The layout of the Russian hut. Russian folk traditions in construction Where should the bed be in a Russian hut

Many Russians know about the Taoist art of organizing space and increasing the positive energy flows of Feng Shui. And often you can see that the construction of wooden houses is in accordance with the principles of Feng Shui. But this art does not quite correspond to our mentality, the traditions and beliefs of the ancient Slavs are much closer to us, the Russian people!

The Slavs knew that the family happiness and financial well-being of the owners of the house are closely related to how correctly the place was chosen for building the house. Until now, there is a set of rules "Spravny Dom", which reflects many aspects of choosing a place for a house and building it.

Seat selection rules

• You can not build on the site of a former cemetery or ashes.
• You can not start construction near the existing or destroyed chapels, churches, monasteries.
• You can’t build a house where the big road ran - happiness will “leave” the family.
• You can not build in the geopathic zone. It is easy to determine such a place - there are few shrubs and green spaces, the relief is very even, there are many different-sized stones on the surface of the earth. These are signs of a break in the earth's crust, the energy of such a site is not suitable for happiness and longevity. Ancient people noticed that the inhabitants of houses built in such inappropriate places suffer from headaches and insomnia, and abuse alcohol.
• When choosing a place for building a wooden house, they chose beautiful natural landscapes, areas near water bodies and forests.
• By vegetation, you can also determine a good place or a bad one. The presence of conifers, mountain ash and maple was considered a good sign, but oaks, ash, willow, willow and aspen grow where groundwater flows close. This is unfavorable for the foundation, leading to big problems during the construction and operation of the house.
• Trees with "clumsy" trunks are also bad. Such flaws indicate infertile soil.

Rules for building a house from the ancient Slavs

• It was advised to begin the construction of the hut on the new moon and in early spring (during Lent). In this case, you can achieve good luck in all matters, and not just in construction. The construction time was supposed to "capture" the Trinity.
• If you start construction on a day that is dedicated "by Christmas" to the Great Martyr, then it will be very difficult to complete the construction. But the days that are dedicated to the Reverends are very favorable for the start of any major business.
• In addition to the holidays "at Christmas time", the days of the week in the usual calendar are also important - it was recommended to do the "start" on Tuesday and Thursday - these are the days of traditional "men's work".

• It is necessary to start laying the furnace on the new moon (such constructions will give off heat better). On the waning moon, it was forbidden to start such an important business - such a furnace would be short-lived or very cold.
• The first crowns of the hut were laid along, and only then across. This promised deliverance from many of life's difficulties.
• They tried to have the "beginning" of the construction laid by the girl - then the house would be very warm.
• It was forbidden to put up pillars with a butt top - happiness can leave forever from such a house.
• During the first laying, they put in the front corner: a coin (for financial well-being), wool from a well-fed sheep (for warmth) and a piece of incense (to pacify the brownie).
• The floors were laid strictly towards the threshold, along the walls of the house, the other direction of the floor boards “threatened” with the absence of a happy life.
• Until the moment when the crown crown was laid, the masters did not leave the workplace, it was impossible to insert an ax into a tree or hit the wood with an ax butt.
• "Stowing" - it was an unbreakable custom: after laying the two lower crowns, the owner gave the masters a shot of vodka.
• The house was never oriented with window openings, doors or an entrance gate to the north.
• When laying the foundation for a log house, signs advised planting a mountain ash in the yard, and after erecting an overhead crown (so that the walls were strong), planting an oak seedling.

Notes before moving in

In ancient times, the construction of wooden houses was associated with a large number of signs, there were many superstitions about this. Believe it or not folk wisdom, it's up to you, but it's worth noting that every sign has been tested for centuries and many of them confirmed their "right to life"!

A child is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

The table is decorated by guests, and the house is decorated by children.

He does not die who does not leave children.

Be truthful even in relation to a child: keep your promise, otherwise you will teach him to lie.


— L.N. Tolstoy

Children need to be taught to speak, and adults to listen to children.

Let childhood mature in children.

Life must be disturbed more often so that it does not turn sour.

— M. Gorky

Children need to be given not only life, but also the opportunity to live.

Not the father-mother who gave birth, but the one who made him drink, nurtured, and taught good.

Interior arrangement of the Russian hut

The hut was the most important keeper of family traditions for a Russian person, a large family lived here, and children were brought up. The hut was a symbol of comfort and tranquility. The word "hut" comes from the word "heat". The firebox is the heated part of the house, hence the word "fire".

The interior decoration of a traditional Russian hut was simple and comfortable: a table, benches, benches, capitals (stools), chests - everything was done in the hut with their own hands, carefully and with love, and was not only useful, beautiful, pleasing to the eye, but carried its own protective properties. In good owners, everything in the hut sparkled with cleanliness. On the walls are embroidered white towels; floor, table, benches scraped.

There were no rooms in the house, so the entire space was divided into zones, according to the functions and purpose. Separation was carried out using a kind of fabric curtain. In this way, the economic part was separated from the residential part.

The central place in the house was given to the stove. The stove sometimes occupied almost a quarter of the hut, and the more massive it was, the more heat it accumulated. The interior layout of the house depended on its location. That's why the saying arose: "Dance from the stove." The stove was an integral part of not only the Russian hut, but also the Russian tradition. It served at the same time as a source of heat, and a place for cooking, and a place to sleep; used in the treatment of a variety of diseases. In some areas, people washed and steamed in the oven. The stove, at times, personified the entire dwelling, its presence or absence determined the nature of the building (a house without a stove is non-residential). Cooking in a Russian oven was a sacred act: raw, undeveloped food turned into boiled, mastered food. The oven is the soul of the house. The kind, honest Mother-stove in whose presence they did not dare to say a swear word, under which, according to the beliefs of the ancestors, the keeper of the hut lived - Brownie. Rubbish was burned in the stove, since it could not be taken out of the hut.

The place of the stove in the Russian house can be seen from the respect with which the people treated their hearth. Not every guest was allowed to go to the stove, and if they allowed someone to sit on their stove, then such a person became especially close, welcome in the house.

The stove was installed diagonally from the red corner. So called the most elegant part of the house. The very word "red" means: "beautiful", "good", "bright". The red corner was located opposite the front door, so that everyone who entered could appreciate the beauty. The red corner was well lit, since both of its constituent walls had windows. The decoration of the red corner was especially reverent and they tried to keep it clean. He was the most honored place in the house. Especially important family values, amulets, idols were located here. Everything was placed on a shelf or table lined with an embroidered towel, in a special order. According to tradition, a person who came to the hut could go there only at the special invitation of the owners.

As a rule, everywhere in Russia there was a table in the red corner. In a number of places it was placed in the wall between the windows - against the corner of the stove. The table has always been a place where the unity of family members took place.

In the red corner, near the table, two benches meet, and on top - two shelves of a bench. All significant events of family life were marked in the red corner. Here, at the table, both everyday meals and festive feasts were held; many calendar rituals took place. In the wedding ceremony, the matchmaking of the bride, her ransom from her girlfriends and brother were performed in the red corner; from the red corner of her father's house they took her away; brought to the groom's house and also led to the red corner.

Opposite the red corner there was a furnace or “baby” corner (kut). There, women cooked food, spun, wove, sewed, embroidered, etc. Here, near the window, against the mouth of the furnace, hand millstones stood in every house, so the corner is also called a millstone. On the walls were observers - shelves for tableware, cabinets. Above, at the level of the benches, there was a stove beam, on which kitchen utensils were placed, and a variety of household items were stacked. The stove corner, closed with a wooden partition, formed a small room, which had the name "closet" or "prilub". It was a kind of women's space in the hut: here women cooked food, rested after work.

The relatively small space of the hut was organized in such a way that a fairly large family of seven to eight people was located in it with the greatest convenience. This was achieved due to the fact that each member of the family knew their place in the common space. Men worked, rested during the day on the men's half of the hut, which included a front corner and a bench near the entrance. Women and children were during the day in the women's quarters near the stove. Places for night sleep have also been allocated. Sleeping places were located on benches and even on the floor. Under the very ceiling of the hut, between two adjacent walls and the stove, a wide plank platform was laid on a special beam - “platy”. The children especially liked to sit on the floorboards - and it was warm and everything was visible. Children, and sometimes adults, slept on the beds, clothes were folded here, onions, garlic and peas were dried here. Under the ceiling, a baby cradle was fixed.

All household belongings were kept in chests. They were massive, heavy, and sometimes reached such a size that it was quite possible for an adult to sleep on them. Chests were made to last for centuries, so they were strengthened from the corners with forged metal, such furniture lived in families for decades, being inherited.

In a traditional Russian dwelling, benches ran along the walls in a circle, starting from the entrance, and served for sitting, sleeping, and storing various household items. In old huts, benches were decorated with "edge" - a board nailed to the edge of the bench, hanging from it like a frill. Such shops were called "pubescent" or "with a canopy", "with a view. Under the benches they kept various items that, if necessary, were easy to get: axes, tools, shoes, etc. In traditional rituals and in the sphere of traditional norms of behavior, a shop acts as a place that not everyone is allowed to sit in. So, entering the house, especially strangers, it was customary to stand at the threshold until the owners invited them to come in and sit down. on the bench by invitation only.

There were many children in the Russian hut, and the cradle - the cradle was just as necessary an attribute of the Russian hut as a table or stove. Bast, reeds, pine shingles, linden bark were common materials for making cradles. More often, the cradle was hung in the back of the hut, next to the firebox. A ring was driven into a thick ceiling log, a “rocker” was hung on it, on which a cradle was attached to the ropes. It was possible to rock such a cradle with the help of a special strap with a hand, and in case of busy hands, with a foot. In some regions, the cradle was hung on an ochep - a rather long wooden pole. Most often, a well-bending and springy birch was used for the ochepa. Suspension of the cradle to the ceiling was not accidental: the warmest air accumulated near the ceiling, which provided heating for the child. There was a belief that heavenly forces guard a child raised above the floor, so it grows better and accumulates vital energy. Gender was perceived as the boundary between the world of people and the world where evil spirits live: the souls of the dead, ghosts, brownies. To protect the child from them, amulets were necessarily placed under the cradle. And on the head of the cradle they carved the sun, in the legs - a month and stars, multi-colored rags, wooden painted spoons were fastened. The cradle itself was decorated with carvings or paintings. A canopy was a mandatory attribute. The most beautiful fabric was chosen for the canopy, it was decorated with lace and ribbons. If the family was poor, they used an old sundress, which, despite the summer, looked smart.

In the evenings, when it got dark, the Russian huts were lit with torches. Luchina was the only source of illumination in the Russian hut for many centuries. Usually birch was used as a torch, which burned brightly and did not smoke. A bundle of splinters was inserted into special forged lights that could be fixed anywhere. Sometimes they used oil lamps - small bowls with upturned edges.

The curtains on the windows were plain or patterned. They were woven from natural fabrics, decorated with protective embroidery. All textile items were decorated with handmade white lace: tablecloths, curtains and bed sheets.

On a holiday, the hut was transformed: the table was moved to the middle, covered with a tablecloth, festive utensils, which had previously been stored in crates, were put on the shelves.

As the main color scheme for the hut, golden-ocher was used, with the addition of red and white. Furniture, walls, dishes, painted in golden-ocher tones, were successfully complemented by white towels, red flowers, and beautiful paintings.

The ceiling could also be painted in the form of floral ornaments.

Thanks to the use of exclusively natural materials in construction and interior decoration, the huts were always cool in summer and warm in winter.

In the atmosphere of the hut there was not a single superfluous random object, each thing had its own strictly defined purpose and a place illuminated by tradition, which is a distinctive feature of the character of the Russian dwelling.

In our fleeting age, people especially need to feel at least somewhere protected and safe. And a natural place that gives such a feeling is your home. Not without reason the popular saying says: "my house is my fortress". But in order for a house to be a home, it must be properly built and equipped. Today, everyone is familiar with the art of home improvement feng shui, which came to us from China, a little less people know the ancient Indian Vastu Shastra. However, our Ancestors - the Slavs had their own art of home improvement, which has evolved over thousands of years and is consonant with our ancestral Spirit. In the ancient Slavic Volkhov art "VoyYarg" there was a whole section dedicated to the arrangement and furnishing of the house, which was called "Okay House" or "House-amulet".

If we turn to the worldview of our Ancestors, we will see that the entire universe for them was built according to the principle of similarity, where the small - Yar, reflects the great - Yarg. So the house was a likeness of the Universe, a kind of universe created by the owner and connecting it with the outside world. But in order for the house to become a likeness of the living Universe, it is necessary to fill it with the Life Force - the Vein. To do this, it was necessary to comply with a number of conditions, the first of which was the choice of the right place for future housing.

There are strong, neutral and dead places. Housing cannot be built on the latter, such places include cemeteries, places next to existing temples and shrines, or places where temples and shrines stood and were destroyed. Steep bends of rivers, places where the road used to pass - it was believed that happiness and wealth would not linger in such a place in the house. A strong place is rich in underground springs, trees and shrubs grow even and tall on it.

There was also a special ceremony to help determine whether the place was chosen for building a house.

The location of the house was also important, it was consistent with the cardinal points and, accordingly, with the so-called. geomagnetic network or, in the old way - Navi Lines. The house itself was built in the traditional span system of measures, which was tied to the human body. So, it was initially sweet with its owner, it was created exclusively for him. And a person in such a house felt free and comfortable. The internal layout of the house was consistent with the Kolovrats generated by the elemental Streams of Heaven and Earth. The outer decoration of the house was framed with protective patterns in order to attract positive elemental Streams into the house and eliminate the influence of the bad Streams. In the rooms of the house were placed special Items of Power, dedicated to the patron gods of these parts of the house.

During the construction of the house, a mortgage was laid under its foundation - special amulets with rune symbols and conspiracies that were supposed to attract, attract Zhilo to the house. The same amulets and signs were placed or drawn on the floor under the top covering, laid in corners, under baseboards and under the jambs of doors and windows.

The house itself was arranged according to a certain principle, and each part of it was interconnected with the Gods. Horizontally, the house was divided by the Perun Cross into four sectors, correlated with the four Gods - the organizers of the house space. Moreover, each of these sectors could also be divided according to the principle of nested spaces. Vertically, the house repeated the three-part structure of the world: the lower part - the foundation and the underground or cellar - Nav, the past, the foundation; the middle part - residential - Yav, the place where the life of the household passes; attic and roof - vault of heaven, Rule - the abode of higher Forces. Heavenly Streams go through the roof into the house, which is why in the old days the roof of any house was with slopes, so that the Force flowing from Heaven would not stagnate and create unnecessary tension, but would wash the house like rain. The gable roof was usually located in the east-west direction, and horse heads were carved on the skates, symbolizing the chariot or boat of Dazhbog-Sun, in which he sails across the Sky.
The southern side of the house was considered the strongest, the side in which the Strib (element) of the earth dominated the earthly Kolovrat of the elements, and the Strib of solar fire dominated the heavenly Kolovrat. It was on the south side, along which the Sun walks, that the facade was located - the face of the house. This side usually had the most windows.

The south side of the house also had a living room and a kitchen, since the south side is the side of fertility, goodness and health. Moreover, the living room merges with the eastern side, for the eastern side carries Streams of wandering, nomadic - just to welcome guests. The living room was patronized by Belobog - the organizer of manifest life and Striver - the owner of space, the Father of the winds. Therefore, all important family matters were decided in the living room, family councils were held, and guests who came to the house were welcomed here. The kitchen was connected with the western side, because the west carries the Streams of material wealth and stability. The kitchen is under the control of Chislobog - the keeper of time, numbers and the Deity of counting and calculations and Makosh - the heavenly spinner, the patroness of women. The kitchen space from the stove to the southern wall was called the women's kut - here the woman was a full-fledged mistress. In the kitchen there is also one of the most significant Places of Power at home - the oven. According to ancient Slavic legends, the first thing that the heavenly blacksmith Svarog bungled was the oven. And his first words were: "Let there be fire in this hearth!" And the light, already from the fire, appeared by itself. The first stove-maker was God Svarog, that's why all the Stove Masters are Svarog brothers. The stove is the gate to Nav - the ancient world of mankind. Behind each furnace lives the God of the beginning, our First Ancestor. He still lives there, only people have forgotten about it, whoever is friends with the stove can see Him. He usually appears in flames in the form of a Fireman. The female womb is arranged in the image of the furnace, inside which Svarog placed the Life-giving fire. You put raw material into it, and you get it ready, with Spirit and Soul. The oven brings death into life, from the past into the future. Hearth in the house - life in the house. A house without a hearth is not a house at all, even in a temporary house there is a hearth. In modern apartments in the kitchens there are gas, electric, but stoves. Fire can have any nature. Any stove is a child of that Divine First Furnace. Any fire by which you warm yourself and on which you cook food turns the house into a temple. You need to treat the hearth with understanding, according to all the rules: keep it clean, as you keep your body clean, wipe it every day. If you ask the oven well, it will save the house from all evil spirits, and drive away the disease, and all sorrow. In the furnace you can burn your sadness, drive away any trouble. And you can tell bad dreams to the stove fire, bad forebodings. The oven is almost like God, omnipotent! Prabog lives in a world called Nav, Nav's live there - the Souls of the Ancestors, and we will go there after death. From there, new Souls come into the world. The stove is an image of Mother Earth. At the stove they pray for future children and bake the premature and sick. In the furnace, wild fire turns into manual fire and serves a person.

From the west, the south side was usually adjoined by an adjoining or veranda. Moreover, the entrance to the house should be from the western side, so that the Streams of material prosperity and stability flow into the house. The entrance hall and the entrance are under the control of Perun - he rules the streams that pull into the house. And standing guard over the boundary separating the space of the house from the foreign world of the backyard, he rules over the course of Lived in the house. From the outside, on the porch above the front door, they usually hang a sweatshirt, which must have been under a horse and found on its own. To attract happiness and prosperity, they hang it upside down. The horseshoe placed in this way also symbolizes a full bowl in the house. But from the inside, needles or a knife are usually stuck under the casing in order to interrupt the flow of bad streams and drive those who seek into the house with bad intentions. The architraves themselves above the front door and the pediment of the porch are decorated with carved signs of Perun - Hailstones.
On the western side of the house, all material values ​​\u200b\u200bshould be located, be it money, jewelry or pantries with food supplies. Then prosperity and well-being will continuously dominate in the house. In the West, it is also necessary to equip a business place, then any business will bring tangible material results.

These are just some of the principles of arranging the Okay House by our Ancestors, which can be a talisman and a real family nest for those who inhabit it. The Slavic knowledge of home improvement itself is very extensive, and includes, among other things, information about the creation of home amulets that ward off misfortunes and ailments, and exalt goodness, ancient rituals that call the Power and Grace of the Gods and Elements into the house. And many many others.

And even if you do not live in your own house, but in an apartment of a high-rise building, using the wisdom of our Ancestors, you can turn it from a gray typical cold crypt into a native corner that warms the Soul and heart.

Since ancient times, the Slavs had their own system of ideas about the structure of the house. Unfortunately, it has been forgotten by almost everyone and has come down to our days only in the form of individual signs and superstitions. We know that it is forbidden, for example, to sit on the corner of a table, to hand out a knife and fork to a neighbor with a sharp end, to say goodbye through the threshold, and so on. However, we do not know why such bans exist. And this is a small part of the ancient science of spiritual development and the relationship of all phenomena and objects.

At all times, the house was considered a nest, protection from bad weather and evil. No wonder the proverb was born: “Houses and walls help”. Our ancestors approached the boundless world of space with the help of images, building their lives in accordance with natural rhythms.

Here are a few rules that guided our ancestors when building a house (a house - both literally and figuratively). The construction of the house began on the growing moon, that is, after the new moon. Simultaneously with the laying of the foundation in the middle of the future courtyard, a tree was necessarily planted.

From time immemorial, a sign has remained: in order to ensure happiness and wealth, shreds of wool, grain or money were placed under the corners of the first logs. Before laying the ceiling, a turned-out bear short fur coat and a loaf of bread, a pie or a pot of porridge were tied to the base, and a green branch was installed in the front corner - it ensured the health of the family.

A special place in the homes of our ancestors was occupied by the threshold. He was made tall and strong. In pagan times, the ashes of their ancestors were buried under the threshold after burning. With the adoption of Christianity, this custom disappeared. But they did not stop attaching special importance to the threshold - over time, they began to consider it as a habitat for ancestral spirits. Until now, the tradition has been preserved - not to talk on the threshold, although few people know what exactly this custom is connected with. And it is connected precisely with beliefs in spirits that can eavesdrop on a person’s plans and interfere with him. Above the threshold of the front door, it is customary to hang or draw a horseshoe - a symbol of happiness or a Christian cross as protection from bad, negative energy.

The entrance hall should be spacious and bright, because this is the first room in which you meet guests and which you enter when returning home. Through the hallway there is an exchange of energies of the house itself and the outside world.

Windows also connect us with the outside world - they need to be oriented towards the sunny side. East and south symbolize life and warmth. Therefore, it is better that the windows of rooms and bedrooms face south and east, and the front door, kitchen, bathroom and toilet face west and north.

The central place in any Russian (and in general, in the Slavic) family was occupied by a stove. Subsequently, her role shifted to the kitchen. It so happened that life is always in full swing here: the family gathers for lunch and dinner, talks with a run-away neighbor, raises children, and has heart-to-heart conversations with friends, some over a glass of beer, some over a cup of tea. Here, according to ancient beliefs, lives a guardian spirit - brownie. Therefore, the kitchen should be beautiful and clean. In the kitchen, as in the most inhabited place at home, you can hang symbols-amulets: decorative keys - a symbol of dowry, wealth, spoons, symbolizing a satisfying life; hatchets - a sign of the pagan Perun - the patron saint of the harvest; whistles, bells, brooms, shoulder blades - all this is protection from various troubles. Well, if you need children's amulets, then these are corn cobs and dried sunflower hats.

The table, according to Slavic customs, connects two spaces in the house - living and working, and on its main side - under the icons - the owner-breadwinner is seated. Previously, a samovar was placed on the table, covered with a beautiful heating doll, sewn by the hands of the mistress of the house, the eldest woman in the family. By the way, among the Slavs, the doll had a deep meaning - it protected and outwardly looked like an idol. Bereginya (a magnificent doll) was also placed above the porch, as well as on the windows. In the old days, they believed that the doll guards children's sleep. She was dressed up, but the doll's face was never painted. According to popular beliefs, a doll with a face acquired a soul and could do harm. Many dolls were filled with grain - a symbol of well-being and health. A house without toys was considered soulless and empty.

The most popular “charms” and home decorations in the Slavic-Russian culture were elegant linen towels. They decorated images, the kitchen and even the bedroom. A towel is a symbol of human life, a line of fate.

But the mirror symbolizes financial well-being. It should be hung next to the table in the living room or in the kitchen - it will attract prosperity to the house.

Recently, it has become very fashionable to decorate bedrooms with mirrors. However, in no case should you hang a mirror near the bed: a mirror hanging near the bed can destroy your life and take away your strength and energy. You should also not hang shelves, cabinets or paintings with negative images or plots above the bed. However, if we recall the folk wisdom “even an unloaded gun shoots once every hundred years”, then lockers and paintings, even with the most positive images, should not be hung over the bed either: it’s not even an hour - they will break off and fall on your head.

But innocent home flowers in pots - geraniums, aloe, delicate violets - will come in handy somewhere closer to the bed. Our ancestors generally attached great importance to plants that both treated and fed and watered. They were used as amulets. For example, ferns, lilies, marigolds, junipers were grown at the entrance to protect the house from evil spirits and the evil eye.

A place. Landscape.

Our Ancestors had other than ours views on the place called home, where they were to live, raise children, celebrate, love, receive guests.

Let's try to turn to their experience, to restore for ourselves their sense of the space of being, which was "made" by them in compliance with customs and rituals in order to serve their life as successfully as possible.
First of all, the choice of location was not accidental. The Russian village, as a rule, is very picturesquely located. A settlement was set up on the banks of a river, a lake, on a hill near the springs. The place was well ventilated and washed by energy currents of air and water.

When building housing, the peasant gave it an orientation to the cardinal points. He put the hut where the rays of the sun gave more heat and light, where from the windows, from the porch platform, from the courtyard, the widest view of the land he cultivated opened, where there was a good approach and entrance to the house. For example, in the Nizhny Novgorod province, they tried to orient houses to the south, “to the sun”; if this was not possible, then "facing" to the east or southwest. Houses of single-row settlements are oriented only to the south. The natural lack of space on the sunny side with the growth of the settlement led to the emergence of a second row of houses, with facades facing north. On a flat and dry site, he built a barn and a threshing floor, "in front of his eyes" - he put a barn in front of the house. He raised a windmill to the top of the hill, below by the water, he built a bathhouse.

It was impossible to build housing where the road used to pass. The space of the former road was penetrating, "blowing through"; in the house, the energy of life did not accumulate, but passed through it along the old route.
A place was considered unfavorable for construction if human bones were found there, or someone was injured with an ax or a knife to the point of blood, or other unpleasant, unexpected events occurred that were memorable for the village. This threatened misfortune for the inhabitants of the future home.

It was impossible to build a house on the site where the bathhouse stood. In the bath, a person did not just wash off dirt from himself, but, as it were, plunged into a vessel with living and dead water, was born anew each time, putting himself to the test of fire and water, steaming at a high temperature, and then dipping into an ice hole or a river, or simply doused himself ice water. The bath was both a maternity hospital and a dwelling place for the spirit of the bannik. The bath is an unconsecrated place - there are no icons there. Bath is a place where a lot of things happen, if you do not follow the rituals of visiting it.

Based on all this, the house, put on the site of the bath, was built in a space where a lot of things happened and it continued to keep the memory of it. The consequences of living on the site of the bath were unpredictable.
Favorable for construction was considered the place where cattle lie down to rest. The people attributed to him the power of fertility. Animals are more sensitive to the energy characteristics of the place. The ancients knew this and widely used in life. The peoples of the world have many similar signs and rituals, where the instinct of animals is used.
The whole process of house-building was accompanied by rituals. One of the obligatory customs is to make a sacrifice so that the house stands well.

Here it would be appropriate to recall that Orthodoxy has pagan roots that Christianity has not destroyed. The paganism of a Christian reflects the reality of his existence among living nature, which he perceived as spiritualized, that is, manifested as an equal subject to him. Our ancestors - the Slavs, as a rule, clothed knowledge in mythological metaphors, proverbs, sayings, signs. This did not in the least diminish the value of the knowledge they accumulated, which today is forgotten and little used. We tend to turn to a modern designer, again relying on traditional, but Chinese Feng Shui, rather than using the experience of our own ancestors.
Fragments of the picture of the world of the ancient Slavs were preserved by Russians almost until the end of the 19th century. Speaking about building a house, we can observe its manifestations in the rite described below.

A tree, usually a birch or mountain ash, was installed on the site of the future log house, which symbolized the "world tree" - "the center of the world." In our opinion, this ritual reflects the idea of ​​our ancestors about their own time and place in the world. Note that the peasants of the 19th century hardly did this consciously, with understanding. The archaic meaning of the rite could mean that it is here, in the space of the future home, that all the most significant events for the owner of the house will take place, his life, the life of his children and, possibly, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, will flow. The ritual tree was replaced by a living one, planted near the house. It carried the sacred meaning of the world tree, and besides this, the person who planted the tree manifested that the space around the house was not wild, but cultural, mastered by him. It was forbidden to cut specially planted trees for firewood or for other household needs. The choice of tree species - most often they planted mountain ash, was also not accidental. Both the rowan fruit and the leaf have the graphics of a cross, which means that in the picture of the Russian world, they are a natural amulet.

Particular importance was attached to the laying of the first crown: it divided all the space into domestic and non-domestic, into internal and external. From the chaos of the surrounding nature, the elements, the promised island stood out - the macrocosm of human life.

Manor. HOUSE.

Consider a typical form of traditional housing. The hut is a cage, which is a rectangle, over which a gable roof rises. Let's try to read this in the Feng Shui system. According to the elements - this is the earth, heated by fire. That is, energetically the house was, as it were, a continuation of the element Earth, but so that it would not be washed away by the element of water pouring from above, the roof protected and warmed the fire. Fire connected the space of the house with the Heavenly Fire, the Sun, the Light of the Stars and the Moon. On a gable roof, energy flows down to the house, washing it. For comparison: our today's box houses are deprived of a vertical, which would contribute, like an antenna, to the connection with the energy of the Cosmos. This is directly related to the well-being of a person living in such a house and among such flat architecture. In the architecture of Nizhny Novgorod, for example, for the past 10 years, they have been trying to make a tower, a spire, a high roof directed to the sky, both for residential buildings and for administrative ones. This is an intuitive desire to compensate for a long period of a kind of gray stagnation in the external decoration and well-being. What can we remember from the "architectural styles" of the Soviet period? "Stalin", "Khrushchev", panel construction. Both their appearance and interior decoration cannot be called comfortable for a person.

On the facades of the houses of our ancestors, for example, in our forested Nizhny Novgorod region, the picture of the world of ancient ancestors was reflected in wooden carvings, or its individual details were present, as if hinting at it. The essence of ornamental decoration is the image of three worlds. The pediment is the upper world, the middle part of the facade is the earth. The lower part, as a rule, is not filled with ornaments - the chthonic, unmanifested world. The abundance of solar signs, signs of fertility, the world tree - everything was designed not to decorate, but to carry certain meanings through which the space of the required quality unfolded. That is, it was assumed that the house should be a full bowl, its space to contribute to the health and happy life of the family. This was served by the ornaments of the facade.

Interior.

Sacred meanings in a simple Russian hut, manifested in rituals, dominated cleanliness and comfort from our modern point of view.

Almost the entire home space seemed to “come to life”, participating as a place for holding certain family rituals related to the growing up of children, weddings, funerals, and receiving guests.
Let's start, as usual, from the stove.

The Russian stove is the largest volume in the interior of the house. They occupied an area of ​​2.5 - 3 square meters. m. The heat capacity of the stove provided uniform heating of the living space throughout the day, allowing you to keep food and water hot for a long time, dry clothes, sleep on it in damp and cold weather.

The stove, as we have already noted, is a home altar. She warms the house, transforms the products brought into the house with fire. The furnace is a place near which various rituals take place. For example, if a smartly dressed woman came into the house and almost without a word comes to the stove and warms her hands by the fire, it means that the matchmaker has come to woo.
And the person who spent the night on the stove becomes "his".

The point here is not in the furnace as such, but in the fire. Of all the elements, fire is the most revered. None of the pagan holidays could do without lighting ritual bonfires. Then the fire migrated to an Orthodox church: the lights of lamps, candles lit with prayer. In the traditional culture of Russians, a room that did not have a stove was considered not residential.
It should be noted that, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, the stove was heated in black, and there was no talk of any convenience in our understanding - cleanliness, fresh air. The firebox of the stove transformed the house in a white way. At the same time, the traditional furniture and interior of the Trans-Volga peasant hut remained unchanged. Back in the middle of the nineteenth century, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky wrote: “The Great Russian hut in the north, east and along the Volga has almost the same location everywhere: to the right of the entrance in the corner is a stove (rarely placed to the left, such a hut is called “unspun”, because on a long bench, which is opposite the stove, spinning from the red corner to the conic is not by hand - the right hand has to be against the wall and not in the light). The corner to the left of the entrance and the counter from the door to the corner is called "konik", here is a place for the owner to sleep, and harness and various belongings are placed under the bench. The front corner to the right of the entrance is the “baby kut”, or “cooking”, it is often separated from the hut by a wooden partition. The shop from the holy corner to the concoction is called "big", and sometimes "red". The counter from the woman’s kut to the stove is a “cooking shop”, next to it, right up to the stove itself, is a “cooking station”, like a cupboard and a table together, dishes are cooked on it. ”(5, p. 199)

Each member of the family had their own space in the house. The place of the hostess - the mother of the family - is near the stove, that's why it was called so - "baby kut". The place of the owner - the father - is at the very entrance. This is the place of the guardian, the protector. The old people often lay down on the stove - a warm, comfortable place. Children, like peas, were scattered all over the hut, or sat on the floor - a flooring raised to the level of the stove, where they were not afraid of drafts during the long Russian winter.

The baby swayed in a shaky, attached to the end of a pole, which was attached to the ceiling through a ring fixed in it. This made it possible to move the unsteady to any end of the hut.

red corner .

An obligatory accessory of a peasant dwelling was a goddess (“tablo”, “kiot”), which was located in the front corner above the dining table.

This place was called "red corner". It was a home altar. A person began his day with a prayer, and prayer, with a look turned into a red corner, at the icons, accompanied his whole life in the house. For example, a prayer was always read before and after a meal.

The red corner - the Christian altar and the stove - the "pagan" altar, constituted a certain tension, located diagonally across the space of the house. It was in this - the front of the hut - that the red bench, the table were located, food was being prepared in front of the stove. The events of everyday life took place in a very saturated energy space. The guest entering the house immediately saw the icons of the red corner and was baptized, greeting the hosts, but stopped at the threshold, not daring to go further without an invitation, into this habitable space, protected by God and Fire.

In addition to the first level of the interior already described above, there was a second one, located on the stove column, which was located at the outer corner of the stove - almost in the middle of the hut and reached the height of the stove shoulder. From the stove column, leaning on it, there were two thick beams - one to the front, the other to the side walls opposite the stove. They were located approximately at a height of 1.6 - 1.7 meters from the floor. The first is ward, as it served as the supporting structure of the ward flooring - a traditional sleeping place. The grain bar limited the height of the "baby kut" oven. Freshly baked bread and pies were placed on the bread bar as if on a shelf. As we can see, the second residential tier is directly related to the life processes of the household - eating and sleeping. If you open the door and look into the hut, then what is happening on the floor will not be visible at all - they are located above the head of the person who entered, and the place by the stove will be hidden by a protruding stove pillar and a curtain, which was sometimes fenced off by a woman's kut just along the upper border, indicated by a bread bar . Naturally, many rituals are associated with the stove pillar - as it were, the strongest supporting structure in the house. For example, when a child stood on its feet and took its first steps, a midwife visited him. She put her pet with her back to the stove pillar with the sentence: “As the stove pillar is strong, so be you healthy and strong.”

From mobile furniture we can name only a table and one or two benches. The space of the hut did not imply excesses, and they were not possible in peasant life. A completely different space in the house of wealthy Volga or always free northern peasants.

Windows and doors.

The entrance to the hut was preceded by a passage, the entrance to the house - by a porch. The porch is a few steps up, then the door leading to the hallway, the hallway, and the door leading to the hut. The doors have never been in a straight line. The flow of air and everything that it carried, as it were, swirled, weakened, and already “cleaned” fell into the hut itself, filled with the good aroma of herbs drying in the hallway and the smell of a cow coming from the yard.

Windows and doors, like some kind of highways, passages to and from the house were always framed externally and their crossing was accompanied by rituals. Before the owners went out into the street, she could be like this: “God bless on a good day, save me from bad, evil people!”. Before entering someone else's house, a prayer was also read.

These customs are connected with the fact that a person, on a subconscious level, distinguished between the space of the house, where nothing threatened him, and the outer space, where anything could happen.

The window is also a connection with the world of the dead. For example, dead unbaptized children were carried out through the window: they died, although they had not yet been accepted by the world of the living. "God gave, God took." That is, there is almost no time for their earthly life and the soul of the child is returned to the world from which he had just come.

Through the window, carolers will be served at Christmas time - that is, those who brought divine wishes to the owners.

Space exploration.

The house was, as it were, a model of the person himself, and by its very design was called upon to help life in it.
The dwelling was likened to the human body. Forehead, face (platbands), window (eye), mouth (mouth), forehead, backside, legs - etc. terms common to describe a person and a dwelling. This is also reflected in the rituals. For example, at the birth of a child, the doors of the house were opened, which was thought of as a female body.

A fully rebuilt house is not yet a living space. It had to be properly populated and settled. A house was considered inhabited by a family if any event important for the household took place in it: the birth of a child, a wedding, etc.
To this day, even in cities, the custom has been preserved to let the cat in front of you. In the villages, traditionally, in addition to the cat, the house was "settled" by a rooster and a chicken left for the night. According to popular belief, the house was always built "on someone's head": this meant the possible death of one of the household members. Therefore, the house was inhabited in a certain sequence, and first by animals, then by people.

The transition to a new residence was preceded by rituals associated with the "resettlement" of the brownie.
Until our time, the brownie in the villages is revered as the owner of the dwelling, and, settling in a new house, they ask his permission:

"The owner of the brownie, let us live" or:
"Master and hostess,
Be with us
Give me a good life.
We can't spend the night
And to age forever. ”(3, p. 24, 21)