From the very first times of the existence of mankind, when a primitive man built the first shelter in his life from the weather, and then came up with the idea to cover the pit where he slept with branches and built a hut that protected from rain and snow, people were constantly overcome by the desire for comfort.
The appearance of the first home
People learned to protect themselves from inclement weather in any way, and, having learned this, they did not stop only at ensuring safety, gradually surrounding themselves with various amenities. During the ice age, they looked for a warmer cave, the semi-settled Paleolithic hunters built solid dwellings on trees, learning from birds, like bird nests. The variety of dwellings is amazing.
Varieties of temporary dwellings
Here are just some of them. Yurt is a light dwelling near the Mongol, which was transported behind herds from one pasture to another. Round in shape, 6 meters in diameter, the yurt was divided into 12 parts, each of which was assigned the sign of the eastern zodiac. A sundial took place in each yurt; with their help, nomads recognized time by the ray of the sun penetrating through a hole in the roof.
And in Greenland and Alaska, even in our time, they still use the snow house - the igloo. The house is easy to build, perfectly protects from the Arctic cold. Large plates are cut down from a dense layer of snow and stacked on top of each other in a domed shape. A narrow long tunnel is pulled out in the snow - the entrance to the dwelling. Inside, a grease lamp is lit, and when the walls are moistened by heat, they start the freezing air, thus icing the walls and making them strong. Inside, people sleep on snow beds with several layers of skins, prepare food and eat, using grease lamps for lighting and heating.
A special mobile home is yaranga among the nomadic peoples of the north. The backbone of the yaranga was poles, the roof was inclined poles. The whole building was covered with deer skins, the floor was also covered with skins.
Izba as a permanent residence
With the transition to a settled way of life, people began to build permanent homes - huts. What is a hut? You need to figure this out. In the chronicles from the 10th century the Old Russian dwelling is described - a source, source, source, hut. The lexical meaning is a Russian felled house.
Previously, the hut was the main dwelling of Russian villages and cities, but from the 17-18 centuries it was replaced by a rural house. It was built from logs fastened to a crown; the roof was made of wood or straw. Carved skate and porch were special decorations; the facade was decorated with ditches, towels, carved platbands. Many huts were flaunted with paintings. The hut is diverse: with four walls, five-walled, with three, five, and more windows, with wooden or earthen floors. But all close to the square shape - it’s easier to warm the room. Utility rooms adjoin the warm hut, into which they enter without going outside, which is very important in bad weather. For a long time, the layout of the hut was kept constant: cold walls, from them on one side was a living room - a heated log house, on the other side - a place for household utensils and overnight in the summer.
Black and white hut
It is difficult to imagine a hut without a chimney above the roof, and in the old days it simply wasn’t there, smoke went out through the doorway or a special window above it. They called such a hut - smoking or black. The windows were elongated small openings (as tall as the thickness of a log), covered with a plank if necessary. A detailed review of the interior of the home will help to understand what a hut is. The main thing in the hut, of course, was the stove.
In the north and center of Russia, the stove was located at the back wall, near it was a place for an overnight stay - a bench. From the stove up to the wall, the place was taken by the party. In each hut there was the brightest place of honor - the sacred
red corner, where the iconostasis, the Gospel, and holy water were located. The corner was always kept clean, most of the rituals associated with birth, weddings, funerals were performed here.
Along the remaining walls of the hut were long benches, in the corner opposite was a table. It would seem that in a black hut all the time it should be dark and dirty from soot and smoke. But the peasant's smoking huts were surprising in their cleanliness: a white tablecloth on the table, embroidered rushniks on the walls, in the red corner - sparkling salaries of icons. This is the astonishing cunning of huts. According to the laws of construction and physics, a little higher than a person’s height is the limit beyond which the upper logs of the log house and ceiling are covered with soot. Smoke, rising upwards, never falls below this border.
What is a hut white? Unlike the chicken hut, white has a chimney. A pipe is placed over a six-piece brick, it collects smoke coming out of the furnace. Next, the smoke enters a horizontal deck of burnt bricks in the attic, and is discharged through a pipe. Unlike the chicken hut, in the white hut there were frames on the windows, which were closed with a bubble or mica, and from the 18th-19th centuries windows were inserted and locked with shutters outside.
Meaning of the word “hut”
The term izba (izba, izba, fate, source, source) has been used in Russian chronicles since ancient times. Its relation to the verbs “to drown”, “to melt” is determined. The hut means a heated dwelling. By the way, all Slavic peoples have the word "source" and it means it is a building that is heated, always with a stove. The first residential buildings of our ancestors, before the stoves appeared, were not called huts. The name came precisely when these dwellings began to be heated. Then they began to be called "source", or "fate." And out of fate, the hut gradually became.
What is a hut, will help to understand the analysis of the word itself. Literally, the word "hut" is disassembled into two components: outside (from) protecting (ba). Etymologists support the version that the word "fate" eventually turned into a "hut." The meaning of the word in syllables: separate (is), firmly strengthened (t), protecting (ba). Therefore, the terms “fate” and “hut” have one meaning. The meaning of the word izba in the explanatory dictionary of Efremova: «izba is a log peasant house in a village or the interior of such a house."
Beliefs in the construction of the hut
The construction of a home for the owner was a special, almost magical event. Was the hut important? Its symbolic and mythological significance played a major role in the life and way of life of the peasants. Moreover, it was an important task for them not only to establish a roof over their heads for themselves and their family, but also to create a living space so that it was filled with warmth, peace and love.
Such a dwelling is possible to build only by the precepts of the ancestors, deviations from the rules of the fathers were unacceptable. Of particular importance was the choice of location for the new hut: the place should be dry, high, bright - and its most magical value: it should be happy. A habitable place was considered to be happy, where the life of people passed successfully and safely. Unfavorable for the hut were considered places of burial of people, on the road or where the bathhouse used to be.
Material for building a hut
Scrupulous rules apply to the material for the log house. The Russians preferred building huts from pine, larch, and spruce. These trees had long and even trunks that folded tightly into a log house, perfectly kept warm at home, and did not spoil for a long time. But the choice of trees was limited by a large number of prohibitions, which were strictly forbidden to violate, so that a house that was in trouble did not turn out. So, for a hut it was forbidden to cut "sacred" trees - they bring death to the house. Taboo was on cutting down old trees. It was forbidden to take dry trees for the building of the hut, they were considered dead. A great misfortune will happen if there is a "lush" tree in a log house that grew at a crossroads. It was believed that such a tree could destroy the log house and crush the owners of the house. The construction of the hut was accompanied by a large number of rites. Under the first lower logs, windows, corners put money, wool, grain - symbols of prosperity and prosperity. Upon completion of the work, all the builders were generously treated.
Why it is impossible to take dirty linen out of the hut
“To take out rubbish out of the hut” - the meaning of phraseologism goes back to the belief that the garbage can damage the landlord or his family members, relatives. To avoid this, a ritual has developed - you can’t take the rubbish out of the hut, but you should burn it in a furnace. According to ancient beliefs, hair and various objects could get into the trash, with the help of which damage was made by evil people. Over time, the popular phrase “make dirty linen in public” acquired a figurative meaning, as a ban on the dissemination of family information about quarrels and conflicts. Nevertheless, the essence of this expression has remained relevant in our time, because the negative information brought out of the house, when it reaches the intruders, can sometimes do more harm than the hair in the hands of the sorcerer.
Of course, modern wooden huts are very different from those that were built several centuries ago; these are rather cottages for relaxation and status. Painted and carved, they now represent almost works of art.
This is right, because people have always strived for coziness, beauty and comfort, the main thing is not to forget their origins and history, because without the past, as they say, there is no future.