Embroidery on a towel is ancient Rus'. History of the towel

The history of the terry towel (interesting)

Each of us, in the house, has towels: for hands, for the face, body, for dishes, i.e. for everything that the mistress of the house decides for. I want to ask you a question: - "Have you ever wondered how, when and where the towel appeared? I think that most will say - no, and I won't be surprised, because I am one of them. Ah, now I decided to find out and tell you the history of the terry towel.I think you will be interested to know about it.

A towel is a textile product of a rectangular or square shape, which was created specifically for wiping any objects and the human body. Towels have been around for many years. There are references to them in the Bible and folk tales of any nation.

Like many beautiful and comfortable things, terry fabrics came to us from the East. If you look closely at the towels, you will see that they look like carpets. Indeed, soft fleecy fabrics are the closest relatives of carpets and are produced using the same technology. The birthplace of the first terry towel is Turkey, where it has been used for several centuries.

The history of the origin of towels is connected with the bathing traditions of the Turkish people. The bath has always been one of the most important attributes of the life of the Turks. But in addition to the usual regular washing, there were also special rituals among the people. For example, a bath ceremony for the bride, held just before the wedding. The girl washed herself, smeared herself with incense, styled her hair. There were several towels - for hair, body, legs and intimate area separately. An important element of the ceremony was that the towels had to be new and woven by the bride herself.

Bath towels made of terry cloth, which we use daily, acquired their final form and began to be made using a single technology from the end of the 18th century. The first weaving workshops for terry towels were opened in the Turkish city of Bursa, and from there the technology migrated to Europe. Pampered European ladies liked pleasant terry products. Today, terry products are produced in different countries. For their manufacture, natural cotton and linen are used, often with the addition of synthetics. And, the so-called bamboo towels have recently appeared, the fabric of which contains highly environmentally friendly anti-allergenic fibers of natural bamboo. Here they are - bamboo towels:

And how did the Slavic peoples call and use towels?

The Slavs called a towel a handbrake or a washcloth and widely used towels, both for utilitarian purposes and for decorating rooms, as well as for ritual purposes. Towels of the first type were the most common: white without decorations and embroidery. Ritual and decorative towels were beautifully decorated with embroidery, geometric and ritual designs (for example, symbols of the sun), and various ornaments. In the culture of the ancient Slavs, the towel was associated with the cult of ancestors, therefore it was an important element of maternity, funeral and wedding ceremonies. And, these are Slavic towels:

And, now you have learned the history of the emergence of towels. And, if you have a need to buy wholesale terry towels link. Go to the site: art-dtex.ru, there are various terry towels in a large assortment and you can buy in bulk. All the details about the discount and delivery conditions for wholesalers are here on the site. Happy shopping.

• The towel played an important role in folk life. The towel has always been a very strong amulet that has passed from the pagan tradition to the Christian one.

• A pattern was embroidered on a towel with red threads - it was an ancient amulet of the house from evil spirits.

Towel embroidery

All towels had an embroidered pattern. Embroideries embodied ancient folk symbols and rituals.

Sun

The sun was revered as the source of life, which has a great cleansing and protective power. He was addressed with prayers for fertility and prosperity.

An oblique cross with curved ends is a solar sign - the solstice (change of day and night, seasons).

Earth

The land, in the view of the Russian peasants, was endowed with human features. She was called "Nurse - mother-cheese Earth."

Makosh

She was revered in an inextricable connection with water and vegetation. She was depicted as a female figure with birds in raised hands, inside which a tree grew, and at the feet or along the edge of the clothes there was a jagged line depicting water.

Bird

• It was believed that the bird brings good to man. Therefore, at the ends of wedding towels, birds were always embroidered as a sign of consent, love and peace in the house, either in the form of a proud bird - a peahen, or in the form of an elegant duck floating on the waves.

Horse

The horse, perceived as the strongest domestic animal, was considered the keeper of the hearth. According to an ancient legend, the horse was given an honorable role to participate in the movement of the sun across the sky, which during the day rushes in a chariot harnessed by golden-haired horses, and at night floats across the blue sea in a boat. The figures of horses and boats were depicted on valances and towels.

The tree is one of the oldest symbols, the Tree of Life, as the ancestors represented the universe. They thought that there are gardens of Eden in heaven, and a miracle tree with magical fruits grows there. The tree of life, the tree that gives birth to new life, was a symbol of life, the unity of the family, its continuation and well-being.

Water

• The life-giving power of the water that feeds the Earth was depicted in the form of floating forces, and the waters themselves - in the form of zigzag stripes.

Name and purpose of the towel

• The ancient Slavs believed that a person's life has a beginning and an end, and a towel accompanies him all his life from birth to death.

Maternity towel

• A little man is born, the midwife takes him on a towel, which his mother lovingly embroidered. While still in the girls, she took care of her baby, providing a towel with rich protective symbols. This towel is called maternity.

Belt for a newborn

• On the child's bare tummy they tied a belt of bleached sheep's wool - a charm. The ends of the girdle closed, resulting in a circle-symbol of the sun and infinity. Unbelted - means, opened to evil spirits.

Twist

• A newborn child was swaddled in a swaddling cloth - a narrow long strip of fabric, this is also a towel.

Wiping towel

• Our distant ancestors had a daily magical ritual of cleansing with water. In the morning - from night fears and horrors, in the evening - from daytime hardships, worries and fatigue. The rite of purification also included wiping the face with a towel and called it wiping.

wedding towel

• At the wedding of the bride and groom, the parents met and blessed with a towel in their hands, on which there were bread and salt. They embroidered a peacock bird on them as a sign of love, complemented the embroidery with plant elements and small birds. This is a wish for good and happiness for young people.

funeral towel

• And on the last journey, to the cemetery, they escort a person, carrying him on towels, on which they lower him into the grave. These are funeral towels. The funeral towel depicted the symbols of the soul and the funeral (sacrificial) pyre. Funeral towels after the ceremony were given to the temple, for the mention of the soul.

In the traditional culture of the Russian people there are customs and rituals associated with the use of ritual objects that have stood out from the vast objective world surrounding a person and have taken a special place in this world (a bell, an icon, a candle, a wedding ring, a horseshoe, details of a women's festive costume, amulet belt). They also include a towel as an object of arts and crafts and an integral element of folk rituals, customs, beliefs and holidays.

The towel played an important role in folk life; it accompanied a person from birth to old age, as if marking the main moments of his life. The decorated thing became a participant in people's communication.

Towel headdress in the 19th century. quite widely existed in the Tula, Kaluga and Bryansk provinces. The girls of these regions wore head towels with rolled up or embroidered ends on holidays and when visiting church. A linen towel, folded in 4 rows along, was placed on the forehead, then it was twisted at the back of the head and put forward with the ends decorated in red tones with a geometric ornament.

The red color among many peoples in ancient times symbolized the life-giving forces of nature, it was attributed the magical property to contribute to the vital forces of man. The red color in clothes is also associated with the idea of ​​a protective value. The wedding towel with which the bride was covered was made up to 3 meters long, stripes of red lace and red lace were sewn on the ends. On the equity side of the towel, descending to the forehead, a red stripe was sewn into a trim or rhombuses and triangles were embroidered with red wool - a security ornament. In the wedding towel, the meaning of the protective cover of the fabric, which was used to cover the bride “from the evil eye”, was very clearly preserved, reinforced by a security ornament made with red threads.

Starting from the 1st day of matchmaking, the towel plays a certain role in the ceremony. So, if the bride agrees to the marriage, she gives the groom and everyone who came with him bath or embroidered towels; with the groom, the bride sends towels to his relatives. On the day of the wedding, in the bride's house, the bridegroom is tied over the shoulder with a towel 3 meters long, with embroidered ends that go down to the ground. With this towel, a symbol of his wedding ceremony, the friend does not leave the whole wedding.

The role of towels in rituals is very diverse. In rituals, towels acted as symbols and as gifts. Presentation of gifts by the bride to the groom, his parents, their relatives and other participants in the wedding was carried out from time immemorial in order to maintain good relations with them and ensure a friendly attitude on their part. As symbols, towels acted in the pre-wedding and wedding rites as the hallmarks of the characters. So, in the Tambov province, “callers” were invited to the bride for a bachelorette party - bridesmaids, girded with colorful sashes or embroidered towels, and special small towels were attached to their hands. And in the Vologda province, at Shrovetide, a newlywed gave towels - "pancakes" to her husband's relatives for treating them to pancakes.

On wedding towels you can often see two birds - pav, depicted on the sides of a bush - a tree. Such birds were embroidered as a sign of love, wishes of good and happiness to the young. Peacocks are ancient birds worshiped by our ancestors. There was even such a belief among peasant women: “If you don’t embroider a peahen or two, you won’t get married.”

The foremother was often embroidered on towels - the earth, raising her hands to the sun, asking him for generosity to people. Since then, an agricultural proverb has come down to us about the dependence of the harvest on the weather: it is not the earth that gives birth to bread, but the sky. Women began to embroider patterns with birds and the foremother - the earth with the advent of spring, with the onset of long bright days, when there was still time before the start of field work. And the peasant woman embroidered her patterns under the beneficial rays of the spring sun. The word "pattern" sounds about the same as lightning, glow, dawn. And therefore, on a silver-white canvas, an embroidered ornament glows like a glow.

Red was the color of the sun, fire, life, beauty and personified the masculine principle. The red patterns of peasant embroidery are perceived as the earth, which received energy from the sun and is able to give life to all living things.

Among Russians, embroidered towels are also hung on the windows not only during a wedding, but also on holidays in general - evil spirits can easily enter the windows, hanging them with towels serves as a talisman as crossing windows and doors with a banner of the cross.

The towel serves as a talisman not only in wedding rituals, but also in maternity and funeral commemoration.

So, at the birth of a child, a towel is wrapped around the cradle so that the evil spirit does not penetrate to it.

At the funeral, towels are distributed to all those accompanying the deceased: they are given to protect those accompanying from misfortunes when communicating with the deceased. In all these cases, the magical power of the towel is enhanced by embroidery, which undoubtedly plays a great role and has a protective value.

Among other things, the towel also plays an informative role. So, at a funeral, they hang it on the corner of the house, in the red corner, on the cross, on the lid of the coffin, they use it in a set for the first person they meet, etc. The towel is, as it were, an identification mark not only for the living, informing "strangers" about which the family collective belonged to the deceased, it apparently served as an identification mark for the ancestors. Probably, this can explain the hanging of towels on the jamb or spreading them on the benches, covering the water in the font, etc. Hanging towels can be regarded as an "invitation" to the ancestors to take part in certain activities related to the family, to provide patronage to the descendants.

The former folk embroidery, with its wonderful patterns, special and unique in every area, has almost not been preserved as an art form. But, anyway, embroidery is not a dying form of folk art. The wonderful works of embroiderers of the past are carefully kept in museums and serve as an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the creativity of our contemporaries.

Along with ancient images, embroidery is enriched with themes related to modern village life, which also gradually become history.

Today, in rural houses, one can see portraits of dead soldiers framed with embroidered towels. The towel is also actively involved in the solemn meetings of honored guests - they bring bread and salt on it.

The tradition of rituals with towels began to be revived in modern rituals. In modern weddings, we see ornamented towels tied over the right shoulder on the bridesmaids and groomsmen. And although the wedding ritual retains the features of the past life, but they have changed significantly in our days.

A lace or embroidered towel always looks very elegant and solemn; it is no coincidence that it is customary to bring bread and salt on them. It is probably impossible to come up with a better decoration than a white elegant towel: after all, there is symbolic purity in it, and the idea of ​​prosperity is associated with it. What more could you wish for young people!

Wonderful Vologda lace artist Maria Medkova, our contemporary, has created a series of lace towels. Some of them are with wedding symbols.

The material is taken from various sources.

1. "Folk ornaments", Vasilyeva L.K., M., 1991. 2. "Fine art", N.A. Goryaeva, O.V. Ostrovskaya, M., 2006 1984 3. "Russian wedding", D.M. Balashov, Yu.I. Marchenko, M., 1085 4. "Russian folk embroidery", Boguslavskaya I.Ya., M., 1986, 5. Vologda lace in the interior of M. Medkov, O. Kirillov.

The Sun The Sun was revered as the source of life, which has a great cleansing and protective power. He was addressed with prayers for fertility and prosperity. An oblique cross with curved ends is a solar sign - the solstice (change of day and night, seasons).

Horse The horse, perceived as the strongest domestic animal, was considered the guardian of the hearth. According to an ancient legend, the horse was given an honorable role to participate in the movement of the sun across the sky, which during the day rushes in a chariot harnessed by golden-haired horses, and at night floats across the blue sea in a boat. The figures of horses and boats were depicted on valances and towels.

Tree Tree - one of the most ancient symbols, the Tree of Life, as the ancestors represented the universe. They thought that there are gardens of Eden in heaven, and a miracle tree with magical fruits grows there. The tree of life, the tree that gives birth to new life, was a symbol of life, the unity of the family, its continuation and well-being.

Birth towel A little man is born, the midwife takes him on a towel, which his mother lovingly embroidered. While still in the girls, she took care of her baby, providing a towel with rich protective symbols. This towel is called maternity.

Wiping towel Our distant ancestors had a daily magical ritual of cleansing with water. In the morning - from night fears and horrors, in the evening - from daytime hardships, worries and fatigue. The rite of purification also included wiping the face with a towel and called it wiping.

Wedding towel At the wedding of the bride and groom, the parents met and blessed with a towel in their hands, on which there were bread and salt. They embroidered a peacock bird on them as a sign of love, complemented the embroidery with plant elements and small birds. This is a wish for good and happiness for young people.

Funeral towel And on the last journey, to the cemetery, a person is escorted, carrying him on towels, they are also lowered into the grave. These are funeral towels. The funeral towel depicted the symbols of the soul and the funeral (sacrificial) pyre. Funeral towels after the ceremony were given to the temple, for the mention of the soul. The sign has something in common with the symbol of the earth, but the rhombus, consisting of three pairs of intersecting lines, remained empty inside.

It is almost impossible to imagine the culture of Ancient Rus' without embroidery, because the entire environment of the Slavs consisted of caring hands, who continually made beauty. Almost everything was decorated with embroidery: clothes, belts, shoes, mittens and much more.

Nowhere without fabrics

Peasant dwellings always had a lot of embroidery in their assortment, with the help of which they actually decorated houses. There were embroidered tablecloths on the tables, the beds were also covered with such “beauty”, and during solemn events they always got beautiful towels that were hung along all the walls, on the windows and, of course, on the shrine.

In ancient times, a towel, which had to be embroidered with symbols, was used to perform many rituals. For many millennia, it was the towel that was attributed importance in the life of the whole people. None of the important events is simply impossible to imagine without it.

What exactly is the towel famous for

Firstly, the importance of this attribute is determined by its form, meaning the path, the path of life, and therefore it was used in various rituals.

Secondly, the towels were white, which symbolized purity, kindness, protection from all evil spirits, and so on. It was this color that gave a certain sacred meaning, but a deeper meaning and meaning was conveyed with the help of various embroidered symbols.

If a girl was soon to get married, then she had to embroider about forty such towels as her dowry. The largest and most beautiful sweat went directly to the groom, thus talking about the consent of the bride and parents. All the relatives of the groom were also presented with similar attributes, and they put a towel in his hat himself. In a word, the wedding ceremony in Rus' was completely composed of towels, which were used instead of reins, teams, all the guests were also wrapped in towels, and the bride and groom were also wrapped in them.

The role of this attribute was important at the birth and baptism of children. It was also used in burial rituals, when a towel was tied around the neck of the deceased or placed in the right hand. The coffin was laid out with towels immediately before the burial, and the coffin was lowered on the towels themselves. Then these towels were kept on the windows for forty days, thus, the Slavs believed that during these days the soul of the deceased was resting.

When Christianity was adopted in Rus', icons began to be decorated with towels. The length of one such towel could reach three meters.

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Solar symbols of the Slavs Amulets RUSOV - protection from evil spirits