Household items in Russia

A person his whole life - from birth to death - is surrounded by household items. What is included in this concept? Furniture, dishes, clothes and much more. A huge number of proverbs and sayings are associated with household items. They are discussed in fairy tales, poems are written about them and invent riddles.

What household items in Russia do we know? Have they always been called that? Are there any things that have disappeared from our lives? What interesting facts are related to household items? Let's start with the most important thing.

Russian hut

It is impossible to imagine household items of Russians without the most important thing - their homes. In Russia, huts were built on the banks of rivers or lakes, because fishing since ancient times was one of the important industries. The place to build was chosen very carefully. A new hut was never built on the site of the old. An interesting fact is that the reference point for the selection was pets. The place they chose to stay was considered the most favorable for building a house.

The house was made of wood, most often of larch or birch. It’s more correct to say not “build a hut”, but “cut down a house”. This was done with the help of an ax, and later a saw. Huts are often made square or rectangular. There was nothing superfluous inside the dwelling, only the most necessary for life. The walls and ceilings in the Russian hut were not painted. The prosperous peasants house consisted of several rooms: the main dwelling, canopy, porch, closet, courtyard and buildings: a flock or shelter for animals, barn and others.

In the hut were wooden household items - a table, benches, a cradle or cradle for babies, shelves for dishes. Colored rugs or paths could lie on the floor. The table occupied a central place in the house, the corner where he stood was called “red, ” that is, the most important, honorable. He was covered with a tablecloth, and the whole family gathered behind him. Everyone at the table had its own place, the most convenient, central was occupied by the head of the family - the owner. In the red corner there was a place for icons.

Good speech, if there is a stove in the hut

Without this subject, it is impossible to imagine the life of our distant ancestors. The furnace was both the nurse and the savior. In severe colds, it was only thanks to her that many people managed to warm themselves. The Russian stove was the place where they prepared food, and they also slept on it. Her warmth saved from many diseases. Due to the fact that it had various niches and shelves, various dishes were stored here.

Food cooked in a Russian oven is unusually tasty and aromatic. Here you can cook: delicious and rich soup, crumbly porridge, all kinds of pastries and much more.

But the most important thing is that the stove was that place in the house around which people were constantly. It is no coincidence that in Russian fairy tales, the main characters either ride it (Emelya) or sleep (Ilya Muromets).

Poker, grab, pomelo

These household items were directly related to the Russian stove. The poker was the first assistant at work. When the wood burned in the furnace, the coals moved with this object and looked so that there were no unburned logs. The Russian people have composed many proverbs and sayings about poker, here are just a few of them:

In the bath, Mr. Broom, in the poker oven.
Neither a candle to God, nor to hell with a poker.
It seems a black conscience and a poker gallows.

Grip - the second assistant when working with the stove. Usually there were several, of different sizes. With the help of this item, cast irons or pans with food were put in and taken out of the oven. Grips cherished and tried to handle them very carefully.

Pomelo is a special broom that was used to sweep away excess garbage from the stove and was not used for other purposes. The Russian people came up with a characteristic riddle about this subject: "A woman with a beard sits under the floor, under the middle." Usually a pomelo was used before going to bake pies.

A poker, a grip, a broom - certainly had to be at hand when preparing food in a Russian oven.

Chest - for storing the most valuable things

In every house there must have been a place where they lay down dowry, clothes, towels, tablecloths. The chest is an integral part of the household items of the Russian people. They could be both large and small. Most importantly, they had to meet several requirements: roominess, durability, decoration. If a girl was born in the family, then the mother began to collect her dowry, which was folded into a chest. The girl getting married took him with her to her husband's house.

There were a large number of interesting traditions associated with the chest. Here are some of them:

Girls could not give their chest to someone, otherwise you could remain an old maid.
During Shrovetide it was impossible to open the chest. It was believed that in this way one could let loose one's wealth and fortune.
Before marriage, the bride’s relatives sat on the chest and demanded a ransom for the dowry.

Interesting names of household items

Many of us do not even assume that the familiar things that surround us in everyday life were once called very differently. If for several minutes we imagine that we are in the distant past, then some objects of national life would remain unrecognized by us. We bring to your attention the names of some familiar things:

The broom is a golik.

A closet or a small enclosed room was called a crate.

The place where large pets lived is a flock.

Towel - a hand rub or a towel.

The place where they washed their hands is a washstand.

The box where the clothes were stored is a chest.

A place to sleep is a party.

Wooden block with a short handle, designed for ironing in the old days - rubel.

A large cup for bottling drinks - endova.

Folk household items of Russia: curious facts

The city of Tula is considered the birthplace of a samovar. This item was one of the favorite among the Russians, it was difficult to find a hut in which it was not. The samovar was a matter of pride, it was cherished and passed on by inheritance.
The first electric iron appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Until that time, there were cast-iron irons in which coals were piled or heated for a long time above the flame of the furnace. It was very inconvenient to keep them, they could weigh more than ten kilograms.
One of the most prestigious household items was a gramophone. In the villages, a cow could be traded for him.
A large number of folk traditions and ceremonies are associated with the table. Before the wedding, the bride and groom must have walked around the table, the newborn was surrounded around the table. These customs, according to popular beliefs, symbolized a long and happy life.
Spinning wheels appeared in Ancient Russia. They were made of wood: birch, linden, aspen. This item was presented by a daughter's father for a wedding. Spinning wheels were customary to decorate and paint, so none of them were like the other.
Folk items for children - homemade rag dolls, bast and wool balls, rattles, clay whistles.

Home decoration

The decor of household items included wood carvings and art paintings. Many things in the house were decorated with the hands of the owners: chests, spinning wheels, dishes and much more. The design and decoration of household items related primarily to the hut itself. This was done not only for beauty, but also as a guard against evil spirits and various troubles.

To decorate the house used dolls made by hand. Each of them had its own mission. One drove away evil spirits, the other brought peace and prosperity, the third did not allow squabbles and scandals in the house.