Russian cuisine has amazing types of pastries that have been preserved from archaic times to the present day. These are larks and black grouse - cookies that were prepared for the spring equinox on March 22. Larks (waders or bullfinches) - in the southern regions, black grouse (kokurki or vitushki) - in the northern.
With the advent of Christianity, these ancient symbols changed their meaning - larks began to symbolize the 40 martyrs of Sebaste, and black grouse turned into a call of migratory birds.
I can’t pass up another popular pastry: gingerbread is the most popular holiday sweet in England, which in a short time has gained worldwide recognition.
And also this unique medicinal product serves to improve appetite and increase the protective properties of the body during the spread of viral infections in the cold season. And so often ginger sweets are one of the most common Christmas traditions.
It is interesting that…
Due to the mixing of paganism and Christianity, confusion has arisen, and the popularity of traditional cookies has declined - the connection between rye birds and forty martyrs for the faith, to put it mildly, is doubtful. In addition, modern calendars do not agree on the time of manufacture of these cookies. Somewhere it is indicated that larks are baked on March 9, and somewhere the date has remained the same, according to the old style - March 22.
In fact, the meaning of larks and grouse is to honor the sun and welcome spring. The spring equinox is an important date in the calendar, after which the day becomes longer than the night, winter finally leaves, nature wakes up, and a new cycle of life begins. Only the summer solstice can be compared in importance to this holiday, and it is not surprising that the tradition of baking larks and black grouse has survived to this day almost unchanged.
The ascetic recipe for ceremonial cookies eloquently speaks of its antiquity, and the shape leaves no doubt about its spring meaning. Larks returning from warm countries are the guides of spring. North Russian grouses are made of long plaits - symbols of the threads of life, while the shank of the grouses is made without fail in the direction of the sun, that is, clockwise.
In the image and likeness of larks and grouse, an interesting custom appeared to bake cookies in the form of ladders (ladders). Ladder so organically mixed in the minds of the people with larks and black grouse that new forms of cookies appeared: birds with ladders on their backs and openwork ladders enclosed in a circle. Indeed, all these symbols are somehow connected with the sky, light, warmth, goodness.
Baking cookies
Rye cookies in the form of birds, openwork patterns and ladders can be prepared together with children, telling them about the ancient meaning of the spring equinox, about the solar calendar, about why the length of day and night changes. The most difficult thing in the manufacture of larks, grouse and ladders is to achieve plasticity of the dough.
There can be no exact recipe, since the humidity of the air, and hence the flour, can change. Each time you have to combine the ingredients by eye, adding water or flour if necessary, but this is interesting - a real culinary "laboratory"!
Cookies made from rye flour are dark and rough in taste, but rye dough is easy to roll into thin bundles and does not tear. You can compromise and mix rye flour with wheat flour.
As for the shape of cookies, there are no strict rules here, you can turn on your imagination and sculpt sitting and flying birds, patterns enclosed in a circle, ladders of various shapes and sizes for your pleasure. It is advisable to eat the finished cookies on the same day with tea. It is prepared only from plant products, and therefore will not violate the tradition of Great Lent.
You can do it traditionally and give cookies to friends and acquaintances in honor of the onset of spring, or distribute larks and black grouse to children and teach them spring songs.
For example, like this:
Larks, come
Take away the winter to the student,
Bring warm spring:
We are sick of winter
We ate all the bread!
Sun-bucket,
look out the window.
Sunshine, dress up
Red, show yourself!
The dough for rye larks, grouse and ladders is prepared in the same way - from rye flour, water and salt. For taste, you can add honey and vegetable oil.
Classic recipe for Russian rye cookies:
- 2 cups of rye flour (you can take rye flour in half with wheat)
- 1 pinch of salt
- about 1 glass of water
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil,
- 1-2 tablespoons of honey
Sift the flour on the table, salt, make a well in the middle, pour in the oil, honey and a little water. Knead the dough, gradually adding water - you should get a dense lump of non-sticky dough. Knead it lightly and let it rest under a towel for 10-15 minutes.
Pinch off pieces of dough, place on a clean work surface and form cookies. Keep the rest of the dough under a towel so it doesn't dry out. Sculpt larks and ladders as your fantasy tells you, but it is advisable to stick to the same thickness of the dough.
For grouse, roll the dough into a rope with a diameter of about 5 mm, form a sun, flower or other pattern out of it and surround it with several rows of the rope in a circle. Harnesses can be connected by smoothing the junction. It is convenient to collect the grouse directly on the baking sheet. You can fold complex-shaped grouses on a board, put them in the cold, and then transfer them to a baking sheet - this way the complex shape of the cookies will not be disturbed.
Lubricate the finished figures with vegetable oil and bake at a temperature of 180 ° C for about 15-20 minutes. Flip to the other side and bake for another 3-5 minutes. Bulky larks may need more time. Cool cookies completely on the baking sheet and transfer to an airtight container.
Sometimes you want some delicious cookies for tea, coffee, and even beer. Homemade cookies, without any unhealthy additives. Delicious homemade cookies can be baked not only from wheat flour, but also from rye. Products made from rye flour are definitely more useful than wheat products, especially for those who follow their harmony. Sweet, neutral and salty flavors are available.
Recipe for lean rye flour cookies
Ingredients:
- finely ground rye flour - about 2 cups;
- water or milk - about 1 cup;
- table salt - 1 pinch;
- vegetable oil - 2-3 tbsp. spoons.
Cooking
Sift the flour into a bowl. We make a recess, add a pinch of salt, vegetable oil, and, gradually adding milk or water, knead the dough (this is convenient to do with a fork). The dough should not be too hard or too runny. With oiled hands, knead the dough thoroughly to make it elastic.
We roll out a layer from the dough and cut out cookies using a glass or a special punching form. With a fork, we apply arbitrary patterns on the surface. Cookies can be baked in a dry frying pan or on a baking sheet in the oven.
If we cook cookies in large quantities, the latter method is much more convenient; the baking sheet, of course, must be greased with oil or lined with oiled baking paper. If you want the cookies to have a glossy surface, brush the surface with egg white before baking (using a silicone brush). If the cookies are supposed to be used with beer, it’s a good idea to add cumin seeds, coriander fennel to it, you can also increase the amount of salt (put not 1 pinch in the dough, but 3) - it will be tasty and quite harmonious. If you plan to serve rye flour cookies with milk or sour milk drinks, it is good to include sesame seeds in the dough.
Acting approximately according to the same recipe, you can bake with rye flour. This combination is quite harmonious and useful. You can vary the mixture of rye and oatmeal flour widely in various proportions.
Hearty and dense rye flour cookies
Ingredients:
- rye flour - about 2 cups;
- granulated sugar - 2-3 tbsp. spoons;
- chicken egg - 1-2 pcs.;
- natural sour cream - 2-4 tbsp. spoons;
- baking soda - 1 pinch;
- natural butter - 50 g.
Cooking
Break the eggs into a bowl, add sugar, melted (do not bring to a boil) butter and sour cream. Add a pinch of soda and, mixing in the sifted flour, knead the dough (it should be quite steep). Knead the dough thoroughly, knead, then roll out a thin layer. With a glass or using a special form, we knock out cookies and prick arbitrary patterns with a fork. Bake in an oven preheated to medium temperature on a baking sheet greased or lined with baking paper. Lubricate the finished cookies with egg white with a brush.
You can bake delicious rye flour cookies using yeast dough. These cookies (or mini-buns) with a neutral taste will be very appropriate for any meal.
Rye flour cookies
Ingredients:
- rye flour - about 3 cups;
- wheat flour - 1-2 cups;
- milk or water - about 3 glasses;
- sugar - 2 teaspoons;
- flax and sesame seeds - 2 tbsp. spoons;
- vegetable oil;
- salt.
Cooking
Opara: mix lukewarm milk (or water) with sugar and yeast. Place in a warm place for 20 minutes. When the dough has come up and foamed well, add a pinch of salt and mix in the sifted flour. Add flaxseed and/or sesame seeds and knead the dough. We roll up a lump, cover with a clean napkin and place in a warm place. When the dough has risen and has risen well, punch it down and knead it.
The cycle is repeated 1-2 times. We divide the dough into small lumps of approximately the same size, from which we form round buns, flat at the bottom. We place future buns on a greased or lined baking sheet and bake until cooked. Serve with cheese and butter.
Roe deers are baked goods made from rye or wheat flour, which had a ritual purpose in ancient times. Kozuli are a kind of gingerbread, they traditionally baked for the Christmas holidays, usually a few days after Christmas. Baking goats has always been a sacrament. Each family had different recipes for goats, they were carefully kept and passed down from generation to generation.
The traditional ceremonial goats were baked figurines of goats, cows, sheep, deer and other livestock. Ducks, chickens and geese were also often depicted in such pastries. Baking figurines of animals and birds from dough, people asked the forces of nature to protect their livestock from diseases and pestilence.
Roe gingerbread often became amulets for stables and houses, they were given to relatives, as well as carolers who came to the house. Girls in the Christmas holidays presented guys with goats. It was believed that if you bake roes and treat them to a guy, then you will definitely get married within a year.
Dark rye flour in the old days was the main ingredient for cooking roes. But there are also recipes for roes with ordinary wheat flour.
You will need:
- 5 st. sugar (1 tbsp for glaze and 4 tbsp for dough);
- 2.5 st. water (1.5 tbsp. - in the dough, 1 tbsp. - in the glaze);
- 3 eggs;
- 5 egg yolks (for dough);
- 2 egg whites (for frosting)
- 0.5 tsp salt;
- 2 tsp soda;
- 2-3 tbsp. l. spices for dough (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, ground cloves in proportions to your taste);
- 2 drops of vinegar essence in glaze;
- 1.5-1.8 kg of flour.
Arkhangelsk roes: a traditional recipe
1. Melt 2 cups of granulated sugar over low heat. For this it is best to use thick-bottomed dishes.
2. Without removing the melted sugar from the heat, carefully pour 1.5 cups of boiling water into it in very small portions. When pouring boiling water into sugar, do not lean too low over the dishes so as not to burn yourself with steam. Constantly stir the sugar mass with a wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Add 2 more cups of sugar, continuing to slowly stir the mass with a spoon.
4. Remove the sugar syrup from the heat and add 400 g of margarine to it, mix. The mass does not have to be homogeneous- the dissolved margarine will float above the syrup. Pour everything into a deep saucepan and set to cool.
5. Beat 5 yolks and 3 eggs.
6. Pour the egg mass into the cooled sugar syrup with margarine, add salt, soda and a mixture of spices for the dough.
7. Knead the dough, gently and gradually adding wheat flour to the mass. You should not be embarrassed by the fact that the dough is very sticky to your hands. After insisting, it will become more elastic, similar to plasticine. But you should not add extra flour at the kneading stage - the roes will turn out to be too hard.
8. Roe deer according to this recipe is not a quick business, sincethe finished dough must be infused in a cold place for at least 12 hours. You can endure it for days.
9. Roll out the dough into a layer 0.5-0.7 cm thick. Using ready-made or home-made cardboard templates, cut out figures from it.
10. Bake roes at a temperature of 180-200°C until done.
11. Prepare the roe icing. To do this, carefully beat 2 egg whites. Boil the syrup from 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, remove from heat, cool slightly and pour in the egg whites. Beat the icing with a mixer for 10-15 minutes, then add 2 drops of vinegar essence.
12. Decorate the finished with icing sugar, adding food coloring to it if necessary.
Happy tea!
Variations of sculpting goats according to the recipe
Roe deer are usually made in the form of animals
Birds - the favorite plot of roes that were made in Pomorie
Roe deer can be done in different ways: traditional roll-out roes
Ritual volumetric goats. An obligatory attribute of such roes is branched horns
(they are associated with the idea of fertility and abundance)
LESSON SUMMARY
FOLK ARTS
Appendix
to the work program for extracurricular activities
"FOLK ART AND ARTISTIC CREATIVITY"
Developed by: Vagizova R . BUT . -teacher
visual arts
MBOU "Secondary School No. 9", Nefteyugansk
Topic of the lesson: " Ritual cookies as an attribute of folk holidays» Target: To form love for folk traditions in the minds of children through the manufacture of cookies "Teterki" using the "testoplasty" technique.
Tasks:
Development of skills in working with art materials,
development of creative imagination, artistic taste;
development of fine motor skills of the muscles of the hands;
fostering respect for the culture and traditions of their people;
expansion of ideas about folk customs, about the role of things in rituals and their symbolic meaning;
educate emotional responsiveness and a positive attitude to this type of activity.
Equipment:
Materials for the student: oilcloth, dough, hand napkins.
Materials for the teacher: Presentation "Sweet fairy tale", exhibition of students' works, tables "Main elements of the ornament of ritual cookies" grouse "," Types of Kargopol grouses "; photos of grouse.
Lesson structure.
Time travel. Conversation.
Viewing a presentation. Exhibition - demonstration of handicraft products.
Fizkultminutka.
Demonstration of the method of making gingerbread.
Do-it-yourself cookie making.
Summing up the lesson.
Reference material:
Since ancient times, in Russia, there have been many different holidays. Everyone had their own customs, order of conduct, and, of course, their own traditional dishes. Each people, especially the people - the tiller, has always especially revered grain and its products. This was reflected in myths, rituals, fairy tales, and beliefs.
It was with the help of various figures, often molded from dough, that various rituals and even sacrifices were performed, with the help of figures they tried to obtain mercy from one or another God, who, according to the people who lived in those days, was directly responsible for the harvest, the presence or absence of rains, normal calving of an animal, for peace in the house and family, or for the timely appearance of desired and healthy offspring in a young family.
For this, ritual figurines were originally baked. Their names still keep their primary purpose in their sound: hooves, stork legs, larks, cows, horses. There were figurines in the form of various household items of that time: a beehive, a sheep with a lamb, a cornfield, a cow with a calf, a duck, a threshing floor, a chicken and many others.
Figured cookies in the form of animals and birds were often made at Christmas time especially for carolers, as well as for distribution to children or the poor. In the villages of the Moscow region, figurines of cows made from dough were served to carolers to ensure well-being in the household. In Russian villages, it was also believed that the cattle would start to get sick and disappear if the “walkers” were not given a “cow”.
Very often, bread products in the form of animals were fed to livestock with the wishes "to make the cattle live better." To do this, in the Central Russian regions, "horses" were given to horses for the New Year, figures of cows were given to cows, etc. In the Voronezh province, sheep were fed "hooves" on the Annunciation to protect them from diseases. In the Russian North, they baked “goats” for Christmas - figurines of birds and animals; in the Kargopol district, "grouses" were attached over the gates of the cattle yard so that the cattle would multiply and not get lost in the forest in the summer.
The motives for the early arrival of spring, fertility and future harvest are associated with the spring custom of baking figurative cookies in the form of larks, storks, sandpipers and other migratory birds. With this cookie, the children climbed onto the roofs of the sheds and, throwing it up, shouted: “Larks, fly to us! Bring us the red spring!"
Gradually, the role of cookies lost its ritual significance. Having lost their religious meaning, ceremonial cookies in our time appear as a decorative ornament, a gift, a children's treat.
Baking ritual cookies is a folk custom of the calendar holidays of the Russian people. The main characters of ritual cookies are animals and birds.
The baking of bread ritual figurines has always been timed to coincide with the holidays of the Russian people. The very fact of creating figurines, their presence in the house, according to our distant ancestors, had a magical meaning, influenced the future.
As a gift - a present, ritual cookies such as "kozul" could be given to children in the Siberian tradition, to relatives; in the Novgorod province, "kozul" girls gave grooms.
Like other types of ritual food, “goats” were used in divination at Christmas time: “The girl put the “goat” on the floor and let out the rooster. If the rooster carried the "goat" at a large angle. Then the girl will not get married this year, but if she is in the canopy, she will.
March 17 - Gerasim-Grachevnik. They were waiting for the arrival of the rooks, saying: "The rook is on the mountain - so is spring in the yard." "I saw a rook - meet spring." "The rook has arrived - in a month the snow will come down."
On the day of Gerasim, the rooker, they bake cookies in the form of rooks, which were affectionately called rooks . This spring ceremonial cookie is made from sour rye dough. They differed from the "larks" in that they were larger and with large "legs". The number corresponded to the number of family members. In each baked on the subject and guessed. A penny found foreshadowed money, a cockroach - gossip, a button - sending to the army, an onion - grief, a rag with a knot - marriage.
Is it worth explaining why Gerasim Grachevnik was nicknamed. March is in full swing. Rolling faster and faster into the summer, it's time for the rooks to return home. After all, if "a rook is in the yard - spring is in the yard." And about what it will be, according to the behavior of these serious, detailed birds, they judged. On Gerasim, rooks gather in flocks and populate forests. The old men came out to the hillocks and gazed intently at the flocks of birds. If the rooks flew headlong over the fields, as if an unkind force drove them, then the old people were sad: “Not good, you see, they will flood the fields, rotten, lingering rains will come to the fields. Ali, who is scythe, will mow the wind along the first shoots.
If the rooks flew directly to the old nests, spring promised to be fast and friendly, and the change in the weather was predicted by the restless behavior of the birds, when they huddled in flocks with a cry, they hovered over the trees, not daring to sit down. But whatever it was. And the arrival of the rooks guaranteed the snow to melt in a month. If the rooks flew in and immediately set about repairing their nests, then in a couple of days it will be warm, but if smart birds sit on the nest, they only take off for a short time and take off again. The cold will last for a few more days.
At the same time, in Kargopol, housewives bake special "teterki" cookies in the form of a circle, consisting of three contours, curled "according to the sun."
Kargopol teterki can be compared with other traditional forms of ritual cookies that existed in different regions of Russia and also had "bird" names : « larks, sparrows, bullfinches, sandpipers, magpies, cockerels. On this day, the newlyweds are ritually honored with black grouses: on the first, a year after the wedding, the day of the “forty saints”, the mother and relatives of the bride go to the son-in-law with black hens. Black grouse were carried in a special basket, which was kept for this occasion.
For the uninitiated, “grouse” seems to be something primitive, almost an attribute of African tribes. A knowledgeable person finds in them a reflection of the worldview of a peasant, the ancient folk beliefs of the Slavs, a model of the universe. So, in the Kargopol "grouses" researchers find ancient symbols associated with the sun, sky, the idea of prosperity and good. It’s difficult, but the “teterkas” have the deepest meaning. To understand this, I decided to analyze the different symbols of Arkhangelsk products. The most favorite and widespread element of ornaments is the sun. The sun was revered as a source of life, with great cleansing and protective power. According to popular ideas, righteous and pure was opposed to everything evil and impure. In the "grouse" craftswomen were able to depict not only the sun, but also to say what people expect from him: spring, warmth, joy. Here the solar disk turns into a cheerful, festive pattern. With what love and diligence the craftswoman laid out the patterns in the “grouse” from the thinnest tourniquet of almost two meters in length. It seems to be made quite simply: ordinary dough flagella are stacked in spirals, loops - and are depicted with “curls”.
| "Crosses" (crosses, crosses, sacrums) - cookies made from rye flour, unleavened or sour dough in the shape of a cross, which was baked by the Orthodox for many religious holidays, but it was obligatory for Baptism and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, as well as for the week of Great Lent. and had ritual significance. In different places, the "crosses" could differ in size, but were similar in shape. Most often they were made symmetrical, equilateral, with four rays. To do this, two equal strips of dough were placed one on top of the other crosswise or the rolled dough was cut into "crosses" using a mold. In the same area, both methods of manufacture could occur. So, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, "crosses", which were baked from unleavened dough in the two named ways, were called "simple" and "carved". In some areas of the Ryazan region, "crosses" were baked in the form of round cakes, on which the image of a cross was applied. In those places in the Nizhny Novgorod region where rounds of courtyards were not common, crosses were baked according to the number of family members plus one. At the same time, it was customary to give the first baked cross either to a neighbor's child or to a beggar. In the traditional folk consciousness, children and, to a greater extent, beggars were considered to have a connection with another world, therefore treating them with ritual bread ("cross") can be interpreted as an offering - a sacrifice to the ancestors, on whom the well-being of the farmer depended. In some areas of the Nizhny Novgorod region, cross cookies were also used in ritual actions that marked the breaking of Lent (“fasting”). In the Semyonovsky district, they broke cookies with the words: "The cross will crack - and the shit will crack." In the Pervomaisky district, stretching out a cross during divination, they said: "A whole cross - a whole post", and breaking it, they added: "Half a cross - half a post." The uttered formula, having turned into a game in the 20th century, goes back to incantational actions, the purpose of which was to mark the transition of the fast into its second phase and the approach of Easter. Ladders are ceremonial cookies in the shape of a ladder, baked on the day of John of the Ladder on April 12 (the fortieth day after Easter), on Ascension, sometimes on the day of commemoration of the dead. In different places, "stairs" were baked from rye flour and "bread" - unleavened or sour - dough or from wheat flour and rich dough. They could consist of two bundles connected by shorter bundles-beams; in some places they were given the appearance of an elongated cake, on which several strips of dough, crossbars were superimposed; sometimes strips on a long cake were replaced by transverse cuts with a knife. These loaves were brought to the church for consecration, and then distributed to the poor. According to popular notions, the "ladder" was supposed to facilitate the movement up, to heaven, to paradise. In this regard, baking in a number of cases acquired a commemorative function, which was closely connected with the ideas about the departure of the soul from earth to another world after a forty-day period after death. |
In the South Russian provinces, mainly in Kaluga and only partly in Kursk, "ladders" were exclusively a funeral dish, baked for the commemoration on the fortieth day. In the Kaluga province, a "ladder" - a pie or a long wheat cake, with cross bars, smeared with jam or sprinkled with poppy seeds - was worn to church on the 40th day as a symbol of the "ladder of trials", which, according to popular belief, the soul had to pass on the way to paradise . In the Meshchevsky district of the Kaluga province, in richer families, on the 40th day after death, it was customary to order a memorial service, which was served in the courtyard of the deceased's house. Even before the arrival of the clergy, the hostess put one of the pancakes prepared for the funeral table on the window, after smearing it with honey, and with the advent of the clergy, she carried the rye or wheat staircase baked in advance to the gate. After the memorial service, the clergy ate it, dividing it among themselves, and then they entered the house and dined. The peasants believed that eating at the gates of the "ladder", which consisted of 30 steps (according to the number of afterlife trials - "ordeals"), destroyed for the soul all the ordeals and obstacles on the way to paradise. In the Fatezhsky district of the Kursk province, on the 40th day, a "ladder" of 3-4 rungs, laid on top of the kutya, was brought to the church for a memorial service. After the memorial service, it was broken into two parts, one of which was left to the priest, and the other was taken away and eaten, commemorating the deceased. The peasants believed that the dead ascend to heaven on this ladder on the 40th day after death.
On the other hand, the "ladders" often symbolized the spiritual ascent of the soul of the righteous to heaven. They correlated with ideas about the ideal of a virtuous life, following which would ensure for the living posthumous stay in paradise at the right hand of God. The Russian peasants of Western Siberia believed that if you eat a "bite" in the form of a small staircase on Ascension, you will rather ascend to heaven and go to heaven.
The "ladders" that were baked on the day of St. John of the Ladder were associated with the same idea. His theological essay described the "ladder" along which he was to ascend to moral perfection. It consisted of 30 steps; on icons, she was often depicted leading from earth to heaven, where Christ stood and accepted those who overcame a difficult path, did not fall into sin and did not fall off the stairs into the mouth of a dragon.
Most often, "ladders" were baked on the Ascension in order to help Christ ascend to heaven on the fortieth day after his resurrection. For example, in the Saratov province. at the end of that day, pancakes and "ladders" were baked from the same dough, which were left on the table next to a lit candle for the night. "Ladders", according to the peasants, were supposed to serve Christ "for climbing into heaven", and pancakes - "Christ's onuchki" in order "so that he would not rub his legs."
The popular consciousness associated the ascension of Christ to heaven with the growth of crops, as well as with the establishment of weather favorable for the vegetation of plants. At the same time, ritual actions with ladders acted as one of the means capable of enhancing the growth of bread. In the ideas underlying these rituals, the commemorative theme was closely intertwined with the agrarian one.
In many provinces of central and southern Russia, the "ladder" was an indispensable attribute of Ascension rituals aimed at ensuring the harvest (see Ascension). Cookies with special sentences were eaten in the field in their lane, thrown into crops, buried in the ground, etc. In some places there was a custom before carrying the "ladders" in the field, to consecrate them in the church. In the Moscow province, "ladders" were placed vertically in the field so that the rye was higher. In many places, standing in their lane and throwing the "ladder" up, the peasants, in order to speed up the growth and ripening of rye, uttered an impromptu prayer: "Christ is Risen, climb my ladder" or "Christ, go to heaven, take the rye by the ear! ". In a number of places, "ladders" were thrown up with the words: "So that my rye will grow as high," - and then they ate it. In some districts of the Moscow province. children went into the field with "ladders" and scrambled eggs; having dined with them, they rolled on the rye and said: "Horn, horn, grab hold of Christ's legs." In the Ryazan province, after dinner, the whole family went to the fields with "ladders", which they ate no earlier than they arrived at their lane. In another district of the same province, only women walked into the field with "ladders" and eggs. Arriving at the place, they threw their offerings into the rye for the mermaids associated with fertility and the world of the dead, which, according to popular belief, became more active during the flowering of rye. Breaking the ladder and crumbling the egg, each of the women said: "Mermaid, mermaid, you have an egg on you." In a neighboring volost, throwing a "ladder" into winter crops, women, in order to protect themselves from the pranks of mermaids, said: "Mermaid, little mermaid, do not bite me." In some places, only young people went to the field. Guys and girls each hid their "ladder" in the rye, and then they began to look for them. Whoever found whose staircase became godfather and godfather with its owner or mistress, they called each other with this name during the year (see also Kumlenie). In those places where it was customary to visit on Ascension Day, "ladders" were brought to the owners as a gift.
Sometimes with the help of "ladders" they guessed. At the beginning of the 19th century in the Yaroslavl province, the seven-step "ladder" consecrated in the church was thrown from the bell tower and watched how many steps were broken. If the "ladder" remained intact, this testified to the absence of mortal sins in a person and foreshadowed that after death he would go to the seventh heaven in paradise, that is, where, according to legend, God himself is. The more steps were broken, the more sinful a person was considered, the lower heaven he was predicted to be in paradise; and if the cookie was broken into many small pieces, it was believed that the fortuneteller's soul would never go to heaven. At the beginning of the 20th century, they guessed differently: freshly baked "ladders" were thrown on the floor near the stove.
There are many types of ritual cookies. Their appearance and name is typical for each region and region. Ritual cookies were made by certain dates of the agricultural year. Stucco and twisted figures line up in a kind of "bread month" / see. annual calendar of holidays of the Russian people using ceremonial cookies /
Each stage of the manufacture of calendar baking clearly carries certain information and therefore can be considered versatile. The ritual calendar immerses us in the world of recurring events, reminding us of how traditional images and rituals are held in our thinking and even in our everyday life.
On the example of "goat", we are faced with an echo of the pagan cult of the sun. The horse is a symbol of the sun, the deer is the personification of the emerging life, in this case the birth of the sun, which turns from winter to summer. All this, in turn, is subject to the general idea of the Christmas cycle - the idea of the beginning of the agricultural cycle. Therefore, all the rituals and signs of this period are aimed at attracting good and protective forces.
cookie recipe
1 cup flour, 1/3 cup boiled water, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar, 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 2 tbsp. l. honey, a little salt, 10-20 raisins,
Forgotten Recipes
Previously, the lark cookie dough was left to rise in the sun, so that the sun god in the form of sunlight would enter it. The most interesting thing is to fashion a beautifully shaped bird.
January 19- Baptism. They baked "crosses" - cookies made from rye flour, unleavened or sour dough in the shape of a cross. Recipe: 2 cups flour, 300 gr. honey, 2-3 tbsp. spoons of rast. oils, 100 gr. peeled nuts, 1 teaspoon of spices, 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon of soda, raisins. Combine nuts with honey, add vegetable oil, spices and lemon grated on a fine grater. Mix the mass, add the flour mixed with soda and knead the dough. From such crosses it was possible to find out what life cross each family member would carry in the coming year.
24 February Recipe: 3 cups flour, 125 gr. milk, 10 gr. yeast, 15 gr. butter, 1 egg, 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar, salt, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of vegetable oil. Prepare yeast dough from the indicated ingredients and form “hooves” from it. Brush them on top with egg and bake in the oven.
March 17 Recipe: 1 cup honey, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups water, 100 gr. butter, 1 kg of flour (rye or whole wheat).
March 22- day of spring equinox. Ritual cookies “larks” and “grouses” are baked - figurines of birds made of dough with open wings, to mark the beginning of spring and the return of birds from warm countries. Recipe: 3-3.5 cups of flour, 1-2 eggs, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of kefir, 1/2 pack of butter, 1 teaspoon of soda (quenched with vinegar).
14th of April- 4th week of Great Lent. Ascension. "Ladder" - ceremonial cookies in the shape of a ladder, baked on the day of St. John of the Ladder. According to popular notions, the "ladder" was supposed to facilitate the movement up, to heaven, to paradise. Recipe: 120 gr. hazelnuts, 1 1/2 cups flour, ½ cup sugar, 1 egg, lemon juice.
From ancient times, people believed in patterns and ornaments, observed all customs and rituals. After all, people put a deep meaning into them. Each sign and dash carried a certain semantic load, being a kind of secret writing of our ancestors. Looking at these ceremonial cookies, you marvel at the living memory of the people, which brought to us the image of the sun, as ancient as the world. Giving life to all living things and the well-being of man. The sun is a symbol of life, fertility, and the waves are a symbol of freedom. It is known that the rooster rises with the sun, he is the eternal herald of its sunrise. The dove is a sign of overshadowing by meekness. The tree is life. This is what is hidden in our ceremonial cookies, it would seem, behind an incomprehensible heap of lines.
What is a holiday today? This is usually a celebration with wine and a wide feast. But after all, a holiday is something spiritual, requiring special attention and preparation, and not just material, as many used to think. Our state is fighting bad habits of people, while promoting a healthy lifestyle. But it is enough to turn to folk sources, to what our ancestors knew and were able to do. But few people think about it. Many of the folk customs are rooted in the distant past, but they are all part of human culture, and their revival can color our relationships in a new way. After all, this is so important in today's society, where we come from. This is the only way to revive Russia, its national self-consciousness. From a wide variety of information literature, the necessary information was selected, systematized and presented in an accessible form.
The role of ritual baking in human life is established. As one of the most positively colored symbols, the biscuit is mentioned in conjunction with God, the earth, the sun, and is virtually devoid of negative connotations.
It is important to note the role of our holidays and ceremonies in the development of spiritual culture, everyday life, new family traditions, ethics of relationships between generations, new social psychology, in the development of the entire way of life, corresponding to modern social relations.
The annual calendar of holidays of the Russian people using ceremonial cookies.
January 7- Nativity. They bake "kozuli" - ritual cookies made from wheat or rye flour, most often in the form of cows, sheep, horses.
January 19- Baptism. They baked "crosses" - cookies made from rye flour, unleavened or sour dough in the shape of a cross. It is customary to start the morning meal on this day with cookies, which are supposed to be washed down with holy water.
24 February- the day of Saint Blaise of Sebaste. Vlas'ev day is a cow holiday. Ritual cookies were baked with the image of cattle: “hooves”, “cows”.
March 17- on the day of Gerasim, a rooker in Russia, according to tradition, ritual cookies "rooks" were baked in the form of birds with long legs. This was done in order to meet the arrival of the long-awaited birds that bring spring.
March 22- day of spring equinox. Ritual cookies “larks” and “grouses” are baked - figurines of birds from dough with spread wings.
14th of April- 4th week of Great Lent. Ascension. "Ladder" - ceremonial cookies in the shape of a ladder, baked on the day of St. John of the Ladder.
All "tethers" represent a circle. This circle consists of three contours - “circles”, curled “according to the sun”. “Okolysh” is like a frame around the main pattern, which is made up of stylized plant, and more often geometric and zoomorphic motifs: “birch”, “conic”, “chicken”.
Helpful Hints:
Roll the tourniquet as long as possible. The thickness of the tourniquet should not exceed 0.5 cm. Of course, we won’t be able to make it 2 meters right away, we will gradually increase it.
Choose your drawing andput down the chick.
Bibliography:
1. Sumtsov N. F. "Ritual use of bread." - Kharkov, 1885.
2. Tikhomirova E.V. "Larks, fly in!" N. Novgorod, 2011.
3. Sheveleva E.V. "Kargopol grouse" // Folk art. – 2003.
4. Sokolova V. K. Spells and sentences in calendar rites. // Rites and ritual folklore. M., 1982. S.11-25.
5. Sleptsova I. S. The custom of "clicking larks" in the Middle Volga region / Living antiquity. 2001.
