type of folk music was also lost.
But, despite this, the very forms of holding ancient holidays turned out to be stable. Ritual folklore, which underwent significant transformations and updates, continued to function.
The Christian Church expressed an extremely negative attitude towards traditional dances and songs. Representatives of the clergy considered folk art sinful, associated with the devil. Such an assessment was found by researchers in many chronicle sources and canonical church decrees. For example, there isinformation that the Kyiv Metropolitan John II wrote in the ninth century to Yakov Chernorizets (writer) that the holy fathers command him to observe piety, and in the case of music and dancing, get up from the table and go away.
It was at that time that another area of folklore appeared, which was born in the depths of the "carnival" culture of Ancient Russia.
She was considered a “distorting mirror” of existing reality, a “stupid” wrong life in which everything happened the other way around. Reality and fantasy, good and evil, up and down were reversed.
In Soviet times, ancient folk art was practically ignored, holidays and folk festivals were banned. It was during this historical period that many ancient Russian rituals and traditions were irretrievably lost. Recently, the situation has changed for the better. Many writers and poets again turned their attention to legends, legends, old rituals, and use them in their creative work.
