Aka patty. Holidays, rituals and traditions of Chuvashia

Traditional folk holidays and rituals are usually divided into calendar ones - associated with agricultural work and family and household ones - due to the birth of a person, his transition from one age group to another, marriage, death, etc. This section discusses traditional Chuvash holidays of a calendar-seasonal nature. Calendar holidays are timed to coincide with the main turning points of the astronomical year - winter and summer solstice, autumn and spring solstice. In ancient times, the Chuvash considered the beginning of the year to be the new moon closest to the spring solstice (March 21-22). These days, the Chuvash pagans performed ritual actions dedicated to the farewell of the old year (kalam, seren, virem) and meeting the coming year (mancun, kunser ujave). The next important milestone in the ancient calendar was the period of the summer solstice (June 21 - 22). At the zenith of summer, the Chuvash celebrated a holiday sinse, which lasted two weeks. During this time, all work on earth ceased, public sacrifices were made ( asla chuk, uy chuke, sumar chuke), during which the peasants asked God for a good harvest, fat livestock, and health for themselves. Young people then began to dance in circles and organize games in the evenings. On the days of the autumn solstice (September 21 - 22), completing the annual cycle of economic activity, family and tribal celebrations were held Chukleme. Their ritual certainly included a grateful sacrifice to the deities and spirits of their ancestors. At the same time, rituals were performed to join the newly deceased to the previously deceased (yupa). They marked the transition from the warm, beneficial spring-summer season to the cold, fraught with many dangers, autumn-winter season. According to pagan ideas, in spring and summer the forces of goodness and fertility triumph on earth, so all rituals were aimed at maintaining them. In the autumn-winter period, on the contrary, the destructive forces of evil allegedly reigned. Accordingly, all ritual and ritual actions were aimed at getting rid of the machinations of evil spirits and other evil spirits. It was believed that their greatest revelry occurred on the days of the winter solstice (December 21 - 22). At this time the Chuvash celebrated cypxypi: performed ritual acts in order to expel evil spirits and ensure the well-being of society. So, for example, going to the houses of mummers (Svetke, Shuittan Vayi) symbolized the activity of evil forces, and the actions of the ritual participants were aimed at expelling them. The mummers acted out scenes of the death of evil spirits. And at the end of the winter cycle, rituals were performed to cleanse homes and outbuildings from all evil spirits. The final stages of winter rituals seemed to mark the awakening of the forces of good. Until the spring solstice, this struggle between destructive and creative forces continued. Finally, the annual cycle of rituals ended, the forces of good finally defeated evil, and the Great Day arrived again (Mancun), and with it the forces of nature were revived. These critical periods of the annual cycle, celebrated with major holidays, formed the basis of the traditional calendar. At the same time, the pagan calendar was organically connected with peasant labor and was complicated by rituals dedicated to the most important agricultural work. The Chuvash celebrated the beginning and end of spring sowing with special reverence (aka patti, aka chuke, varlah patti, akatuy), haymaking (uta chuke), harvest (vyrma tukhni, durla saltni, durla breathe, ana vai ilni etc.), threshing (avan patti, avan sari, ivan chuke). These rituals brought a unique festive flavor into the monotonous everyday life of peasant life, elevating and sanctifying the hard work of the grain grower. Over the last millennium, the Bulgarians, and then the Chuvash, had close contacts and economic and cultural interaction with many peoples. They left a deep mark on Chuvash life and the folk calendar, the repertoire of its holidays and rituals. Here you can highlight Arab and Iranian, Mari and Tatar trends. Thus, the Zakamsky and Ural Chuvash celebrate the winter solstice nartavan (nartukan). This tradition comes from our Tatar neighbors, and to them, in turn, this holiday came from Central Asia. Ultimately Nartukan ascends To ancient Iranian tradition to celebrate Nowruz - spring new year. For more than 400 years, the Chuvash have been living as part of Russia, absorbing the life-giving juices of the richest Russian culture. This could not but affect the rituals of the Chuvash. They adopted a number of Russian folk calendar holidays - Maslenitsa ( savarni), simek, baptism (kasharni) etc. But these holidays were enriched with traditional Chuvash rituals and, at times, taking on a completely different look. After the conversion of the Chuvash to Christianity, their ritual repertoire was significantly expanded; it included such holidays. like christmas (rashtav), Palm Sunday (verpanny, pitching npasnike), Nikolin's day (Mikulan), Trinity (truiski), Elijah's day (ilem), Saved sapas), Peter's Day (and grass), cover (pukrav) etc. Many of the church holidays were rethought and acquired a more “down-to-earth” agricultural character.

The Chuvash folk calendar developed under the strong influence of Russian calendars and their changes, and by the end of the 18th century it merged with the civil calendar adopted in Russia in 1700. Due to the change in the calendar system, many traditional Chuvash holidays received a different time period. Adapting to the church Orthodox, civil Julian, and then the Gregorian calendar, the Chuvash holidays shifted in time, the rituals of the pagan past lost their systemic character, adjoining first one or the other of the newly acquired holidays.

Surkhuri. It's vintage Chuvash holiday. In a more ancient version, it had a connection with the worship of tribal spirits - the patrons of livestock. Hence the name of the holiday ( from “surăkh yrri” - “sheep spirit”). It was celebrated at the winter solstice, when the day began to arrive. Surkhuri and lasted a whole week. During the celebration, rituals were held to ensure economic success and personal well-being of people, a good harvest and offspring of livestock in the new year. On the first day of Surkhuri, children gathered in groups and walked around the village door to door. At the same time, they sang songs about the coming of the New Year, congratulated their fellow villagers on the holiday, and invited other children to join their company. Entering the house, they wished the owners a good birth of livestock, sang songs with spells, and they, in turn, presented them with food. Later, Surkhuri coincided with Christian Christmas ( Rashtav) and continued until .

One of the holidays of the New Year cycle - nartukan ( nartavan) - common among the Trans-Kama and Sub-Ural Chuvash. It began on December 25, the day of the winter solstice, and lasted a whole week. It corresponds to the holiday of Surkhuri - among the upper and Kher Sări - the lower Chuvash.

A new house built last year was chosen to host the holiday. To prevent the owner from refusing, during the construction of the house, young people organized collective help ( nime) - worked for free on export building materials and building a house. This house was called nartukan pÿrche - the house where nartukan was held.

During Nartukan, the children sledded down the mountains in the morning. At the same time, special couplets were sung - nartukan savisem. With the onset of dusk, here and there exclamations were heard over the village: “Nartukana-ah! Nartukana!”, i.e. “On Nartukana!” The guys gathered in groups and, having agreed among themselves, went home to dress up as Christmas grandfathers ( Nartukan old man) and in Yuletide money ( nartukan karchăkĕ). The guys dressed up mostly in women's clothing, girls - to men's. After some time, the mummers poured out into the street and began to walk from house to house. Among the mummers one could meet: a Tatar merchant, a comedian with a bear, a Mari matchmaker, a camel with a horse, and a gypsy fortune teller... The procession was headed by an old man's nartukan with a whip and a karchak's nartukan with a spinning wheel and a spindle... Guys , first of all, they were interested in those houses in which their chosen ones lived or guests invited to the Nartukan holiday from other villages. On ordinary days it was not customary to enter such houses, but on a holiday this could be done under the cover of masquerade clothing.

The procession began through pre-designated houses. In each hut the following was played out with different variations: funny scene. A guy dressed as an old woman sat down at a spinning wheel and began to spin. A girl dressed as a wanderer, waving a broom, began to scold and reproach, and threatened to glue the old woman to the spinning wheel. At the same time, she snatched a bottle of water from one of those accompanying her and poured the water onto the hem of the clothes of those present. All this was done with great humor. At the end, all the mummers began to dance to the music and the noisy accompaniment of the stove damper and rattles. The owners of the house, especially the girls, were also invited to dance. Guys in women's suits and wearing masks, they tried to look out for the guest girls, challenging them to dance... Having amused the hosts to their heart's content, the crowd of mummers, dancing and noisily, went to another house. Even in the afternoon, the guys, through their sisters and relatives, invited all the girls to the house chosen for the holiday. The girls came in their best outfits and sat along the walls. Best places were provided to girls arriving from other villages. When all the invitees gathered, games, dances and songs began.

Finally, one of the girls reminded us that it was time to go get some water and start fortune-telling with rings. Several guys responded and invited girls to accompany them to the river. After some persuasion, the girls agreed and left the circle. One of them took a bucket, the other took a towel. The guys took an ax to cut a hole, as well as a bunch of splinters and lit it. By the light of the torches, everyone went to fetch water.

On the river the guys bought from the waterman ( shyvri) water - they threw him into the hole silver coin. The girls scooped up a bucket of water, threw a ring and a coin into the water, covered the bucket with an embroidered towel and, without looking back, returned. At the house, the bucket was passed to one of the guys and he, carrying a bucket filled with water on his little finger, carried it into the hut and deftly placed it on the place prepared in the middle of the circle. Then one of the girls was chosen to lead. After much persuasion, she agreed and sat down by the bucket with a lit candle in her hands. The rest of the girls sat around the bucket, and the guys stood around behind the girls. The presenter checked whether the ring and coin were in place.

Kăsharni, ( in some places) , - a holiday of the New Year's cycle. Celebrated by Chuvash youth during the week from Christmas ( Rashtav) before baptism. After the introduction of Christianity, it coincided with Russian Christmastide and baptism. Initially, this holiday celebrated the winter solstice.

The word kăsharni, apparently, is only externally somewhat similar to the Russian baptism (to the variant of kĕreschenkke goes back to him). Literally kăsharni - “ winter week» ( Wed tat.: kysh = “winter”).

To hold a cookout, young people rented a house and brewed so-called maiden beer in it ( xĕr sări). For this purpose, donations were collected from the entire village: malt, hops, flour and everything necessary for treating fellow villagers, as well as guests invited for this occasion from neighboring villages.

The day before baptism, young girls gathered in this house, brewed beer and cooked pies. In the evening the whole village, young and old, gathered at the house. The girls first treated the elderly and parents to beer. Blessing the young ones happy life In the new year, the old people soon went home. The youth spent this evening having fun. There was music and singing all night, boys and girls danced to ditties. All kinds of fortune-telling about fate occupied an important place in the celebration of kăsharni. At midnight, when the village was already falling asleep, several people went into the field. Here, at the crossroads, covered with blankets, they listened to who heard what sound. If someone heard the voice of any domestic animal, they said that he would be rich in livestock, but if someone heard the clinking of coins, they believed that he would be rich in money. The ringing of a bell and the music of bagpipes ( shăpăr) predicted a wedding. If a guy heard these sounds, then he will certainly get married this year, and if a girl hears them, he will get married. There were many other fortune-telling events that night, but young people more often wondered about marriage. This is explained by the fact that, according to Chuvash custom, it was during the New Year period that the parents of the newlyweds sent matchmakers. During the celebration of kăsharni, mummers walked around the courtyards. They acted out all sorts of scenes from village life. The mummers certainly visited the house where the youth celebrated kăsharni. Here they showed various comic skits. However, initially the role of the mummers was reduced to expelling evil spirits and forces of the old year hostile to man from the village. Therefore, in the evenings from Christmas to baptism, mummers walked around with whips and imitated beating all strangers.

The next morning came the so-called baptism of water ( tură shiva anna kun). On this day, the baptism of the Lord was celebrated - one of the so-called twelve holidays of the Russian Orthodox Church. This holiday was established in memory of the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, described in the gospel.

The winter cycle ended with a holiday Çăvarni ( Maslenitsa) , marking the onset of spring forces in nature. In the design of the holiday, in the content of songs, sentences and rituals, its agrarian nature and the cult of the sun were clearly manifested. To speed up the movement of the sun and the arrival of spring, during the holiday it was customary to bake pancakes and ride a sleigh around the village in the direction of the sun. In conclusion Maslenitsa week burned an effigy of the “old woman of çăvarni” ( "çăvarni karchăke"). Then came the holiday of honoring the sun çăvarni ( Maslenitsa), when they baked pancakes, they organized horseback riding around the village in the sun. At the end of Maslenitsa week, an effigy of the “old woman of çăvarnia” was burned ( çăvarni karchăkĕ).

In the spring there was a multi-day festival of sacrifices to the sun, god and dead ancestors of the Mankun ( then coincided with Orthodox Easter ), which began with kalăm kun and ended with or virem.

Kalăm- one of traditional holidays spring ritual cycle dedicated to the annual commemoration of deceased ancestors. Unbaptized Chuvash kalam celebrated before the great day ( ). Among the baptized Chuvash, the traditional mănkun coincided with Christian Easter, and as a result of this - with Holy Week and Lazarus Saturday. In many places, kalam merged with, and the word itself was preserved only as the name of the first day of Easter.

Since ancient times, many peoples, including our ancestors, celebrated the onset of the New Year in the spring. The origins of spring holidays go back to New Year's celebrations. Only later, due to repeated changes in the calendar system, the original spring New Year ritual cycle disintegrated, and a number of rituals of this cycle were transferred to Maslenitsa ( ) and holidays of the winter cycle ( , ). Therefore, many rituals of these holidays coincide or have an unambiguous meaning.

The Chuvash pagan Kalăm began on Wednesday and lasted a whole week until Mankun. On the eve of Kalăm, a bathhouse was heated, supposedly for deceased ancestors. A special messenger rode to the cemetery on horseback and invited all deceased relatives to wash and take a steam bath. In the bathhouse, the spirits of deceased relatives hovered with a broom, leaving behind water and soap for them. The first day of the holiday was called kĕçĕn kalăm ( small calam). On this day, early in the morning, one guy was appointed as a messenger in each house. He rode around on horseback to visit all his relatives. On this occasion, the best horse was covered with a patterned blanket. The mane and tail were braided colorful ribbons and tassels, the horse's tail was tied with a red ribbon, and a leather collar with bells and bells was put on his neck. IN best clothes They also dressed the guy himself; a special embroidered scarf with red woolen fringe was tied around his neck.

Approaching each house, the messenger knocked on the gate three times with his whip, called the owners outside and invited them in poetry to “sit under the candles” for the evening. At this time, the parents were slaughtering some living creatures. In the middle of the yard there was usually a specially fenced place man kĕlĕ ( main place of worship).

Sĕren- spring holiday among the grassroots Chuvash, dedicated to the expulsion of evil spirits from the village. And the very name of the holiday means “exile.” Seren was held on the eve of the great day ( ), and in some places also before the summer commemorations of deceased ancestors - on the eve of çimĕk. Young people walked in groups around the village with rowan rods and, whipping them at people, buildings, equipment, clothes, drove out evil spirits and the souls of the dead, shouting “Seren!” Fellow villagers in each house treated the ritual participants to beer, cheese and eggs. At the end of the nineteenth century. these rituals disappeared in most Chuvash villages.

On the eve of the holiday, all the rural youth, having prepared rattles and rowan rods, gathered with the venerable old man and asked him for his blessing for a good deed:

Bless us, grandfather, according to the ancient custom of celebrating Seren, ask Tur for mercy and a rich harvest, may he not allow evil spirits, devils to reach us.

The elder answered them:

They started a good deed, well done. So do not abandon the good customs of your fathers and grandfathers.

Then the youth asked the elder for land so that they could graze the sheep for at least one night. “0vtsy” in the ritual are children 10-15 years old.

The old man answers them:

I would give you land, but it’s expensive for me, you don’t have enough money.

How much are you asking for it, grandfather? - the guys asked.

For a hundred dessiatines - twelve pairs of hazel grouse, six pairs of rams and three pairs of bulls.

In this allegorical answer, hazel grouse refers to songs that young people should sing while walking around the village, eggs to rams, and rolls to bulls to be collected by the children taking part in the ritual.

Then the old man would roll out a barrel of beer, and as many people would gather there as the yard could accommodate. In front of such an audience, the old man jokingly interrogated the elected officials if there was any complaint. The elected officials began to complain about each other: the shepherds did not guard the sheep well, one of the elected officials took a bribe, embezzled public property... The old man imposed punishment on them - a thousand, five hundred or a hundred lashes. The culprits were immediately “punished” and pretended to be sick. They brought beer to the sick, and they recovered, began to sing and dance...

After that, everyone went out to the pasture outside the outskirts, where the whole village gathered.

Măncun- a holiday celebrating the spring new year according to the ancient Chuvash calendar. The name mănkun translates as “great day”. It is noteworthy that the pagan East Slavic tribes also called the first day of the spring new year Great Day. After the spread of Christianity, the Chuvash mankun coincided with Christian Easter.

According to the ancient Chuvash calendar, mănkun was celebrated on the days of the spring solstice. The pagan Chuvash began Mănkun on Wednesday and celebrated for a whole week.

On the day of the Mankun offensive, early in the morning, the children ran out to watch the sunrise on the lawn on the eastern side of the village. According to the Chuvash, on this day the sun rises dancing, that is, especially solemnly and joyfully. Together with the children, old people also came out to meet the new, young sun. They told the children ancient fairy tales and legends about the struggle of the sun with the evil sorceress Vupăr. One of these legends tells that during the long winter, evil spirits sent by the old woman Vupăr constantly attacked the sun and wanted to drag it from the sky to the underworld. The sun appeared less and less in the sky. Then the Chuvash warriors decided to free the sun from captivity. A squad of good fellows gathered and, having received the blessing of the elders, headed east to rescue the sun. For seven days and seven nights the warriors fought with the servants of Vupăr and finally defeated them. The evil old woman Vupăr with a pack of her assistants ran into the dungeon and hid in the possessions of Shuitan.

At the end of the spring sowing, a family ceremony was held aka pătti ( praying with porridge) . When the last furrow remained on the strip and the last sown seeds were covered, the head of the family prayed to Çÿlti Tură for the sending of a good harvest. A few spoons of porridge and boiled eggs were buried in the furrow and plowed under it.

At the end of spring field work, a holiday was held akatuy(plow wedding), associated with the ancient Chuvash idea of the marriage of a plow ( masculinity) with earth ( feminine). This holiday combines a number of ceremonies and solemn rituals. In the old Chuvash way of life, akatuy began before going out to spring field work and ended after the end of sowing spring crops. The name Akatui is now known to the Chuvash people everywhere. However, relatively recently, the riding Chuvash called this holiday Suhatu ( dry “plowing” + tuiĕ “holiday, wedding”), and the lower ones are sapan tuiĕ or sapan ( from Tatar saban "plough"). In the past, akatuy had an exclusively religious-magical character and was accompanied by collective prayer. Over time, with the baptism of the Chuvash, it turned into a community holiday with horse racing, wrestling, and youth entertainment.

The groom was accompanied to the bride's house by a large wedding train. Meanwhile, the bride said goodbye to her relatives. She was dressed in girl's clothes and covered with a blanket. The bride began to cry and lament ( xĕr yĕri). The groom's train was greeted at the gate with bread and salt and beer. After a long and very figurative poetic monologue by the eldest of the friends ( măn kĕrÿ) guests were invited to go into the courtyard at the laid tables. The meal began, greetings, dances and songs of the guests sounded. The next day the groom's train was leaving. The bride was seated astride a horse, or she rode standing in a wagon. The groom struck her three times with a whip to “drive away” the spirits of his wife’s family from the bride (i.e. Yurkic nomadic tradition). The fun in the groom's house continued with the participation of the bride's relatives. The newlyweds spent their wedding night in a cage or other non-residential premises. According to custom, the young woman took off her husband’s shoes. In the morning, the young woman was dressed in a woman’s outfit with a women’s headdress “khushpu”. First of all, she went to bow and make a sacrifice to the spring, then she began to work around the house and cook food. The young wife gave birth to her first child with her parents. The umbilical cord was cut: for boys - on the ax handle, for girls - on the handle of a sickle, so that the children would be hardworking. (see Tui sămahlăhĕ // Your literature: textbook-reader: VIII grade valli / V. P. Nikitinpa V. E. Tsyfarkin puhsa hatєrlenĕ. - Shupashkar, 1990. - P. 24-36.)

In the Chuvash family, the man was dominant, but the woman also had authority. Divorces were extremely rare.

There was a custom of the minority - the youngest son always remained with his parents and succeeded his father. The Chuvash custom of arranging piss ( nime) during the construction of houses, outbuildings, harvesting

In the formation and regulation of the moral and ethical standards of the Chuvash people, public opinion villages ( yal mĕn kalat - “what will fellow villagers say”). Immodest behavior and foul language were sharply condemned, and even more so, rarely encountered among the Chuvash before the beginning of the twentieth century. drunkenness. Lynchings were carried out for theft.

From generation to generation, the Chuvash taught each other: “Chăvash yatne an çĕrt” ( don't disgrace the name of the Chuvash).

Literature:

/ N. I. Adidatova // Khalӑkh school = People's school. - 2018. - No. 2. - P. 55-56.

/ L. G. Afanasyeva, V. Z. Petrova // Chӑvash chӑlkhipe literature: theory tata methodology: article sen pukhhi / I. Ya. - Shupashkar, 2017. - 31-mӗsh kӑlarӑm: [Competition of materials "Chӑvash chӗlkhipe of literature. Uҫӑ lesson tata class tulashӗnchi chi layӑх ӗҫ". - pp. 34-36.

/ I. N. Fedorova // Khalӑkh shkulӗ = People's school. - 2018. - No. 2. - P. 36-39.

/ L.P. Shkolnikova, V.D. Petrova // Khalӑkh shkulӗ = People's school. - 2016. - No. 2. - P. 29-30.

Holidays.

The rituals and holidays of the Chuvash in the past were closely related to their pagan religious views and strictly corresponded to the economic and agricultural calendar.

The ritual cycle began with winter holiday asking for a good offspring of livestock - surkhuri (sheep spirit), timed to coincide with the winter solstice. During the festival, children and youth in groups walked around the village door to door, entering the house, wishing the owners a good birth of livestock, and singing songs with spells. The owners presented them with food.

Then came the holiday of honoring the sun, savarni (Maslenitsa), when they baked pancakes and organized horseback riding around the village in the sun. At the end of the Maslenitsa week, an effigy of the “old woman savarni” (savarni karchakyo) was burned. In the spring there was a multi-day festival of sacrifices to the sun, god and dead ancestors mankun (which then coincided with Orthodox Easter), which began with kalam kun and ended with seren or virem - the rite of expulsion winter, evil spirits and diseases. Young people walked in groups around the village with rowan twigs and, whipping them at people, buildings, equipment, clothes, drove out evil spirits and the souls of the dead, shouting “Seren!” Fellow villagers in each house treated the ritual participants to beer and cheese and eggs.At the end of the 19th century, these rituals disappeared in most Chuvash villages.

At the end of the spring sowing, a family ritual aka patti (prayer of porridge) was held. When the last furrow remained on the strip and the last sown seeds were covered, the head of the family prayed to Sulti Tura for a good harvest. A few spoons of porridge and boiled eggs were buried in the furrow and plowed under it.

At the end of spring field work, the Akatui holiday was held (literally - the wedding of the plow), associated with the ancient Chuvash idea of the marriage of the plow (masculine) with the earth (feminine). In the past, akatuy had an exclusively religious-magical character and was accompanied by collective prayer. Over time, with the baptism of the Chuvash, it turned into a community holiday with horse racing, wrestling, and youth entertainment.

The cycle continued with simek (a celebration of nature’s flowering, public commemoration). After the sowing of crops, the time of Uyava (among the lower-ranking Chuvash) and blue (among the upper-class) came, when a ban was imposed on all agricultural work (the land was “pregnant”). It lasted for several weeks. This was the time of sacrifices to the Uchuk with requests for a rich harvest, safety of livestock, health and well-being of the community members. According to the decision of the gathering, a horse, as well as calves and sheep, were slaughtered at a traditional ritual place, a goose or duck was taken from each yard, and porridge with meat was cooked in several cauldrons. After the ritual of prayer, a joint meal was arranged. The time of uyava (blue) ended with the ritual of “sumar chuk” (prayer for rain) with bathing in water and dousing each other with water.

The completion of harvesting the grain was celebrated by praying to the guardian spirit of the barn (avan patti). Before the beginning of the consumption of bread from the new harvest, the whole family organized a thanksgiving prayer with avansari beer (literally - wine beer), for which all dishes were prepared from the new harvest. The prayers ended with a feast of avtan yashka (rooster cabbage soup).

Traditional Chuvash youth holidays and entertainment were held at all times of the year. In the spring-summer period, the youth of the entire village, or even several villages, gathered for outdoors for round dances uyav (vaya, taka, puhu). In winter, gatherings (larni) were held in the huts, where the older owners were temporarily absent. At the gatherings, the girls spun, and with the arrival of the boys, games began, the participants of the gatherings sang songs, danced, etc. In the middle of winter, a festival of kher sari (literally - girlish beer) was held. The girls pooled together to brew beer, bake pies, and in one of the houses, together with the boys, organized a youth feast.

After Christianization, the baptized Chuvash especially celebrated those holidays that coincided in time with the pagan calendar (Christmas with Surkhuri, Maslenitsa and Savarni, Trinity with Simek, etc.), accompanying them with both Christian and pagan rituals. Under the influence of the church, patronal holidays became widespread in the everyday life of the Chuvash. By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Christian holidays and rituals in the everyday life of baptized Chuvash became prevalent.

Wedding ceremony.

Among the Chuvash, three forms of marriage were common: 1) with full wedding ceremony and matchmaking (tuila, tuipa kaini), 2) a wedding by “going away” (khur tukhsa kaini) and 3) kidnapping the bride, often with her consent (khur varlani).

After a long and very figurative poetic monologue by the eldest of the friends (man keru), the guests were invited to go into the courtyard at the laid tables. The refreshment began, greetings, dances and songs of the guests sounded. The next day the groom's train was leaving. The bride was seated astride a horse, or she rode standing in a wagon. The groom struck her three times with a whip to “drive away” the spirits of his wife’s clan from the bride (Turkic nomadic tradition). The fun in the groom's house continued with the participation of the bride's relatives. The newlyweds spent their wedding night in a cage or other non-residential premises. According to custom, the young woman took off her husband’s shoes. In the morning, the young woman was dressed in a woman’s outfit with a women’s headdress “hush-poo”. First of all, she went to bow and make a sacrifice to the spring, then she began to work around the house and cook food.

The young wife gave birth to her first child with her parents. The umbilical cord was cut: for boys - on the ax handle, for girls - on the handle of a sickle, so that the children would be hardworking.

In the Chuvash family, the man was dominant, but the woman also had authority. Divorces were extremely rare. There was a custom of the minority - the youngest son always remained with his parents and succeeded his father.

Traditions.

The Chuvash have a traditional custom of arranging help (ni-me) during the construction of houses, outbuildings, and harvesting.

In the formation and regulation of the moral and ethical standards of the Chuvash, the public opinion of the village has always played a large role (yal men kapat - “what will fellow villagers say”). Immodest behavior, foul language, and even more so, drunkenness, which was rare among the Chuvash before the beginning of the 20th century, were sharply condemned. theft carried out lynching.

From generation to generation, the Chuvash taught each other: “Chavash yatne an sert” (don’t disgrace the name of the Chuvash).

Patricia Dombrowski doesn't look like the prototype rapper, but Patti Cake$ only poses like another underdog story. The heart and pluckiness of the authentic and rap talent, his leading carry only the film so far before the spirit is replaced by the genre demands. This almost-test mixtape covers the tracks that can give you goosebumps in the moment before getting lost in the Convention.

Patricia (Danielle McDonald) is an overweight, New Jersey 20-something who has endured the cruel nickname "Dumbo" since childhood. In her dreams, she is Killa P aka Patty Cake$, a famous rapper who will take the stage with her idol, the infamous MC named O-Z. The dream sequences have some fun RAPs, but their Emerald-hued title and larger-than-life hero's typical plain influences come from writer/director Geremy Jasper. Essentially, we follow Patty and her loyal second/pharmacy technician Hareesh (Siddhartha Dhananjay) on their quest to escape the lower class New Jersey suburban wasteland and make those dreams a reality.

This path has many fits and starts, stalled by an indefinite combination of tones. With top shots of the cities and Manhattan teasing in the distance, Jersey is framed overwhelmingly as an environment full of crushing financial needs and a lack of prospects, but hardly registering actual struggles. Insults from peers and blue-collar bosses, and accidentally slicing the tongue out of her aptly named mother Barb (Bridget Everett) aren't titanic obstacles for Patty to overcome, and it's easy to see she took them in stride when almost every potential problem tagged a walking joke . Wheelchair-wheelchair Patty Grandma (Cathy Moriarty) exists to rack up troublesome medical bills and provide some geriatric-in-the-rap-world humor while it's time for some disingenuous solemnity. The real world in the film seems almost as whimsical as Patty's dreams, which at least give a glimpse into the aspiring artist's condition, including the moment when she gets lost in the music and begins to float through the air.

Macdonald provides a feisty beating heart to this story, exuding the sometimes mixed and questioning relationships that make it authentic. Like dreamers, she's genuine and it's too bad that her Patti gets paid less to play the one note the movie script demands from scene to scene. She's the film everything she needs, from a bullied breadwinner to halfway through an affair with a fellow outcast (Mamoudou Athie), a recluse who identifies as the Basterd of the Antichrist. He also has some impressive recording equipment in his cabin in the woods. Maybe he and Patti can learn to make music together, literally and figuratively. Maybe I even really liked it.

Jasper struggles to match his star's energy by mechanically acting through his senses. The toxic relationship between Patti and her mother, who had their dreams of unfulfilled musical fame, is glossed over and comes to a simple solution without much suffering. Convenience also causes Patty's worlds to collide when by chance she arrives at a luxurious mansion hero o-z through her catering work. There, she learns that the man behind the curtain - or gate - is not what she expected, but to whom the inspiring end is uncertain. His cold rant about one of the most expensive paintings in his gallery hints at significance without providing any. That's Patty cake$.

According to the ideas of the ancient Chuvash, every person had to do two important things in his life: take care of his old parents and honorably escort them to the “other world”, raise children as worthy people and leave them behind. A person’s entire life was spent in the family, and for any person one of the main goals in life was the well-being of his family, his parents, his children.

Parents in a Chuvash family. The ancient Chuvash family kil-yysh usually consisted of three generations: grandparents, father and mother, and children.

In Chuvash families, old parents and father-mother were treated with love and respect. This is very clearly visible in Chuvash folk songs, which most often tell not about the love of a man and a woman (as in so many modern songs), but about love to your parents, relatives, to your homeland. Some songs talk about the feelings of an adult dealing with the loss of his parents.

In the middle of the field there is a spreading oak tree:

Father, probably. I went to him.

“Come to me, son,” he did not say;

In the middle of the field there is a beautiful linden tree,

Mom, probably. I went to her.

“Come to me, son,” she did not say;

My soul was saddened - I cried...

They treated their mother with special love and honor. The word “amăsh” is translated as “mother”, but for his own mother the Chuvash have special words “anne, api”; when pronouncing these words, the Chuvash speaks only about his mother. Anne, api, atăsh are a sacred concept for the Chuvash. These words were never used in abusive language or ridicule.

The Chuvash said about the sense of duty to their mother: “Treat your mother with pancakes baked in the palm of your hand every day, and even then you will not repay her with good for good, labor for labor.” The ancient Chuvash believed that the most terrible curse was the maternal one, and it would definitely come true.

Wife and husband in a Chuvash family. In ancient Chuvash families, the wife had equal rights with her husband, and there were no customs that humiliated women. Husband and wife respected each other, divorces were very rare.

The old people said about the position of the wife and husband in the Chuvash family: “Hĕrarăm - kil turri, arçyn - kil patshi. A woman is a deity in the house, a man is a king in the house.”

If there were no sons in a Chuvash family, then the eldest daughter helped the father; if there were no daughters in the family, then the youngest son helped the mother. All work was revered: be it a woman’s or a man’s. And if necessary, a woman could take on men’s work and a man could perform household duties. And no work was considered more important than another.

The rituals and holidays of the Chuvash in the past were closely related to their pagan religious views and strictly corresponded to the economic and agricultural calendar.

The ritual cycle began with the winter holiday of asking for a good offspring of livestock - surkhuri (sheep spirit), timed to coincide with the winter solstice. During the festival, children and youth in groups walked around the village door to door, entering the house, wishing the owners a good birth of livestock, and singing songs with spells. The owners presented them with food.

Then came the holiday of honoring the sun, savarni (Maslenitsa), when they baked pancakes and organized horseback riding around the village in the sun. At the end of Maslenitsa week, an effigy of the “old woman savarni” (savarni karchakyo) was burned. In the spring there was a multi-day festival of sacrifices to the sun, god and dead ancestors mankun (which then coincided with Orthodox Easter), which began with kalam kun and ended with seren or virem - a ritual of expelling winter, evil spirits and diseases. Young people walked in groups around the village with rowan rods and, whipping them at people, buildings, equipment, clothes, drove out evil spirits and the souls of the dead, shouting “Seren!” Fellow villagers in each house treated the ritual participants to beer, cheese and eggs. At the end of the 19th century. these rituals disappeared in most Chuvash villages.

At the end of the spring sowing, a family ritual aka patti (prayer of porridge) was held. When the last furrow remained on the strip and the last sown seeds were covered, the head of the family prayed to Sulti Tura for a good harvest. A few spoons of porridge and boiled eggs were buried in the furrow and plowed under it.

The completion of harvesting the grain was celebrated by praying to the guardian spirit of the barn (avan patti). Before the beginning of the consumption of bread from the new harvest, the whole family organized a thanksgiving prayer with avansari beer (literally - wine beer), for which all dishes were prepared from the new harvest. The prayers ended with a feast of avtan yashka (rooster cabbage soup).

Traditional Chuvash youth holidays and entertainment were held at all times of the year. In the spring-summer period, the youth of the entire village, or even several villages, gathered in the open air for uyav (vaya, taka, puhu) round dances. In winter, gatherings (larni) were held in the huts, where the older owners were temporarily absent. At the gatherings, the girls spun, and with the arrival of the boys, games began, the participants of the gatherings sang songs, danced, etc. In the middle of winter, a festival of kher sari (literally - girlish beer) was held. The girls pooled together to brew beer, bake pies, and in one of the houses, together with the boys, organized a youth feast.

After Christianization, the baptized Chuvash especially celebrated those holidays that coincided in time with the pagan calendar (Christmas with Surkhuri, Maslenitsa and Savarni, Trinity with Simek, etc.), accompanying them with both Christian and pagan rituals. Under the influence of the church, patronal holidays became widespread in the everyday life of the Chuvash. By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Christian holidays and rituals became predominant in the everyday life of baptized Chuvash people.

The Chuvash have a traditional custom of arranging help (ni-me) during the construction of houses, outbuildings, and harvesting.

In the formation and regulation of the moral and ethical standards of the Chuvash, the public opinion of the village has always played a large role (yal men drip - “what will fellow villagers say”). Immodest behavior and foul language were sharply condemned, and even more so, rarely encountered among the Chuvash before the beginning of the 20th century. drunkenness. Lynchings were carried out for theft.