UDC 392.51

Yakut State University named after M. K. Ammosov ul. 58 Belinsky St., Yakutsk, 677000, Russia

E-mail: sakhafolklor@rambler.ru

The article reflects the most archaic features of Yakut wedding ceremonies, an important attribute of which was the wedding suit. The article describes clothing as an indicator of the social status of the bride and groom, analyzes the magical-protective and significative functions of the wedding suit.

Keywords: traditional Yakut culture, wedding ritual, custom of avoidance, ceremonial clothing.

The study of the material and spiritual culture of the peoples of Siberia is traditionally of great interest, since it expands the possibilities for determining the chronological depth of ethnic traditions and helps to solve many problems related to ethnogenesis and ethno-cultural contacts. A striking marker of ethnic culture is ceremonial clothing. The traditional costume of the Yakuts "embodies" their spiritual ideals and worldview. Syncretism of clothing is manifested in its polyfunctionality. Along with its utilitarian and aesthetic functions, it has a magical and protective significance, primarily associated with the ancient mythological ideas of the people. Among traditional clothing, the wedding costume complex stands out in terms of the variety of cut and complexity of the semantically loaded decor.

The ancient Yakut wedding costume was characterized by variability, which reflected socio-economic and regional subethnic differentiation. In the past, Yakuts made clothing mainly from natural materials-fur, leather, and rovdugi. According to historical descriptions, for example, in 1670 - 1671, the dowry (enne beleh) of a rich bride consisted of 3 horses, 51 sable skins, 3 fur coats lined with wolf fur, fox dokha, 3 men's doublets, tanalai fur coats with fur lining, 6 malakhai hats, and other types of clothing and jewelry [Tokarev, 1945, p. 61].

Since the end of the XVIII century, due to the development of trade relations, the costume was sewn from imported fabrics - cloth, silk, calico or nankeen. Different in material, cut, and nature of decoration, wedding dresses of the Yakuts until the end of the XIX century were mainly of magical and protective significance [Petrova, 2006, p. 8].

There were household prohibitions regarding clothing. So, it was impossible to put someone else's hat, especially a woman's, face down-this was equivalent to wishing the owner of the hat death: Umsa tyus! (Damn you!). It was forbidden to put shoes with their toes facing up, as if they were laying a dead person; it was also forbidden to put shoes oriented to the wall bench of the oron, and from the oron - to the doors, etc. [Bravina, 1996, p. 85].

The sacral-apotropaic nature of clothing was manifested in the ideas of the Yakuts associated with its manufacture. Traditional etiquette dictated that seamstresses should be modest. It was believed that if a thing was made too beautiful and solid, then its creator could be called to the competition by the best masters of the upper world. It is impossible to defeat them, and the loser will be doomed.

In the traditional Yakut culture, sewing was regulated by prohibitions and regulations. It was considered a sin to eat with a thimble on your finger. If when

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1. Yakut girl in wedding undergarments at the entrance to Happakhchy. Reconstruction of the author based on the materials of the XVIII century.

if the craftswoman injured her hand with a needle, then she could continue working only when the wound heals. There was a belief that if the knot on the vein threads is not tied during sewing, then the person to whom the dress was intended will die in this newness [Khudyakov, 1969, p. 167, 301].

Strict rules were observed when preparing the clothes of the deceased-elunnuk tanas. The young daughter-in-law was always buried in her wedding clothes. Until now, the following prohibitions remain among the people: if a close relative has died, a woman should not sew for 40 days, sharp objects (scissors, knife, needle) should not be placed in the coffin, so as not to "interfere" with the deceased during his ascent to another world [Troshchansky, 1903, pp. 2-3].

Yakuts especially have a lot of ideas related to the production of wedding clothes. In order for the girl to be happy in the marriage life, a pass was left in one seam of the wedding clothes. Clothes for the bride were sewn, fenced off from the fire with a curtain, otherwise the spirit of fire will curse the girl for the fact that she, leaving for the groom's house, can take with her the happiness of her parents ' home [Khudyakov, 1969, p. 120]. According to the ethnographer P. A. Sleptsov, the traditional Yakut wedding consisted of several stages: 1) matchmaking (collusion, betrothal) - kergen kapsetii; 2) the first wedding feast-kyutuettyyur, which was performed after paying a part of the kalym in the bride's house and involved the groom visiting the bride in her house - tyuset barar; 3) the second wedding feast, which included the bride's moving to the groom's house and a festive feast in it after the full payment of the kalym. kalym payments, - kyys syuktyute, or uruu, 4) temporary return of a young woman to her native home (terkyuttyyu) and visiting relatives some time after the birth of a child [1989, p. 31].

During the period of preparation for the wedding, the girl had to be especially modest and reserved; it was impossible to show herself to strange men (not relatives), so she was allocated a special room in the left part of the yurt-happakhchi. The rules of pre-wedding behavior provided for the girl to wear a loincloth decoration tyusyulyuk, completely embroidered with beads, with falling metal pendants. Apparently, this girlish decoration was meant by V. L. Seroshevsky, who noted that "Yakuts have rougher means in their morals and dress aimed at preserving chastity" [1993, p.556]. The jingling of the pendants was considered to indicate the moral purity and chastity of the future bride. After the wedding, this decoration was no longer worn [Lindenau, 1983, p.26]. The ringing of metal ornaments also served a protective function, so the entrance to happakhchi was decorated with pendants; the ringing marked each exit of the girl (Fig. 1) [Pekarsky, 1958, vol. III, stb. 3320].

Various parts of the Yakut wedding costume had a magical meaning. Each of the wedding rituals corresponded to a certain group of jewelry or clothing elements. In the old days, the bride's dowry (enne) consisted of a large amount of property and was her lifelong property in the husband's house. The enneh were servants-helpers (enneh kulut) [Oyunsky, 1962, p. 171], livestock and household items, utensils, various gifts for her husband's relatives (enne-beleh) - furs, clothing, and silver jewelry [Tokarev, 1945, p.61].

Before the departure of the wedding train, the ceremony of dressing the bride was performed in the parents ' house in the presence of only close relatives [Gurvich, 1977, p. 128-129]. At the beginning of the 19th century, among the rich people, it began with the fact that a white horse skin with a black border was laid in front of the fireplace - haralaah aas tallah. The bride stood on it and was dressed in the best elegant clothes (Figure 2). The richest bride wore three haladaai dresses over her undergarments with metal ritual pendants: calico, silk, and Chinese nankeen.

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2. The ritual of dressing the bride.

3. Bride's wedding clothes and haramni horse decoration. Exhibition of the Yakut State United Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of the North, Yakutsk.

Over the dresses, the bride wore a tank top and a silver breast decoration sureh kiergel, then a light coat onoolooh son made of taffeta or cloth, only after that a fur coat buuktaah son. An obligatory addition to the wedding dress was a set of cast silver jewelry: large earrings with pendants, a neck necklace, bracelets, a nakosnik, a wide silver belt with flowing hip pendants and a breast-back decoration of ilin-kaelin kabisar. Clothing for a long trip included a diabak hat with a round silver tuosakhta decoration. The clothing complex consisted of a wolf or fox fur coat sangyah, fur protectors of the forehead, chin, breastplate, headphones, fur nanosnik, a long fur scarf - boa mooitoruk, fur wrists and finger pads, large and elegantly embroidered travel mittens made of fur. The bride's shoes were also diverse.

According to informants, in the ceremony of dressing the bride, the ritual of attaching a special syppa byata strap (myannaryk byata) to the richly decorated ritual natazniks was of particular importance. During this part of the ceremony, which was called syppa byatyn ininnarii siere-tuoma, a long leather strap of syppa byat was presented to the bride by seven or nine immaculate girls and two elderly women. Women attached the strap to the nataznik with a thread so that the strap did not touch the ground. Later, this tradition was forgotten (PMA, 1999). In the wedding ritual, syppaata played the role of a link between the bride and the" foreign " world, performed a protective function and symbolized the purity and purity of a young girl. This element of the wedding ceremony was an important component in coding the well-being of the bride's married life.

After the ceremony of dressing, the girl said goodbye to everyone, prayed 3 times (according to some sources, 9 times-according to the number of supreme heavenly deities) and sang a sad farewell song. The groom led the bride out of her parents ' house, holding her by the whip. After her parents 'blessings, she would mount a saddled haramni horse, stepping on a servant who was on all fours and was part of her dowry (Figure 3). According to some ethnographic materials, the wedding caravan made 27 stops on the way to the groom's parents' house. It was believed that the bride had to present nine tangalai fur coats to the spirit-Mistress of the earth and leave a fur mat at each stop (Kulakovsky, 1979, p. 95; Seroshevsky, 1993, p. 539).

Before the bride was sent to the groom's house, the horse on which she was to ride was loaded with bags containing her old, worn dress. As soon as the bride was lowered from the horse at the groom's house, the household came running with awls and began to pierce their bags, belts-

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move things. This was done in order to destroy the devils and misfortunes that" arrived", according to traditional ideas, together with the bride (Khudyakov, 1969, p.170). In front of the girl, a box with an open lid was first brought into the groom's house, at the bottom of which her old natazniks lay. The bride untied the belt to "release" her happiness. She crossed the threshold with a woman leading her, holding one end of her belt. According to an old tradition, metal nataznik pendants were bound to ring when a rich bride crossed the threshold. On many wedding natazniks, there was a metal bell in place of the genital organ. According to the intensity of the ringing, the purity and purity of the girl was determined. It was believed that a sharp and loud ringing accompanies a lively, agile and" pure " - chaste girl, a weak ringing is a sign of simplicity, stupidity and frivolity [Novgorodov, 1955, p.149-151; Nosov, 1955, p. 96; Sleptsov, 1989, p. 36, 53]. "At the entrance to the groom's house," says the informant, " there was an old lady who was supposed to listen to the ringing of the ritual bell and the kyabaki shimege decoration and inform the bride's future father-in-law about it. There were cases when, for some ridiculous reason, the ornaments and the bell did not ring very loudly, and the next day the girl, feeling disgraced, strangled herself with a cord from the birch - bark decorated door of her closet-happakhchy" (PMA, 1995). In ancient times, there was a custom to hang the bride's natazniks for everyone to see. The described actions were undoubtedly connected with the idea of fertility: in front of her husband's relatives, the woman's childbearing potential and usefulness were demonstrated.

During the wedding celebration, the ceremony of taking out the bride's dowry and gifts from the bag (xaahax xocmoohyua) was held. Two women took out the things, but first they took out small beads from the four corners of the chest or bag and scattered them in handfuls all over the house. Women and children present in the house rushed to collect beads. After that, things were taken out of the chest, each of them was shown to the audience and carefully put aside. All the things that make up the dowry were put in nine pieces: nine fur coats, nine shirts, etc. After removing all the contents, the women used thin awls to pierce the chest in the four corners, saying: "There's nothing, there's nothing." This ritual was performed only at very rich weddings (Sleptsov, 1989, p. 43). It allowed the bride's parents to demonstrate their affluence. In addition, the value of the dowry determined the future status of the daughter-in-law in a foreign family.

During the wedding and after it, the young strictly observed the custom of avoidance-kiyittiir (from kishit - bride), which determined the relationship between the daughter-in-law and the older relatives of the husband, especially the father-in-law, as well as between the son-in-law and the mother-in-law.

Sometimes, when the daughter-in-law came to the house of her husband's parents, the space from the door to the fireplace was covered with fur coats and blankets, so that the young woman would not be accidentally seen by her father-in-law. The daughter-in-law was allowed to show herself at home and change into home clothes only three days after the wedding, and she did not have to take off her hat [Khudyakov, 1969, p.171]. The daughter - in - law was forbidden to show her face to her husband's older male relatives for three to seven years, and in some cases until her death.

The Yakut legend about Gyorkho Bae and his daughter-in-law testifies to the custom of avoiding. Gyorho Bai (his full name is Aba Uos Jorho Idelgin) he lived between 1680 and 1765, was very rich and had several wives who bore him 29 sons. He was especially fond of his youngest son Muruka, whom he had married to the daughter of a rich man from Amga. The couple lived together for three years, but they had no children. And one summer day Muruku's wife secretly went to her homeland. Upon learning of this, an angry Gyorho Bai, who was then over 50 years old, chased after his daughter-in-law on a horse and caught up with her on the land of the Altans. Catching up with the young woman, the old man asked: "Why did you decide to run away from us?". "I decided to leave you for the reason that in three years of marriage, your son did not show signs of a man," she replied. "Doesn't that mean you're still walking around as a virgin?" Diorho asked her, puzzled. "It is indeed so," was the reply. "If you are right, you will live!" said the angry old man, tearing off his daughter-in-law's veil. And Gyorho Bai saw his daughter-in-law's face for the first time. In front of him was a girl of remarkable beauty. And the old man, breaking the precepts of his ancestors and crossing the boundaries of morality, could not resist the temptation and took possession of his daughter-in-law. And then he brought her back and put her back together with her son. At the end of the prescribed period, the daughter-in-law gave birth to a son [Berezkin, 1981, p.58].

According to traditional etiquette, the custom of avoiding was observed quite strictly. Among the Yakuts of the Momsky ulus, according to I. A. Khudyakov, the son-in-law never took off his hat in front of his wife's mother-in-law or older sister, he always wore a long shirt so that women would never see his knee pads [1969, p.160].

An important addition to women's clothing was a face veil (Archive of the Yangtze SB RAS. f. 5. Op. 3. d. 293. l. 45). Women covered themselves with a veil in the presence of older male relatives on the husband's side, as well as if they saw totem birds-progenitors.

The common name of the bedspread is annah. In the "Dictionary of the Yakut Language" by E. K. Pekarsky, it is noted that "a platypus, a bedspread, of which the daughter-in-law is in a hundred-

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rina covered their face", called the andes [1958. vol. I, stb. 107]). A. A. Savin gives another name for such a veil - siray tanalaya (Archive of the Yangtze SB RAS. F. 5. Op. 3. d. 6. l. 24). In the records of S. I. Bolo, it is noted that in the old days Yakut daughters-in-law covered their faces with a tangalai veil (Ibid. d. 19. L. 10-11). This word is probably connected with the name of a pattern common in Yakut ornamental art - tanalai oyu (tanalai pattern), they decorated the bedspread. According to the overhead line data. According to Seroshevsky, the wedding veil is called namyskha, or siray sabyta-a face veil [1993, p. 549].

The richest Yakuts could afford an annakh made of sable skin, a middle - class family could afford a lynx or beaver, and the poor sewed "platbands" made of flaps of mare's skin. Sometimes the daughter-in-law covered her face with ermine skins; this was done in the summer [Khudyakov, 1969, p.167, 170, 172]. Known bedspreads from the District Police Department, as well as in the form of a net woven from dark hair, which was cut from the tips of the fox's ears (Archive of the Institute of Internal Affairs (LO) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. F. 22. Op. 1.D. 11).

The annah face veil was an important attribute of wedding ceremonies. A smart bride had to go to the mother of her future husband on the best white mare and cover her face with a veil 10 minutes before the mother-in-law's yurt. The rich daughter-in-law's bedspread was decorated; even the eye slits were covered with beads.

The day after the bride arrived at the groom's house, the rite of greeting the father - in-law was performed; for this purpose, the girl went down on her right knee on the left side of the fireplace and "fed" the fire-treated it with kumiss, saying the spell algys. Her face was covered with a veil. The shaman who was in the yurt blessed the young woman, and she, backing away and not turning around, left the house, turned around and, also backing away, went back in [Description..., 1882, p. 275]. A similar ritual (entering the yurt and leaving it backwards, without turning around) was also performed in the rites accompanying the birth of a child. The essence of the ritual is to confuse the traces in order to deceive malicious spirits and eliminate the possibility of abduction of the bride or baby by evil forces. Similar rituals are known among many Turkic peoples.

The customs of avoidance common in traditional Turkic cultures were considered as relics of matrilocal and group marriages (Dyrenkova, 1937; Potapov, 1936, p. 150). But whether such forms of marriage existed among the Yakuts is not known, the question requires special study. As for the veil as an attribute of the ritual of avoidance and wedding rites, it was undoubtedly a kind of amulet of the daughter-in-law, designed to protect her from damage and the evil eye.

In general, in the traditional culture of the Yakuts, the whole complex of clothing had a large semantic load. Clothing denoted the status of a person and his place in the world, acted as an element regulating behavior. It was a real and symbolic protection, for example, it protected the human soul from the influence of negative forces.

Symbols and amulets played a huge role in the design of traditional Yakut clothing. Their role was especially great in the decoration of the wedding women's costume, which served as a magical protection of the female continuer of the family and contributed to the well-being of family life.

List of literature

Berezkin I. G. In the footsteps of the ancestors of our contemporaries. Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1981, 110 p. (in Russian)

Bravina R. I. The funeral rite of the Yakuts (XVII-XIX centuries). Yakutsk: Yakut State University Publishing House, 1996. -231 p.

Gurvich I. S. Kul'tura severnykh yakutov-olenevodov [Culture of Northern Yakut reindeer herders]. K voprosu o pozdnih etapakh formirovaniya yakutskogo naroda [On the question of late stages of formation of the Yakut people]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1977, 247 p.

Dyrenkova, N. P., Survivals of the maternal family among the Altai Turks, SE. - 1937, No. 4, pp. 33-38.

Kulakovsky A. E. Nauchnye trudy [Scientific works]. Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1979, 95 p. (in Russian)

Lindenau, Ya. I. Description of the peoples of Siberia (1st half of the XVIII century), Magadan: Kn. izd-vo, 1983, 176 p.

Novgorodov I. D. Archaeological excavations of the museum: Some preliminary data / / Collection of scientific articles of the Yakut Museum of Local Lore. Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1955. 1. - p. 138-162.

Nosov, M. M., Clothing and jewelry among the Yakuts of the XVII-XVIII centuries, Sbornik nauchnykh statey Yakutskogo kraevedcheskogo muzeya (Collection of scientific articles of the Yakut Museum of Local Lore). Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1955, issue 1, pp. 84-136.

Oyunsky P. A. Sobranie sochineniy: v 7 vol. - Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1962. - Vol. 7. - 222 p.

Description of the Yakuts / / Northern Archive. St. Petersburg, 1882, Issue 16, part 3, pp. 273-300.

Pekarsky E. K. Dictionary of the Yakut language: in 3 volumes-2nd ed. - M.; L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. - 1958. - T. I.-1280 stb; T. II-2508 stb; t. III. - 3858 stb.

Petrova S. I. Wedding dress of the Yakuts: traditions and reconstruction. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 2006, 104 p. (in Russian)

Potapov L. P. Ocherki po istorii Shorii [Essays on the history of Shoria], Moscow; Leningrad: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1936, 258 p. (Tr. Inst.vostokovedeniya, issue XV).

Seroshevsky V. L. Yakuts (Experience of ethnographic research). -2nd ed. - Moscow: ROSSPEN, 1993. - 736 p.

Sleptsov P. A. Traditional family and ritual among the Yakuts. XIX-early XX centuries-Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1989. - 160 p.

Tokarev S. A. Public order of the Yakuts of the XVII-XVIII centuries. - Yakutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1945. -409 p.

Troshchansky V. F. Evolution of the black faith (shamanism) of the Yakuts. Kazan: [Tip. Imp. un-ta], 1903, 185 p. (in Russian)

Khudyakov I. A. Brief description of the Verkhoyansk district. - L: Nauka, 1969. - 438 p.

The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 13.01.09.

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