There are many things around us that we are so used to that we often do not attach any importance to them. First of all, this applies to towels - a person uses it constantly throughout his life: from infancy to death. The funds of the Museum of Art and History have a large collection of towels.
It is often believed that the word towel” comes from the well-known word “hand”, that is, a towel is a towel for hands. However, this is not the case; a cloth for wiping hands was called a towel, a handle, a wipe, and even a handbrake, but not a towel. The latter, in comparison with a hand towel, is decorated with more refined and expensive decor: embroidery, braid, ribbons and lace. Thus, initially a towel is a torn piece of fabric, which was decorated with embroidery and used in rituals and ceremonies. The fact that a piece of linen was torn off and not cut off is quite logical, since weaving arose much earlier than knives and scissors appeared in everyday life. In order to cut out a towel of the desired shape (35-40 cm wide and 3 to 5 meters long), an incision was made on the canvas with a sharp stone, and then the fabric was already torn by hand.
From time immemorial, the towel has been considered a multi-valued and symbolic product. They decorated life, but besides this, the towel carried a certain reminder of family ties with ancestors. After all, if you look at the embroidered patterns, you can safely assume that these are not just beautiful drawings, but an encrypted story about the life of your ancestors. There were a large number of varieties of towels, each of which carried its own meaning and had a clear purpose.
Ordinary towels were embroidered during one light day. Protective, protective properties were attributed to such towels. They were created exclusively during daylight hours, when the evil forces of darkness could not harm them. Such towels were used in various rituals, for example, when a drought began or a death of cattle. Such towels were never woven in advance, but only on the day of use in the ceremony.
If we recall the well-known proverb “good riddance”, which now has a negative meaning, then earlier, in this way, travelers were wished a happy journey. And this is due to special travel towels. Small, with modest embroidery, they were given on the road to those who left their home, going on a journey: warriors, merchants, travelers. The travel towel personified the wish for an easy way and a speedy return.
On maternity a midwife took a towel, and embroidered on christening baptismal towel on which the child was carried to the temple and wiped after dipping into the font. After the christening, the first children's shirt could be sewn from this towel, or they could keep it until the wedding, or even until the funeral. After death, towels accompanied a person during his burial - they carried a coffin on them, hung them on a grave cross.
For major annual holidays, special holiday towels were embroidered. For example, on Maslenitsa, in gratitude for the treat, the owners of the house presented pancake towel. Easter towels were intended for baked Easter cakes, breads and are similar to hospitable towels, but differ in ornamentation - they often contain the abbreviations ХВ (Christ is risen) and egg symbols. " Goddess” called the towel framing the icons.
wedding There are about 40 towels. But only five were considered the main ones: parental towel, allied towel, divine», wedding towel and hospitable towel.
Since ancient times, the production of wedding towels was considered the duty of the bride. Our ancestors perceived the towel as a canvas on which the past, present and future were depicted with a red thread. It was believed that by embroidering a wedding towel, the bride embroiders her family future, therefore, only with good thoughts and good mood was it allowed to start embroidery.
From all of the above, it follows that the towel played an important role in the life of the Slavs, accompanied a person from birth to death, was an important element in everyday life and has survived to this day.
“In the view of ancient artists, this is the goddess Bereginya, a symbol of life and fertility. Depicting it on household items (towels, clothes), women believed that this would bring happiness and harmony to the house. The ornamental adornment on the skirt is a stylized nodular writing of pagan times. Before the advent of writing, information was transmitted by weaving knots on a stick. Each knot is a concept (word). Later they were transformed into embroidery. The woman, the keeper of the hearth, embroidered knots-symbols denoting the ancient gods, as if appeasing them and asking for a favorable attitude towards her and her family. Color carries a semantic load. Red was considered beautiful." The information is very interesting, but at the same time, I have questions:
How did our ancestors learn the art of embroidery?
What do the drawings-symbols that have survived to this day mean?
What role does embroidery play in modern life?
So, the subject of my research is embroidery. It seems to be nothing special. Women embroider using different techniques, different materials. Embroider landscapes, portraits, paintings. At home, both my great-grandmother and grandmother embroidered, and my mother also embroiders. A familiar picture: a woman, while away the long winter evenings, bent over the embroidery frame. Skeins of multi-colored threads, scissors. Quiet, soothing music. Peace and amazing harmony - a pattern is born on the canvas.
The appearance of embroidery in Russia is attributed to the first centuries of ancient Rus'. The drawings were invented by themselves, for example, according to the patterns on the windows in winter, they were often made up of stylized images of plants, figures of animals and humans. “The drawing was given a magical meaning, some images were the so-called “amulets”, which, according to legend, protected the house, animals and people from illness and trouble.” There were no books, and there were no schools. Learned from each other. In each province, sometimes even in the smallest district, its own embroidery technique was born, different from others: Tver small stitch, Krestetskaya stitch, Nizhny Novgorod guipure, Ivanovo and Yaroslavl lines with a stroke, Olonets sewing with interlacing, chain stitch, “top stitch”, double-sided smooth surface . Even cross-stitch, a well-known embroidery technique in all regions of Russia, differs both in appearance and color: Voronezh patterns were embroidered mainly with black thread, northern ones with red thread, in the Belgorod region the main pattern is a combination of red and black colors. The heyday of embroidery art in Russia falls on the beginning of the 19th century, when both serf girls and their mistresses were engaged in embroidery. They embroidered with satin stitch and cross stitch on canvas, wool and beads on silk and velvet. For a woman, embroidery was a kind of expression of a spiritual need for beauty, a way of expressing the aesthetic perception of the world around her. They embroidered clothes (shirts, aprons, sundresses), towels, which in our area are called towels.
I. Towel in the ritual culture of the Slavs
In the old days, there was not a single house in Rus' without towels - original towels, in the decorations of which the traditions of ancient times were used. A towel is the main amulet of a person from birth to death. Towels were used not only for their intended purpose as a towel (then they were called a washbasin and decorated with modest embroidery), they decorated the hut. “A special towel was hung separately - the main amulet of the family's hut. At one end it rushed to God, and the other two - into mother damp earth. The ceiling was connected to the floor, and the sky was connected to the earth. When laying a house, a towel-amulet embroidered with circles and crosses was placed in its foundation. (The circle and the cross are solar symbols). Towels were used in wedding, maternity, baptismal and funeral rites. They occupied the most worthy place at the wedding: they were part of the bride's dowry (girls began to embroider as early as childhood, since, according to custom, there should have been at least 100 of them in the dowry). The young woman gave them to matchmakers, the groom's relatives, they were tied over the shoulder to the most important participants in the wedding. Towels were laid out as a footboard, on which young people stood during the wedding in the church. Belarusians have an expression “stand on a towel”, it means to get married.
I met with embroiderers Dubinina Elena Vitalievna, Shapovalova Irina Viktorovna, Kurochkina Polina Mikhailovna. During the research, I got acquainted with the ethnographic monuments preserved in their families. I noticed that the ancient towels are made in red and black colors. The drawings on them are of a geometric plan, there is a floral ornament. Red is beautiful, black is a symbol of the wealth of the Voronezh Territory, black earth. In the 20th century, in the village of Sloboda and in the village of Khrenovoe, they began to embroider with a satin stitch, in bright colors. This is explained by the fact that many settlers arrived in these places, where the technique of satin stitch embroidery was widespread.
The meeting with Nina Dmitrievna Kiseleva made a special impression on me. How much she told me about towels! Nina Dmitrievna is a passionate collector: for many years she has been collecting patterns of folk embroidery. Pays special attention to the patterns of towels. From the story of Nina Dmitrievna: “A towel is not only beautiful, but also interesting and informative. After all, nothing so easily falls on the towel. Towels are different: both “Svatov”, and “soldier or Cossack”, and others. Here, for example, "matchmakers" are the largest, so that it is enough to bandage tall, prominent men who were chosen as matchmakers. The groom's relatives embroidered roosters or peacocks with a hint of beauty and become a guy, oak leaves with acorns - this is the wealth and strength of the family. If the bride accepted the proposal of the matchmaker, then she bandaged it even more strongly with her towel, where nothing was accidental either, everything was meaningful.” According to the stories of Nina Dmitrievna, I made a scheme for embroidering a towel. There are 4 fragments of the pattern, each with its own meaning:
1. "Beginning". Beginning of embroidery. It can be embroidered with a narrow strip.
2. "Earth". The drawing is embroidered in comparison with the beginning of a larger volume (after all, wealth comes from the earth), a floral ornament is used.
3. "House". He must be handsome and tall, show prosperity, the skill of a needlewoman.
4. "Crown". Richly embroidered. This is what you strive for in life.
Moreover, the fragments of the embroidery pattern are separated from each other either by stripes of the “start”, or instead of the strip of the “start”, you can use lace or hems.
The drawing filled the fabric of the towel by two thirds. The bottom of the towel was decorated with lace, crocheted or using the loin knitting technique.
The embroidery on the towel (the fragments indicated in the diagram) must be “kindred”, that is, of the same type. We can say that the patterns of embroidered towels are an encrypted story about the life of the people, about nature
Having studied the collection of Nina Dmitrievna, we have compiled a table of classification of towels by image and purpose (Appendix No. 2).
From all of the above, it follows that the towel played a sacred role in the life of the Slavs, accompanied a person from birth to death, was an important element in everyday life and has survived to this day. In Russian villages, they still decorate the red corner, and in many city houses he became an honored guest. An interesting observation was shared with me by Akulova Nina Romanovna, a resident of the village of Khrenovoye. She told me that in some ceremonies the role of the towel was unrecognizably transformed. In the village of Khrenovoe, there was a tradition: on the second day of the wedding, the young woman hung her towels in the hut on top of her mother-in-law's towels so that everyone could admire her skill. Today, this tradition has been transformed into a new custom: the young woman changes the “curtains” (curtains) on the windows, demonstrating the prosperity of her family.
Fashion is capricious. From my mother's stories I know that in the years of her youth, decorating a house with embroidery was considered philistinism. Nowadays, characterized by a revival of interest in the spiritual and material culture of the past, embroidery is taking on a second life. More and more craftswomen are working enthusiastically to preserve what has been lost almost forever.
II. Towel in rituals - a symbol of holiness, purity, protection
In the church. The towel played a figurative and symbolic role in Christian rites. So, the role of the towel in the ritual of washing the feet, face, hands during the liturgy was important. The apostolic teachings say that deacons should serve at the sacrament of the Eucharist, having towels, tarts for wiping the lips of those who take communion. The orar of the deacon also reminds the believers of the “lention” with which Jesus Christ wiped the feet of his disciples after washing. In addition to their ritual role, towels were used in churches to decorate icons.
On the crosses There was a custom to tie crosses, banners during a campaign, procession or funeral, as well as hang towels on crosses in a cemetery, near a church, or tie roadside crosses with a towel. According to the ethical standards of behavior, it was considered a serious sin to remove such a towel, therefore they were not touched, and only after they were completely destroyed by rain or wind, new towels were tied.
Charm. The towel played an important protective role during a drought or the spread of epidemics. So, with a protective purpose, they collectively made a towel or just a piece of linen, with which they could tie a “figure”, encircle the church, pave the road, street, roadside, drive cattle over the linen or cross it for people. During a drought, such a towel was carried to the church and laid on the image. Sometimes they made a wooden cross, dug it in at the edge of the village or on the grave and hung a woven towel on it. In case of illness of a child or for a child who was born in a family in which children had died before, the mother made towels, which were called " votive” and were given to churches, for the icons of the Virgin Intercession.
The window was hung with towels “from evil spirits” when they consecrated the hut or celebrated a wake, the corners of the hut were hung - “so that evil spirits would not hide anywhere.” A long towel was also hung over the doors - to protect the house.
For a newborn. With a towel they came to a woman in labor to welcome the birth of a new person, a newborn was received on a towel with a special pattern, and the baby's cradle was hung with an elongated piece of fabric - a canopy ("from the evil eye").
On a towel embroidered with light, cheerful colors, without a single black stitch, they carried the baby to baptism. The godmother prepared it in advance, and, wrapping the child in it, sentenced the newborn the words “red road”. This towel is used to cover a baby in a church. There was a custom to sew a child's first shirt out of it; sometimes it was kept until the wedding, or even put in a coffin.
At the wedding. The towel played a special role in wedding rituals as one of the most important attributes. Wedding towels, like all dowries, each girl prepared for herself in advance. Towels were presented to the elders, tied over their shoulders, if they came to an agreement at the betrothal. In many areas, at the wedding, towels were tied up not only with elders and friends, but also boyars and other wedding ranks. Often, both the young and the friend were girded with a towel instead of a belt - ends in front.
During the wedding with a towel, they tied the hands of the young, wishing them mutual understanding, a happy and long marital journey. At the wedding, meeting the young, they covered the road with a towel from the threshold to the table, and even from the gate to the door of the hut; sometimes a towel was laid in front of the entrance to the church.
But the most important thing was the towel on which the parents blessed the young. Such a towel is a special shrine, which was not shown to outsiders and was cherished like the apple of an eye, passing from generation to generation.
Of no small importance was the white embroidered towel on which the young people were supposed to stand under the crown. Under this towel, the groom's relatives put silver coins and wheat - for happiness and wealth. This towel was then hung over the icon or hung in a conspicuous place in the room.
On the road. A towel, and sometimes more than one, was taken on the road by chumaks, the military, those who went to work, and everyone who was absent from their home for a long time. The towel was a symbol of wishes for a happy fate in the future and the memory of a home, and therefore the most expensive gift from a mother on the way to her son when he set off for a new life.
During the farewell to the army, young guys were hung with towels from head to toe, wishing them a happy service and a safe return home. Seeing off her son on a long journey, the mother gave him an embroidered towel. At the same time, wishing happiness, she said: “Let your share spread with this towel!”
At the funeral. During the funeral, the towel was a symbol of a person’s transition to another world: the towel is the road of life, the beginning is birth, the end is the end of life.
Sometimes they covered the body of the deceased with towels or laid them under their feet; the cart on which the coffin was carried was covered with a towel or carpet. The coffin was also covered with a towel, on which bread was placed. As a sign of mourning, a towel was hung on the gate or in the window. In front of the funeral procession they carried a cross tied with a towel. The participants of the funeral procession tied their hands with towels. According to custom, earlier the coffin was lowered into the grave on special towels, and the tomb cross, especially at the funeral of a guy, was also tied up with a towel. Those who carried the coffin, the cross, the banner, as well as the diggers were given Khustki or towels - none of those who helped at the funeral were paid with money.
After the 40th day, the towel was given to the church for the remembrance of the soul. As a rule, funeral towels were not decorated with ornaments.
III. A towel in everyday life is a symbol of goodness, good luck, a good start and end of a business.
In agriculture. They did not do without a towel in agricultural rituals. On the first day of the inspection of the winter (for Yuri) they went into the field in a herd (often by birth). The father walked in front and carried bread and salt on a towel, and the mother in a basket covered with a towel carried a treat. A towel was spread on a green field, pies and krashenki were placed on it. So they did on the first day of plowing, sowing and reaping.
The Feast of the First Sheaf is a solemn decoration of the beginning of the harvest, which was based on the idea that ritual actions, songs, etc. can ensure a good harvest. Having gone out into the field to zazhinka, the hostess spread out a towel with bread and salt and a candle. On the roadside, she stopped and bowed three times to the field, saying: “Give, God, it’s easy to start, and even easier to finish.” After the end of the harvest, the owner met the reapers with bread and salt on a towel, and they put a wreath on him.
Housing construction. Towel played a symbolic role in the construction of housing. The main attribute during the laying of the house was a towel, on which lay a cross, a bouquet of flowers, bread, salt and a cup of water or wine. The senior master took a towel with bread, kissed it, saying: "Lord, help me."
During the construction of the house, the cellars were covered with towels. The custom has also been preserved, when building a hut, the last rafter at the end of the roof is brought on towels, which were then presented to the craftsmen. The youngest had to put a “wreath” on top of the roof - a bouquet of birch or oak branches along with flowers tied to towels, which the future mistress of the house embroidered for this purpose. They also entered the newly built hut with an icon, embroidered towel, bread and salt. All it symbolized the hope for goodness and happiness in human life.
Bread and towel. From ancient times to this day, bread and towels go together. Obviously, the symbolism of bread demanded a respectful attitude towards it and demanded that it never lie on a “bare” table not covered with towels. Towels covered bread on the table, a tub of kneaded dough, a paska with krashenki, which they carried to the church to be blessed. Wedding bread - loaf, cones, kalachi - were placed on the table, also covered with a towel. with crosses and infinity, which, falling from the images, laid a bowl of kutya on the table.
Greeting guests. Until that time, the towel also remains a symbol of benevolence and hospitality, so dear guests were greeted with bread and salt on an embroidered towel. Accepting a towel, kissing the bread symbolized consent, spiritual unity. Before welcoming a guest from a long journey at the table, the hostess hung a clean towel-washing towel on his shoulder and poured water from the well from a jug onto his hands.
In addition to the custom of meeting honored guests with bread on a towel, the custom of giving bread on a towel in honor of some solemn event has been preserved.
IV. Decorative and practical role of the towel
On icons. With the adoption of Christianity, a tradition arose to decorate icons with towels, which were called the gods ("devotees", "obrazniks"). As a rule, icons were hung on pokutya, so these towels were called "pokutnye". Their length reached three meters or more.
On major holidays - Christmas, Easter, church holidays, for weddings - huts were hung with more decorated towels - festive, and in Lent - "guards", pure white or with decorated edges, often dark colors.
Room decoration. In addition to huts, public buildings - churches, village councils, schools, etc. - were also decorated with towels in the past.
Towels in the hut were hung on pegs on the walls, above doors, windows, on scum, on mirrors. As a decorative frame, towels gave the hut festivity, solemnity, national color. They amazed with rich decor, richness of colors, variety of ornament, which had a deep symbolism.
In addition to ritual and decorative significance, towels also had a purely practical application. According to the functions they performed, towels had their own names. For example, for wiping the face and hands, a utirach (wipe), dishes and a table - washings served. The towel was the "face" of the Ukrainian woman's housing. By how many and what kind of towels there were, they judged the hostess, her daughter.
Little decorated, made of a coarser linen, a towel for every day hung in every rural hut near the threshold, on a peg or on a pole. They wiped their hands and dishes, covered bread, milked a cow with it, and busied themselves near the stove. Towels covered dinner for mowers, reapers, shepherds.
V. Symbols of the art of embroidery
Living conditions, customs, native nature determined the nature of embroidery, color. Thus, the images of ancient Russian embroidery were often associated with the religious beliefs of the Slavs. In the image of the majestic figure of a woman surrounded by flowers, birds, animals or horsemen, the cult of the goddess of the earth and fertility was manifested. Later, in folk embroideries of the 18th-19th centuries, images of birds and animals lost their meaning as a pagan symbol and were perceived as an expression of goodness and prosperity in the family, harmony, love between husband and wife.
The elements that make up the motif of Voronezh patterns are of ancient origin and are directly related to the veneration of the cult of a pagan deity by our ancestors through special signs-symbols, signs-amulets. These conventional signs were always supposed to remind the gods and other forces of good that they would turn away the hand of evil in time when it wanted to cause any misfortune or mortal grief to a person.
The geometric rhombus is the main, most stable figure in the ornament, a sign of the radiant sun, which our Slavic ancestors considered a circle. Hooks and sticks, released on the sides of the rhombus, were conventionally understood as the rays of the sun. In the process of the evolution of the rhombus in the Voronezh region, multiple variants of it arose, and one of them - "burr" - a comb-shaped rhombus with two protrusions at each corner. It got its name from its resemblance to burdock burdock. This amulet has turned into a multiple symbol: the home of a young family, a source of water, fire, fertility and life. So, if it was depicted with dots in the center or divided into four small rhombuses with circles in each, it denoted fertile soil, a sown field, a peasant allotment or a manor. An empty rhombus in the middle meant the earth or firmament. A chain of vertically arranged rhombuses is the "tree" of life. A rhombus with hooks on the sides was a symbol of mother earth.
Experts consider the cross to be the second most common symbol of the Voronezh pattern. The technique of cross-stitching is widespread in the Voronezh region today, which testifies to its ancient roots. Among pagan peoples, the sign of the cross was a symbol of a man. The double cross denotes husband and wife, that is, a family.
The geometric triangle meant virgin land, later - a defensive structure.
The square, crossed by lines crosswise with dots in the middle, symbolized the field sown by the plowman.
The lucky number seven and the seven-day week were represented by a seven-pointed star.
The eight-pointed star symbolized the family. The spiral symbolizes the snake, personifying wisdom.
A circle with a small cross in the middle denoted the inextricable union of the god Yarila with a man.
A small circle inside a large one testified that along with good (large circle) there is also evil (small circle)
The signs in the form of a dot symbolized the grain, in the form of the Roman numeral five - the plant.
Thus, we see that the pattern on embroidery has not only aesthetic meaning and content, but also carries a semantic load: embroidery symbols can tell us about the worldview, values, and aspirations of our ancestors. By studying this symbolism, we can better understand our past, enrich our modern culture.
As a result of the research, I found out that embroidery is one of the most ancient elements of the spiritual and material culture of our people. Her images are directly connected not only with everyday life, but also with the beliefs and customs of the Slavs, which is why we find in them both pagan and Christian views on the world around us, relationships between people. The color scheme is not accidental either: each color carried a great semantic load.
Most often, embroidery was used to decorate towels, which played during human life not so much a utilitarian as a ritual role: they were a necessary element of any significant events in a person’s life from birth to death. A feature of the embroidery of our region, which for a long time was a frontier, is the synthesis of the embroidery traditions of the three fraternal Slavic peoples and their western neighbors. And, thank God, they will delight people with their beauty for many years to come. After all, what is a towel in the culture of Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians? This is the history of our ancestors, thoughts and hopes, the beauty and richness of spiritual culture: mother's song, father's hut, grandfather's fairy tale, grandmother's pattern and caress, neighbor's kind word, mutual assistance - all this is on towels, the ancestral memory of our ancestors.
The study of specialized literature allowed me to find out that embroidery, developing from scattered amulets with cult significance, has turned into an artistic ornamental system, which is used in the modern world by fashion designers in clothing design. Embroidery is a part of the living history of the Russian people, the Slavs, which has absorbed centuries, from the pagans to the present day. In the 21st century, the century of globalization, it is important to preserve the originality of folk culture. So it is with embroidery: the semantic meaning of the drawings-symbols has been lost, it is necessary to return it, and then it will become a “book of folk wisdom”. In recent years, my countrymen have renewed their interest in the art of embroidery, which today is acquiring a new semantic meaning: the rituality of embroidery is increasingly inferior to its aesthetics. In my opinion, embroidery is an important part of folk culture, it is necessary to use its beauty in everyday life, carefully preserve what our ancestors managed to preserve and preserve.
For a long time, folk embroidery was not perceived as an art, so samples of products were not collected, and the embroidery technique was not studied. In our school there is a museum of local lore "Istoki", in the classes of the circle we tried to collect, study, systematize folk patterns, describe the features of ancient Russian embroidery. How many long centuries is embroidery destined to live? The story of her transformation and resurrection continues in our time.
In conclusion, I would like to quote the lines of Natasha Khristoeva's poem:
Towel is not just beauty.
It contains instructions, wishes of happiness.
It has a mother's heart, love and warmth,
Bonfire of good eternal radiance.
Towel, like a book, you can read.
After all, age-old wisdom is stored in it.
And so that this knowledge does not abyss,
We need to go back to the roots.
List of used literature:
1. A.I. Nemirovsky. Myths of Ancient Hellas. M., "Enlightenment", 1992, p.63 - 65.
2. Illustrated mythological dictionary, St. Petersburg, "North-West", 1994, p.39.
3. Maksimova M., Kuzmina M. Embroidery. First steps. M., "Eksmo-press", 1997, p.5
4. Lyubimov L. The Art of Ancient Rus'. M., "Enlightenment", 1981, p. 18.
5. Zhirov N.S. Folk art culture of the Belgorod region. Belgorod, 2000, pp. 200 - 201.
6. Botova S.I., Pristavkina T.A., Ryabchikov A.V. Man-made beauty of the land of Belgorod. Belgorod, 200, p. 213.
7. Turanina N.A., Shaternikova N.I. Mythological semantics of folk life. Belgorod, "Vezelitsa", 2002, p. 40, 49-50.
8. Poetry of folk art. MCC "Dobrorechye", Belgorod, 1992, p. 3-4.
9. Kashkarova-Duke E.D. Needlework guide. M., IPTs "Russian rarity", 1993, p.16.
10. Eremenko T.I. Needlework. M., Legpromizdat, 1989, pp. 28-33.
11. Eremenko T.I. The needle is magical. M., "Enlightenment", 1988, pp. 40-54.
12. Utkin P.I. Folk art crafts of Russia. M., "Soviet Russia", 1984, pp. 167-169.
13. Babenko I., Kapyshkina S. Nature suggested patterns - magazine "Folk Art", 1998 No. 2, p. 13-15.
14. Klinovskaya G. Embroidery on a peasant costume - the magazine "Folk Art", 1996 No. 6, p. 13-14.
15. Litovchenko Z. There is no price for the past - the magazine "Folk Art" 1996 No. 4, p. 14-15.
16. Rybakova S. It was hard work, there was a hunt to give - the magazine "Folk Art", 1999 No. 4, p. 10-11.
17. Fedotova L. Living crafts - magazine "Folk Art", 1996, No. 3, p. 24.
18. Tsvetkova N. How long have they embroidered in Rus'? - Lena magazine, 2002, No. 4, p. 8-10.
19. Shalaeva N. Traditional Russian embroidery - magazine "Folk Art", 1995 No. 5, p. 25-27; 1995 No. 6, pp. 19–21; 1996 No. 1, p. 19-21.
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Today it is difficult to imagine the significance of embroidery in the life of an old Russian village. Everything that surrounded a person in his everyday life was carefully decorated by hardworking hands. Women's festive clothes were especially elegant. Outerwear, belt, mittens, shoes were also embroidered.
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The peasant house was decorated with embroidered fabrics: tablecloths were laid on the table, the bed was covered with a sheet with an elegant edge or a wide valance was hung. On holidays and days of family celebrations, the most beautiful towels were hung along the walls, hung on the windows, on the shrine.
In ancient times, a towel embroidered with the corresponding patterns-symbols was an essential attribute of many rituals. For centuries, it has been given an important figurative and symbolic meaning. Important events in the life of the people have never been without towels. Probably, in all decorative art there is no other such thing that would concentrate in itself so many diverse symbolic meanings.
What exactly made the towel a permanent participant in all sorts of traditions? This is partly due to the fact that the towel, due to its shape, is a symbol of the path, the road of life, which is why it was invariably used in all rituals associated with the rites of passage - be it birth, christening, wedding, seeing off on a long journey or burial rituals.
Inherent in a towel, it has always been associated with purity, purification, sacredness, goodness, and, consequently, protection from all evil. This gave the towel a shade of holiness, inspired a respectful and reverent attitude, made it a talisman and a symbol of good luck in any business. Ornaments, symbols embroidered on it carried a special meaning and deep meaning.
At least forty embroidered towels were to be prepared by each girl for her dowry. The largest and most elegant - to the groom as a sign of the consent of the bride and her parents to the wedding. And when on the day of the wedding he came for the bride, a decorated towel was put in the groom's hat. The bride presented the groom's relatives with towels, they decorated the wedding train: they were used instead of reins, twisted around arcs, laid them along the horses' backs. And everyone who participated in the trip was also "scheduled" by them: the bride and groom held towels in their hands, the friend tied them crosswise on their chests, the travellers - on their hats. During the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom were placed side by side and tied with towels.
It played its special role in maternity and baptismal rites. And when a person died, they tied a towel around his neck and put it in his right hand, covered the coffin with a towel and lowered it into the grave on the towels. For forty days after death, the towel was laid out on the windowsill, believing that the soul of the deceased “rests” in it. And on the days of commemoration, they hung a towel outside the window so that the “come” dead parents would enter the house on it.
With the adoption of Christianity, a tradition arose to decorate icons with towels, which were called the gods ("devotees", "nabrazniks"). As a rule, icons were hung on pokutya, so these towels were called "pokutnye". Their length reached three meters or more.
On major holidays - Christmas, Easter, church holidays, weddings - huts were hung with more decorated towels - festive, and in Lent - "guards", pure white or with decorated edges, often dark colors.
In the traditional culture of the Russian people there are customs and rituals associated with the use of ritual objects that have stood out from the vast objective world surrounding a person and have taken a special place in this world (a bell, an icon, a candle, a wedding ring, a horseshoe, details of a women's festive costume, amulet belt). They also include a towel as an object of arts and crafts and an integral element of folk rituals, customs, beliefs and holidays.
The towel played an important role in folk life; it accompanied a person from birth to old age, as if marking the main moments of his life. The decorated thing became a participant in people's communication.
Towel headdress in the 19th century. quite widely existed in the Tula, Kaluga and Bryansk provinces. The girls of these regions wore head towels with rolled up or embroidered ends on holidays and when visiting church. A linen towel, folded in 4 rows along, was placed on the forehead, then it was twisted at the back of the head and put forward with the ends decorated in red tones with a geometric ornament.
The red color among many peoples in ancient times symbolized the life-giving forces of nature, it was attributed the magical property to contribute to the vital forces of man. The red color in clothes is also associated with the idea of a protective value. The wedding towel with which the bride was covered was made up to 3 meters long, stripes of red lace and red lace were sewn on the ends. On the equity side of the towel, descending to the forehead, a red stripe was sewn into a trim or rhombuses and triangles were embroidered with red wool - a security ornament. In the wedding towel, the meaning of the protective cover of the fabric, which was used to cover the bride “from the evil eye”, was very clearly preserved, reinforced by a security ornament made with red threads.
Starting from the 1st day of matchmaking, the towel plays a certain role in the ceremony. So, if the bride agrees to the marriage, she gives the groom and everyone who came with him bath or embroidered towels; with the groom, the bride sends towels to his relatives. On the day of the wedding, in the bride's house, the bridegroom is tied over the shoulder with a towel 3 meters long, with embroidered ends that go down to the ground. With this towel, a symbol of his wedding ceremony, the friend does not leave the whole wedding.
The role of towels in rituals is very diverse. In rituals, towels acted as symbols and as gifts. Presentation of gifts by the bride to the groom, his parents, their relatives and other participants in the wedding was carried out from time immemorial in order to maintain good relations with them and ensure a friendly attitude on their part. As symbols, towels acted in the pre-wedding and wedding rites as the hallmarks of the characters. So, in the Tambov province, “callers” were invited to the bride for a bachelorette party - bridesmaids, girded with colorful sashes or embroidered towels, and special small towels were attached to their hands. And in the Vologda province, at Shrovetide, a newlywed gave towels - "pancakes" to her husband's relatives for treating them to pancakes.
On wedding towels you can often see two birds - pav, depicted on the sides of a bush - a tree. Such birds were embroidered as a sign of love, wishes of good and happiness to the young. Peacocks are ancient birds worshiped by our ancestors. There was even such a belief among peasant women: “If you don’t embroider a peahen or two, you won’t get married.”
The foremother was often embroidered on towels - the earth, raising her hands to the sun, asking him for generosity to people. Since then, an agricultural proverb has come down to us about the dependence of the harvest on the weather: it is not the earth that gives birth to bread, but the sky. Women began to embroider patterns with birds and the foremother - the earth with the advent of spring, with the onset of long bright days, when there was still time before the start of field work. And the peasant woman embroidered her patterns under the beneficial rays of the spring sun. The word "pattern" sounds about the same as lightning, glow, dawn. And therefore, on a silver-white canvas, an embroidered ornament glows like a glow.
Red was the color of the sun, fire, life, beauty and personified the masculine principle. The red patterns of peasant embroidery are perceived as the earth, which received energy from the sun and is able to give life to all living things.
Among Russians, embroidered towels are also hung on the windows not only during a wedding, but also on holidays in general - evil spirits can easily enter the windows, hanging them with towels serves as a talisman as crossing windows and doors with a banner of the cross.
The towel serves as a talisman not only in wedding rituals, but also in maternity and funeral commemoration.
So, at the birth of a child, a towel is wrapped around the cradle so that the evil spirit does not penetrate to it.
At the funeral, towels are distributed to all those accompanying the deceased: they are given to protect those accompanying from misfortunes when communicating with the deceased. In all these cases, the magical power of the towel is enhanced by embroidery, which undoubtedly plays an important role and has a protective value.
Among other things, the towel also plays an informative role. So, at a funeral, they hang it on the corner of the house, in the red corner, on the cross, on the lid of the coffin, they use it in a set for the first person they meet, etc. The towel is, as it were, an identification mark not only for the living, informing "strangers" about which the family collective belonged to the deceased, it apparently served as an identification mark for the ancestors. Probably, this can explain the hanging of towels on the jamb or spreading them on the benches, covering the water in the font, etc. Hanging towels can be regarded as an "invitation" to the ancestors to take part in certain activities related to the family, to provide patronage to the descendants.
The former folk embroidery, with its wonderful patterns, special and unique in every area, has almost not been preserved as an art form. But, anyway, embroidery is not a dying form of folk art. The wonderful works of embroiderers of the past are carefully kept in museums and serve as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the creativity of our contemporaries.
Along with ancient images, embroidery is enriched with themes related to modern village life, which also gradually become history.
Today, in rural houses, one can see portraits of dead soldiers framed with embroidered towels. The towel is also actively involved in the solemn meetings of honored guests - they bring bread and salt on it.
The tradition of rituals with towels began to be revived in modern rituals. In modern weddings, we see ornamented towels tied over the right shoulder on the bridesmaids and groomsmen. And although the wedding ritual retains the features of the past life, but they have changed significantly in our days.
A lace or embroidered towel always looks very elegant and solemn; it is no coincidence that it is customary to bring bread and salt on them. It is probably impossible to come up with a better decoration than a white elegant towel: after all, there is symbolic purity in it, and the idea of prosperity is associated with it. What more could you wish for young people!
Wonderful Vologda lace artist Maria Medkova, our contemporary, has created a series of lace towels. Some of them are with wedding symbols.
The material is taken from various sources.
1. "Folk ornaments", Vasilyeva L.K., M., 1991. 2. "Fine art", N.A. Goryaeva, O.V. Ostrovskaya, M., 2006 1984 3. "Russian wedding", D.M. Balashov, Yu.I. Marchenko, M., 1085 4. "Russian folk embroidery", Boguslavskaya I.Ya., M., 1986, 5. Vologda lace in the interior of M. Medkov, O. Kirillov.
Regional conference of scientific - research works
STORY ABOUT TOWELS
Russia, Chelyabinsk region,
Chebarkulsky district, village Melnikovo
Zavarnitsyna Elena, Lukina Anastasia
Zyuzina Anna
Scientific adviser: Zavarnitsyna A.A.
Teacher of additional education
Melnikovo
2009
- Introduction ………………………………………………………………… 3
- From the history of towels……………………………………………. . 4
- Embroidered towels by Evgenia Grigoryevna …………. . 7
- Dowry towels…………………………………………… 9
- Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… 1 0
- Description of the practical part……………………………….. 11
- Used materials and literature………………. 12
- INTRODUCTION
Every day we are surrounded by a large number of things, the origin of which we even never think about. Among this number of things there is such an item as a towel. In every modern house there are a large number of them. We wipe our face and hands with towels, go to the shower, to the bath. Also, a towel is a necessary thing in the kitchen.
We decided to conduct a study on where such a necessary item of daily life as a towel came from in our modern home. In our work, we used the material from the Russian Izba encyclopedia, as well as the stories of local residents.
Goal of the work:
Find out where such a necessary household item came to us, like a towel in the life of a Russian village.
Research objectives:
- Find and study literature that mentions the origin and use of towels.
- Conduct a survey of local residents on the subject of ancient use of towels.
- Find vintage embroidered towels.
- Restore one of the found towels to preserve and pass on to future generations.
FROM THE HISTORY OF TOWELS
It is assumed that the towel came from a woven belt. The surface of the belt, made on a weaving mill, increased, and the horizontal ornament began to displace the more ancient vertical one. Gradually, the belt became wider and turned into a canvas. The simplest form of linen is a towel.
A towel is a panel of white fabric, homemade or less commonly factory-made, trimmed with embroidery, woven pattern, ribbons, stripes of colored chintz, lace, sequins, braid, fringe.
Handle - a piece of white canvas cloth for wiping the face and hands after washing, as well as for wiping after washing in the bath. Unlike the towel, the handle was short and little decorated.
A towel, the same as a towel. From the pipe of the bleached linen, they destroyed (cut) a strip 4 meters long, hence the name vulgar-rushnik.
Towel in the house is the king. Each towel has its own pattern, each pattern has its own meaning.
A prayer towel - a towel with an embroidered prayer was hung over the icons in the red corner.
Baptismal towel, embroidered for the christening of a child.
They planted fresh bread from the oven - on a war towel, embroidered it with poppies across the field.
A hand-knitted towel was embroidered at the agreement of the young.
Young people in the church stood on their knees on a wedding towel, such towels were embroidered with crosses and doves.
Towels were honored in Rus', passed from grandfathers to grandsons, pulled out of fires. Beautiful towels have been embroidered for years. The embroiderers knew more than two hundred line stitches. To quickly for the holiday - they embroidered one-sided, and the girl for the wedding - embroidered two-sided. Knots on embroidery could not be left, it was believed that they could lead to a quarrel.
Minor flaws also could not be overturned, so as not to mess up fate.
The red hut is not with corners, but with pies. The Russian hut is also red in the corners.
Towels were used for the festive decoration of the hut. They were hung on the walls, mirrors, icons for major holidays, such as Easter, Christmas. In addition, towels were hung out during weddings, at a christening dinner, on the day of a meal on the occasion of returning from military service or the arrival of long-awaited relatives.
Towels were usually made at home and very rarely purchased from shops or fairs. Each peasant girl could weave the thin white canvas necessary for towels and decorate it in the way it was customary in her village.
According to custom, towels were a necessary part of a girl's dowry. Towels decorated the arch of a horse in a wedding train. A long canvas was laid at the entrance to the church, young people walked along it. The matchmaker covered the shoulders of the bride with a “generational towel”, that is, who visited the weddings of her mother and grandmother. The towel was used by the bride as a veil. Thrown over the head should protect it from the evil eye, damage at the most crucial moment of life. The towel was used in the ceremony of “joining the young” in front of wine: they tied the hands of the bride and groom “for all eternity, for years to come”
A towel was presented to a grandmother - a midwife who took birth, godfather and godfather, who baptized the baby. The towel was present in the ceremony "Babina porridge", which took place a few days after the birth of the child. They covered a pot of porridge, the joint eating of which was considered as a consolidation of a kindred union and the inclusion of a newborn in it.
However, a special role was played by a towel in the funeral and memorial rituals. Embroidered towels were hung over the head of the deceased, who was placed in a red corner. It had to remain hanging under the icons for forty days. Towels were tied to the bow of a horse in a funeral train. They lowered the coffin into the grave.
All these actions with a towel were widespread in the Russian village, they were based on the ancient mythological ideas of the Slavs. The towel acted as a talisman, a sign of belonging to a certain family and tribal group, it was interpreted as an object that embodied the souls of the ancestors of the “parents”, who carefully observed the life of the living.
Such symbolism of the towel excluded its use for wiping hands, face, floor, dishes. For this purpose, they used a hand-rubber, utirka, utiralnik, etc.
EMBROIDERED TOWELS BY EVGENIA GRIGORYEVNA
In order to find some facts about the later use of towels, we went to visit the residents - the old-timers of the village of Melnikovo and the village of Travniki.
The first person we visited was a resident of Herbalists Shumikhina Evgenia Grigorievna.
The youth of Evgenia Grigorievna passed in the village of Tumany, Kirov Region. In her family, towel fabric was made by themselves. The fabric was woven in such a width as was necessary for the manufacture of towels. Evgenia Grigorievna showed us a homespun cloth made on a weaving mill by her mother. Astrakhantseva Anna Fedorovna, born in 1910 (lived in the village of Tumany, Kirov Region). Yevgenia Grigorievna does not remember the exact date of manufacture of the canvas, but suggests that it was around the 40s. The finished canvas was decorated with embroidery and lace.
The house was decorated with embroidered towels. Before major holidays (Easter, Christmas, etc.), the huts were necessarily whitewashed, or, and only after that, towels were hung all over the hut. The most beautiful towels were hung in the red corner. Towels were also decorated with mirrors, old photographs, or simply hung on the walls of the hut.
For the wedding, the girl had to embroider a large number of towels. By the number of towels and the beauty of the embroideries, they judged the skills of the bride and the wealth of the family. Towels were brought to the groom's house and hung on the walls so that people could admire the work of the bride, appreciate her taste and diligence. At the wedding, the bride gave towels to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, relatives and friends of the groom, as well as girlfriends.
From ancient times to the present, towels remain white, without embroidered towel patterns. The coffin was carried on towels, paying the last tribute to the deceased, the coffin was lowered into the grave on them. After the funeral, towels were handed out to fellow villagers, and the embroidered towel was hung on a cross and left in the cemetery.
On weekdays, simple towels without embroidery were used to wipe the face and hands. And only in rare cases, on major holidays, guests could be served with an embroidered towel, but the embroidery on such a towel was quite simple. Towels used in the kitchen for wiping dishes were also not decorated with embroidery.
Evgenia Grigoryevna showed us several towels.
One of the towels is made with "tambour embroidery" using a crochet hook. Evgenia Grigorievna said that she embroidered this towel with her mother at the age of 8-10 years, when they still lived in the Kirov region. On this towel, Evgenia Grigoryevna learned the art of embroidery. The embroidery is made with threads of light colors on a bright red field of fabric, which is inserted into the white base of the towel, processed with factory lace. This towel is approximately 60 years old.
The next towel was embroidered a little later. The fabric is embroidered with a “complex cross” stitch, the edges of the towel are trimmed with filet knitting, made with a hook. The towel was used to decorate the hut.
Another towel shown to us by Evgenia Grigoryevna looks very modest. The embroidery on it is made with a “simple cross” stitch and stretched into a narrow line located along the very edge of the canvas. It is possible that these towels were used to wipe the face and hands. All the towels shown to us by Evgenia Grigoryevna are made of homespun cloth.
We found a very interesting towel at Lebedeva Anna Ivanovna, she lived in the village of Russkaya Techa, Krasnoarmeysky district, Chelyabinsk region.
The towel was made specifically to decorate the red corner icons. The edges of the towel panel are interconnected. The bottom of the towel is decorated with two stripes of embroidery. The embroidery is made with a complex cross stitch. Fillet knitting patterns are inserted between the stripes of embroidery and along the bottom of the towel, embroidery is also located on the sides. The base of the towel is made of factory-made fabric.
TOWELS AS DOWNLOAD
Evdokia Petrovna took out several towels from the farthest shelf of the chiffonier. “Before, young people did not go out much, the girls sat at home, did needlework, prepared a dowry for themselves.
My friend Valentina Pechenkina (born in 1935) and I helped each other collect dowries. A friend embroidered well, and I knew how to crochet lace. When I got married, a friend embroidered two towels for me as a gift, and I crocheted them.”
The towels presented by Kashigina Evgenia Petrovna are embroidered with a double-sided satin stitch, the base of the towels is made of fabric purchased in the store, the edges of the towel are finished with fillet knitting. The towels were made around 1957, for the wedding of Evdokia Petrovna.
Evdokia Petrovna unfolds another towel. “This towel belonged to my mother-in-law Natalya Mikhailovna Kashigina (b. 193). The mother-in-law said that the towel was embroidered for the wedding ceremony and passed to her from her mother. And Natalya Mikhailovna's wedding was unusual, it took place just on the day when V.I. Lenin died. Mourning was declared in the country, all entertainment events were banned. But since everything was ready for the wedding, the parents decided not to cancel the wedding. The wedding was held modestly, quietly, without unnecessary noise and fun, in the family circle.
The towel belonging to Natalya Mikhailovna Kashigina is most likely also made of fabric purchased in a store. The embroidery on the towel is made with a “simple cross” stitch, in the colors traditional for old embroidery: red and black. In the center of the embroidery is a crown with initials inside. We assumed that the crown with letter initials inside gives the right to assume that the towel is really related to the wedding ceremony. Venya is made with a “complex cross” stitch, also in red and black colors. The edges of the towel are finished with factory-made lace.
Evdokia Petrovna's towels have another interesting feature; for many years now they have been in great demand among the inhabitants of our village. A rare wedding takes place without Evdokia Petrovna's towels. At some weddings, towels are tied by witnesses accompanying the bride and groom, and sometimes bread and salt is served on them when the newlyweds meet.
Approximately in the 60s, factory-made towels began to enter the village life, gradually replacing the embroidered ones, they firmly entered the modern life of a person. But the culture of using towels has been preserved. With large soft and beautiful towels, we go to the shower, bath. We use simpler towels, we wipe our faces, and we use waffle towels for hands and in the kitchen. But in our modern life, old embroidered towels are not forgotten either. They are still used in modern weddings. Towels remain unchanged in the funeral ceremony.
CONCLUSION: thus, towels occupied a special place in the culture of the Russian village, they accompanied a person all his life. A newborn was taken on a towel, a person was escorted on the last journey on towels. There should be especially many towels in a girl's dowry. Each old towel is read in its own way, has its own meaning, but they all carry the solar energy of joy, happiness, kindness, love and prosperity.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRACTICAL PART
In the practical part of our work, we tried to restore one of the towels we found, which belongs to Natalya Mikhailovna Kashigina. In the course of this work, we mastered the decorative stitches used in the “simple cross” embroidery, used the skill of loin crochet.
Before starting work, we studied the pattern on the towel and assumed that the pattern was made by counting the threads, without using canvas.
Then we tried to transfer the pattern of the drawing to paper in a cage as accurately as possible, correcting it a little and making it more symmetrical.
For the basis of the towel used cotton calico purchased in the store. In order to embroider the pattern of the pattern more correctly and accurately, a canvas was sewn along the edges of the towel.
The drawing on the towel is made in traditional red and black colors.
The edges of the towel are trimmed with knitted lace. The lace is crocheted using the loin crochet technique.
The embroidery on the towel was made by Zyuzina Annv and Lukina Anastasia. Crocheting along the edge of the towel was done by Elena Zavarnitsyna.
