What is a vespers? What are ritual songs, where did they come from and why did they go to oblivion?

Currently, with a big celebration, only the New Year, Victory Day and a couple of red days of the calendar are celebrated. But our ancestors had a wider range of holidays: Ivan Kupala, seeing off winter, meeting the spring, etc. And every festival was accompanied by singing. In the course of time, there was a springy. What are ritual songs, vesnyanki, where did they come from? Let's understand.

Songs of incantation

Ancient vesnyanki - ritual songs, as a rule, were timed to the calendar cycle. They were widely distributed among the population of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. The repertoire was diverse, but boiled down to the call of spring.

So, vesnyanka - what is it? This is not only ritual chants calling for warmth, praising the blessed sun, it's also fun dances, incendiary folk dances, bright high bonfires and interesting games in the fresh frosty air.

Vesnyanka - ritual songs that were addressed not only directly to the season - spring. They turned to the birds, the sky, God. These songs contained the people's requests to the Theotokos about the rich harvest, the blessing of children, etc.

Character traits

Songs dedicated to spring, urging her to enter into their own rights, were sung in different languages. Vesnyanki in Russian were more lyrical, in Ukraine the ritual chants were cheerful and clockwork. In Belarus, vesnyankas were sung more slowly, it can be said, sadly, sadly. Spring rolls were melodious phrases that were repeated many times.

From vesnjanki in a lullaby

A little later, when the Vespers began to lose their magical significance, they began to be used as songs for children. If you answer the question: "Vesnyanka - what is it?", We can calmly say that these are modern lullabies for children, only in an old fashion. If you happened to visit grandmothers in the village as a child, then for sure you have fallen asleep more than once under the spring.

Also from her grandmother's childhood, many can remember how she baked from a bird figurine test. Just to please grandchildren with a delicacy? And here not. In the grandmother's childhood there was a holiday, as a rule, celebrated on March 22. On this day, they baked these same birds, which were the embodiment of spring. According to legend, it was birds who brought spring on their wings, chasing winter and cold. On the same day, roundelays were played and singing freckles.

By the way, in the classical works of Russian composers, the vesperia was used more than once. What is Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night? This is the famous work of the Russian composer, in which the main role is played by the vesperian. Also, the melodies of ritual songs were used in the works of Tchaikovsky (the first concert for piano and orchestra), in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Night Before Christmas".

Ritual songs theme

Specialists distinguish several thematic areas, which were addressed to the vesnyanki. Russian and Ukrainian vesnyanki differed in the story line. In the North, people often turned to the very spring, where the song asked her to bring warmth, a good rich harvest this year, to share mercy and joy.

In the southern provinces, songs were addressed to the spring with the question: "Why did you come to us? Where did you come from? What did you come to? ". The song was the answer of spring to the human question: on a wheat pie I came to you; On the oat wheel I came; On a filly, on a clamp, etc.

But the most diverse on the subject are the vespers, performed in Belarus. Frequent in the songs was a question addressed to the spring: "Why did you come to us? What have you brought with you? ". Spring replied that she brought:

• Girls - a kerchief, a groom, a gingerbread;
• Guys - a horse, a pipe, a whistle;
• Grandmothers - spinning wheel, wand, merry gatherings;
• Grandfathers - sickle, wand;
• To small children - a walk, a gingerbread, an Easter egg.

In the Smolensk province, freckles were frequent, in which they sang about the keys that spring should give people, so that they would close the winter and open the doors in the warm summer. In the Kaluga province, in spring, the plot about the harvest was mainly seen. People asked for spring to give them a plow with a harrow or high water, or a healthy cattle in the field.

The theme of children, especially girls, was a very popular topic in the Vesnyanka in the East Polessye. Adult women sang songs, clicked the spring and asked her about the fate of their daughters.

"Where's my daughter?"

- Your daughter sits in the garden and embroider.

"Where's my daughter?"

"Your daughter is sewing a shirt for the wedding."

"Where's my daughter?"

- My daughter went to drink cattle / daughter drove the wolves, so as not to touch the sheep.

An example of ritual songs on the call of spring

Come to us, spring!

Come with joy,

With my great grace.

Come to us with a grass-mash,

With birds singing,

With red raspberries, with black currants,

With rye golden, with flowers bright.

Grant us, spring, bread salted,

Years of the grain,

Wheat ear,

Years are good.

Give the girls grooms, and the guys - pzheni.

Run away, blow the cold winter,

Tune in, open the key to the bright summer.