Red Hill (holiday)

Russian Fomino Sunday, Antipasa ^[7] , Joyful Sunday ^[8] ; Belor. Yarylavitsa ^[9] , Famina nyadzelya, Khamova nyadzelya, True nyadzelya ^[10] ; Ukrainian Krasnaya Girka, Lyalya ^[6] ; Serb. Antipasa, Mali Vaskr, Tomina Nedea .

The name "Red Hill" is known among all Eastern Slavs. “Red”, that is, beautiful, was also called Spring-Red and Easter - “Red Holiday”. Slides called places of rural festivities, which were the first to dry in the spring. A public festivity on Easter week or on St. George’s Day, or on any day from Fomin Monday to spring St. George’s day could also be called the Red Hill ^[5] .

In the Orthodox churches of Fomino, Sunday is dedicated to the remembrance of the appearance of Christ to the Apostle Thomas on the eighth day after the Resurrection . When Christ appeared to the apostles, Thomas was not among them, so when he heard the news of the resurrection, Thomas (also called the Twin in the Gospel) did not believe in it. Why and in history received the nickname Thomas the Unbeliever, which became a household word. A week later, he met with the Savior, but again doubted, then Christ showed him his wounds and suggested that he feel them. Only after this did Thomas believe in the Resurrection and recognized the crucified Master in Christ. In the church tradition this day is also called Antipasa, that is, instead of Easter, since all subsequent Sundays of the church annual circle are called Little Easter and are celebrated as joyfully as Easter itself, with the mutual greeting of Christ Risen! - Truly Risen!

The "Red Hill" among the Eastern Slavs is the first day of the Radonitsky week . Red Hill was the day of youth festivities, round dances and matchmaking.

According to V. G. Kholodnoy, among the Russian peasants, the Red Hill was more connected not with the Christian tradition, but with the pagan celebration of the beginning of spring. According to A. A. Corinthsky, not supported by references to historical sources, in Ancient Russia on this day bonfires were burned in the hills in honor of Dazhdbog ^{[2] [11]} .

Weddings

In pre-revolutionary Russia, many weddings were traditionally celebrated on Krasnaya Gorka ^[12] . From this day, for the first time since the beginning of Lent, the church resumed holding wedding ceremonies ^[13] . It was believed that a wedding played on that day would be the key to a long happy family life. If in the village there was a wedding on Krasnaya Gorka, then festive games and wedding merged into one “event” ^[14] . In Moravia , weddings also began to play from this day ^[15] .

The Hail of the Young

Russians in the Middle Volga region (Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Yaroslavl provinces) ^[16] held youth or women's rounds of courtyards with congratulations - “hail” of the newlyweds, also called loosening, loosening, loosening, youth, unins, loosers ^[17] . A detailed picture of it is presented in the description relating to the Gorokhovetsky district (Vladimir province). On Easter week , on Saturday, on the eve of Krasnaya Gorka, before sunrise, lots of guys gathered in each village - 5, 10, 15 or more people. Oksalchiki dressed in festive shirts, plaid harem pants, the best bekhes . It was supposed to call out the young, married after the previous Easter. We started from our village, and then moved to others, without missing a single young couple. Under the windows of the young, the hailiers sang. They danced while singing. They sang the same song, directly related in content to this custom. It described the very arrival of the callers, emphasized many of them: "strength - the army brings down." After each couplet, as a refrain, a friendly male choir (often very numerous) “called out” in the predawn silence: “Young loafer, young loomber!” - an appeal to the newlyweds. The song told about the Vyunts yard, which stands “seven versts”, “on cast-iron pillars, on copper chains, on silver hooks”, surrounded by a white-stone fence with an iron tyun, “where it blooms on each stamen on each stamen,” and “on each something like a nightingale singing on a makovka’s head, about a young wife (“she dared new senes, found a gusli with a bell, carried it under a hollow, gave it to her husband”), about a young fellow, who amuses a young wife with a game of gusli. He consoles her, crying, also by the fact that her relatives will come today: “My father and my mother will come, my uncle and my aunt will come, my cute brother and my grandmother will come, my cute son-in-law will come with my cute sister, and my grandfather will come with my grandmother” ^{[18 ] [19]} .

Spell of Spring

On this day, "they called out spring." In the Russian North at dawn on an elevated beautiful place, young people met the sunrise. A "round dance" was chosen, who, at the first glimpse of the sun, blessing, went to the middle of the circle and cast a spell that was preserved in northeastern Russia ^[20] :

Hello, red sun! Celebrate the clear bucket! From out of the mountains, roll out, make the world look bright, on the grass-ant, on the flowers on the azure, snowdrops run through the eyes with rays, warm your heart with a girl’s affection, warm the good fellows look into the soul, take out the spirit from the soul, put it into the key of living water . From this key, the keys are in the hands of the red maiden, dawn-charges. Zorya-Yasynka walked, lost her keys. I, the girl (name), walked the path, I found the key gold. Whom I want - the one I love, the one I know myself - and I close my soul. I close them, with that golden key, of a good fellow (name) for many years, for a long spring, forever and everlasting with an unbreakable secret spell. Amen!

All those present at the spell repeated each word after the round dance, inserting the names that everyone liked. Then the girl who conjured the sun, laying a painted egg and a round loaf in the middle of the circle, pulled on a freckle song. The whole round dance picked up. This song was replaced by another; that is the third. After the songs were taken for refreshments, a fun revel began ^[21] .

The villagers of the Tula province on Krasnaya Gorka called out spring with round dance songs. When the sun rose, they went to a hill or hillock, led by a round dance. Turning east, the round dance, saying a prayer, entered a circle with a bread in one hand and a red egg in the other and sang a freckle ^[22] :

Spring is red!
Where did you come from?
Where did you come from?
On the bitch
On the harrow! ...

In the Kaluga province, the villagers also shouted spring with songs. A straw scarecrow mounted on a long pole was placed on a hill; both women and men gathered around him. After the songs, they sat around the hill, treated each other with scrambled eggs. In the evening, a scarecrow was burnt with songs and dances ^[22] .

In Buisky uyezd (Kostroma province), girls and single children doused themselves with water in the open air at sunrise to meet spring. The most daring swim in the rivers. After they came together and sang songs, some jumped over the wattle fence of the garden, climbed up trees, led round dances around haystacks. At this time they sang ^[22] :

Spring, spring is red!
Come spring, with joy ...

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, Ukrainians had children going home and praising the “ardor and the green thing.” Children carried a wooden swallow in their hands. Everywhere, girls walked the streets and sang spring trees ^[22] .

Walk

Young people gathered in the company: they danced, danced around the dance ^[23] , sang songs (“The White Dawn Is Not”, “Courtyard and Courtyard”, “Forest Apple Tree in the Garden”, “Lilac Blossomed”) ^[24] , played games (“ Geese ”,“ Chizhik ”,“ Shuttle ”,“ Hide and Seek ”,“ Shackles, unravel us ”,“ And we sowed millet ”,“ Bunny, what's wrong with you ”,“ Separation ”,“ Widows ”,“ Lapto ”) ^{[ 23]} .

Celebrations took place on a village street, in a square or outside the village. Every girl and every guy who has reached marriageable age, necessarily took part in all village holidays and youth entertainments. Evasion of participation in them was censured by public opinion, aroused ridicule of peers and was even considered a great sin for which you can pay for celibacy, childlessness or early widowhood ^{[25] [15]} .

Colored Eggs

In pre-revolutionary Russia, it was believed that “people baptized with the dead are christened” on Krasnaya Gorka; therefore, eggs were painted by this day ^{[26] [27]} , but not in red, but in yellow or green in “funeral” colors ^[28] . Until now, painted eggs are laid out in villages along the graves ^[26] , in some places they ride in the form of a cross and / or they are buried in the grave and given to the poor ^[28] . There was also a ritual of divination, in which they “ rolled eggs from a hill ” ^[29] , rolled colored eggs from small hillocks. It was believed that if the egg rolls smoothly and does not break, then its owner will be happy and lucky this year. In the Russian North on Krasnaya Gorka, a girl presented her boyfriend with a painted egg ^[30] .

Wake

In some places, Russians go to cemeteries on this day to remember their ancestors that day (“to have fun with the dead”), just like on Parental Saturdays ^[31] . Food and drinks left over from Light Week are placed in the graves, and colored eggs are laid out ^[26] . This was not accepted in the church tradition, but the national calendar of commemoration of the departed is somewhat different from the Christian ^[32] . The commemoration of the dead is dedicated to all deceased ancestors and includes, as a rule, church commemoration, a visit to cemeteries and a memorial meal at the graves and at home; on this day they “fed the souls”: they prepared special memorial food (colo, kutya , pancakes, bread, etc.), brewed beer and observed numerous prohibitions ^[33] .

At the end of the 19th century, in Spassk-Ryazan, girls and women in mourning (“pity”) dresses went to the cemetery to bow to their parents. At first they wailed on the graves with words about the life of the dead, then they laid out dishes and drinks on the graves. Relatives and friends went to visit the graves: the old men treated, and the young rolled colored eggs on the graves. The rest of the wine was poured onto the graves. From cemeteries in festive dresses they went to play the Red Hill in round dances ^[22] .

Other customs

In those same days, it was customary in Russia to give relatives - to give gifts to sons-in-law and daughter-in-law ^[34] .

In the village of Khomutino in Altai on Krasnaya Gorka “Easter was lit” - they brought straw to the mountain and lit it, thus seeing off Easter ^[35] .

• “Parents die from the grave in Krasnaya Gorka” ^[3] .
• Red Hill - woo fast.
• “We’ll reckon in the spring on logs - on Red Fun Hill; we ’ll reckon, reckon, we will marry with a golden crown ” ^[34] .
• On Maslenitsa - matchmaking, on Krasnaya Gorka - a wedding ^[36] .
• “ St. George begins the Red Spring on Red Hill, the Prophet Elijah ends the summer, he’s burning it alive ” ^[37] .

• Memorial days among the Slavs
• Matchmaking in Russian
• Red corner

• Vyunishnik / T.A. Agapkina // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 1995. - T. 1: A (August) - G (Goose). - S. 480–481. - ISBN 5-7133-0704-2 .
• Fomina week / T. A. Agapkina // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 2012. - V. 5: C (Fairy Tale) - I (Lizard). - S. 402–404. - ISBN 978-5-7133-1380-7 .
• Easter egg / Agapkina T.A., Belova O.V. // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 2012. - V. 5: C (Fairy Tale) - I (Lizard). - S. 626-632. - ISBN 978-5-7133-1380-7 .
• Afanasyev A.N. Poetic views of the Slavs on nature . - M .: Type. Gracheva and comp., 1869. - T. 3. - 851 p.
• Baranova O. G., Zimina T. A., Madelevskaya E. L. and others. Russian holiday. Holidays and ceremonies of the national agricultural calendar. Illustrated Encyclopedia / Scientific. ed. I.I.Shangina. - SPb. : Art-SPB, 2001. - 668 p. - (History in the mirror of everyday life). - ISBN 5-210-01497-5 .
• Belkin A.A. Russian buffoons . - M .: Nauka, 1975 .-- 192 p. - (Institute of Art History of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR). Archived February 17, 2015 on Wayback Machine
• Red Hill // Belovinsky L.V. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Russian Life and History: XVIII - beginning of XX century. - M .: OLMA-PRESS, 2003 .-- S. 93 . - ISBN 5-224-04008-6 .
• Vlasov V. G. Formation of the calendar of the Slavs. The early period // Calendar in the culture of the peoples of the world: Collection of articles / ed. N. L. Zhukovskaya, S. Ya. Serov. - M .: Science. Publishing company "Eastern Literature", 1993. - S. 102–144 . - ISBN 5-02-017090-9 .
• Gromyko M.M. The World of the Russian Village . - M .: Young Guard, 1991 .-- 446 p. - ISBN 5-235-01030-2 .
• Gorka // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Egoriy - lazy plow // Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Remember // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Thomas // Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language : in 4 volumes / auth. V.I. Dahl . - 2nd ed. - SPb. : Printing house of M.O. Wolf , 1880-1882.
• Zabylin M. M. The Russian people, their customs, rites, traditions, superstitions and poetry . - M .: Edition of the bookseller M. Berezin, 1880. - 607 p.
• Corinthian A. A. Radonitsa - Krasnaya Gorka // People’s Russia: A Year-Round of Tales, Beliefs, Customs and Proverbs of the Russian People . - M .: Edition of the bookseller M.V. Klyukin, 1901. - S. 241-248.
• Maksimov S.V. Red Hill ; Fomino Sunday // Unclean, unknown and the cross power . - SPb. : Partnership R. Golike and A. Vilvorg, 1903. - S. 421-422, 423-424.
• Morozov I.A. , Sleptsova I.S. Circle of the game. Holiday and game in the life of the North Russian peasant (XIX-XX centuries) . - M .: Indrik , 2004 .-- 920 p. — ( Традиционная духовная культура славян . Современные исследования). — ISBN 5-85759-295-X . (inaccessible link)
• Сахаров И. П. Сказания русского народа. Народный дневник . - SPb. : Издание А. С. Суворина , 1885.
• Снегирёв И. Русские простонародные праздники и суеверные обряды. (Выпуск 3) . — М. : Университетская типография, 1838. — 214 с.
• Соколова А. Л. Традиции русской народной свадьбы . — М. , 2014. — 292 с.
• Поминальные дни / Толстая С. М. // Славянские древности : Этнолингвистический словарь : в 5 т. / под общ. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 2009. - T. 4: P (Crossing the water) - C (Sieve). — С. 161—162. - ISBN 5-7133-0703-4 , 978-5-7133-1312-8.
• Холодная В. Г. Вьюнишник (unspecified) . Русские праздники и обряды . Российский этнографический музей .
• Холодная В. Г. Красная горка (unspecified) . Русские праздники и обряды . Российский этнографический музей .
• Христова Г. П., Ревнева С. Н. Календарные праздники и обряды Воронежской области // Календарные обряды и обрядовая поэзия Воронежской области . Афанасьевский сборник. Materials and research. - Vol. III / Сост. Т. Ф. Пухова, Г. П. Христова. — М. : Издательство ВГУ, 2005. — С. 7—21 .
• Шангина И. И. Разгуляйтесь, девицы, разгуляйтесь, милые! // Русские девушки . - SPb. : Азбука-классика, 2007. — 352 с. — ISBN 978-5-352-02194-1 .
• Шангина И., Некрылова А. Русские праздники . - SPb. : Азбука, Азбука-Аттикус, 2015. — 464 с. — (Русская энциклопедия). — ISBN 978-5-389-11816-4 .
• Щербакова О. С. Фольклорно-этнографические и песенные традиции русских Алтая: Учебное пособие и хрестоматия. В 2-х частях. Часть 1 . — Барнаул: Изд-во АлтГАКИ, 2005. — 188 с. — ISBN 5-901897-25-0 .
• Васілевіч Ул. А. Беларускі народны каляндар // Паэзія беларускага земляробчага календара. Склад. Ліс А.С.. — Мн. , 1992. — С. 554-612 . Archived on May 11, 2012. (belor.)
• Звичаї нашого народу . — Мюнхен: Українське видавництво, 1958. — Т. 2. — 310 с. (Ukrainian)
• Лозка А. Ю. Беларускі народны каляндар (белор.) . - Mn. : Полымя, 2002. — 238 с. — ISBN 98507-0298-2 . (belor.)
• Сапіга В. К. Українські народні свята та звичаї. — К. : Т-во «Знання України», 1993. — 112 с. — ISBN 5-7770-0582-9 . (Ukrainian)

• Красная горка // Российский Этнографический Музей.
• Красная Горка // Сахаров И. П. Сказания русского народа — СПб. : Издание А. С. Суворина, 1885.
• Лыскин Александр . Усть-Цильма. Фоторепортаж о празднике
• Driving "widths" in the villages of Vyshnye and Nizhniy Peny of the Rakityansky district of the Belgorod region on Krasnaya Gorka