Which peoples of the Mari region will follow Islam. Urzhum regional local history conference

Women of Mari-El have always been distinguished by a penchant for original talents. Almost all Mari women are very musical, they know and dance with pleasure folk dances, and also master the art of ancient national embroidery. IN Everyday life they are decisive and lively, but infinitely kind and welcoming. The main thing for them is family values.

In Mari El live women of the most different nationalities- there are more than twenty of them. This means that their traditions, clothes, tastes, and to some extent even their ideas about life are completely different. However, we can single out women of two nationalities, whose representatives constitute the majority in the republic. These are Russians and Maris. If everything is more or less clear with the first, then little is known about Mari women in other regions of Russia.

The Mari belong to the Subural anthropological type. In simple terms, they differ from the classical variants of the Ural race; Mongoloid features are more noticeable in them. As a rule, Mari women are short in stature, dark hair and slightly slanted eyes.

The majority of representatives of the fair sex of the Mari region are characterized by such character traits as perseverance, determination and perseverance, which sometimes develops into stubbornness.

Despite the fact that the Mari are classified as Finno-Ugric peoples, they are not very similar in character. If the Finno-Ugrians are quite calm and even somewhat infantile, then the Mari people are very decisive and lively. Take, for example, the fact that some of them remained pagans and preserved their faith almost in its original form. This also applies to Mari women. They are very persistent, strong-willed and a little cunning, but at the same time very kind and welcoming.

Another very important trait that Mari women have is thriftiness and hard work. Maintaining a home, coziness and comfort in the family is the most important thing for them. Since ancient times, Mari women have mastered the high art of weaving and embroidery. The national costume that has survived to this day amazes with its colorful and unusual ornaments. Of course, modern Yoshkar-Rolinkas have not worn Mari costumes in everyday life for a long time. However, they are happy to flaunt them during national holidays.

Embroidery has always been a traditional occupation of Mari women. They were taught to embroider from childhood so that the girl could prepare her dowry. It was by embroidery that they determined how hardworking a girl was, assessed her taste and artistic skills. This activity, on the one hand, is very difficult and painstaking, requiring a lot of patience and perseverance. But on the other hand, it's very exciting. Plus, embroidery is soothing and the results are always worth the time spent.

By the way, making national costumes and creating embroidery is a hobby for many Mari women. Their products are very successful.

I started sewing late, having already retired. However, I really like this activity, and it started working out right away. I definitely use Mari embroidery in my products. I mainly sew suits for folk ensembles. Nowadays they order suits according to fashion, so that they are fitted. I sell it for about 2000-2500 rubles per set. There are a lot of orders, I can hardly keep up with them. Of course, relatives and colleagues help.

Of course, in everyday life no one wears the national Mari costume. Residents of Yoshkar-Ola prefer the most ordinary, comfortable everyday clothes. The preferred shades when choosing a suit are the brightest. In addition, in recent years, ancient Mari embroidery has become one of the fashion trends, and today, more and more often, national ornaments can be found in the modern costume of a Mari woman.

It should be noted that city women boldly experiment with makeup, even on weekdays preferring the brightest colors of lipstick and eye shadow.

Girls dress differently. But mostly they prefer comfortable clothes: jeans, shorts, T-shirts, sundresses. There are also fashionistas who always follow the trends of the season. I noticed that residents of Yoshkar-Ola prefer bright colors in clothes - pink, coral, blue, yellow. It's great that our women don't dress in gloomy dark colors. They look cheerful, cheerful and confident.

In makeup, residents of the Mari Republic prefer bright shades and bold colors. They are not afraid to stand out and do their best to emphasize the beauty given to them by nature.

Mari women are very talented and approach life creatively. Almost every Mari woman, in addition to her ability to embroider, is famous for her choreographic and musical abilities. Many perform in national ensembles and go on tour. For example, the state dance ensemble “Mari El” is familiar to groups and artists from many countries around the world who have jointly participated in prestigious International festivals. For more than 70 years, he has been pleasing and surprising audiences in his republic and other regions and countries with his original and varied repertoire. By the way, the winner of the “Miss Student Finno-Ugria” contest, held this year in Saransk, was a girl from the Republic of Mari El.

The distant ancestors of the Mari came to the Middle Volga around the 6th century. These were tribes belonging to the Finno-Ugric language group. Anthropologically, the closest people to the Mari are the Udmurts, Komi-Permyaks, Mordovians, and Sami. These peoples belong to the Ural race - transitional between Caucasians and Mongoloids. Among the named peoples, the Mari are the most Mongoloid, with dark hair and eyes.


Neighboring peoples called the Mari “Cheremis”. The etymology of this name is unclear. The self-name of the Mari - “Mari” - is translated as “man”, “man”.

The Mari are among the peoples who have never had their own state. Starting from the 8th-9th centuries, they were conquered by the Khazars, Volga Bulgars, and Mongols.

In the 15th century, the Mari became part of the Kazan Khanate. From this time on, their devastating raids on the lands of the Russian Volga region began. Prince Kurbsky in his “Tales” noted that “the Cheremisky people are extremely bloodthirsty.” Even women took part in these campaigns, who, according to contemporaries, were not inferior to men in courage and bravery. The upbringing of the younger generation was also appropriate. Sigismund Herberstein in his “Notes on Muscovy” (16th century) points out that the Cheremis “are very experienced archers, and they never let go of the bow; they find such pleasure in it that they do not even let their sons eat unless they first pierce the intended target with an arrow.”

The annexation of the Mari to the Russian state began in 1551 and ended a year later, after the capture of Kazan. However, for several more years, uprisings of conquered peoples raged in the Middle Volga region - the so-called “Cheremis wars”. The Mari showed the greatest activity in them.

The formation of the Mari people was completed only in the 18th century. At the same time, the Mari writing system was created based on the Russian alphabet.

Before October revolution The Mari were scattered throughout the Kazan, Vyatka, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa and Yekaterinburg provinces. An important role in the ethnic consolidation of the Mari was played by the formation in 1920 of the Mari Autonomous Region, which was later transformed into an autonomous republic. However, today, out of 670 thousand Mari, only half live in the Republic of Mari El. The rest are scattered outside.

2. Religion, culture

For traditional religion The Mari are characterized by the idea of ​​the supreme god - Kugu Yumo, who is opposed by the bearer of evil - Keremet. Sacrifices were made to both deities in special groves. The leaders of the prayers were priests - karts.

The conversion of the Mari to Christianity began immediately after the fall of the Kazan Khanate and acquired a special scope in XVIII-XIX centuries. The traditional faith of the Mari people was brutally persecuted. By order of secular and ecclesiastical authorities, sacred groves were cut down, prayers were dispersed, and stubborn pagans were punished. Conversely, those who converted to Christianity were provided with certain benefits.

As a result, most of the Mari were baptized. However, there are still many adherents of the so-called “Mari faith,” which combines Christianity and traditional religion. Paganism remained almost intact among the Eastern Mari. In the 70s of the 19th century, the Kugu Sort (“big candle”) sect appeared, which tried to reform old beliefs.

Commitment to traditional beliefs contributed to the establishment of the national identity of the Mari. Of all the peoples of the Finno-Ugric family, they have preserved their language, national traditions, and culture to the greatest extent. At the same time, Mari paganism contains elements of national alienation and self-isolation, which, however, do not have aggressive, hostile tendencies. On the contrary, traditional Mari pagan appeals to the Great God, along with a plea for the happiness and well-being of the Mari people, contain a request to give a good life to the Russians, Tatars and all other peoples.
Supreme moral rule The Mari had a respectful attitude towards any person. “Respect the elders, pity the younger ones,” he says folk proverb. It was considered a holy rule to feed the hungry, help those who ask, and provide shelter to the traveler.

The Mari family strictly monitored the behavior of its members. It was considered dishonor for a husband if his son was caught in some bad deed. The most serious crimes were mutilation and theft, and popular reprisals punished them in the strictest manner.

Traditional performances still have a huge influence on the life of Mari society. If you ask a Mari what the meaning of life is, he will answer something like this: remain optimistic, believe in your happiness and luck, do good deeds, because the salvation of the soul is in kindness.

This category of people can be classified as Finno-Ugric peoples. They are called differently mara, mere and some other words. The Republic of Mari El is the place where such people live. For 2010 there are about 547 thousand people Mari, half of whom live in this republic. In the regions and republics of the Volga region and the Urals you can also meet representatives of this people. The Mari population mainly accumulates in the area between the Vyatka and Vetluga rivers. There is a classification for this category of people. They are divided into 3 groups:
- mountain,
- meadow,
- eastern.

Basically, such a division is based on place of residence. But in Lately There was some change: the two groups merged into one. The combination of Meadow and Eastern Mari formed the Meadow-Eastern subspecies. The language these people speak is called Mari or Mountain Mari. Orthodoxy is considered as a faith here. The presence of the Mari traditional religion is a combination of menotheism and polytheism.

Historical reference

In the 5th century, a Gothic historian named Jordan says in his chronicle that there was interaction between the Mari and the Goths. The Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate also included these people. It was quite difficult to join the Russian state; this struggle could even be called bloody.

The Subural anthropological type is directly related to the Mari. This category of people is distinguished from the classic version of the Ural race only by a large proportion of the Mongoloid component. The anthropological appearance of this people belongs to the ancient Ural community.

Features in clothing

For such peoples there was even traditional clothing. The tunic-shaped cut can be seen in a shirt typical of this people. It's called tuvyr. Pants, yolash, also became an integral part of the image of this nationality. Also a mandatory attribute is a caftan, otherwise called shovyr. A waist towel (sol) encircled the clothing, sometimes a belt (ÿshto) was used for this. A felt hat with a brim, mosquito net or cap is more typical for Mari men. A wooden platform (ketyrma) was attached to felt boots, bast shoes or leather boots. The presence of belt pendants is most typical for women. Decoration made from beads, cowrie shells, coins and clasps - all this was used to decorate the unique women's suit, was amazingly beautiful. Hats for women can be classified as follows:

Cone-shaped cap having an occipital lobe;
-magpie,
-sharpan - head towel with headband.

Religious component

Quite often you can hear that the Mari are pagans, and the last in Europe. Due to this fact, journalists from Europe and Russia have considerable interest in this nation. The 19th century was marked by the fact that the beliefs of the Mari were persecuted. The place of prayer was called Chumbylat Kuryk. It was blown up in 1830. But such a measure did not produce any results, because the main asset for the Mari was not the stone, but the deity that lived in it.

Mari names

The presence of national names is characteristic of this nation. Later there was a mixture with Turkic-Arabic and Christian names. For example, Aivet, Aimurza, Bikbay, Malika. The listed names can safely be attributed to traditional Mari.

People are quite responsible about wedding traditions. The wedding whip Soan Lupsh is a key attribute during the celebration. The road of life that the newlyweds will need to travel is protected by this amulet. Famous Mari include Vyacheslav Alexandrovich Kislitsyn, who was the 2nd President of Mari El, Columbus Valentin Khristoforovich, who is a poet, and many other personalities. The level of education is quite low among the Mari, as evidenced by statistical data. Director Alexei Fedorchenko made a film in 2006 in which the characters use the Mari language for conversation.

This nation has its own culture, religion and history, many prominent figures in various fields and its own language. Also, many Mari customs are unique today.

Posted Thu, 20/02/2014 - 07:53 by Cap

Mari (Mar. Mari, Mary, Mare, Mӓrӹ; formerly: Russian Cheremisy, Turkic Chirmysh, Tatar: Marilar) - Finno-Ugric people in Russia, mainly in the Mari El Republic. It is home to about half of all Mari, numbering 604 thousand people (2002). The remaining Mari are scattered across many regions and republics of the Volga region and the Urals.
The main territory of residence is between the Volga and Vetluga rivers.
There are three groups of Mari: mountainous (they live on the right and partially left banks of the Volga in the west of Mari El and in neighboring regions), meadow (they make up the majority of the Mari people, occupy the Volga-Vyatka interfluve), eastern (they formed from settlers from the meadow side of the Volga to Bashkiria and the Urals ) - the last two groups, due to historical and linguistic proximity, are combined into a generalized meadow-eastern Mari. They speak Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) and mountain Mari languages ​​of the Finno-Ugric group Ural family. They profess Orthodoxy. The Mari traditional religion, which is a combination of paganism and monotheism, has also long been widespread.

Mari hut, kudo, Mari's home

Ethnogenesis
In the Early Iron Age in the Volga-Kama region, the Ananyinskaya archaeological culture(VIII-III centuries BC), the bearers of which were the distant ancestors of the Komi-Zyryans, Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts and Mari. The beginning of the formation of these peoples dates back to the first half of the 1st millennium.
The area of ​​formation of the Mari tribes is the right bank of the Volga between the mouths of the Sura and Tsivil and the opposite left bank along with the lower Povetluga region. The basis of the Mari were the descendants of the Ananyians, who experienced the ethnic and cultural influence of the Late Gorodets tribes (ancestors of the Mordovians).
From this area, the Mari settled eastward all the way to the river. Vyatka and in the south to the river. Kazankas.

______________________MARI HOLIDAY SHORYKYOL

Ancient Mari culture (Meadow Mar. Akret Mari cultures) is an archaeological culture of the 6th-11th centuries, marking the early periods of the formation and ethnogenesis of the Mari ethnos.
Formed in the middle of the VI-VII centuries. based on the Finnish-speaking West Volga population living between the mouths of the Oka and Vetluga rivers. The main monuments of this time (Younger Akhmylovsky, Bezvodninsky burial grounds, Chorotovo, Bogorodskoye, Odoevskoye, Somovsky I, II, Vasilsurskoye II, Kubashevskoye and other settlements) are located in the Nizhny Novgorod-Mari Volga region, Lower and Middle Povetluzhie, and the basins of the Bolshaya and Malaya Kokshaga rivers. In the 8th-11th centuries, judging by the burial grounds (Dubovsky, Veselovsky, Kocherginsky, Cheremissky cemetery, Nizhnyaya Strelka, Yumsky, Lopyalsky), fortified settlements (Vasilsurskoye V, Izhevskoye, Emanaevskoye, etc.), settlements (Galankina Gora, etc.) , the ancient Mari tribes occupied the Middle Volga region between the mouths of the Sura and Kazanka rivers, the Lower and Middle Povetluga region, and the right bank of the Middle Vyatka.
During this period, the final formation of a single culture and the beginning of the consolidation of the Mari people took place. The culture is characterized by a peculiar funeral rite, combining corpse deposition and corpse burning on the side, sacrificial complexes in the form of sets of jewelry placed in birch bark or wrapped in clothes.
Typically there is an abundance of weapons (iron swords, axes, spearheads, darts, arrows). There are tools of labor and everyday life (iron celt axes, knives, chairs, clay flat-bottomed unornamented pot-shaped and jar-shaped vessels, spindle whorls, dolls, copper and iron kettles).
Characterized by a rich set of jewelry (various hryvnias, brooches, plaques, bracelets, temple rings, earrings, ridge pendants, “noisy” pendants, trepezoidal pendants, “mustached” rings, stacked belts, head chains, etc.).

map of the settlement of the Mari and Finno-Ugric tribes

Story
The ancestors of modern Mari interacted with the Goths between the 5th and 8th centuries, and later with the Khazars and Volga Bulgaria. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the Mari were part of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. During the hostilities between the Moscow state and the Kazan Khanate, the Mari fought both on the side of the Russians and on the side of the Kazan people. After the conquest of the Kazan Khanate in 1552, the Mari lands that had previously depended on it became part of the Russian state. On October 4, 1920, the Mari Autonomous Okrug was proclaimed within the RSFSR, and on December 5, 1936, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
Joining the Moscow state was extremely bloody. Three uprisings are known - the so-called Cheremis Wars of 1552-1557, 1571-1574 and 1581-1585.
The Second Cheremis War was of a national liberation and anti-feudal nature. The Mari managed to raise neighboring peoples, and even neighboring states. All the peoples of the Volga and Urals regions took part in the war, and there were raids from the Crimean and Siberian Khanates, the Nogai Horde and even Turkey. The Second Cheremis War began immediately after the campaign of the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey, which ended with the capture and burning of Moscow.

Sernur folklore Mari group

The Malmyzh principality is the largest and most famous Mari proto-feudal formation.
Its history dates back to the founders, the Mari princes Altybai, Ursa and Yamshan (1st half-middle of the 14th century), who colonized these places after arriving from Middle Vyatka. The heyday of the principality was during the reign of Prince Boltush (1st quarter of the 16th century). In cooperation with the neighboring principalities of Kityaka and Porek, it offered the greatest resistance to Russian troops during the Cheremis Wars.
After the fall of Malmyzh, its inhabitants, under the leadership of Prince Toktaush, Boltush’s brother, descended down the Vyatka and founded new settlements Mari-Malmyzh and Usa (Usola)-Malmyzhka. Descendants of Toktaush still live there. The principality broke up into several independent minor fiefs, including Burtek.
In its heyday, it included Pizhmari, Ardayal, Adorim, Postnikov, Burtek (Mari-Malmyzh), Russian and Mari Babino, Satnur, Chetai, Shishiner, Yangulovo, Salauev, Baltasy, Arbor and Siziner. By the 1540s, the areas of Baltasy, Yangulovo, Arbor and Siziner were captured by the Tatars.

The Izhmarinsky principality (Pizhansky principality; meadow mar. Izh Mari kugyzhanysh, Pyzhanyu kugyzhanysh) is one of the largest Mari proto-feudal formations.
Formed by the Northwestern Mari on the Udmurt lands conquered as a result of the Mari-Udmurt wars in the 13th century. The original center was the Izhevsk settlement, when the borders reached the Pizhma River in the north. In the XIV-XV centuries, the Mari were pushed out of the north by Russian colonialists. With the fall of the geopolitical counterweight to the influence of Russia, the Khanate of Kazan and the advent of the Russian administration, the principality ceased to exist. The northern part became part of the Izhmarinskaya volost of the Yaransky district, the southern part - as the Izhmarinskaya volost of the Alat road of the Kazan district. Part of the Mari population in the current Pizhansky district still exists to the west of Pizhanka, grouping around national center village of Mari-Oshaevo. Among the local population, rich folklore from the period of the existence of the principality has been recorded - in particular, about local princes and the hero Shaev.
It included lands in the basins of the Izh, Pizhanka and Shuda rivers, with an area of ​​about 1 thousand km². The capital is Pizhanka (known in Russian written sources only from the moment the church was built, in 1693).

Mari (Mari people)

Ethnic groups
Mountain Mari (Mountain Mari language)
Forest Mari
Meadow-Eastern Mari (Meadow-Eastern Mari (Mari) language)
Meadow Mari
Eastern Mari
Pribel Mari
Ural Mari
Kungur, or Sylven, Mari
Upper Ufa, or Krasnoufimsky, Mari
Northwestern Mari
Kostroma Mari

Mountain Mari, Kuryk Mari

Mountain Mari language - the language of the Mountain Mari, literary language based on the mountain dialect of the Mari language. The number of speakers is 36,822 (2002 census). Distributed in the Gornomariysky, Yurinsky and Kilemarsky districts of Mari El, as well as in the Voskresensky district of the Nizhny Novgorod and Yaransky districts of the Kirov regions. Occupies the western regions of distribution of the Mari languages.
The Mountain Mari language, along with the Meadow-Eastern Mari and Russian languages, is one of the official languages ​​of the Republic of Mari El.
The newspapers “Zhero” and “Yomdoli!” are published in the Mountain Mari language, literary magazine“U sem”, broadcasts Gornomari radio.

Sergei Chavain, founder of Mari literature

Meadow-Eastern Mari is a generalized name for the ethnic group of Mari, which includes historically established ethnic groups of Meadow and Eastern Mari, who speak a single Meadow-Eastern Mari language with their regional features, in contrast to the Mountain Mari, who speak their own Mountain Mari language.
Meadow-Eastern Mari make up most Mari people. The number is, according to some estimates, about 580 thousand people out of more than 700 thousand Mari.
According to the All-Russian Population Census of 2002, a total of 56,119 people (including 52,696 in Mari El) out of 604,298 Mari (or 9% of them) in Russia identified themselves as Meadow-Eastern Mari, of whom as “Meadow Mari” (Olyk Mari) - 52,410 people, as the “Meadow-Eastern Mari” proper - 3,333 people, as the “Eastern Mari” (Eastern (Ural) Mari) - 255 people, which speaks in general about the established tradition (commitment) to call themselves under the single name of the people - “Mari”.

Eastern (Ural) Mari

Kungur, or Sylven, Mari (Mar. Köҥgyr Mari, Suliy Mari) - an ethnographic group of Mari in the southeastern part Perm region Russia. The Kungur Mari are part of the Ural Mari, who in turn are part of the Eastern Mari. The group received its name from the former Kungur district of the Perm province, which until the 1780s included the territory where the Mari had settled since the 16th century. In 1678-1679 In the Kungur district there were already 100 Mari yurts with a male population of 311 people. In the 16th-17th centuries, Mari settlements appeared along the Sylva and Iren rivers. Some of the Mari were then assimilated by the more numerous Russians and Tatars (for example, the village of Oshmarina of the Nasadsky village council of the Kungur region, former Mari villages along the upper reaches of the Ireni, etc.). The Kungur Mari took part in the formation of the Tatars of the Suksun, Kishert and Kungur regions of the region.

Funeral ritual among the Mari people __________________

Mari (Mari people)
Northwestern Mari- an ethnographic group of Mari who traditionally live in the southern regions of the Kirov region, in the northeastern regions of Nizhny Novgorod: Tonshaevsky, Tonkinsky, Shakhunsky, Voskresensky and Sharangsky. The overwhelming majority underwent strong Russification and Christianization. At the same time, near the village of Bolshaya Yuronga in the Voskresensky district, the village of Bolshie Ashkaty in Tonshaevsky and some other Mari villages, Mari sacred groves have been preserved.

at the grave of the Mari hero Akpatyr

The Northwestern Mari are presumably a group of Mari, whom the Russians called Merya from the local self-name Märӹ, in contrast to the self-name of the meadow Mari - Mari, who appeared in the chronicles as Cheremis - from the Turkic chirmesh.
The northwestern dialect of the Mari language differs significantly from the meadow dialect, which is why literature in the Mari language published in Yoshkar-Ola is poorly understood by the northwestern Mari.
In the village of Sharanga, Nizhny Novgorod region, there is a center of Mari culture. In addition, in the regional museums of the northern regions of the Nizhny Novgorod region, tools and household items of the northwestern Mari are widely represented.

in the sacred Mari grove

Resettlement
The bulk of the Mari live in the Republic of Mari El (324.4 thousand people). A significant part lives in Mari territories Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod regions. The largest Mari diaspora is in the Republic of Bashkortostan (105 thousand people). Also, the Mari live compactly in Tatarstan (19.5 thousand people), Udmurtia (9.5 thousand people), Sverdlovsk (28 thousand people) and Perm (5.4 thousand people) regions, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Chelyabinsk and Tomsk regions. They also live in Kazakhstan (4 thousand, 2009 and 12 thousand, 1989), in Ukraine (4 thousand, 2001 and 7 thousand, 1989), in Uzbekistan (3 thousand, 1989 G.).

Mari (Mari people)

Kirov region
2002: number of shares (in the region)
Kilmezsky 2 thousand 8%
Kiknursky 4 thousand 20%
Lebyazhsky 1.5 thousand 9%
Malmyzhsky 5 thousand 24%
Pizhansky 4.5 thousand 23%
Sanchursky 1.8 thousand 10%
Tuzhinsky 1.4 thousand 9%
Urzhumsky 7.5 thousand 26%
Number (Kirov region): 2002 - 38,390, 2010 - 29,598.

Anthropological type
The Mari belong to the Sub-Ural anthropological type, which differs from the classical variants of the Ural race in a noticeably larger proportion of the Mongoloid component.

Marie hunting at the end of the 19th century

Festive performance among the Mari people______

Language
The Mari languages ​​belong to the Finno-Volga group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic languages.
In Russia, according to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census, 487,855 people speak Mari languages, including Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) - 451,033 people (92.5%) and Mountain Mari - 36,822 people (7.5%). Among the 604,298 Mari in Russia, 464,341 people (76.8%) speak Mari languages, 587,452 people (97.2%) speak Russian, that is, Mari-Russian bilingualism is widespread. Among the 312,195 Mari in Mari El, 262,976 people (84.2%) speak Mari languages, including Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) - 245,151 people (93.2%) and Mountain Mari - 17,825 people (6 ,8 %); Russians - 302,719 people (97.0%, 2002).

Mari funeral rite

The Mari language (or Meadow-Eastern Mari) is one of the Finno-Ugric languages. Distributed among the Mari, mainly in the Republic of Mari El and Bashkortostan. The old name is “Cheremis language”.
Belongs to the Finno-Perm group of these languages ​​(along with the Baltic-Finnish, Sami, Mordovian, Udmurt and Komi languages). In addition to Mari El, it is also distributed in the Vyatka River basin and further east, to the Urals. In the Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) language, several dialects and dialects are distinguished: meadow, widespread exclusively on the meadow shore (near Yoshkar-Ola); as well as those adjacent to the so-called meadow. eastern (Ural) dialects (in Bashkortostan, Sverdlovsk region, Udmurtia, etc.); The northwestern dialect of the Meadow Mari language is spoken in Nizhny Novgorod and some areas of the Kirov and Kostroma regions. The Mountain Mari language stands out separately, widespread mainly on the mountainous right bank of the Volga (near Kozmodemyansk) and partly on its meadow left bank - in the west of Mari El.
The Meadow-Eastern Mari language, along with the Mountain Mari and Russian languages, is one of the official languages ​​of the Republic of Mari El.

Traditional Mari clothing

The main clothing of the Mari was a tunic-shaped shirt (tuvir), trousers (yolash), as well as a caftan (shovyr), all clothes were girded with a waist towel (solyk), and sometimes with a belt (ÿshto).
Men could wear a felt hat with a brim, a cap and a mosquito net. Shoes were leather boots, and later felt boots and bast shoes (borrowed from Russian costume). To work in swampy areas, wooden platforms (ketyrma) were attached to shoes.
Women had common waist pendants - decorations made of beads, cowrie shells, coins, clasps, etc. There were also three types of women's headdresses: a cone-shaped cap with an occipital blade; soroka (borrowed from the Russians), sharpan - a head towel with a headband. Similar to the Mordovian and Udmurt headdress is the shurka.

Public works among the Mari people__________

Mari prayer, Surem holiday

Religion
In addition to Orthodoxy, the Mari have their own pagan traditional religion, which retains a certain role in spiritual culture today. The Mari's commitment to their traditional faith is of keen interest to journalists from Europe and Russia. The Mari are even called “the last pagans of Europe.”
In the 19th century, paganism among the Mari was persecuted. For example, in 1830, on the instructions of the Minister of the Interior, who received an appeal Holy Synod, the place of prayer - Chumbylat Kuryk - was blown up, however, interestingly, the destruction of the Chumbylat stone did not have the desired effect on morals, because the Cheremis worshiped not the stone, but the deity that lived here.

Mari (Mari people)
Mari traditional religion (Mar. Chimarii yula, Mari (marla) faith, Mariy yula, Marla kumaltysh, Oshmariy-Chimariy and other local and historical variants of names) is the folk religion of the Mari, based on Mari mythology, modified under the influence of monotheism. According to some researchers recently, with the exception of rural areas, is neo-pagan in nature. Since the beginning of the 2000s, there has been organizational formation and registration as several local ones and a regional centralized organization uniting them. religious organization Republic of Mari El. For the first time, a single confessional name, Mari Traditional Religion (Mar. Mari Yumiyula) was officially established.

Holiday among the Mari people _________________

The Mari religion is based on faith in the forces of nature, which man must honor and respect. Before the spread of monotheistic teachings, the Mari revered many gods known as Yumo, while recognizing the primacy of the Supreme God (Kugu-Yumo). In the 19th century, pagan beliefs, under the influence of the monotheistic views of their neighbors, changed and the image of the One God Tÿҥ Osh Poro Kugu Yumo (One Bright Good Great God) was created.
Followers of the Mari traditional religion carry out religious rituals, mass prayers, and conduct charitable, cultural and educational events. They teach and educate the younger generation, publish and distribute religious literature. Currently, four district religious organizations are registered.
Prayer meetings and mass prayers are held according to the traditional calendar, always taking into account the positions of the moon and sun. Public prayers usually take place in sacred groves (kusoto). The prayer is led by onaeҥ, kart (kart kugyz).
G. Yakovlev points out that the meadow Mari have 140 gods, and the mountain Mari have about 70. However, some of these gods probably arose due to incorrect translation.
The main god is Kugu-Yumo - the Supreme God who lives in the sky, heads all the heavenly and lower gods. According to legend, the wind is his breath, the rainbow is his bow. Also mentioned is Kugurak - “elder” - sometimes also revered as the supreme god:

Mari archer on the hunt - late 19th century

Other gods and spirits among the Mari include:
Purysho is the god of fate, the spellcaster and creator of the future fate of all people.
Azyren - (mar. “death”) - according to legend, appeared in the form of a strong man who approached the dying man with the words: “Your time has come!” There are many legends and tales of how people tried to outwit him.
Shudyr-Shamych Yumo - god of the stars
Tunya Yumo - god of the universe
Tul he Kugu Yumo - the god of fire (perhaps just an attribute of Kugu-Yumo), also Surt Kugu Yumo - the "god" of the hearth, Saksa Kugu Yumo - the "god" of fertility, Tutyra Kugu Yumo - the "god" of fog and others - rather In all, these are simply attributes of the supreme god.
Tylmache - speaker and lackey of the divine will
Tylze-Yumo - god of the moon
Uzhara-Yumo - god of the dawn
In modern times, prayers are made to the gods:
Poro Osh Kugu Yumo is the supreme, most important god.
Shochinava is the goddess of birth.
Tuniambal sergalysh.

Many researchers consider Keremetya to be the antipode of Kugo-Yumo. It should be noted that the places for sacrifices at Kugo-Yumo and Keremet are separate. Places of worship of deities are called Yumo-oto (“god’s island” or “divine grove”):
Mer-oto - public place worship, where the whole community prays
Tukym-oto - family and ancestral place of worship

The nature of prayer also differs into:
random prayers (for example, for rain)
community - major holidays (Semyk, Agavayrem, Surem, etc.)
private (family) - wedding, birth of children, funeral, etc.

Settlements and dwellings of the Mari people

The Mari have long developed a riverine-ravine type of settlement. Their ancient habitats were located along the banks of large rivers - the Volga, Vetluga, Sura, Vyatka and their tributaries. Early settlements, according to archaeological data, existed in the form of fortified settlements (karman, or) and unfortified settlements (ilem, surt), connected by family ties. The settlements were small, which is typical for the forest belt. Up to mid-19th V. the layout of the Mari settlements was dominated by cumulus, disorderly forms, inherited early forms resettlement by family-patronymic groups. The transition from cumulus forms to an ordinary street layout of streets occurred gradually in the middle - second half of the 19th century.
The interior of the house was simple but functional; there were wide benches along the side walls from the red corner and the table. On the walls there were shelves for dishes and utensils, crossbars for clothes, and there were several chairs in the house. The living space was conventionally divided into the female half, where the stove was located, and the male half - from the front door to the red corner. Gradually, the interior changed - the number of rooms increased, furniture began to appear in the form of beds, cupboards, mirrors, clocks, stools, chairs, and framed photographs.

folklore Mari wedding in Sernur

Mari economy
Already by the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. was complex in nature, but the main thing was agriculture. In the IX-XI centuries. The Mari switched to arable farming. The steam three-field with manured fallows became established among the Mari peasants in the 18th century. Along with the three-field farming system up to late XIX V. slash-and-burn and fallow cultivation were maintained. The Mari cultivated grains (oats, buckwheat, barley, wheat, spelt, millet), legumes (peas, vetch), industrial crops (hemp, flax). Sometimes in the fields, in addition to the vegetable gardens on the estate, they planted potatoes and grew hops. Vegetable gardening and horticulture were of a consumer nature. The traditional set of garden crops included: onions, cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, pumpkins, turnips, radishes, rutabaga, and beets. Potatoes began to be cultivated in the first half of the 19th century. Tomatoes began to be grown in Soviet times.
Gardening has become widespread since the mid-19th century. on the right bank of the Volga among the mountain Mari, where there were favorable climatic conditions. Gardening was of commercial value to them.

Folk calendar Mari holidays

The original basis of the holiday calendar was the labor practice of people, primarily agricultural, therefore the calendar ritual of the Mari was of an agricultural nature. Calendar holidays were closely related to the cyclical nature of nature and the corresponding stages of agricultural work.
Significant impact on calendar holidays The Mari were influenced by Christianity. With implementation church calendar, folk holidays were close in timing to Orthodox holidays: Shorykyol ( New Year, Christmastide) - for Christmas, Kugeche (Great Day) - for Easter, Sÿrem (feast of the summer sacrifice) - for Peter's Day, Uginda (feast of the new bread) - for Elijah's Day, etc. Despite this, ancient traditions were not forgotten, they coexisted with Christian ones, preserving their original meaning and structure. The dates of arrival of individual holidays continued to be calculated in the old way, using the lunisolar calendar.

Names
From time immemorial the Mari had national names. When interacting with the Tatars, Turkic-Arabic names penetrated the Mari, and with the adoption of Christianity - Christian ones. Currently more used christian names, a return to national (Mari) names is also gaining popularity. Examples of names: Akchas, Altynbikya, Aivet, Aymurza, Bikbai, Emysh, Izikai, Kumchas, Kysylvika, Mengylvika, Malika, Nastalche, Payralche, Shymavika.

Mari holiday Semyk

Wedding traditions
One of the main attributes of a wedding is the wedding whip “Sÿan lupsh”, a talisman that protects the “road” of life along which the newlyweds will have to walk together.

Mari people of Bashkortostan
Bashkortostan is the second region of Russia after Mari El in terms of the number of Mari residents. There are 105,829 Mari living on the territory of Bashkortostan (2002), a third of the Mari of Bashkortostan live in cities.
The resettlement of the Mari to the Urals took place in the 15th-19th centuries and was caused by their forced Christianization in the Middle Volga. The Mari of Bashkortostan for the most part retained traditional pagan beliefs.
Training in the Mari language is available in national schools, secondary specialized and higher education institutions educational institutions in Birsk and Blagoveshchensk. The Mari public association “Mari Ushem” operates in Ufa.

Famous Mari
Abukaev-Emgak, Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich - journalist, playwright
Bykov, Vyacheslav Arkadyevich - hockey player, coach of the Russian national hockey team
Vasikova, Lidia Petrovna - the first Mari woman professor, Doctor of Philology
Vasiliev, Valerian Mikhailovich - linguist, ethnographer, folklorist, writer
Kim Vasin - writer
Grigoriev, Alexander Vladimirovich - artist
Efimov, Izmail Varsonofevich - artist, king of arms
Efremov, Tikhon Efremovich - educator
Efrush, Georgy Zakharovich - writer
Zotin, Vladislav Maksimovich - 1st President of Mari El
Ivanov, Mikhail Maksimovich - poet
Ignatiev, Nikon Vasilievich - writer
Iskandarov, Alexey Iskandarovitch - composer, choirmaster
Kazakov, Miklai - poet
Kislitsyn, Vyacheslav Alexandrovich - 2nd President of Mari El
Columbus, Valentin Khristoforovich - poet
Konakov, Alexander Fedorovich - playwright
Kirla, Yivan - poet, film actor, film Start to Life

Lekain, Nikandr Sergeevich - writer
Luppov, Anatoly Borisovich - composer
Makarova, Nina Vladimirovna - Soviet composer
Mikay, Mikhail Stepanovich - poet and fabulist
Molotov, Ivan N. - composer
Mosolov, Vasily Petrovich - agronomist, academician
Mukhin, Nikolai Semenovich - poet, translator
Sergei Nikolaevich Nikolaev - playwright
Olyk Ipay - poet
Orai, Dmitry Fedorovich - writer
Palantay, Ivan Stepanovich - composer, folklorist, teacher
Prokhorov, Zinon Filippovich - guard lieutenant, Hero of the Soviet Union.
Pet Pershut - poet
Regezh-Gorokhov, Vasily Mikhailovich - writer, translator, National artist MASSR, Honored Artist of the RSFSR
Savi, Vladimir Alekseevich - writer
Sapaev, Erik Nikitich - composer
Smirnov, Ivan Nikolaevich (historian) - historian, ethnographer
Taktarov, Oleg Nikolaevich - actor, athlete
Toidemar, Pavel S. - musician
Tynysh, Osyp - playwright
Shabdar, Osyp - writer
Shadt, Bulat - poet, prose writer, playwright
Shketan, Yakov Pavlovich - writer
Chavain, Sergei Grigorievich - poet and playwright
Cheremisinova, Anastasia Sergeevna - poetess
Chetkarev, Ksenophon Arkhipovich - ethnographer, folklorist, writer, organizer of science
Eleksein, Yakov Alekseevich - prose writer
Elmar, Vasily Sergeevich - poet
Eshkinin, Andrey Karpovich - writer
Eshpai, Andrey Andreevich - film director, screenwriter, producer
Eshpai, Andrey Yakovlevich - Soviet composer
Eshpai, Yakov Andreevich - ethnographer and composer
Yuzykain, Alexander Mikhailovich - writer
Yuksern, Vasily Stepanovich - writer
Yalkain, Yanysh Yalkaevich - writer, critic, ethnographer
Yamberdov, Ivan Mikhailovich - artist

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Source of information and photos:
Team Nomads.
Peoples of Russia: pictorial album, St. Petersburg, printing house of the Public Benefit Partnership, December 3, 1877, art. 161
MariUver - Independent portal about the Mari, Mari El in four languages: Mari, Russian, Estonian and English
Dictionary of Mari mythology.
Mari // Peoples of Russia. Ch. ed. V. A. Tishkov M.: BRE 1994 p.230
The Last Pagans of Europe
S.K. Kuznetsov. A trip to the ancient Cheremis shrine, known since the time of Olearius. Ethnographic review. 1905, No. 1, p. 129—157
Wikipedia website.
http://aboutmari.com/
http://www.mariuver.info/
http://www.finnougoria.ru/

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The people got their name from the adapted Mari “mari” or “mari”, which in Russian translation means “man” or “person”. The population, according to the 2010 census, is approximately 550,000 people. Mari are an ancient people whose history dates back more than three thousand years. Now living, for the most part, in the Republic of Mari El, part of the Russian Federation. Also, representatives of the Mari ethnic group live in the republics of Udmurtia, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Sverdlovsk, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod and other regions of the Russian Federation. Despite the rough process of assimilation, the indigenous Mari, in some remote settlements, managed to preserve their original language, beliefs, traditions, rituals, clothing style and way of life.

Mari people of the Middle Urals (Sverdlovsk region)

The Mari, as an ethnic group, belong to the Finno-Ugric tribes, which, even in the early Iron Age, lived along the floodplains of the Vetluga and Volga rivers. One thousand years BC. The Mari built their settlements in the Volga interfluve. And the river itself got its name precisely thanks to the Mari tribes who lived along its banks, since the word “Volgaltesh” means “brilliance”, “brilliant”. As for the indigenous Mari language, it is divided into three language dialects, determined by the topographic area of ​​residence. The groups of adverbs are named, in turn, as are the speakers of each dialect variant, as follows: Olyk Mari (Meadow Mari), Kuryk Mari (Mountain Mari), Bashkir Mari (Eastern Mari). In fairness, it is necessary to make a reservation that the speech is not too different from each other. Knowing one of the dialects, you can understand the others.

Before IX, the Mari people lived on fairly vast lands. These were not only the modern Republic of Mari El and the current Nizhny Novgorod, but the lands of Rostov and the present Moscow Region. However, just as nothing lasts forever, the independent, original history of the Mari tribes suddenly ceased. In the 13th century, with the invasion of the troops of the Golden Horde, the lands of the Volga-Vyatka interfluve fell into the power of the khan. Then the Mari peoples received their second name “Cheremysh”, which was later adopted by the Russians as “Cheremis” and has a designation in the modern dictionary: “man”, “husband”. It is worth immediately clarifying that this word is not used in the current lexicon. The lives of people and the wounded valor of the Mari warriors during the reign of the khan will be discussed a little further in the text. And now a few words about originality and cultural traditions Mari people.

Customs and life

Crafts and farming

When you live near deep rivers, and there is endless forest around, it is natural that fishing and hunting will not take up much of your time. last place in life. That's how it was with Mari peoples: hunting of animals, fishing, beekeeping (extracting wild honey), then cultivated beekeeping occupied not the last place in their way of life. But the main activity remained Agriculture. Primarily agriculture. Cereals were grown: oats, rye, barley, hemp, buckwheat, spelt, flax. Turnips, radishes, onions, and other root vegetables, as well as cabbage, were cultivated in the gardens; later they began to plant potatoes. Gardens were planted in some areas. The tools for cultivating the soil were traditional for that time: plow, hoe, plow, harrow. They kept livestock - horses, cows, sheep. They made dishes and other utensils, usually wooden. They wove fabrics from flax fibers. They harvested timber, from which dwellings were then built.

Residential and non-residential buildings

The houses of the ancient Marias were traditional log buildings. A hut, divided into living and utility rooms, with a gable roof. A stove was placed inside, which served not only for heating in cold weather, but also for cooking. Often a large stove was added for a convenient cooking stove. There were shelves with various utensils on the walls. The furniture was wooden and carved. Artfully embroidered fabric served as curtains for windows and sleeping places. In addition to the residential hut, there were other buildings on the farm. In the summer, when hot days came, the whole family moved to live in a kudo, a kind of analogue of a modern summer dacha. A log house without a ceiling, with an earthen floor, on which, right in the center of the building, there was a fireplace. A cauldron was hung over an open fire. In addition, the economic complex included: a bathhouse, a cage (something like a closed gazebo), a barn, a canopy under which sleighs and carts were located, a cellar and pantry, and a cattle shed.

Food and household items

Bread was the main dish. It was baked from barley, oatmeal, and rye flour. In addition to unleavened bread, they baked pancakes, flatbreads, and pies with various fillings. The unleavened dough was used for dumplings with meat or curd filling, and was also thrown into soup in the form of small balls. This dish was called “lashka”. They made homemade sausages and salted fish. The favorite drinks were puro (strong mead), beer, and buttermilk.

Meadow Mari

They made household items, clothes, shoes, and jewelry themselves. Men and women dressed in shirts, trousers and caftans. In cold weather they wore fur coats and sheepskin coats. Clothes were complemented with belts. Women's wardrobe items were distinguished by rich embroidery, a longer shirt and were complemented by an apron, as well as a robe made of canvas fabric, which was called a shovyr. Of course, women of the Mari nationality loved to decorate their outfits. They wore items made from shells, beads, coins and beads, and intricate headdresses called: magpie (a kind of cap) and scharpan (national scarf). Men's headdresses were felt hats and fur hats. Shoes were made from leather, birch bark, and felted.

Traditions and religion

In traditional Mari beliefs, as in any European pagan culture, the main place was occupied by holidays associated with agricultural activities and the change of seasons. So a shining example are Aga payrem - the beginning of the sowing season, the holiday of the plow and plow, Kinde payrem - the harvest, the holiday of new bread and fruits. In the pantheon of gods, Kugu Yumo was considered supreme. There were others: Kava Yumo - the goddess of fate and sky, Wood Ava - the mother of all lakes and rivers, Ilysh Shochyn Ava - the goddess of life and fertility, Kudo Vodyzh - the spirit guarding the house and hearth, Keremet - the evil god who, at special temples in the groves , sacrificed livestock. Religious person The person who conducted the prayers was a priest, “kart” in the Mari language.

As for marriage traditions, marriages were patrilocal; after a ceremony, the obligatory condition of which was the payment of a bride price, and the girl herself was given a dowry by her parents, which became her personal property, the bride went to live with her husband’s family. During the wedding itself, tables were set and a festive tree - a birch tree - was brought into the yard. The family structure was established as patriarchal; they lived in communities and clans called “Urmat”. However, the families themselves were not too crowded.

Mari priests

If remnants family relations long forgotten, many ancient burial traditions have been preserved to this day. The Mari buried their dead in winter clothes; the body was transported to the graveyard exclusively on sleighs, at any time of the year. On the way, the deceased was supplied with a thorny branch of rose hips in order to ward off dogs and snakes guarding the entrance to the afterlife.
Traditional musical instruments, during holidays, rituals, and ceremonies there were harps, bagpipes, various trumpets and pipes, and drums.

A little about history, the Golden Horde and Ivan the Terrible

As mentioned earlier, the lands on which the Mari tribes originally lived were, in the 13th century, subordinated to the Golden Horde Khan. The Mari became one of the nationalities that were part of the Kazan Khanate and Golden Horde. There is an excerpt from the chronicle of times, which mentions how the Russians lost a major battle to the Mari, the Cheremis as they were called then. The figures of thirty thousand killed Russian warriors are mentioned and talk about the sinking of almost all of their ships. Also, chronicle sources indicate that at that time the Cheremis were in alliance with the Horde, carrying out raids together as a single army. The Tatars themselves, by the way, keep silent about this historical fact, attributing to themselves all the glory of the conquests.

But, as Russian chronicles say, the Mari warriors were brave and dedicated to their cause. Thus, one of the manuscripts cites an incident that occurred in the 16th century, when the Russian army surrounded Kazan and the Tatar troops suffered crushing losses, and their remnants, led by the khan, fled, leaving the city to be conquered by the Russians. Then it was the Mari army that blocked their path, despite the significant advantage of the Russian army. The Mari, who could easily go into the wild forest, put up an army of 12 thousand people against the 150 thousandth army. They managed to fight back and forced the Russian army to retreat. As a result, negotiations took place, Kazan was saved. However, Tatar historians deliberately remain silent about these facts, when their troops led by their leader shamefully fled, the Cheremis stood up for the Tatar cities.

After Kazan had already been conquered by the Terrible Tsar Ivan IV, the Mari raised liberation movement. Alas, the Russian Tsar solved the problem in his own spirit - with bloody massacres and terror. The “Cheremis Wars” - an armed uprising against Moscow rule, were so named because it was the Mari who were the organizers and main participants in the riots. In the end, all resistance was brutally suppressed, and the Mari people themselves were slaughtered almost completely. The survivors had no choice but to surrender and take an oath of allegiance to the winner, that is, the Tsar of Moscow.

Today's day

Today, the land of the Mari people is one of the republics that is part of the Russian Federation. Mari El borders on the Kirov and Nizhny Novgorod regions, Chuvashia and Tatarstan. Not only indigenous peoples, but also other nationalities, numbering more than fifty, live on the territory of the republic. The bulk of the population are Mari and Russians.

Recently, with the development of urbanization and assimilation processes, the problem of the extinction of national traditions, culture, and folk language has become acute. Many residents of the republic, being indigenous Mari, abandon their native dialects, preferring to speak exclusively in Russian, even at home, among their relatives. This is a problem not only in large, industrial cities, but also in small, rural settlements. Children do not learn their native speech, and national identity is lost.

Of course, sports are being developed and supported in the republic, competitions are held, orchestra performances are held, writers are awarded, environmental activities are carried out with the participation of young people, and many other useful things are carried out. But against the backdrop of all this, we should not forget about the ancestral roots, the identity of the people and their ethnic and cultural self-identification.