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“Kruzhilin Toloki-2014”: Working All Together is Great!

On September, 6, the National Museum-Reserve held an annual literary and ethnographic holiday “Kruzhilin Toloki-2014” in Kruzhilin Village, the writer’s homeland.

On the warm and sunny autumn day the holiday makers were enthusiastic about taking part in master-classes on traditional needlework, arts and crafts popular in the Upper Don country. They talked with the masters, asked about the secrets of wood carving, pottery, wooden spoon painting and openwork basket weaving.

The children enjoyed active games and competitions, sand art and paper handwork. They learned to build a bridge without nails, make figures of paper and clay and do many other useful things.

The guests were attracted and even took part in practising traditional land use techniques, which in the past were typical seasonal village works: ploughing on oxen and on “Fordson” tractor, threshing grain with flails and stone roller, screening grain and grinding flour with millstones and a hand-mill. Now it was clear how hard the peasants’ labour was.

The women got interested in spinning, knitting, and cooking Cossack dishes. The men’s attraction was rope making, weaving wattle fences, making wooden window frames and doors, and, certainly, saddling and cleaning horses.

Amateur performers from neighbouring districts entertained the public with olden Cossack songs and dances.

The official opening ceremony was begun by A.M.Sholokhov, Director of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov. He welcomed the guests and noted that the main feature of this, the fifth, event was a reconstruction of a peaceful labour of peace-loving people, what is very topical and important at present.

The holiday public was greeted by the official guests: A.S.Kochubey, a guest from New-York, Prince, a descendant of the Volkonskys famous family; S.V.Tolchiyeva, Head of the Department of Nature Protection of the Rostov Region Ministry of Nature; T.N.Seledtsova, Head of he Rostov Region Department of Culture; G.V.Alexeyeva, President of the International Committee of Literary Museums of the UNESCO ICOM, Head of the Scientific Department of the L.Tolstoy Museum-Reserve “Yasnaya Polyana” and V.V.Kozlov, Head of the Department of Culture of the Voronezh Region.

The warm welcoming was followed by the main artistic and ethnographic performance “How the Villagers Helped Lukeriya to Build a Shed.”

There was a custom in the Don region – to help a lonely family in large and labour intensive works. The same was here: all together the villagers and guests weaved wattle walls, kneaded clay and straw, covered the walls with it and made a durable reed roof over the shed. By the way, it’s not an easy thing to make a reed roof: a special technology must be used! Now the work was done well, Lukeriya felt pleased. She invited the helpers for a good dinner.

All the holiday makers were offered pancakes with honey, dumplings with kaymak, buckwheat porridge with butter… followed by cold stewed fruit or hot herbal tea.

Here one could buy books by M.A.Sholokhov, Don history books, discs of Cossack songs and various souvenirs.

We feel pity for those who missed the holiday in Kruzhilin Village.

Alexey Kochetov