News
Green Yuletide
24.06.2016
The Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov held a theatrical class “Green Yuletide” devoted to the folk holiday of Whitsuntide for schoolchildren of the Sholokhov District.
The class took place in the birch grove near the Stables of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov. The symbol of the holiday is the birch. Lots of rites, traditions and customs are associated with it. This tree is believed to possess a special power of growth and to make a favourable effect on human. Birch branches were used to decorate houses and churches in the Don region. Broken and stuck in the ground birch branches could tell about the weather: if the leaves wither, then the summer will be dry, and Cossacks will have time to make hay, if not, then the summer will be rainy and hay won’t get dried.
At the lesson the children learned about the traditions of Whitsuntide celebrations in the upper Don region, took part in the festivity: made wreaths of green branches and decorated them with ribbons. Everyone would make as many wreaths as the number of kinsmen he had. This way the Don people learned about their fate and the fate of their relatives. If the wreath is green and fresh, everything will be all right, but the withered wreath promised sickness and trouble.
The children tried to make wreaths and toys of fragrant meadow herbs. Here, under the birches, the children took part in circle dances, merry games and exchanged their wreaths.
Then the girls and boys put the wreaths on the water of the River Don. There was a folk belief that if the wreath gets drowned, there will come illness or misfortune. But none of the wreaths got drowned, all they floated making a bright carpet on the water.
The holiday ended with joyful horse riding.
Ola Sivolobova
