Currently, only New Year, Victory Day and a couple of red calendar days are celebrated on a grand scale. But our ancestors had a wider range of holidays: Ivan Kupala, seeing off winter, meeting spring, etc. And each celebration was certainly accompanied by singing. Then there was a freckle. What are ritual songs, spring songs, where did they come from? Let's get it right.
Spell Songs
Old spring songs - ritual songs, as a rule, were confined to the calendar cycle. They were widely distributed among the population of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. The repertoire was varied, but came down to a click (call) of spring.
So, freckle - what is it? This is not only ceremonial chants invoking warmth, extolling the blessed sun, but also funny round dances, incendiary folk dances, bright high bonfires and interesting games in the still frosty fresh air.
Vesnyanki are ritual songs that were addressed not only directly to the time of year - spring. They turned to the birds, heaven, God. These songs contained the requests of the people to the Virgin for a rich harvest, the blessing of children, etc.
Specific traits
Songs dedicated to spring, urging her to take her rights, were sung in different languages. Vesnyanki in Russian were more lyrical, in Ukraine ritual chants were cheerful and groovy. In Belarus, stoneflies were sung more lingeringly, angrily, one might say sadly. The cries of spring were melodic phrases that were repeated many times.
From spring to lullaby
A little later, when the stoneflies began to lose their magical meaning, they began to be used as songs for children. If you answer the question: "Vesnyanka - what is it?", We can safely say that these are modern lullabies for children, only in the old manner. If you had a chance to visit grandmothers in a village in your childhood, then you must have fallen asleep more than once under a freckle.
Also, from childhood with a grandmother, many can remember how she baked from the test figures of birds. Just to please grandchildren with a treat? But no. In grandmother's childhood there was a holiday, usually celebrated on March 22. On this day, these very birds were baked, which were the personification of spring. According to legend, it was the birds that brought spring on their wings, driving away winter and cold. On the same day, round dances were held and spring songs were sung.
By the way, in the classical works of Russian composers, springtime has been used more than once. What is Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night? This is a famous work of the Russian composer, in which the main role is played by spring. Also, tunes of ritual songs were used in the works of Tchaikovsky (the first concert for piano and orchestra), in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Night Before Christmas”.
Theme of ritual songs
Specialists distinguish several thematic areas to which springflies were addressed. Russian and Ukrainian stoneflies differed in the storyline. In the North, most often people turned to spring itself, where in a song they asked her to bring warmth, a good rich harvest this year, to share mercy and joy.
In the southern provinces in the songs they turned to spring with the question: “Why did you come to us? Where did you come from? Where did you come from? ” The song was the answer of spring to a human question: on a wheat pie I came to you; on the oatmeal I came; on the filly, on the clamp, etc.
But the most diverse on the subject are considered springflies, performed in Belarus. A frequent question in the songs was the question addressed to the spring: “Why did you come to us? What did you bring with you? ” Spring replied that it brought:
- girls - a scarf, groom, gingerbread;
- guys - a horse, a pipe, a whistle;
- grandmothers - spinning wheel, wand, funny gatherings;
- grandfathers - a sickle, a wand;
- small children - walking, gingerbread, easter egg.
In Smolensk province there were frequent spring flies, which sang about the keys that spring should give people so that they would close the winter and open the doors in the warm summer. In Kaluga province, in the springflies, the main plot of the crop was viewed. People asked spring that along with her arrival she would give them plow with harrow or flood, or healthy cattle in the field.
A very popular topic in freckles in East Polissya was the theme of children, especially girls. Adult women sang songs, clicked the spring and asked her about the fate of their daughters.
- Where is my daughter?
- Your daughter sits in the garden and embroiders.
- Where is my daughter?
- Your daughter sews a shirt for the wedding.
- Where is my daughter?
- My daughter went to water the cattle / My daughter drove the wolves so that they would not touch the sheep.
Spring Ritual Songs Example
Come to us, spring!
Come with joy
With my great mercy.
Come to us with an ant-grass,
With songbirds
With red raspberries, with black currants,
With golden rye, with bright flowers.
Grant us, spring, salted bread,
The years are baking,
Ears of Wheat
Good years.
Give the grooms to the girls, and the guys to the couple.
Drive away, take the cold winter away
Welcome, open the key to the bright summer.