On the open spaces of the post-Soviet space in everyday speech and the media you can often hear the phrase "Russian carols" and "carol texts", the use of which is confined to certain calendar dates.
So what is a carol? How often is it performed in modern Russia? What specific text do calendar carols in Russian have?
Carol rites in the context of Russian and Ukrainian cultures
The carols were originally great ritual songs dedicated to the Sun, performed in the process of ritual processions around the houses. Their origin is lost for centuries. The appearance of these circumvention ceremonies, most likely, is due to the Ukrainian folk traditions and signs associated with the winter solstice - one of the three main annual holidays, along with the spring equinox and summer solstice, celebrated by the ancestors of modern Ukrainians.
Specific Features of Bypass Rites
Actually, the change in the execution time, fullness and ideology of the carol-song began to occur under the assertive influence of the Orthodox Church. She sought to destroy the agrarian - pagan - part of the rites. Therefore, over time, the carol process as a traditional procession for certain time periods was divided into several typological branches by time (Christmas, Epiphany, New Year), characters (laity, clergy) and the nature of the texts - the purpose of the carol-song. So, it could be thanksgiving hymns and church hymns praising Christ.
Due to the particularly strong pressure of the Orthodox Church on the traditional culture of Russians, folk carols have practically disappeared from the ritual accompaniment of the annual cycle. However, a certain part of circumvention ceremonies has reached the present. They replaced traditional carol songs with improvised lyrics.
The theme of carol songs in some ethnographic groups of Russians
As already noted above, the text of the carol magically blessed when the owner of the house blessed for good luck, the fertility of livestock. The performed ritual predetermined the wealth of the harvest and profit in material wealth. However, carol songs are divided into several types, the text of which has different semantic nuances.
In oats, the economic theme of the wishes is clearly traced, supported by executive requirements. In the carols, the carols retain the text of the requirement, but the main semantic load is the owner’s spell for good luck. Grapes are characterized by everyday romantic lyrics, most often revealing the theme of languor of the bride and groom and setting the listener in a friendly manner in the family.
Row as one of the Russian carol rites
So, among Russians there are several types of ritual round-trip of houses related to each other, but present in different territories of Russia. In the Volga, some middle and southern provinces (Tambov, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Voronezh, Tula), carols are held in Ovsen - on New Year's Eve or in the New Year itself, and the carol process is called, respectively, ovsenkany. The texts of the oats are not different from the texts of the other types of carols, but they contain the refrain “Avsen, Avsen!” or "Oh, the fawn!" Speeches of this type can be demonstrated with an example:
The bridges were paved
They covered with cloth
They killed with nails.
Aw, Auxen, ay, Auxen!
Who to whom to go
On that little bridge?
There go to Avsenyu.
Aw, Auxen, ay, Auxen!
Thus, to the question of what a carol is, having familiarized yourself with the conduct of this action in the Volga region, in the middle and southern regions of Russia, one can formulate an answer indicating the praising and preserving nature of this action as a ritual of a kind of spell for the owners and their house for luck , but subject to their friendly relations with fellow villagers.
Schedrovka - mythological carol songs
Similar in nature to the content and direction of actions of the participants in the South Russian territories are the generosions that have refrains “Generous / Good evening!”.
It is very difficult to single out the main plots of the bounties, due to the large number of late ideological layers, it is only known that they had religious and mystical plots with the addition of ordinary folk texts about the life of the saints. With the help of this attachment, it was planned to strengthen the magical component of the generous text:
Generous was generous
I spent the night under the window.
Chi ram, chi sheep
Serve the pancake
Do not bite, do not break,
And on the whole, let's.
Generous evening, oh, good evening.
A few words about carol grapes
Northern Russians have ritual actions, also dedicated to Christmas time and the New Year, but included in the refrain “Grapes, red-green!”. Grapes were a symbol of wealth and love among the Slavs, therefore such songs were sung in the homes of single and newlyweds. If in the texts of oats and bounties the storyline of songs and rituals consisted of evangelical and mythological themes, then grapes are romantic allegories, the texts of which were different for girls and boys. You can give an example of such a ceremonial text:
We walked, walked
In holy Russia.
We joked, joked
Gospodinova’s court.
Gentlemen's yard
At twelve miles
A bright month
Ivanushka
You will marry
We will be amazed.
The grammatical construction of carol texts and features of their use
What is a carol in terms of semantic and grammatical turnover? The ritual texts that have come down to us consist mainly of a ten-syllable verse, divided into two five-syllable half-poems. Russian and Ukrainian generosities most often consist of an eight-syllable verse with a four-syllable hemistich. It seems most likely that, being performed strictly according to certain dates - Christmas, New Year, Easter, previously dated to pagan holidays, under the pressure of the Orthodox Church, bypass rituals moved one time period and contributed to the mixing of their textual and ideological components. This theory is also supported by the fact that grapes were held in some regions for Easter.
The role of mummers in carol rites
What is a carol without the optional presence of mummers, setting the tone for the game mood of a workaround? In what order did they visit the houses of villagers and neighbors? Fulfilling the text of the carol, the procession usually moved through the houses of the village from west to east - to miss someone’s house was a bad omen and a great insult. In ritual attitudes, people most often played out three groups of images - unclean or otherworldly forces, animals or people of other ethnicities. The element of disguise contains hints of friendly relations with people of other nationalities, reflections of surrounding living beings and fear of the otherworldly force dispersed during the Christmas time by the army of Christ. Therefore, among the Slavs, the custom of communing the mummers after a roundabout ritual or forcibly bathing them in an ice hole was widespread with the aim of cleansing from corruption acquired in the process of mating. Children usually did not dress up, but traveled in groups in homes.
Costumes and attributes of mummers
Costumes of mummers, designed to portray animals and evil spirits, most often consisted of sheepskin coats, turned outward. Next, body parts and attributes were added to enhance the similarities - sticks and branches for beaks of birds, birch bark masks and wooden horns, panicle tails of otherworldly creatures, and so on. When depicting four rich merchants, men and women dressed up in male and female clothes, depicting gypsies or araps - they smeared their faces with soot. To heighten the intimidation, the carollers got up on stilts and depicted humps on their backs.
Christmas carol
During Christmas time, specific dishes are also prepared, most of which are pastries. For example, carols (wickets) are such a dish - small boxes of a mixture of rye and wheat flour measuring 5 by 5 centimeters, filled with minced meat, jam or other filling.
Modern workarounds
What is a carol in modern Russian realities? Does it exist today? Modern Russian carols, unlike the old Russian and Ukrainian, which, like many centuries ago, were conducted from sunset to sunrise, begin as usual in the early morning. If earlier this process was magical in nature, and with the advent of the mummers, small comic scenes were played out, in the modern version, the meaning of the bypass ritual is reduced to a festive game, during which, as the carols are performed, the Christians and the mummers get some yummy - pies, sweets and other goodies.
In modern rites, carol songs are performed, the text of which is either distorted enough by the translation of a genuine poem into a modern language, or is completely improvised. Such songs can be easily found. How can you find out the original, real carols? The text of any of them may have been preserved in the memory of our grandparents. It is worth asking them about such rites. Often they can tell a lot of interesting things. Songs of carols, the text of which everyone knew before - from small to large, today you can listen to the recordings. Some of them are recorded in these "field" conditions, while others are a theatrical production. An example of such improvisation is the following carol text in Russian:
Good evening to good people!
Let the holiday be fun!
Merry Christmas to you!
We wish you happiness and joy!
Good evening, good evening!
Good people to health!
After these words, either a household continuation of the wishes is possible, or the reading of the following ritual texts. In any case, the congratulation so drawn up, supplemented by the appropriate attributes of the holiday, will make it unforgettable for the addressee and will delight with originality in choosing the national color.