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Traditional occupations of the Bashkirs. The custom and rituals of the Bashkirs

Traditional occupations of the Bashkirs. The custom and rituals of the Bashkirs

09.04.2019

Entertainment and leisure contain elements of an economic, labor, educational, aesthetic, religious nature. Their main tasks were to strengthen the unity of the people and preserve the originality of culture.

What language is spoken in Bashkiria?

The Bashkirs speak Bashkir, which combines features from the Kypchak, Tatar, Bulgar, Arabic, Persian and Russian languages. It is also the official language of Bashkortostan, but it is also spoken in other regions of the Russian Federation.

The Bashkir language is divided into Kuvank, Burzyan, Yurmatin dialects and many others. There are only phonetic differences between them, but despite this, the Bashkirs and Tatars easily understand each other.

The modern Bashkir language took shape in the mid-1920s. Most of the vocabulary consists of words of ancient Turkic origin. There are no prepositions, prefixes and gender in the Bashkir language. Words are formed with the help of affixes. Stress plays a big role in pronunciation.

Until the 1940s, the Bashkirs used the Volga Central Asian script, and then switched to Cyrillic.

Bashkiria within the USSR

Before joining Bashkiria, it consisted of cantons - territorial-administrative units. The Bashkir ASSR was the first autonomous republic on the territory of the former USSR. It was formed on March 23, 1919 and was administered from Sterlitamak in the Ufa province due to the lack of an urban settlement in the Orenburg province.

On March 27, 1925, the Constitution was adopted, according to which the Bashkir ASSR retained the canton structure, and the people could, along with Russian, use the Bashkir language in all spheres of public life.

December 24, 1993 after overclocking Supreme Council The Russian Republic of Bashkortostan adopts a new Constitution.

Bashkir people

In the second millennium BC. e. the territory of modern Bashkortostan was inhabited by ancient Bashkir tribes caucasian race. Within the territory of Southern Urals and the steppes around it lived many peoples who influenced the customs and traditions of the Bashkirs. Iranian-speaking Sarmatians lived in the south - pastoralists, and in the north - landowners-hunters, the ancestors of the future Finno-Ugric peoples.

The beginning of the first millennium was marked by the arrival of the Mongol tribes, who paid great attention to culture and appearance Bashkir.

After the Golden Horde was defeated, the Bashkirs fell under the rule of three khanates - Siberian, Nogai and Kazan.

The formation of the Bashkir people ended in the 9th-10th centuries AD. e., and after joining the Muscovite state in the 15th century, the Bashkirs rallied and the name of the territory inhabited by the people was established - Bashkiria.

Of all the world religions, Islam and Christianity are the most widespread, which had an important influence on the Bashkir folk customs.

The way of life was semi-nomadic and, accordingly, housing was temporary and nomadic. Permanent Bashkir houses, depending on the locality, could be stone brick or log houses, which had windows, in contrast to temporary ones, where the latter were absent. The photo above shows a traditional Bashkir house - a yurt.

What was the traditional Bashkir family like?

Until the 19th century, a small family dominated among the Bashkirs. But it was often possible to meet an undivided family, where married sons lived with their father and mother. The reason is the existence of common economic interests. Usually families were monogamous, but it was not uncommon to find a family where a man had several wives - with bays or representatives of the clergy. Bashkirs from less prosperous families remarried if the wife was childless, became seriously ill and could not take part in household work, or the man remained a widower.

The head of the Bashkir family was the father - he gave orders regarding not only property, but also the fate of the children, and his word was decisive in all matters.

Bashkir women had different positions in the family, depending on their age. Everyone revered and respected the mother of the family, along with the head of the family, she was initiated into all family matters, and she supervised household chores.

After the marriage of a son (or sons), the burden of household chores fell on the shoulders of the daughter-in-law, and the mother-in-law only followed her work. The young woman had to prepare food for the whole family, clean the house, take care of clothes and look after the livestock. In some regions of Bashkiria, the daughter-in-law did not have the right to show her face to other family members. This situation was explained by the dogmas of religion. But the Bashkirs still had some degree of independence - if she was mistreated, she could demand a divorce and take away the property that was given to her as a dowry. Life after the divorce did not bode well - the husband had the right not to give up the children or demand a ransom from her family. In addition, she could not remarry.

Today, many traditions associated with the wedding are being revived. One of them - the bride and groom put on the Bashkir National Costume. Its main features were layering and variety of colors. It was made from home cloth, felt, sheepskin, leather, fur, hemp and nettle canvas.

What holidays do Bashkirs celebrate?

The customs and traditions of the Bashkirs are vividly reflected in the holidays. They can be conditionally divided into:

State - New Year, Defender of the Fatherland Day, Flag Day, Ufa City Day, Republic Day, Constitution Adoption Day.
Religious - Uraza Bayram (holiday of the completion of fasting in Ramadan); Kurban Bayram (holiday of sacrifice); Mawlid an Nabi (Birthday of the Prophet Muhammad).
National - Yinyn, Kargatuy, Sabantuy, Kyakuk Syaye.

State and religious holidays are celebrated in almost the same way throughout the country, and there are practically no traditions and rituals of the Bashkirs in them. Unlike them, national ones fully reflect the culture of the nation.

Sabantuy, or Khabantuy, was celebrated after sowing from about the end of May to the end of June. Long before the holiday, a group of young people went from house to house and collected prizes and decorated the square - Maidan, where all the festive events were supposed to take place. The most valuable prize was considered to be a towel made by a young daughter-in-law, since a woman was a symbol of the renewal of the family, and the holiday was dedicated to the renewal of the earth. In the center of the Maidan, a pole was installed, which was smeared with oil, and an embroidered towel fluttered at the top, which was considered a prize, and only the most dexterous could climb up to it and take it. There were many different amusements on Sabantuy - wrestling with sacks of hay or wool on a log, running with an egg in a spoon or sacks, but jumps and wrestling were considered the main ones - kuresh, in which the rivals tried to knock down or pull the opponent with a wrapped towel. The aksakals watched the wrestlers, and the winner - the batyr - received a slaughtered ram. After the struggle on the Maidan, they sang songs and danced.

Kargatuy, or Karga Butkahy, is a holiday of the awakening of nature, which had different scenarios depending on the geographical location. But common traditions can be considered the cooking of millet porridge. It was held in nature and was accompanied not only by a collective meal, but also by feeding birds. This pagan holiday existed even before Islam - the Bashkirs turned to the gods with a request for rain. Kargatuy also could not do without dances, songs and sports competitions.

Kyakuk Saye was a women's holiday and also had pagan roots. It was celebrated by the river or on the mountain. It was celebrated from May to July. Women with treats went to the place of celebration, each made a wish and listened to the bird chirping. If it is loud, then the wish was fulfilled. Various games were also held at the festival.

Yinyn was a men's holiday, as only men took part in it. It was celebrated on the day of the summer equinox after the people's meeting, at which important issues on the affairs of the village were decided. The council ended with a holiday, for which they prepared in advance. Later it became a common holiday in which both men and women participated.

What wedding customs and traditions do the Bashkirs observe?

Both family and wedding traditions were formed under the influence of social and economic changes in society.

Bashkirs could marry relatives no closer than the fifth generation. The age of marriage for girls is 14 years, and for boys it is 16. With the advent of the USSR, the age was increased to 18 years.

The Bashkir wedding took place in 3 stages - matchmaking, marriage and the holiday itself.

Respected people from the groom's family or the father himself went to woo the girl. Upon agreement, kalym, wedding expenses and the size of the dowry were discussed. Often, children were wooed while still babies and, having discussed their future, the parents reinforced their words with bata - koumiss or honey diluted with water, which was drunk from one bowl.

The feelings of the young were not considered and they could easily pass the girl off as an old man, since marriage was often concluded on the basis of material considerations.

After collusion, families could visit each other's houses. The visits were accompanied by matchmaking feasts, and only men could take part in them, and in some regions of Bashkiria even women.

After most of bride price was paid, the bride's relatives came to the groom's house, and a feast was held in honor of this.

The next stage is the marriage ceremony, which took place in the bride's house. Here the mullah read a prayer and declared the young husband and wife. From that moment until the full payment of the kalym, the husband had the right to visit his wife.

After the dowry was paid in full, the wedding (tui) took place in the house of the bride's parents. On the appointed day, guests came from the side of the girl and the groom came with his family and relatives. Usually the wedding lasted three days - on the first day everyone was treated by the bride's side, on the second - by the groom. On the third day, the young wife left her father's house. On the first two days, horse races, wrestling and games were held, and on the third, ritual songs and traditional lamentations were performed. Before leaving, the bride went around the houses of relatives and gave them gifts - fabrics, woolen threads, scarves and towels. In return, she was given cattle, poultry or money. After that, the girl said goodbye to her parents. She was accompanied by one of her relatives - her maternal uncle, older brother or friend, and a matchmaker was with her to the groom's house. The wedding train was led by the groom's family.

After the young woman crossed the threshold of a new house, she had to kneel three times in front of her father-in-law and mother-in-law, and then distribute gifts to everyone.

On the morning after the wedding, accompanied by the youngest girl in the house, the young wife went to the local source for water and threw a silver coin there.

Before the birth of the child, the daughter-in-law avoided her husband's parents, hid her face and did not talk to them.

In addition to the traditional wedding, bride kidnappings were not uncommon. Similar wedding traditions of the Bashkirs took place in poor families, who thus wanted to avoid wedding expenses.

Birthing rites

The news of the pregnancy was received with joy in the family. From that moment on, the woman was freed from hard physical labor, and she was protected from experiences. It was believed that if she looked at everything beautiful, then the child would certainly be born beautiful.

During childbirth, a midwife was invited, and all other family members left the house for a while. If necessary, only the husband could visit the woman in labor. The midwife was considered the second mother of the child and therefore enjoyed great honor and respect. She entered the house on her right foot and wished the woman an easy delivery. If the birth was difficult, then a series of ceremonies were performed - in front of the woman in labor they shook an empty leather bag or lightly beat them on the back, washed them with water, which was used to wipe the sacred books.

After the birth, the midwife performed the following maternity rite - she cut the umbilical cord on a book, board or boot, as they were considered amulets, then the umbilical cord and placenta were dried, wrapped in a clean cloth (kefen) and buried in a secluded place. Washed things that were used during childbirth were also buried there.

The newborn was immediately placed in the cradle, and the midwife gave him a temporary name, and on the 3rd, 6th or 40th day a holiday of naming (isem tuyy) was held. The mullah, relatives and neighbors were invited to the holiday. The mullah put the newborn on the pillow in the direction of the Kaaba and read his or her name in turn in both ears. Then lunch was served with national dishes. During the ceremony, the baby's mother presented gifts to the midwife, mother-in-law and her mother - a dress, a scarf, a shawl or money.

One of the elderly women, most often a neighbor, cut off a bundle of the child's hair and laid it between the pages of the Koran. Since then, she was considered the “hairy” mother of the baby. Two weeks after birth, the father shaved off the baby's hair, and they were kept together with the umbilical cord.

If a boy was born in the family, then in addition to the naming ceremony, a sunnat was performed - circumcision. It was carried out at 5-6 months or from 1 year to 10 years. The ceremony was obligatory, and it could be performed both by the eldest man in the family and by a specially hired person - a babai. He went from one village to another and offered his services for a nominal fee. Before circumcision, a prayer was read, and after or a few days later a holiday was held - sunnat tui.

How was the deceased seen off?

Islam had a great influence on the funeral and memorial rites of the Bashkirs. But you could also meet elements of pre-Islamic beliefs.

The funeral process included five stages:

rituals associated with the protection of the deceased;
preparation for burial;
seeing off the deceased;
burial;
commemoration.

If a person was near death, then a mullah or a person who knew prayers was invited to him, and he read Surah Yasin from the Koran. Muslims believe that this will ease the suffering of the dying and drive away evil spirits from him.

If a person had already died, then they laid him on a hard surface, stretched his arms along the body and put something hard on his chest over his clothes or a sheet of paper with a prayer from the Koran. The deceased was considered dangerous, and therefore he was guarded, and they tried to bury him as quickly as possible - if he died in the morning, then before noon, and if in the afternoon, then before the first half of the next day. One of the remnants of pre-Islamic times is to bring alms to the deceased, which was then distributed to those in need. It was possible to see the face of the deceased before washing. The body was washed by special people who were considered important along with the grave diggers. They were also given the most expensive gifts. When they began to dig a niche in the grave, then the process of washing the deceased began, in which from 4 to 8 people took part. First, the washing people performed a ritual ablution, and then they washed the deceased, doused them with water and wiped them dry. Then the deceased was wrapped in three layers in a shroud made of nettle or hemp fabric, and a leaf was placed between the layers so that the deceased could answer the questions of the angels. For the same purpose, the inscription “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet” was imitated on the chest of the deceased. The shroud was tied with a rope or strips of fabric over the head, in the belt and on the knees. If it was a woman, then before wrapping in a shroud, she was put on a scarf, bib and trousers. After washing, the deceased was transferred to a bast covered with a curtain or carpet.

When carrying out the dead, livestock or money was given as a gift to someone who would pray for the soul of the deceased. They usually turned out to be a mullah, and alms were distributed to all those present. According to popular beliefs, so that the deceased did not return, he was carried forward with his feet. After the removal, the house and things were washed. When there were 40 steps left to the cemetery gates, a special prayer was read - yinaza prayer. Before the burial, a prayer was again read, and the deceased was lowered into the grave on hands or towels and laid facing the Kaaba. The niche was covered with boards so that the earth would not fall on the deceased.

After the last clod of earth fell on the grave, everyone sat around the mound and the mullah read a prayer, and at the end alms were distributed.
The funeral process was completed by a commemoration. They, unlike funerals, were not religiously regulated. They were celebrated on the 3rd, 7th, 40th day and a year later. On the table, in addition to national dishes, there was always fried food, since the Bashkirs believed that this smell drove away evil spirits and helped the deceased easily answer the questions of angels. After the memorial meal, at the first commemoration, alms were distributed to everyone who participated in the funeral - the mullah, who guarded the deceased, washed and dug the grave. Often, in addition to shirts, bibs and other things, they gave skeins of thread, which, according to ancient beliefs, symbolized the transmigration of the soul with their help. The second commemoration was arranged on the 7th day and took place in the same way as the first.

The commemoration on the 40th day was the main one, since it was believed that until that moment the soul of the deceased wandered around the house, and on the 40th it finally left this world. Therefore, all relatives were invited to such a commemoration and a generous table was laid: "guests were received as matchmakers." A horse, a ram or a heifer was necessarily slaughtered and national dishes were served. The invited mullah read prayers and alms were distributed.

The commemoration was repeated a year later, which completed the funeral rite.

What customs of mutual assistance did the Bashkirs have?

The customs and traditions of the Bashkirs also included mutual assistance. Usually they preceded the holidays, but they could also be a separate phenomenon. The most popular are Kaz Umakhe (Goose help) and Kis Ultyryu (Evening gatherings).

Under Kaz Umakh, a few days before the holidays, the hostess went around the houses of other women she knew and invited them to help her. Everyone happily agreed and, having put on all the most beautiful, gathered in the house of the inviter.

An interesting hierarchy was observed here - the owner killed the geese, the women plucked, and the young girls washed the birds at the hole. Young men were waiting for the girls on the shore, who played the harmonica and sang songs. Back to the house, the girls and the boys returned together, and while the hostess was preparing a rich soup with goose noodles, the invitees played “forfeits”. To do this, things were collected from the girls in advance - ribbons, combs, scarves, rings, and the driver asked a question to one of the girls who stood with her back to her: “What is the task for the owner of this phantom?” Among them were things like singing, dancing, telling a story, playing the kubyz or looking at the stars with any of the young people.

The mistress of the house invited her relatives to Kis Ultyryu. The girls were engaged in sewing, knitting and embroidery.

Having finished the brought work, the girls helped the hostess. Folk legends and fairy tales were necessarily told, music sounded, songs were sung and dances were performed. The hostess served tea, sweets and pies to the guests.

What dishes are national?

The Bashkir national cuisine was formed under the influence of wintering in the villages and the nomadic lifestyle in summer. Distinctive features - a large amount of meat and the absence of a large amount of spices.

It led to the appearance of a large number of dishes of long-term storage - horse meat and lamb in boiled, dried and dried form, dried berries and cereals, honey and fermented milk products - horse sausage (kazy), fermented milk drink from mare's milk (koumiss), bird cherry oil (muyyl mayi ).

Traditional dishes include beshbarmak (meat and large noodle soup), vak-belish (meat and potato pies), tukmas (goose meat soup with thin noodles), tutyrlgan tauk (stuffed chicken), kuyrylgan (potato salad, fish, pickles, mayonnaise and herbs wrapped in an omelet).

Bashkir culture today is a reflection of the historical path of the people, which as a result has absorbed only the best.

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MinistryeducationRussian Federation

Magnitogorsk State University

Bashkir folk pedagogy

Performed:

Bulavkin K.

Magnitogorsk 2004

3. Custom and rituals of the Bashkirs

4. Family way Bashkir

Bibliography

1. Formation of the Bashkir nation

Among the modern peoples living in the Southern Urals, the Bashkirs were the first inhabitants of the region. If follow written sources past, which has come down to us, it would seem that the Bashkirs can be considered the indigenous population of the region for more than a thousand years.

The Bashkirs, like many other peoples who lived in the second half of the 19th century on the territory of the Southern Urals, were at a low stage of development. Without written monuments, they did not know their history, did not know where they came from, where they lived and what their ancestors did. Out of ignorance, the Bashkirs themselves called themselves the most ancient inhabitants of the region. However, historian A.E. Alektorov wrote at the end of the 19th century, they have oral traditions, telling that before their settlement, in times long past, on both sides of the Ural ridge lived numerous Ugra tribes, unknown to them. Only then the Bashkirs appeared here.

There is not the slightest doubt about this now. Surviving mounds, graves, ramparts, remains of former dwellings, copper spears, marble images human faces give reason to believe that quite developed peoples lived on the site of the present-day Southern Urals, who knew about natural resources, knew how to find metals, and make tools from them.

As studies by ethnographers show, the Bashkir tribes did not represent a homogeneous mass by the time they appeared in the Southern Urals. Local differences in the culture of the Bashkirs had deep roots.

Experts believe that the Bashkirs, like nomadic people lifestyle has changed over the generations. This process took many decades and it took place in the conditions of the existence of constant contacts between nomads and the settled population. The transition of the Bashkirs to a settled life lasted three centuries (XVII-XIX centuries), and it went on under a certain pressure from the authorities.

The nomadic economy gave way to a semi-nomadic one. Cattle breeding in a large area of the region was gradually replaced by agriculture and forestry. Over time, it has acquired a repulsive character. The change in lifestyle was accompanied by the transition of the population to a settled way of life. However, this does not mean that there has been a complete change in the way of life. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, departures of individual farms for summer holidays were preserved. At the same time, diverse elements of culture continued to exist, including nomadic and settled settlements.

Major connoisseurs of the history of the Bashkir people S. I. Rudenko and R. G. Kuzeev consider the problems of the origin and formation of the Bashkirs in close connection with the history of the Pechenegs, Oghuz, Volga Bulgars, Polovtsy and Mongols. These so-called "late nomads", scientists believe, had a significant impact on the formation of the Bashkir tribes. With a clear similarity in lifestyle with the "early nomads" (Scythians and Sarmatians), the late nomads became different in many respects - they had a new model, lighter and more comfortable sabers, horse saddles with stirrups, mobile collapsible yurts, the shape of the bow and arrowheads changed noticeably arrows, funeral rites.

European travelers who visited the Bashkirs in the Middle Ages spoke of them as brave, lively and hospitable people. The Bashkirs freely migrated across the steppes, set up their wagons there, engaged in cattle breeding, enjoyed horseback riding and games (2, p. 68).

These character traits of the Bashkirs remained with them until the beginning of the 20th century. While the Tatars, Meshcheryaks, as well as the Finno-Ugric peoples - Cheremis, Mordovians, Voguls (Mansi) - are gloomy and inactive, the Bashkirs are carefree, cheerful, even frivolous, wrote the traveler M. A. Krukovsky. “The disasters they experienced made them distrustful, suspicious of strangers. But one has only to earn his trust, and then the Bashkirs unfolded in all their broad, steppe nature.

Among the Bashkir people there are ancient legends that tell about the origin of tribes, clans and their names, as well as about the connections of the Bashkirs with other peoples. The most ancient worldview layer is formed by legendary legends about the mythical ancestors of the Bashkirs, which they often have some animals or birds - a wolf, a bear, a swan, a crow, as well as demonic creatures - shaitan, shurale (goblin).

The legends of the past contain a variety of information about the arrival of the ancestors of the Bashkirs to the Urals, led by a mythical leader. At the same time, indefinite forms of expression are used - “from somewhere from the south”, “from the Turkish side”, “from the side of Altai”, etc. Of course, the fiction, the conventionality of such plots is very clear. But in these narratives, dressed in legendary forms, it is not difficult to notice the distant echoes of the ethnohistorical ties of the Bashkirs with the peoples of Altai, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, which is confirmed by historical sources.

The legendary legends about the origin of the Bashkir tribes and clans, about the settlement and development of the Urals should be considered as early folk stories, since the reality in them is taken "in the social aspect". There are also legends, the plots of which are based on real facts of a generally significant nature.

No matter how wide the spread of judgments, most scientists agree that the ethnic core of the Bashkir people is basically Turkic-speaking. It is recognized as a fact that the early Bash-Kir tribes lived in the Southern Urals, starting from the first centuries of our era. According to anthropological features, the Bashkirs gravitate more towards the Tatars, Udmurts and Maris and differ significantly from the Kazakhs, Kirghiz and other southern Turkic-speaking peoples.

Archaeological and other sources indicate that the Bashkirs in the X-XIV centuries. were Turkic-speaking people. Together with other peoples, they settled the entire Southern Urals with the territories adjacent to it - the current Orenburg, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Sverdlovsk and Perm regions, the Bashkir, Tatar and Udmurt republics. It was on this vast expanse that the formation of the Bashkir ethnos took place.

In the second half of the 19th century, there was a noticeable enlargement of villages, especially in the north of Bashkiria. In the southern and eastern regions, where auls were formed somewhat later and the population was relatively homogeneous, many tribal traditions were preserved. The way of life here was distinguished by some isolation. Large settlements were considered an exceptional phenomenon.

The transition of the population, especially the Bashkirs, to settled life contributed to the stabilization of the settlements. Studies show recent years, this process, which began several centuries ago, was basically completed by the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. By that time, agriculture began to play a significant role in the economy of the nomads, along with cattle breeding. Most villages became not only permanent, but also the only type of settlements. However, in the 19th century and even in the first decades of the 20th century, new elements in the development of the settlements of the Southern Urals coexisted with the old traditions in the construction of temporary settlements and dwellings.

2. Features of the material culture of the Bashkir people

The dwelling of the Bashkirs. An eyewitness of those times, D.P. Nikolsky, noticed such a characteristic feature of the Bashkirs as their lack of “domesticity, devotion to their home”, the preservation of the custom to travel for summer holidays sometimes 100 or more miles from their villages. He explained this as a consequence of their "nomadic habits". The author noted that among the mountain forest Bashkirs, who lived along the valley of the Inzer River, the whole village went to summer pastures. Nobody stayed in it, “not even the dogs, which have always been inseparable companions of their masters. Driving through the village at this time, you don’t see anyone, as if everything had died out; the streets and yards are overgrown with grass and nettles, the windows are boarded up.”

There were few settlements-winter huts, consisting of two or three dwellings - Bashkir farms. They could have appeared in the era of the Tatar-Mongol rule. Many decades later, at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, individual winter huts turned into wealthy estates-settlements.

It is characteristic that the summer quarters of the mountain-forest Bashkirs consisted of log cabins and served as housing for several seasons. At the same time, many permanent Bashkir villages were only a temporary winter refuge, remaining empty for the entire spring-summer-autumn period, when the population lived on summer pastures. That is why the concepts of "temporary" and "permanent" used in relation to settlements and dwellings in the 19th century are purely formal.

For most Bashkirs, the transition to a semi-nomadic way of life occurred quite early. There is an opinion that it began in the XI century. Abundant vegetation cover, rich woodlands on the slopes Ural mountains- all this kept the population from long and exhausting migrations, especially in winter.

Connoisseurs of Bashkir culture note that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish what kind of dwelling it is - summer or winter. There were cases when low-income families lived in dug dugouts not only during wintering, but also during summer camps. Log huts with a hearth for cooking and a stove-fireplace for heating the dwelling also served as summer and winter dwellings.

In the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the Southern Urals, there were insignificant winter migrations of small groups of related families from one place to another. In the cold season, the role of a dwelling was performed by insulated yurts or easily portable huts-chums. These were conical-shaped dwellings, covered with skins, bark, felt, and turf. Two or three layers of felt were applied to the yurt, and snow was thrown in. An adobe stove was installed inside such a dwelling, the smoke from which came out through the upper hole in the yurt.

Separate winter quarters were located along the western slopes of the Ural Mountains, in mountain gorges (on the territory of the Beloretsk region), in the southeastern forest Trans-Urals.

Yurts were destined long life. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, they became widespread in the Southern Urals. Along with other types of buildings, they were located on the territory of Bashkiria, along the southern spurs of the Urals, in the Orenburg steppes. In the forest-steppe and steppe auls of the southeastern Trans-Urals (mainly in the territory of the current Abzelilovsky and Baimaksky districts), yurts remained the main nomadic housing. Until quite recently, craftsmen who made the frames of yurts lived here. This craft was their main source of livelihood.

As for the summer camps themselves, their number has been constantly decreasing. In the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, wealthy families, first of all, and with them hired people, went to them. Distilled for grazing and livestock. Rich families lived in yurts, while poor families lived in huts. So, on the summer pastures of the village of Yarlykapovo, in the Abzelilovsky district, out of 60 households, only 6-7 had yurts, and the rest built cone-shaped huts-chums. Both yurts and huts were dismantled and transported to new places of residence on wagons during migrations.

The summer houses of the inhabitants of the village of Ishbuldino of the same region were located in the upper reaches of the Beteri River, and from the village of Tashbulatovo the cattle were driven across the Maly Kizil River, deep into the mountains, to the village of Kyzyl-Tash. The Bashkirs of the village of Yarlykapovo went to the mountains for 35–40 km, towards the village of Kulganino. The population of the villages of Verkhne-Sredne and Srednesermenevo of the Beloretsk region settled for the summer along the gorges of the Inzer river basin.

It is noteworthy that the inhabitants of the village of Yarlykapovo also settled in the valley of the Kerkebar River, and after two or three weeks, when the pastures were depleted, they migrated to the valley of the Sukrakty River, located 2-3 km from the first site.

Then they crossed to the banks of the Kebek-Ayra River, turned towards the Irendyk Ridge, and there, in the Kalkuyort area, they were engaged in harvesting hay for the winter. At the end of August, the “nomads” left for the Talybay tract, after which they stopped on the banks of the Kyzyl, in the Suktai area, and remained there until the onset of cold weather, when they returned to their villages, corrected the roofs in the huts, fences. And they began their former hard life - sometimes in the cold and hunger.

The migrations of the population ceased to exist in the 30s of the 20th century, while hay camps in a number of places remained until recently. In the 70s, hay settlements were recorded among the Cathay, although their number was small. Their dwelling, as before, was grass-covered huts-chums up to 4.5 meters high. In the camp there were mostly relatives, and a single family lived in each hut.

Going to settled way life, the Bashkirs had their own houses, lived in villages, used certain land plots, on which they were engaged in arable farming or other trades and crafts. Here they differed from peasants or other settled foreigners only in the level of their well-being. Only one thing gave reason to call the Bashkirs semi-nomadic tribes - this is the custom, with the onset of spring, to move to the so-called koshi - (felt wagons), which they set up in the form of a camp in their fields or meadows.

In treeless places, summer rooms were made of wooden lattices of two arshins, covered with felt around, and others were placed on them with a vault, putting them at the top in a wooden circle, which was not closed with a felt mat, but formed a hole that served as a pipe for smoke to escape from the hearth, dug in the middle cat. However, such a felt tent was the property of only the rich. People of average condition lived in olasyks (a kind of popular hut) or in simple huts made of twigs and covered with felt mats. In addition, wattle or bark dwellings were built.

In places where the forest abounded, summer quarters consisted of wooden huts or birch bark tents, which always remained on the same site. However, such summer migrations did not exist everywhere, but only where there were still many meadows, but they stood far from the village, and the population had cattle to graze. In this case, migration did not serve as a manifestation of former nomadic habits, but was determined by purely economic considerations and needs (pp. 201-204).

In areas rich in land, both Bashkirs and Russian peasants often moved to remote fields and meadows. There they lived with their children and cattle for whole weeks. This is explained by the fact that it was inconvenient and unprofitable for the peasant to return daily to the village from a distant field. But this had nothing to do with their nomadic or semi-nomadic life. Remoteness from their dwellings, wide expanses gave birth to the image of liberty among the Bashkirs. Fresh air in the mountains, healthy food according to their habits, free life encouraged their mental and physical strength.

In summer, depending on the area, the Bashkirs were engaged in haymaking, tar and pitch race, and logging for the winter. Cattle were grazing nearby. He was their main wealth. However, the riots that arose in the 18th century and the agrarian turmoil that followed them completely ruined them, and at the end of the 19th century, very many Bashkirs did not have not only the herds for which they were once famous, but there was not even one horse, without which not a single peasant couldn't get by.

The villages of the Bashkirs in terms of external architecture were not much different from Russian or Tatar ones. The layout of the streets, as well as the type of huts themselves, were largely similar. But this is only at first glance. In fact, the Bashkir houses bore the imprint of some kind of incompleteness or dilapidation. They did not show the comfort and care of the master's hands. This was explained, according to contemporaries, not only by the poverty of the Bashkirs, but also by their negligence, carelessness, lack of love for their home.

The rich Bashkirs had strong houses. Most of the huts are simple huts, the skeleton of which was made of brushwood and smeared with clay. There were small windows almost sunken into the ground. The huts were covered with straw or reeds, sometimes there were no roofs at all. The chimney was covered from above with an overturned leaky boiler. Next to the hut huddled a small courtyard, fenced off with a brush hedge, where there were several quarters for livestock. The inside of the poor man's hut is dark, cramped, dirty, and damp. A large family lived in it, often consisting of 5-7 people.

Wealthy Bashkirs had log houses with cranked porches. The canopy divided housing into summer and winter halves. Near the house or behind the buildings there was a bee-keeper (apiary), where there were several hollowed-out aspen logs-beehives. Sometimes beehives (boards) were attached to the tops of trees. Almost all hives hung a horse skull. It was believed that this gave the atmosphere some kind of mystery, kept people from bad slander that could harm the bees and get honey.

Internal arrangement of the house. The internal structure of the Bashkir houses presented some features. The first thing that caught your eye was the device of the furnace or chuval. The latter resembled a fireplace with a straight chimney and a huge hole for laying firewood. Such chuvals often became the cause of the death of children. During the winter cold, the child came close to a large flame of fire, the dress on him caught fire, or he simply fell into the chuval.

The furnishings of the hut were bunks, located around the wall and covered with felt. But already in the 19th century, bunks began to be gradually replaced by a table and a bed. Wealthy Bashkirs had feather beds and pillows on their bunk beds. If one or more chests and a samovar were added to this, then a chic decoration of the hut was obtained. Most of the poor had not only a samovar, but no household utensils at all. In the chuval, as eyewitness-researchers (for example, I.S. Khokhlov) said, there was a cauldron in which food was cooked and linen, dirty, holey rags were washed in it.

In the courtyard of the Bashkir, near a log hut, a primitive round hut served as a kitchen, and a dugout intended for baking bread, and a low log house with a bast roof, where the family sometimes lived in the summer, coexisted. Right there, in the yard, if the Bashkir did not go out on a nomadic camp, he scattered a felt trellised yurt and lived in it all the hot summer.

With the transition to a settled life, baths appeared among the Bashkirs. However, not every family had such pleasure. In pre-revolutionary villages, numbering 70-100 farms, baths had only 5-6 yards. They were made in the ground - a hole was dug, then its walls were laid out with brushwood and covered with clay (2, p. 205).

But inside the yard, behind the gates, the Great Russian felt at home. Closer to the hut there was a barn with compartments for bulk bread, next to it was a crate for dumping and storing all kinds of belongings. Often the crate and barn were combined. This uncomplicated peasant property was constantly guarded by a chain dog, which is better not to approach. Further on there were barns, and along the back side of the yard there was a wide shed, under which in the summer time horses, carts stood, and horse harness hung. Everything here represented comfort and homeliness.

On the thatched roof of the povet there were several "houses" - bee hives. All sorts of utensils were in the courtyard: a wooden hand mill, an ingenious grindstone, a linen grinder, large aspen logs for livestock feed, in a word, everything that had been accumulated by the peasant economy for decades.

The Bashkirs were great inventors and skillful inventors, although they lacked education. In Russian villages, everything looked somehow monotonous, stereotyped, as it has been done from time immemorial. Something new and original often appeared in the Bashkir settlements. In one village, M.A. Krukovsky noted, the Bashkirs built a pump over their well, and all its inhabitants continued to draw water with a crane. In another place, an ingenious riga appeared in a pit, and you will not find such a rig anywhere else. In the third place there was a single domestic mill with wooden millstones.

The evolution of the formation of residential buildings in the Southern Urals is best seen in the Novolineiny district, founded by the Cossacks in the 19th century. In many villages, dwellings erected by the first settlers have survived here. In the settlements built in the 18th century, there are no such buildings, and it is extremely difficult to determine the “age” of the surviving buildings after the lapse of centuries - no documentary traces remain.

The first houses on the New Line are small in area, most often single-chamber dwellings with light, non-permanent vestibules attached to them. The body of the building was built from pine, hardwood and partly birch logs or planks, that is, logs split in half along the length. Various sizes of pine and hardwood boards and shreds were used for flooring, ceilings and roofs, for the manufacture of various small crafts inside and outside the building.

Clothing and jewelry. The most striking manifestation nationality clothes serve a person. From time immemorial, in addition to utilitarian, it performed status and aesthetic functions. Her style specific image evolved over centuries of human history. In clothes, as in a mirror, the material and spiritual world of people. Clothing is a factor in raising children.

The clothing of peoples has always had a pronounced national character. Such, for example, it was among the Bashkirs, as well as among other peoples. Of course, over the centuries, their clothes have undergone significant changes. Some Bashkir costumes have long been out of use, and we can get to know them only from the descriptions of eyewitnesses or from museum collections. Others of them appeared, one might say, before our eyes. On the one hand, the once common clothes and hats became rare over time, and, on the other hand, previously found in a limited area, they became widespread. Women's jewelry underwent especially strong modifications.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries, the men's clothing of the Bashkirs consisted of a shirt, trousers, woolen stockings and boots. A skullcap was put on the head, which the men shaved, and a fur hat was put on top of it. Outerwear was a cloth chekmen and a fur coat. They were definitely tied up. There were no significant age differences in men's clothing. (2, p. 222).

The clothes of the Bashkirs consisted of a chest band, shirt, trousers, woolen stockings and boots. The head was covered with a scarf. Their outerwear was a cloth chekmen or a cloth robe. In the cold season, the Bashkirs put on a fur coat, tied their heads with a shawl or put on hats. Married women wore kazhbov under a headscarf - a type of cap made of knitted coral threads. Kazhbov was decorated with a small voiced coin or metal plaques.

Wealthy Bashkirs blackened their eyebrows, painted their nails, used whitewash and ruilian. But especially big dandies were Meshcheryachki. Beautiful women, they blackened their eyebrows, blushed. This was considered a sign of good taste and wealth. The poor girls did not use rouge.

Breast and other decorations were very diverse. There were significant differences in the clothes of girls, girls, young women, women of middle and older ages.

At names of the same name the clothes of men and women, they differed both in cut and in material. There were also local features of various types of clothing.

I. I. Lepekhin, P. S. Pallas and I. G. Georgi drew attention to the widespread use of materials of animal origin in the manufacture of clothing: dressed sheep and horse skins, felt, cloth, and leather. Warm outerwear (fur coats, sheepskin coats), men's hats were sewn from sheepskin. I. G. Georgi noticed that the Bashkirs sewed fur coats “from mutton, but more from horse skins” so that the mane lay “along the back”.

Wool was used for the production of felt and woolen fabrics. Hats and caps were rolled from it, winter shoes were made. Throughout the Southern Urals, clothing was insulated with layers of sheep and camel wool.

In the Bashkir villages, mittens, scarves, sashes, stockings, and socks were knitted from woolen sheep yarn, sometimes with the addition of down. In the 18th-19th centuries, the manufacture of downy shawls spread in the southern villages, which later developed into a wide craft.

Shoemakers of the Southern Urals made shoes, deep galoshes, boots from cow and horse skins, and beautiful boots (ichigi) were sewn from thin goat skin (morocco, chevro). It is characteristic that in the Burzyansky and in the north of the Abzelilovsky districts, along with leather shoes, there were shoes with cloth tops.

From specially treated leather (drying, smoking, smoking, smoking), the Bashkirs made for themselves not only shoes, but almost all household utensils - buckets, tubs, bottles (tursuki). The bottles included 1-2 or more buckets, and they were usually made from whole leather.

In the manufacture of clothing, the Bashkirs used the skins and fur of wild animals. In folklore and ethnographic sources, there are references to fur coats and headdresses made of lynx or fox fur, hare or squirrel skins, skins of young wolves or bears. The skin of a beaver or an otter was turned off (sheathed) festive fur coats and hats. The Ural local historian V. M. Cheremshansky (1821-1869) reported that the Bashkirs often sewed winter clothes on ferret or gopher fur.

In winter, the Bashkirs wore a short fur coat made of sheepskin or fox skin - depending on the wealth of the owner. They put a fist on their heads - something like a warm cap. Married Bashkirs covered their heads with kashmau - a headdress studded with beads, and gold, silver and copper braids or just tin mugs were hung on top of it. Behind the kashmau, along the back, there was some kind of cloth, also studded with beads or coins. A kalapish was put on over the kashmau - a pointed hat, also covered with beads or money and trimmed with fur. Bashkirs wore large earrings in their ears. Unmarried girls did not have kashmau or kalapish. The Bashkirs put on a dressing gown made of Chinese or red cloth, a canvas or calico shirt. On their feet they wore boots, sometimes sewn from colored morocco, without heels - with a selection from dandies. The Bashkirs, even the poor, disdained to put on bast shoes, however, if the boots were worn out, they had no other choice. Elderly women covered their heads with a long one or two arshin white scarf made of coarse calico or calico.

The poor Bashkirs put on a sheepskin chekmen or caftan of Tatar cut, and the rich - from black cloth. The clothes were sheathed in a circle with galloon. A sheepskin coat was worn over a chekmen or caftan in winter. A necessary accessory of clothing was a leather belt, on right side which housed a rather large bag for packing various things, and on the left - a small bag for a knife.

Rarely, but it happened that some Bashkirs wore lambskin hats - low, flat headdresses made of astrakhan fur. It is noteworthy that young people preferred such hats made of black, and older people preferred white lambskins.

The headdress was the logical completion of the costume. He carried a special semantic load and testified to the property, family and age status of a person. Many headdresses were original examples of national folk art.

The years have had a great impact on the change in the material of clothing, while the cut of it in general remained unchanged. Already at the end of the 18th century, in addition to fur and felted wool, the Bashkirs learned to make clothes from fabric. They almost did not sow plants that provided fiber for yarn, but mainly used wild-growing nettles and hemp. In the 18th century, frequent cases of using nettle for the production of cloth were recorded.

Subsequently, the Bashkirs set up home production of hemp threads. They wove thick and narrow canvases mostly from nettle and much less often from hemp. P. S. Pallas, I. I. Lepekhin and I. G. Georgi mention the processing of these crops in their works. Being engaged in sowing hemp, the Bashkirs soon became convinced, - wrote I. I. Lepekhin, - that “hemp canvas with its goodness is much superior to nettle, which their ancestors used.

The Bashkirs sewed not only shirts, but also caftans from coarse homemade canvas, wove and felt home-made cloth. Factory material, although it was available, was very expensive, and not everyone could buy it. Canvas caftans, shirts, common for the Bashkirs of the 18th century, were also worn by them in the second half of the 19th century. However, factory-made products were gradually replaced by home-made fabrics. At the beginning of the 20th century, Bashkir canvas clothes could only be seen in museums. The Bashkir cloth lasted a little longer, and in some places prevailed over the factory one, but with the decline of sheep breeding, it was gradually replaced by the factory one. The cut of clothing, common to both sexes, was still preserved. for a long time. Special mention should be made of the camisole - a short old sleeveless jacket for outerwear. In the distant past, it was not worn by everyone and not everywhere. But in the second half of the 19th century, the camisole was included not only in the set of folk clothes, replacing the festive robe in some cases, but also became an integral part of the wedding costume. Moreover, men's camisoles were sewn from dark fabrics, and women's - from bright ones (red, green, blue) (4).

The Bashkirs attached great importance to the decoration of clothing. It included a wide variety of items that served as a colorful addition to the festive and everyday costume. This included braids, braids, earrings, bracelets, rings, beads, necklaces, bibs, backs, slings, etc. In addition, women's jewelry was not only a tribute to fashion, but, according to ancient beliefs, they protected people from evil spirits.

In the manufacture of jewelry, preference was given to silver and corals. Turquoise, mother-of-pearl plates, sea shells, golden and brown amber, beads, red, green, blue polished glass were also used. In the representation of people, these materials, in addition to decorative qualities, also possessed magical properties. For example, silver, turquoise, corals, mother-of-pearl, amber have long been used by Muslims as talismans and amulets.

Coins, corals and other luxury items, sewn on headdresses and clothes, were an indicator of the wealth of the family and testified to a certain position of a person in society.

Many of these adornments were made by the hands of master jewelers, although private jewelry production at the beginning of the 20th century did not receive any significant development among the Bashkirs. Nets made of coral, necklaces, bracelets were used independently. Many women were able to make such jewelry, while showing an extraordinary artistic taste, a wealth of imagination, ingenuity, and fiction.

Tablecloths were sewn together from two strips of dense fabric 40 cm wide, between which narrow strips of lace were often inserted. The table was covered with such a tablecloth. Curtains were intended to separate the living space into kitchen and guest parts. In addition, each Nagaybak family prepared pillowcases and covers for featherbeds from thick and coarse motley.

National cuisine. An important component of material culture is the kitchen - the selection of dishes and kitchen utensils. Food is a combination of inorganic and organic substances obtained by a person from environment and used by him to build and renew tissues, maintain life and replenish energy consumed.

The human need for energy depends primarily on individual features body - gender, age, height, weight, level of metabolic processes, physical activity the nature of human activity. One cannot ignore the climatic and geographical conditions of human habitation, which affect the amount of energy consumed by the human body. To this it should be added that the characteristics of the food consumed are influenced by such factors as the mental and national make-up of a person, his way of life, traditions that have developed over the centuries and passed down from one generation to another.

The characteristic features of the nutrition of the Bashkirs developed over many centuries of their nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle, in the conditions of the steppe and forest-steppe Ural landscape. Regarding the food of the Bashkirs, there are many all kinds of stories, obviously controversial and incorrect information. According to D.P. Nikolsky, some authors expressed the opinion that the Bashkirs ate raw horse meat, even half-rotted carrion, that they had a habit of putting meat under the saddle, on the back of a horse and riding it, in order to make it edible. Other observers pointed out, for example, I. I. Lepekhin, that the Bashkirs ate exclusively dairy products and meat, mainly horse meat. It was as if they did not eat bread at all, and some of them did not even know about it (1).

Most researchers agree that such statements are pure fiction. Of course, the food of the Bashkirs was unpretentious and peculiar, but it cannot be taken as the food of savages. The Bashkirs ate bread, but very little and not all of them. It was replaced by unleavened barley cakes, which were baked in ashes. They created their own national cuisine, quite diverse and, according to their concepts, very tasty. Since ancient times, horse and mutton meat, milk and dairy products, various cereals and flour have served as the main food raw materials for cooking.

The Bashkirs knew how to cook their favorite dishes from a variety of products - bishbarmak, pilaf, krut, chur-pari (chur-parya), kaymak, katyk, bolamyk, salma, butka, etc. They prepared koumiss from drinks, which they stored in leather bags (tursu-kah), and ayran, for the manufacture of which goat or cow milk was used.

It is worth noting that many of the listed national dishes, for example, bishbarmak, koumiss, appeared on the table only for wealthy Bashkirs, that is, for a few and very rarely. Most of the Bashkirs were content with steep and salma, or even just barley mash, which, moreover, for the sake of economy, they consumed in very limited quantities, just to satisfy their hunger a little (2, p. 243).

In general, most of the Bashkirs ate tolerably only in summer and autumn, and in winter and early spring they lived from hand to mouth, often did not eat for days on end, eating mainly steep and salma. At the end of winter, the Bashkirs were terribly emaciated in anticipation of spring, wandering around the villages like shadows, exhausted, apathetic. In this state, at the first glimpse of spring, they went to the koshi with half-dead cattle. Here they seemed to wake up from the winter lethargic sleep, in two weeks they recovered, became more cheerful, more mobile, again acquired their characteristic cheerfulness, briskness, dexterity in movements, humor, courage. The appearance of this amazingly hardy people was unrecognizably transformed.

The most expensive, revered and exquisite dish of the Bashkirs was bishbarmak, which is why it deserves a special discussion. Not only travelers of the 18th century, but also later chroniclers of the Bashkir people wrote about the charms and high palatability of this nutritious product. Such attention to him was explained by a number of circumstances. On the one hand, this delicacy dish was one of the oldest dishes of the Bashkirs, on the other hand, it was a traditional treat for guests, at the reception of which a kind of ceremony was held.

Before the start of the meal on the bunk in the hut or directly on the ground, if the treat took place in the wagon, a tablecloth was spread over the felt mat. The owner, or his adult son, walked around with a jug or a basin of all those present. The guests washed their hands, dried them with a towel and squatted around the tablecloth, on which bishbarmak was served in large wooden cups. In each cup (and there were several of them), in addition to pieces of lamb, fat and noodles, they put large pieces of meat, and sometimes sausages when it appeared.

Sitting down at the “table”, one of those present chopped the meat into small pieces with a knife, and the other handed them out to a respectable company. During the feast, as a sign of special attention, the guests put the best, fatty pieces of meat into their mouths with their own hands to neighbors or those whom they wanted to show a high honor. Sometimes one of the adults or children of the owners was called to the circle, and he, wanting to treat, said: “Eat!” The one to whom this appeal was addressed opened his mouth and received a handful or a whole handful of meat. The owner himself usually did not sit in a circle, but busied himself with treating those present.

When the bishbarmak was eaten and the cups were removed, the host, after drinking a little from a cup of soup seasoned with cheese, served it to one of the guests, usually the most honored one. He, in turn, like the owner, having drunk a little, passed a cup of soup to a neighbor. So she went around the whole circle. After saying a prayer of thanks and bowing to the host, everyone got up, washed their hands a second time and, having settled down comfortably, began to drink koumiss, and in his absence, tea. Thus a sumptuous feast took place. Of course, only rich Bashkirs could afford such a plentiful treat with bishbarmak, and even then very rarely.

For the bulk of the Bashkirs, due to economic insufficiency, this was practically impossible. For her, the most common meat dish was bolamyk - a liquid meat broth seasoned with flour with cheese crumbled into it.

In addition to the meat of domestic animals (the most favorite were horse meat, especially the meat of foals, and lamb), the Bashkirs ate the meat of untamed animals - most often hares and wild goats. The number of meat dishes was very limited.

Not last place in the diet of the Bashkirs occupied the meat of birds. The Bashkirs themselves did not breed poultry(geese, chickens). They hunted and ate partridges, hazel grouses, black grouses, capercaillie, wild ducks and geese. custom rite creativity tradition

The forbidden birds that were not eaten by the Bashkirs included cranes, swans, as well as birds of prey such as golden eagle, falcon, kite, hawk, crow, owl, eagle owl. For what reasons the Bashkirs did not eat the meat of these birds has not been fully established. These may be remnants of totem representations or some other motives. Let us refer only to the statement of Ibn Fadlan regarding the crane as a bird sacred to the Bashkirs, which will be discussed later. Special properties in the Bashkir folklore were attributed to the golden eagle.

The bird, as well as fish, was eaten boiled. During the hunt, a dead bird in the field was roasted on a spit - a pointed stick, obliquely stuck into the ground above the fire. Most often, a flattened bird, planted on a wooden fork, was fried whole. Feathered eggs were either boiled or baked in ash before being eaten.

The national flavor was also reflected in the drinks of the Bashkirs. One of the most favorite of them was koumiss, prepared from the milk of mares. Koumiss, fermented in leather tursuks, had excellent nutritional qualities. The refreshing drink produced an intoxicating effect on a person, but at the same time it was very nutritious and useful especially for the weak-chested. For a long time, koumiss has been recognized as a remedy. He helped to recover from tuberculosis, anemia (anemia), exhaustion, gastrointestinal diseases.

3. Custom and rituals of the Bashkirs

In the works of oral folk art, the best examples of human wisdom have been collected and honed for centuries, dressed in a surprisingly concise form of sayings in the form of proverbs and sayings. With great force, briefly, clearly and clearly, they reflected all the diversity folk life: good and evil, light and darkness, love and hatred, truth and lies, industriousness and laziness, courage and cowardice, joy and sorrow...

The first written information about the existence of legends, various beliefs and stories about the Bashkirs dates back to the 10th century. The travel notes of Ibn Fadlan contain remarkable statements about the beliefs of the Bashkirs, as well as a retelling of one of the options. ancient legend about cranes.

Travelers, researchers of the region, writers rightly note that the Bashkirs had their own legend about almost every notable place, and, perhaps, there is no such river, mountain, about which there would be no legend or song. But like the legends of other peoples, the Bashkir ones, including those about the emergence of tribes, clans, are built on fiction, fantasy, stories of a religious nature. Everyday and moralizing tales usually denounced injustice and violence. Their heroes were tall moral character: selfless devotion to the motherland, courage and courage.

The oral folk art of the Bashkirs was rich and varied in content. It is represented by different genres, among which there were heroic epos, fairy tales, songs. Fairy tales differed in certain cycles - heroic, everyday, moralizing, fairy tales-legends.

However, over the years, epic poems of "heroic" content lost their style and poetic form. The heroic plot of the Bashkirs began to dress in an inherent fairy tale prose form. Fairy tales and the stories were filled with the struggle of man with the hostile forces of nature. The heroes of fairy tales were helped in this struggle by magical things and objects: an invisibility hat, a self-cutting sword, reviving water, from which blood flowed when the hero was in trouble, and milk when good luck came to him. As usual, the heroes of fairy tales emerged victorious.

The Southern Urals was an arena where complex ethnic processes took place, historical events that left a deep mark on the minds of the Bashkir people. The places of these events were kept in people's memory, overgrown with legends and legends, such as, for example, about Mount Magnitnaya, Uchaly (2, p. 283).

The Abzelilovsky district has long been known for its legends, tales, songs, and other works of folklore. The legend about the history of the name of the region is curious. AT ancient times the brothers Abzelil and Askar, in search of the best land for founding a new village, went out and chose the site of the current regional center. Their possessions began to be called Abzelil, and the village - Askar.

The legends reflected the belief of people in the existence of spirits - the "masters" of nature. Natural objects themselves were animated. According to legends and traditions, the rivers “talk”, “argue”, “get angry”, “jealous”, which can be read in some of them - “Agidel and Yaik”, “Agidel and Karaidel”, “Kalym”, etc.

In the legends "The Singing Crane" and "The Little Crow" birds act as miraculous patrons of man. The cranes once warned the Bashkirs about the impending danger with their dancing and cooing, and the crow nursed a newborn child left on the battlefield and did not let him die. In this vein, the cult of the crow, which is quite widespread among the Bashkirs, attracts attention.

Dancing. With their specific features the dances of the Bashkirs were different. By content, they were divided into ritual and play. The first included girlish round dances at the Crow Porridge festival, which was held in Beloretsky, Abzelilovsky, Baymaks-kom, Ishimbaysky and other Bashkir regions and cities.

Various dance elements, rhythmic movements, gestures were used in the rituals of expelling the disease from the human body, called "Expulsion of Albasty", "Treatment of the lower back", "Treatment for fear" and others. All these ceremonies were associated with improvised dances of the Kuryazi, accompanied by theatrical performances, and percussive music. The dances "Cuckoo", "Dove", "Black Hen" reflected the ancient rituals of worshiping ancestral totems.

The Bashkirs recorded a number of girlish dance games, which seem to have been connected in the past with magical dances, including "Swans", "Mother Goose", "I'll Take a Chick". Among the game dances, the most popular were militant "Perovsky", "Dance of the hunter", "Bank", wedding - "Hotel", "Dance of the daughter-in-law", "Complaints of the bride", comic - "Rittaem", "Chizhik", "Face to face ".

The Bashkir men of the Southern Urals imitated trick riding, horseback riding, horse racing, stalking prey, the habits of animals and birds in dances. The latter was clearly manifested in the dances "Dove" (Baimaksky district), "Glukhara display" (the village of Utyaganovo, Abzelilovsky district). The originality of men's dances was determined by their flight, swiftness, alternation of light moves in a circle with a shot in the center of the site. Women's dances are built on the imitation of their daily activities, such as pulling wool, spinning, winding threads into a ball, churning butter, cooking koumiss, ayran.

The most popular among the Bashkirs were dances imitating the behavior of a rider on a horse. Similar dances performed under different names: "Horseman", "Shepherd", "Hunter". In them, smooth movements alternated with barely noticeable fluctuations of the body, swift and sharp, as well as fast shots. The performer with a continuous movement conveyed a feeling of remote alertness, constant readiness for a throw, action. In the dances, the Bashkirs' inclination to the plot, pictoriality was manifested.

The structure of both men's and women's dances is identical: in the first half of the melody, an alternating move was performed, in the second - dro bushes. This is the main movement of the legs in all Bashkir dances.

Since the 16th century - the accession of Bashkiria to Russia - there have been significant changes in the development folk choreography. On the one hand, there was a gradual separation of the Bashkir dance from the ritual content, the ancient pagan ideas of the people, on the other hand, Russian creativity had an increasing influence on its choreography.

By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, the dances "Circular Game", "Cuckoo", "Dove" and others were performed not only in connection with this or that rite, but also at all public festivals, girls' games. Dances clearly lost their connection with rituals.

The service of the Bashkirs in the Russian army, joint military campaigns, their close contact with Russians in everyday life paved the way for the Bashkirs to perceive such dances as "Trepak", "Kazachok", etc.

Rites. As an object of study and knowledge, folk customs have always been a priority for ethnographic science. Today, not only ethnographers and folklorists, but also sociologists, historians, demographers, philosophers, art historians, culturologists, and specialists in other sciences are engaged in folk customs and rituals (traditional and new).

A custom is a generally accepted order, traditionally established rules of behavior, and a rite is a set of actions established by custom, in which some household traditions or religious ideas are embodied. In everyday speech, these concepts are often used as identical.

It is more correct to consider the rite as a kind of custom, the purpose and meaning of which is the expression (mostly symbolic) of some idea, feeling, action, or the replacement of direct influence on the object with imaginary (symbolic) influences. In other words, every ritual is also a custom, but one that has the property of expressing a certain idea or replacing a certain action. Every ritual is a custom, but not every custom is a ritual.

Of the national holidays of the Bashkirs, Sabantuy (the plow holiday) enjoyed special honor, which has been celebrated since pagan times and has survived to this day. It was arranged as a wide celebration before arable land and departure for koshi. The holiday lasted for several days. During it, gambling competitions of the strong and dexterous, frenzied jumps, various games, singing, and dancing took place. Everyone, from young to old, ran a race, jumped like a frog, in bags, got up to other spectacular amusements. The main thing - it was an opportunity to eat heartily; the case, according to M. A. Krukovsky, came to gluttony.

On the days of Sabantuy, the Bashkirs went to each other, congratulated on the holiday. Everywhere - the most plentiful treat. Each owner slaughtered a ram, prepared delicious dishes, prepared a lot of koumiss, which flowed like a river. Wine also penetrated, forbidden by the Muslim religion. The volume of food eaten by each villager, wrote the same M. A. Krukovsky, reached an incredibly large amount.

After the end of sowing, the summer cycle of agricultural work and related rituals began. To protect crops from drought, the Bashkirs resorted to various magical rites of "raining". On a certain day, according to the decision of the old people, the whole village gathered near the river. brewed in common boiler lunch, prayed to Allah, asking him for rain. Prayer was accompanied, like the Nagaybaks, with a sacrifice. Then they doused themselves with water, threw, except for the old men and women, each other into the river.

The Bashkirs also celebrated the so-called Saban festival. It happened in a rather original way. Again, before the start of arable land, young people in evening time mounted on the best horses, went around the village and, returning, stopped in front of each house and loudly demanded some kind of feed. The owner could not refuse their demands - to give them cool, ayran, buza or honey.

Having traveled around the whole village, the young people returned to their homes and the next day in the morning they went to the field about five miles from their residence. After that, they started galloping back - to the village, where on both sides of the street the whole village population was impatiently waiting for them. One young man or one young girl held a pole in their hands, to which was attached a white scarf embroidered with multi-colored silks. Whoever quickly jumped to the pole and tore off the handkerchief received it as a reward. Loud exclamations of the audience were heard - "Bravo!"

It often happened that two or three horsemen jumped up to the pole at the same time and grabbed the handkerchief. Then a fight broke out between them. The one who won received a handkerchief from the hands of the youngest married woman. After the end of the ceremony, the men went to the mosque to pray to Allah and ask him for an abundant harvest of bread. Then a public feast began, at which they had fun in different ways: they sang, danced, played national musical instruments, wrestled, competed in target shooting.

Customs and rituals, like a kind of storehouse, contained many different components. They characterized the degree of development of the culture of a particular people, the era of his life.

4. Family way of the Bashkirs

The Bashkir people have formed their way of life over many centuries. Adult Bashkirs, being people of average height, in the past, as now, were strong and healthy, strong, muscular and hardy, brave and nimble, able to endure all difficulties and hardships. However, their children could hardly endure the difficult living conditions. On the basis of poverty, malnutrition, cold, dirt, all kinds of diseases developed, especially typhus, cholera, and they claimed many children's lives.

The Bashkirs had excellent inclinations, rare human qualities. They were distinguished by genuine hospitality, obedience, helpfulness, meekness. When a guest came to one of them, he received him with exceptional cordiality: he treated him with what he could, and did not demand any payment for it. If he slaughtered a ram, he boiled it whole, because he knew that they would come to him to eat. He treated everyone indiscriminately - rich and poor, officials and ordinary people.

The Bashkirs are kind and condescending to others, they did not remember the insults and insults inflicted on them. True, this applied primarily to those of them who lived far from the cities. The Bashkirs, who lived in the suburbs and in the cities themselves, already felt big difference in character and behavior: they became more cheeky and cunning.

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Culture and life of the Bashkir people

Until the end of the 19th century, the Bashkirs led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, but gradually became sedentary and mastered agriculture, the Eastern Bashkirs practiced summer nomadic trips for some time and preferred to live in yurts in the summer, over time, and they began to live in wooden log cabins or adobe huts, and later in more modern buildings.

Until the end of the 19th century, family life and the celebration of folk holidays of the Bashkirs were subject to strict patriarchal foundations, in which, in addition, the customs of the Muslim Sharia were present. In the kinship system, the influence of Arab traditions was traced, which implied a clear division of the line of kinship into maternal and paternal parts, which was subsequently necessary to determine the status of each family member in hereditary matters. The right of the minority (the advantage of the rights of the youngest son) was in effect, when the house and all the property in it after the death of the father passed to younger son, older brothers were supposed to receive their share of the inheritance during the life of their father, when they got married, and daughters when they got married. Previously, the Bashkirs gave their daughters in marriage quite early, the optimal age for this was considered 13-14 years old (bride), 15-16 years old (groom).

(Painting by F. Roubaud "Bashkirs hunting with falcons in the presence of Emperor Alexander II" 1880s)

Wealthy Bashkorts practiced polygamy, because Islam allows you to have up to 4 wives at the same time, and there was a custom to conspire children in their cradles, parents drank baht (koumiss or diluted honey from one bowl) and thus entered into a wedding union. When entering into marriage for the bride, it was customary to give kalym, which depended on the material condition of the parents of the newlyweds. It could be 2-3 horses, cows, several outfits, pairs of shoes, a painted scarf or robe, the mother of the bride was given a fox fur coat. In marital relations, ancient traditions were honored, the levirate rule was in effect ( younger brother must marry the elder's wife), sororate (a widower marries younger sister his late wife). Islam plays a huge role in all spheres of public life, hence the special position of women in the family circle, in the process of marriage and divorce, as well as in hereditary relations.

Traditions and customs of the Bashkir people

The Bashkir people hold the main festivals in spring and summer. The people of Bashkortostan celebrate Kargatuy "rook holiday" at a time when rooks arrive in spring, the meaning of the holiday is to celebrate the moment of awakening nature from winter sleep and also an occasion to turn to the forces of nature (by the way, the Bashkirs believe that it is the rooks that are closely connected with them) with a request about the well-being and fertility of the coming agricultural season. Previously, only women and the younger generation could participate in the festivities, now these restrictions have been lifted, and men can also dance, eat ritual porridge and leave its remains on special boulders for rooks.

The Sabantuy plow holiday is dedicated to the beginning of work in the fields, all the inhabitants of the village came to the open area and participated in various competitions, they fought, competed in running, rode horses and pulled each other on ropes. After determining and rewarding the winners, a common table was laid with various dishes and treats, usually it was a traditional beshbarmak (a dish of chopped boiled meat and noodles). Previously, this custom was carried out in order to appease the spirits of nature so that they would make the land fertile, and it would give a good harvest, and over time it became a common spring holiday that marked the beginning of hard agricultural work. Residents of the Samara region have revived the traditions of the Rook's holiday and Sabantuy, which they celebrate every year.

An important holiday for the Bashkirs is called Jiin (Yiyin), it was attended by residents of several villages at once, various trade operations were carried out during it, parents agreed on the marriage of children, fair sales were held.

The Bashkirs also honor and celebrate all Muslim holidays that are traditional for all adherents of Islam: this is Uraza Bayram (the end of fasting), and Kurban Bayram (the holiday of the end of the Hajj, on which a ram, camel or cow must be sacrificed), and Maulid Bayram (Prophet Muhammad is famous).

The Russian Federation is a multinational country. The state is inhabited various peoples who have their own beliefs, culture, traditions. In there is such a subject of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is included in this subject of the Russian Federation and borders on the Orenburg, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions, the Perm Territory, the Republics within the Russian Federation - Udmurtia and Tatarstan. is the city of Ufa. The Republic is the first autonomy on a national basis. It was founded back in 1917. In terms of population (more than four million people), it also ranks first among autonomies. The republic is inhabited mainly by Bashkirs. Culture, religion, people will be the topic of our article. It should be said that the Bashkirs live not only in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Representatives of this people can be found in other parts of the Russian Federation, as well as in Ukraine and Hungary.

What kind of people are the Bashkirs?

This is the autochthonous population of the historical region of the same name. If it is more than four million people, then only 1,172,287 people live in it (according to the last census of 2010). In the entire Russian Federation, there are one and a half million representatives of this nationality. About a hundred thousand more went abroad. The Bashkir language separated from the Altaic family of the Western Turkic subgroup a long time ago. But until the beginning of the twentieth century, their writing was based on Arabic script. In the Soviet Union, "by a decree from above" it was translated into Latin, and during the years of Stalin's rule - into Cyrillic. But not only language unites the people. Religion is also a bonding factor that allows you to preserve your identity. The majority of Bashkir believers are Sunni Muslims. Below we will take a closer look at their religion.

History of the people

According to scientists, the ancient Bashkirs were described by Herodotus and Claudius Ptolemy. The "Father of History" called them Argippeians and pointed out that these people dress in Scythian, but speak a special dialect. The Chinese chronicles rank the Bashkirs among the tribes of the Huns. The Book of Sui (seventh century) mentions the Bei-Din and Bo-Khan peoples. They can be identified as Bashkirs and Volga Bulgars. Medieval Arab travelers bring more clarity. Approximately in 840, Sallam at-Tarjuman visited the region, described its limits and the life of the inhabitants. He characterizes the Bashkirs as an independent people living on both slopes of the Ural Range, between the Volga, Kama, Tobol and Yaik rivers. They were semi-nomadic pastoralists, but very warlike. The Arab traveler also mentions the animism practiced by the ancient Bashkirs. Their religion implied twelve gods: summer and winter, wind and rain, water and earth, day and night, horses and people, death. Chief among them was the Spirit of Heaven. The beliefs of the Bashkirs also included elements of totemism (some tribes revered cranes, fish and snakes) and shamanism.

Great Exodus to the Danube

In the ninth century, not only the ancient Magyars left the foothills of the Urals in search of better pastures. Some Bashkir tribes also joined them - Kese, Yeney, Yurmats and some others. This nomadic confederation first settled on the territory between the Dnieper and the Don, forming the country of Levedia. And at the beginning of the tenth century, under the leadership of Arpad, she began to move further to the west. Crossing the Carpathians, the nomadic tribes conquered Pannonia and founded Hungary. But one should not think that the Bashkirs quickly assimilated with the ancient Magyars. The tribes divided and began to live on both banks of the Danube. The beliefs of the Bashkirs, who managed to become Islamized in the Urals, gradually began to be replaced by monotheism. The Arabic chronicles of the twelfth century mention that Khunkar Christians live on the northern bank of the Danube. And in the south of the Hungarian kingdom live Muslim Bashgirds. Their main city was Kerat. Of course, Islam in the heart of Europe could not last long. Already in the thirteenth century, most of the Bashkirs converted to Christianity. And in the fourteenth, there were no Muslims in Hungary at all.

Tengrianism

But back to early times, before the exodus of part of the nomadic tribes from the Urals. Let us consider in more detail the beliefs that the Bashkirs then professed. This religion was called Tengri - after the name of the Father of all things and the god of heaven. In the universe, according to the ancient Bashkirs, there are three zones: the earth, on it and under it. And in each of them there was a clear and invisible part. The sky was divided into several tiers. Tengri Khan lived at the highest. The Bashkirs, who did not know statehood, nevertheless had a clear concept of all other gods. All other gods were responsible for the elements or natural phenomena (change of seasons, thunderstorm, rain, wind, etc.) and unconditionally obeyed Tengri Khan. The ancient Bashkirs did not believe in the resurrection of the soul. But they believed that the day would come, and they would come to life in the body, and would continue to live on earth in the established worldly way of life.

Connection with Islam

In the tenth century, Muslim missionaries began to penetrate into the territories inhabited by the Bashkirs and the Volga Bulgars. In contrast to the baptism of Rus', which met with fierce resistance from the pagan people, the Tengrian nomads converted to Islam without excesses. The concept of the religion of the Bashkirs was ideally connected with the ideas about the one God, which the Bible gives. They began to associate Tengri with Allah. Nevertheless, the "lower gods", responsible for the elements and natural phenomena, were held in high esteem for a long time. And even now the trace of ancient beliefs can be traced in proverbs, rites and rituals. It can be said that Tengrianism was refracted in the mass consciousness of the people, creating a kind of cultural phenomenon.

Acceptance of Islam

The first Muslim burials on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan date back to the eighth century. But, judging by the objects found in the burial ground, it can be judged that the deceased, most likely, were newcomers. At an early stage in the conversion of the local population to Islam (the tenth century), missionaries from such brotherhoods as Naqshbandiyya and Yasawiyya played a large role. They arrived from the cities of Central Asia, mainly from Bukhara. This predetermined what religion the Bashkirs profess now. After all, the Kingdom of Bukhara adhered to Sunni Islam, in which Sufi ideas and Hanafi interpretations of the Koran were closely intertwined. But for the Western neighbors, all these nuances of Islam were incomprehensible. The Franciscans John the Hungarian and Wilhelm, who lived continuously for six years in Bashkiria, sent the following report to the General of their order in 1320: “We found the Sovereign of Bascardia and almost all of his household completely infected with Saracen delusions.” And this allows us to say that in the first half of the fourteenth century, the majority of the population of the region converted to Islam.

Accession to Russia

In 1552, after the fall of Bashkiria, it became part of the Muscovite kingdom. But local elders negotiated rights to some autonomy. So, the Bashkirs could continue to own their lands, practice their religion and live in the same way. The local cavalry took part in the battles of the Russian army against the Livonian Order. Religion among the Tatars and the Bashkirs had somewhat different meanings. The latter converted to Islam much earlier. And religion has become a factor in the self-identification of the people. With the accession of Bashkiria to Russia, dogmatic Muslim cults began to penetrate into the region. The state, wishing to keep under control all the believers of the country, established in 1782 a muftiate in Ufa. Such spiritual dominance led to the fact that in the nineteenth century the believers of the region split. A traditionalist wing (Kadimism), a reformist wing (Jadidism) and Ishanism (Sufism, which lost its sacred basis) arose.

What is the religion of the Bashkirs now?

Since the seventeenth century, uprisings against the powerful northwestern neighbor have been constantly taking place in the region. They became especially frequent in the eighteenth century. These uprisings were brutally suppressed. But the Bashkirs, whose religion was a rallying element of the self-identification of the people, managed to retain their rights to beliefs. They continue to practice Sunni Islam with elements of Sufism. At the same time, Bashkortostan is the spiritual center for all Muslims of the Russian Federation. More than three hundred mosques, an Islamic institute and several madrasahs operate in the Republic. The Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation is located in Ufa.

The people also retained early pre-Islamic beliefs. Studying the rites of the Bashkirs, one can see that amazing syncretism is manifested in them. Thus, Tengri has become in the minds of the people into a single God, Allah. Other idols have become associated with Muslim spirits - evil demons or genies favorably disposed towards people. A special place among them is occupied by yort eiyakhe (analogous to the Slavic brownie), hyu eyyakhe (water) and shurale (goblin). Amulets serve as an excellent illustration of religious syncretism, where, along with the teeth and claws of animals, sayings from the Koran written on birch bark help against the evil eye. The rook holiday Kargatuy bears traces of the cult of ancestors, when ritual porridge was left on the field. Many rituals practiced during childbirth, funerals and commemorations also testify to the pagan past of the people.

Other religions in Bashkortostan

Given that ethnic Bashkirs make up only a quarter of the entire population of the Republic, other religions should also be mentioned. First of all, this is Orthodoxy, which penetrated here with the first Russian settlers (late 16th century). Later, the Old Believers also settled here. AT XIX century German and Jewish craftsmen came to the region. Lutheran churches and synagogues appeared. When Poland and Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire, military and exiled Catholics began to settle in the region. At the beginning of the 20th century, a colony of Baptists from the Kharkov region moved to Ufa. The multinationality of the population of the Republic was the reason for the diversity of beliefs, to which the indigenous Bashkirs are very tolerant. The religion of this people, with its inherent syncretism, still remains an element of the ethnic group's self-identification.

The Bashkirs, like all nomads, have long been famous for their love of freedom and militancy. And now they have retained their courage, heightened sense of justice, pride, stubbornness in defending their interests.

At the same time, in Bashkiria, immigrants were always warmly welcomed, in fact, they were provided with land for free, and they did not impose their customs and beliefs. It is not surprising that modern Bashkirs are very friendly and hospitable people. They are completely alien to intolerance towards representatives of other nations.

The ancient laws of hospitality are still honored and respected in Bashkortostan. By the arrival of guests, even uninvited ones, a rich table is laid, and those leaving are presented with gifts. It is an unusual tradition to present rich gifts to the baby of guests - it is believed that it is necessary to appease him, because the baby, unlike his older relatives, cannot eat anything in the owner's house, which means he can curse him.

Traditions and customs

In modern Bashkiria great importance given traditional way, all National holidays celebrated nationwide. And in ancient times, rituals were accompanied by all the most significant events for a person - the birth of a child, a wedding, a funeral.

Traditional wedding ceremonies Bashkir complex and beautiful. For the bride, the groom paid a large kalym. True, the economical always had a way out: to steal their beloved. In the old days, families conspired to intermarry even before the birth of children. And the engagement between the bride and groom (syrgatuy) was held at the tender age of 5-12 years. Later, the search for a bride began to begin only when the boy reached puberty.

The bride to the son was chosen by the parents, and then sent to the chosen family of matchmakers. Weddings were arranged on a grand scale: they organized horse races, wrestling tournaments and, of course, a feast. For the first year, the young wife could not talk to her mother-in-law and father-in-law - this was a sign of humility and respect. At the same time, ethnographers note a very careful attitude towards women in the Bashkir family.

If the husband raised his hand against his wife or did not provide for her, then the matter could end in divorce.

Divorce was also possible in the event of a woman's infidelity - in Bashkiria, female chastity was strictly treated.

The Bashkirs had a special attitude towards the birth of a child. So, a pregnant woman for a while became almost a "queen": according to custom, it was necessary to fulfill all her whims in order to ensure the birth of a healthy baby. Children in Bashkir families were very loved and rarely punished. Subordination was based only on the indisputable authority of the father of the family. The Bashkir family has always been built on traditional values: respect for elders, love for children, spiritual development and proper upbringing of children.

In the Bashkir community, aksakals, elders, keepers of knowledge enjoyed great respect. And now a real Bashkir will never say rude word old man or old woman.

Culture and holidays

The cultural heritage of the Bashkir people is incredibly rich. Heroic epics ("Ural-Batyr", "Akbuzat", "Alpamysh" and others) make you plunge into the warlike past of this people. Folklore includes numerous fairy tales about people, deities and animals.

The Bashkirs were very fond of song and music - in the piggy bank of the people there are ritual, epic, satirical, everyday songs. It seems that not a single minute of life ancient Bashkir did not pass without a song! The Bashkirs also loved to dance, while many dances are complex, narrative in nature, turning either into pantomime or into a theatrical performance.

The main holidays were in the spring and summer, during the heyday of nature. The most famous are kargatuy (rook holiday, day of arrival of rooks), maidan (May holiday), sabantuy (plow day, end of sowing), which has remained the most significant holiday of the Bashkir people and is celebrated on a large scale. In the summer, there was a jiin, a festival that brought together the inhabitants of several neighboring villages. Women had their own holiday - the rite of cuckoo tea, in which men were not allowed to participate. AT holidays villagers gathered and arranged competitions in wrestling, running, shooting, horse racing, ending with a common meal.

Horse racing has always been an important element of the festivities. After all, the Bashkirs are skilled riders; in the villages, boys were taught to ride with early age. It used to be said that the Bashkirs were born and died in the saddle, and indeed, most of their lives were spent on horseback. Women were no less well-behaved on a horse and, if necessary, could ride for several days. They did not cover their faces, unlike other Islamic women, they had the right to vote. Elderly Bashkirs had the same influence in the community as elders-aksakals.

In rituals and celebrations there is an interweaving Muslim culture with the ancients pagan beliefs, there is a reverence for the forces of nature.

Interesting facts about the Bashkirs

The Bashkirs first used the runic Turkic script, then Arabic. In the 1920s, an alphabet based on the Latin alphabet was developed, and in the 1940s, the Bashkirs switched to the Cyrillic alphabet. But, unlike Russian, it has 9 additional letters to display specific sounds.

Bashkortostan is the only place in Russia where beekeeping has been preserved, that is, a form of beekeeping with collecting honey from wild bees from tree hollows.

The favorite dish of the Bashkirs is beshbarmak (a meat and dough dish), and their favorite drink is koumiss.

In Bashkiria, a handshake with two hands is customary - it symbolizes special respect. In relation to old people, such a greeting is obligatory.

The Bashkirs put the interests of the community above personal ones. They adopted the "Bashkir brotherhood" - everyone's concern for the well-being of their kind.

A few decades ago, long before the official ban on swearing in public space, there was no profanity in the Bashkir language. Historians attribute this both to the norms that forbid swearing in the presence of women, children, and elders, and to the belief that swearing harms the speaker. Unfortunately, over time, under the influence of other cultures, this unique and laudable feature of the Bashkirs was lost.

If you write the name of Ufa in the Bashkir language, then it will look like ӨФӨ. People call it "three screws" or "three tablets". This stylized inscription can often be found on the streets of the city.

The Bashkirs participated in the defeat of the Napoleonic army during the War of 1812. They were armed only with bows and arrows. Despite the archaic weapons, the Bashkirs were considered dangerous opponents, and European soldiers nicknamed them Northern Cupids.

Female Bashkir names traditionally contain particles denoting celestial bodies: ai - moon, kon - sun and tan - dawn. Male names are usually associated with masculinity and resilience.

The Bashkirs had two names - one was given immediately after birth, at the time of wrapping the baby in the first swaddling clothes. That's what it was called - diaper. And the second baby received during the rite of naming from the mullah.