This Finno-Ugric people believes in spirits, worships trees and is wary of Ovda. The story of Marie originated on another planet, where a duck flew and laid two eggs, from which two brothers emerged - good and evil. This is how life on earth began. The Mari believe in this. Their rituals are unique, the memory of their ancestors never fades, and the life of this people is imbued with respect for the gods of nature.

It is correct to say marI and not mari - this is very important, the wrong emphasis - and there will be a story about an ancient ruined city. And ours is about the ancient and unusual people of the Mari, who are very careful about all living things, even plants. The grove is a sacred place for them.

History of the Mari people

Legends say that the history of the Mari began far from earth on another planet. A duck flew from the constellation of the Nest to the blue planet, laid two eggs, from which two brothers emerged - good and evil. This is how life on earth began. The Mari still call the stars and planets in their own way: the Big Dipper - the constellation Elk, the Milky Way - the Star Road along which God walks, the Pleiades - the constellation Nest.

Sacred groves of the Mari – Kusoto

In autumn, hundreds of Maris come to the large grove. Each family brings a duck or goose - this is a purlyk, a sacrificial animal for all-Mary prayers. Only healthy, beautiful and well-fed birds are selected for the ceremony. The Mari line up to the cards - the priests. They check whether the bird is suitable for sacrifice, and then ask for its forgiveness and sanctify it with smoke. It turns out that this is how the Mari express respect for the spirit of fire, and it burns bad words and thoughts, clearing the space for cosmic energy.

The Mari consider themselves a child of nature, and our religion is such that we pray in the forest, in specially designated places that we call groves,” says consultant Vladimir Kozlov. – By turning to a tree, we thereby turn to the cosmos and a connection between the worshipers and the cosmos arises. We do not have any churches or other buildings where the Mari would pray. In nature, we feel like we are part of it, and communication with God passes through the tree and through sacrifices.

No one planted sacred groves on purpose; they have existed since ancient times. The ancestors of the Mari chose groves for prayers. It is believed that these places have very strong energy.

The groves were chosen for a reason; first they looked at the sun, stars and comets,” says Arkady Fedorov, a mapmaker.

Sacred groves are called Kusoto in Mari; they are tribal, village-wide and all-Mari. In some Kusoto, prayers can be held several times a year, while in others - once every 5-7 years. In total, more than 300 sacred groves have been preserved in the Mari El Republic.

In sacred groves you cannot swear, sing or make noise. Tremendous power resides in these sacred places. The Mari prefer nature, and nature is God. They address nature as a mother: vud ava (mother of water), mlande ava (mother of earth).

The most beautiful and tall tree in the grove is the main one. It is dedicated to the one supreme God Yumo or his divine assistants. Rituals are held around this tree.

The sacred groves are so important to the Mari that for five centuries they fought to preserve them and defended their right to their own faith. First they opposed Christianization and then Soviet power. In order to divert the attention of the church from the sacred groves, the Mari formally converted to Orthodoxy. People went to church services, and then secretly performed Mari rituals. As a result, a mixture of religions occurred - many Christian symbols and traditions entered the Mari faith.

The sacred grove is perhaps the only place where women relax more than work. They only pluck and dress the birds. The men do everything else: they light fires, install cauldrons, cook broths and porridges, and arrange Onapa, which is the name of the sacred trees. Special tabletops are installed next to the tree, which are first covered with spruce branches symbolizing hands, then they are covered with towels and only then the gifts are laid out. Near Onapu there are signs with the names of the gods, the main one is Tun Osh Kugo Yumo - the One Light Great God. Those who come to prayers decide which of the deities they present bread, kvass, honey, pancakes to. They also hang gift towels and scarves. The Mari will take some things home after the ceremony, but some will remain hanging in the grove.

Legends about Ovda

...Once upon a time there lived an obstinate Mari beauty, but she angered the celestials and God turned her into a terrible creature, Ovda, with large breasts that could be thrown over her shoulder, with black hair and feet with her heels turned forward. People tried not to meet her and, although Ovda could help a person, more often she caused damage. Sometimes she cursed entire villages.

According to legend, Ovda lived on the outskirts of villages in the forest and ravines. In the old days, residents often met with her, but in the 21st century no one has seen the terrible woman. However, people still try not to go to the remote places where she lived alone. Rumor has it that she hid in caves. There is a place called Odo-Kuryk (Ovdy Mountain). In the depths of the forest lie megaliths - huge rectangular boulders. They are very similar to man-made blocks. The stones have smooth edges, and they are arranged in such a way that they form a jagged fence. Megaliths are huge, but they are not so easy to spot. They seem to be skillfully disguised, but for what? One version of the appearance of megaliths is a man-made defensive structure. Probably in the old days the local population defended itself at the expense of this mountain. And this fortress was built by hand in the form of ramparts. The sharp descent was accompanied by an ascent. It was very difficult for enemies to run along these ramparts, but the locals knew the paths and could hide and shoot with arrows. There is an assumption that the Mari could have fought with the Udmurts for land. But what kind of power did you need to have to process the megaliths and install them? Even a few people will not be able to move these boulders. Only mystical creatures can move them. According to legends, it was Ovda who could have installed stones to hide the entrance to her cave, and therefore they say there is a special energy in these places.

Psychics come to the megaliths, trying to find the entrance to the cave, a source of energy. But the Mari prefer not to disturb Ovda, because her character is like a natural element - unpredictable and uncontrollable.

For the artist Ivan Yamberdov, Ovda is the feminine principle in nature, a powerful energy that came from space. Ivan Mikhailovich often rewrites paintings dedicated to Ovda, but each time the results are not copies, but originals, or the composition will change, or the image will suddenly take on a different shape. “It cannot be otherwise,” the author admits, “after all, Ovda is natural energy that is constantly changing.

Although no one has seen the mystical woman for a long time, the Mari believe in her existence and often call healers Ovda. After all, whisperers, soothsayers, herbalists, in fact, are conductors of that very unpredictable natural energy. But only healers, unlike ordinary people, know how to control it and thereby evoke fear and respect among the people.

Mari healers

Each healer chooses the element that is close to him in spirit. Healer Valentina Maksimova works with water, and in the bathhouse, according to her, the water element gains additional strength, so that any disease can be treated. When performing rituals in the bathhouse, Valentina Ivanovna always remembers that this is the territory of bathhouse spirits and they must be treated with respect. And leave the shelves clean and be sure to thank them.

Yuri Yambatov is the most famous healer in the Kuzhenersky district of Mari El. His element is the energy of trees. The appointment for it was made a month in advance. It accepts one day a week and only 10 people. First of all, Yuri checks the compatibility of energy fields. If the patient’s palm remains motionless, then there is no contact, you will have to work hard to establish it with the help of a sincere conversation. Before starting treatment, Yuri studied the secrets of hypnosis, observed healers, and tested his strength for several years. Of course, he does not reveal the secrets of treatment.

During the session, the healer himself loses a lot of energy. By the end of the day, Yuri simply has no strength; it will take a week to restore it. According to Yuri, diseases come to a person from a wrong life, bad thoughts, bad deeds and insults. Therefore, one cannot rely only on healers; a person himself must make efforts and correct his mistakes in order to achieve harmony with nature.

Mari girl's outfit

Mari women love to dress up, so that the costume is multi-layered and has more decorations. Thirty-five kilograms of silver is just right. Putting on a costume is like a ritual. The outfit is so complex that it is impossible to wear it alone. Previously, in every village there were vestment craftswomen. In an outfit, each element has its own meaning. For example, in a headdress - shrapan - three layers must be observed, symbolizing the trinity of the world. A woman's set of silver jewelry could weigh 35 kilograms. It was passed down from generation to generation. The woman bequeathed the jewelry to her daughter, granddaughter, daughter-in-law, or could leave it to her home. In this case, any woman living in it had the right to wear a set for the holidays. In the old days, craftswomen competed to see whose costume would retain its appearance until the evening.

Mari wedding

...The mountain Mari have cheerful weddings: the gates are locked, the bride is locked up, matchmakers are not allowed in so easily. The girlfriends do not despair - they will still receive their ransom, otherwise the groom will not see the bride. At a Mountain Mari wedding, they hide the bride in such a way that the groom spends a long time looking for her, but if he doesn’t find her, the wedding will be upset. Mountain Mari live in the Kozmodemyansk region of the Mari El Republic. They differ from the Meadow Mari in language, clothing and traditions. The Mountain Mari themselves believe that they are more musical than the Meadow Mari.

The whip is a very important element at a Mountain Mari wedding. It is constantly flipped around the bride. And in the old days they say that even a girl got it. It turns out that this is done so that the jealous spirits of her ancestors do not spoil the newlyweds and the groom’s relatives, so that the bride is released in peace to another family.

Mari bagpipe - shuvir

...In a jar of porridge, a salted cow's bladder will ferment for two weeks, from which they will then make a magical shuvir. A tube and a horn will be attached to the soft bladder and you will get a Mari bagpipe. Each element of the shuvir gives the instrument its own power. While playing, Shuvirzo understands the voices of animals and birds, and listeners fall into a trance, and there are even cases of healing. Shuvyr music also opens a passage to the world of spirits.

Veneration of deceased ancestors among the Mari

Every Thursday, residents of one of the Mari villages invite their deceased ancestors to visit. To do this, they usually don’t go to the cemetery; souls hear the invitation from afar.

Nowadays there are wooden blocks with names on Mari graves, but in the old days there were no identification marks in cemeteries. According to Mari beliefs, a person lives well in heaven, but he still misses the earth very much. And if in the world of the living no one remembers the soul, then it can become embittered and begin to harm the living. That's why deceased relatives are invited to dinner.

Invisible guests are received as if they were alive, and a separate table is set for them. Porridge, pancakes, eggs, salad, vegetables - the housewife should put a portion of each dish she prepared here. After the meal, treats from this table will be given to the pets.

Gathered relatives have dinner at another table, discuss problems, and ask the souls of their ancestors for help in solving difficult issues.

For our dear guests, the bathhouse is heated in the evenings. Especially for them, a birch broom is steamed and heated. The owners can take a steam bath with the souls of the dead themselves, but usually come a little later. The invisible guests are seen off until the village goes to bed. It is believed that in this way souls quickly find their way to their world.

Mari Bear – Mask

Legend has it that in ancient times the bear was a man, a bad man. Strong, accurate, but cunning and cruel. His name was hunter Mask. He killed animals for fun, did not listen to old people, and even laughed at God. For this, Yumo turned him into a beast. The Mask cried, promised to improve, asked to return his human form, but Yumo ordered him to wear a fur coat and keep order in the forest. And if he performs his service properly, then in his next life he will be born again as a hunter.

Beekeeping in the Mari culture

According to Mari legends, bees were one of the last to appear on Earth. They came here not even from the Pleiades constellation, but from another galaxy, otherwise how can one explain the unique properties of everything that bees produce - honey, wax, beebread, propolis. Alexander Tanygin is the supreme kart; according to Mari laws, every priest must keep an apiary. Alexander has been studying bees since childhood and has studied their habits. As he himself says, he understands them at a glance. Beekeeping is one of the oldest occupations of the Mari. In the old days, people paid taxes with honey, beebread and wax.

In modern villages there are beehives in almost every yard. Honey is one of the main ways to earn money. The top of the hive is covered with old things, this is insulation.

Mari signs associated with bread

Once a year, the Mari take out the museum millstones to prepare bread from the new harvest. The flour for the first loaf is ground by hand. When the hostess kneads the dough, she whispers good wishes for those who will get a piece of this loaf. The Mari have many superstitions associated with bread. When sending household members on a long journey, specially baked bread is placed on the table and is not removed until the departed person returns.

Bread is an integral part of all rituals. And even if the housewife prefers to buy it in the store, for the holidays she will definitely bake the loaf herself.

Kugeche - Mari Easter

The stove in a Mari house is not for heating, but for cooking. While the wood is burning in the oven, housewives bake multi-layer pancakes. This is an old national Mari dish. The first layer is ordinary pancake dough, and the second is porridge, it is placed on a browned pancake and the frying pan is again sent closer to the fire. After the pancakes are baked, the coals are removed, and pies with porridge are placed in the hot oven. All these dishes are intended to celebrate Easter, or rather Kugeche. Kugeche is an ancient Mari holiday dedicated to the renewal of nature and the remembrance of the dead. It always coincides with Christian Easter. Homemade candles are a mandatory attribute of the holiday; they are made only by cards with their helpers. The Maries believe that wax absorbs the power of nature, and when it melts, it strengthens prayers.

Over several centuries, the traditions of the two religions have become so mixed that in some Mari houses there is a red corner and on holidays homemade candles are lit in front of the icons.

Kugeche is celebrated for several days. Loaf, pancake and cottage cheese symbolize the trinity of the world. Kvass or beer is usually poured into a special ladle - a symbol of fertility. After prayer, this drink is given to all women to drink. And on Kugeche you are supposed to eat a colored egg. The Mari smash him against the wall. At the same time, they try to raise their hand higher. This is done so that the hens lay in the right place, but if the egg is broken below, the hens will not know their place. The Mari also roll colored eggs. At the edge of the forest they lay out boards and throw eggs, while making a wish. And the further the egg rolls, the greater the likelihood of the plan being fulfilled.

In the village of Petyaly, near the St. Guryev Church, there are two springs. One of them appeared at the beginning of the last century, when the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God was brought here from the Kazan Mother of God hermitage. A font was installed near him. And the second source has been known since time immemorial. Even before the adoption of Christianity, these places were sacred for the Mari. Sacred trees still grow here. So both baptized Mari and unbaptized ones come to the springs. Everyone turns to their God and receives peace, hope and even healing. In fact, this place has become a symbol of the reconciliation of two religions - the ancient Mari and Christian.

Films about the Mari

Marie live in the Russian outback, but the whole world knows about them thanks to the creative union of Denis Osokin and Alexey Fedorchenko. The film “Heavenly Wives of the Meadow Mari” about the fabulous culture of a small people conquered the Rome Film Festival. In 2013, Oleg Irkabaev shot the first feature film about the Mari people, “A Pair of Swans Above the Village.” Mari through the eyes of Mari - the movie turned out to be kind, poetic and musical, just like the Mari people themselves.

Rituals in the Mari sacred grove

...At the beginning of the card prayer, candles are lit. In the old days, only homemade candles were brought into the grove; church candles were prohibited. Nowadays there are no such strict rules; in the grove no one is asked what faith he professes. Since a person came here, it means he considers himself part of nature, and this is the main thing. So during prayers you can also see Mari being baptized. The Mari harp is the only musical instrument that is allowed to be played in the grove. It is believed that the music of the gusli is the voice of nature itself. Hitting the blade of an ax with a knife resembles the ringing of a bell - this is a rite of purification by sound. It is believed that vibration in the air drives away evil, and nothing prevents a person from being saturated with pure cosmic energy. Those same personalized gifts, along with the tablets, are thrown into the fire, and kvass is poured on top. The Mari believe that the smoke from burnt food is the food of the Gods. The prayer does not last long, after which comes perhaps the most pleasant moment - a treat. The Mari put the first selected seeds into bowls, symbolizing the rebirth of all living things. There is almost no meat on them, but this does not matter - the bones are sacred and will transfer this energy to any dish.

No matter how many people come to the grove, there will be enough food for everyone. The porridge will also be taken home to treat those who could not come here.

In the grove, all the attributes of prayer are very simple, no frills. This is done to emphasize that everyone is equal before God. The most valuable things in this world are human thoughts and actions. And the sacred grove is an open portal of cosmic energy, the center of the Universe, therefore, with whatever attitude the Mari enters the sacred grove, it will reward him with such energy.

When everyone has left, the cards and assistants will remain to restore order. They will come here the next day to complete the ceremony. After such large prayers, the sacred grove must rest for five to seven years. No one will come here and disturb Kusomo's peace. The grove will be charged with cosmic energy, which in a few years during prayers it will again give to the Mari in order to strengthen their faith in the one bright God, nature and the cosmos.

The Muscovites for a long time baptized and Slavicized the Finno-Ugric peoples: Erzya, Komi, Udmurts, Karelians, and all of them came into close contact with Moscow and became its integral part. They adopted the Christian religion and the language of the colonialists. And only one of these peoples did not completely submit to the Muscovites - these were the Meadow Mari (Cheremis).

After the capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, the Mari resisted for a very long time, and as a result, many of them fled to the Ural Mountains, like the Old Believers a hundred years later. For the pagan Mari, Moscow Christian culture was hostile and alien, and thanks to their persistence in “rejection,” they retained many of their own unique features. In the Mari villages, some old people still wear folk costumes; until the 20-30s, traditions were alive, lost by that time by the Finno-Ugrians almost everywhere. But the main thing is that the Mari entered the 21st century as pagans. More precisely, they do not recognize the very definition of “paganism”. Their religion is called the Mari Traditional Religion or "Chimari". And almost nowhere else in Europe in our time can one see real, never-interrupted, primordial prayers to the Native Gods in the Sacred Groves.

A typical Sacred Grove, or Kyusoto - round, clean, old. There are about 500 of these left in Mari El, and when you drive along the roads of the republic, you constantly see them - in Mari El, Kyusoto is much more common than Orthodox churches. In such groves they pray to the highest gods - Kugu-Yumo, Mlanda-Ava and others.
There were also simpler chapels - toshto-keremets, that is, altars of lower spirits, keremets. Keremet is essentially “evil spirits”, “undead”, servants of the dark god Keremet. No one knows whether such chapels have survived in the republic, but one can be seen in the museum.
And in their houses, many Mari kept wooden gods instead of icons. However, more often than not “instead”, but “together” - forced Christianization made itself felt, only 10-15% of the Mari are pure Chimari, while about 60% are dual believers. At one time, under the threat of reprisals, the Mari formally accepted Christianity, formally went to church, but at the same time performed rituals in the Sacred Groves. Over time, the dual believers came to the conclusion that Kugu-Yumo and the One God are one and the same, only in kyusoto and churches they look at him “from different sides.” There are few pure Orthodox Christians among the Mari, and there are also a number of Muslims (the result of contacts with the Tatars).

The Kugu-Sorta sect, which existed at the end of the 19th century, played a special role in dual faith. This name translates as “Big Candle,” and representatives of this sect made an attempt to combine Christianity with Chimari - that is, to create a special type of Christianity. They honored both the One God and Kugu-Yumo, abandoned sacrifices, replacing them with the burning of bread, and the main element of their prayer service was a huge candle (up to a pound in weight) with several fetils, which they lit and prayed at. However, the unification of faiths did not happen - the communists came and dispersed everyone.

The folk, rural culture of the Mari was also unique. For example, we were incredibly shocked by the following plot - a girl blowing a trumpet.
What kind of trumpet was this and why was it blown? It turned out that for a long time there was a custom: when it was time for a girl to get married, she blew a special trumpet, the voice of which was well recognizable - and in all the surrounding villages they knew that a new bride had appeared. I don’t know any analogues to this custom (now, of course, it doesn’t exist). However, what can be seen in the museum can be seen live, in real life.

Mari Temple - Sacred Grove.

The reason is that in Soviet times, the Sacred Groves were reduced to simply areas of forest, and were classified as “especially valuable”. Relatively few Sacred Groves were cut down, but in our era they are often haunted by “poachers.” The Mari perceive such antics as a deliberate campaign to strangle the faith of their ancestors, but we should not forget that in the Far East nature reserves are being cut down in the same way.
There are many sacred groves in the republic - when you drive along the roads of Mari El, you constantly see them from one side or the other. Kyusoto stands more often than Orthodox churches in Central Russian regions. Such groves are usually located in clusters, and form certain figures: if you connect the groves with straight lines, most often a geometric figure or an ancient rune will appear. In each grove you can pray only once a year, and prayer services are always performed during the waxing Moon - never during the waning Moon.

Here you cannot break branches, kill animals (not sacrificial), burn fires (again, not ritual), relieve yourself, women are prohibited from entering here during a certain period (during menstruation). Naturally, both drunkenness and littering are prohibited here - and I must say, the groves are truly amazingly clean.
The heart of the Sacred Grove is Onapu, that is, an altar tree, a channel tree through which energy passes between people and the Gods. The heart of the Sacred Grove is Onapa; the priests initially choose Onapa, and depending on its strength, they draw a circle of a certain diameter - this circle becomes the Sacred Grove. Initially, most of the groves were inside forests, but the forests were cleared, but the kyusoto remained. A stranger must be accompanied to a prayer service, since in Kyusoto there are many rules of behavior that should not be violated. There are places where you cannot go, there are acceptable and unacceptable actions.

The first stage of the prayer service is sacrifice. Animals are sacrificed: geese, chickens, goats, sheep, stallions. Animals are chosen for a reason: the animal must give a certain sign that it was chosen by the gods, and behave in a certain way. And in the grove there were long lines of people with geese in bags or baskets - it was the geese that predominated. The sacrifice itself is a spectacle, of course, not for the faint of heart. If we consider Sacred groves to be barbaric, then what are slaughterhouses and poultry farms?!
In general, animal sacrifice occurs like this: they are cut up, and the inedible parts (bones, feathers, skins) are burned, and the edible parts are cooked. After all, the gods feed not on the flesh, but on the spirit, and the main thing here is the smoke and steam that goes to heaven.

In total, they prayed to 5 gods in the grove. The main altar in the center of the grove belonged to Tun Osh Kugu-Yumo, which means the Supreme White Great God. That is, the creator god, the demiurge. The sacrificial bread is at the beginning of the prayer service. By the end of your stay in the grove, the bread becomes three times larger.
At the northern edge of the grove there was an altar of Kuryk-Kugyz - the “Old Man of the Mountain”. There are coniferous trees around, and Kuryk-Kugyz is considered a keremet, that is, a dark deity, and such gods were prayed to among coniferous trees. Sacrificial bread and towels are the third form of sacrifice. The altar of Kuryk-Kugyz is closest to the edge: pay attention to the candles - they are lit during the prayer service. You are supposed to make a candle yourself from wax (not from paraffin), and naturally, it is forbidden to use church candles. These candles are especially beautiful at night prayers - such a tradition existed since the conquest of Kazan (and the beginning of the persecution of the Chimari), and only ended in the 1990s, when the people “came out of the shadows.” In some groves (in particular, Tsepelskaya - once the main grove of the mountain Mari), this tradition is preserved.

Another very strange tradition is sacrificial towels. A person must embroider and bring towels, they just hang at the altar. Then they are returned to their owners. However, Mari embroidery is very beautiful. The fourth form of sacrifice: in the grove, opposite the Kugu-Yumo altar, sits a special priest-treasurer. He reads a prayer, both in Mari and in Russian, when you leave money near him. Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church usually have a reputation for being “mercantile,” but among the Mari this is even more common. However, for the Mari this is normal: after all, sacrifices are generally made to their gods. Such a sacrifice is the simplest and most accessible to almost everyone.

And, I tell you, he still makes bloody sacrifices to God.

At the invitation of the organizers of the international conference on languages ​​in computers, I visited the capital of Mari El - Yoshkar Ola.

Yoshkar is red, and ola, I already forgot what it means, since the city in Finno-Ugric languages ​​is just “kar” (in the words Syktyvkar, Kudymkar, for example, or Shupashkar - Cheboksary).

And the Mari are Finno-Ugrians, i.e. related in language to the Hungarians, Nenets, Khanty, Udmurts, Estonians and, of course, Finns. Hundreds of years of living together with the Turks also played a role - there are many borrowings, for example, in his welcoming speech, a high-ranking official called the enthusiastic founders of the only radio broadcasting in the Mari language radio batyrs.

The Mari are very proud of the fact that they showed stubborn resistance to the troops of Ivan the Terrible. One of the brightest Mari, oppositionist Laid Shemyer (Vladimir Kozlov) even wrote a book about the Mari’s defense of Kazan.

We had something to lose, unlike some of the Tatars, who were related to Ivan the Terrible, and actually exchanged one khan for another,” he says (according to some versions, Wardaakh Uibaan did not even know the Russian language).

This is how Mari El appears from the train window. Swamps and mari.

There is snow here and there.

This is my Buryat colleague and I in the first minutes of entering the Mari land. Zhargal Badagarov is a participant in the conference in Yakutsk, which took place in 2008.

We are looking at the monument to the famous Mari - Yyvan Kyrla. Remember Mustafa from the first Soviet sound film? He was a poet and actor. Repressed in 1937 on charges of bourgeois nationalism. The reason was a fight in a restaurant with drunken students.

He died in one of the Ural camps from starvation in 1943.

At the monument he rides a handcar. And sings a Mari song about a marten.

And this is where the owners greet us. The fifth one from the left is a legendary figure. That same radio batyr - Chemyshev Andrey. He is famous for once writing a letter to Bill Gates.

“How naive I was then, I didn’t know a lot, I didn’t understand a lot of things...,” he says, “but there was no end to the journalists, I already started to pick and choose - again the first channel, don’t you have the BBC there...”

After rest we were taken to the museum. Which was opened especially for us. By the way, in the letter the radio batyr wrote: “Dear Bill Gates, when we bought the Windows license package, we paid you, so we ask you to include five Mari letters in the standard fonts.”

It’s surprising that there are Mari inscriptions everywhere. Although they didn’t come up with any special carrot-and-sticks, and the owners do not bear any responsibility for the fact that they did not write the sign in the second state language. Employees of the Ministry of Culture say that they simply have heart-to-heart conversations with them. Well, they secretly said that the chief architect of the city plays a big role in this matter.

This is Aivika. In fact, I don’t know the name of the charming tour guide, but the most popular female name among the Mari is Aivika. The emphasis is on the last syllable. And also Salika. There is even a TV movie in Mari, with Russian and English subtitles, with the same name. I brought one of these as a gift to a Yakut Mari man - his aunt asked.

The excursion is structured in an interesting way - you can get acquainted with the life and culture of the Mari people by tracing the fate of a Mari girl. Of course her name is Aivika))). Birth.

Here Aivika seemed to be in a cradle (not visible).

This is a holiday with mummers, like carols.

The “bear” also has a mask made of birch bark.

Do you see Aivika blowing the trumpet? It is she who announces to the district that she has become a girl and it’s time for her to get married. A kind of initiation rite. Some hot Finno-Ugric guys))) immediately also wanted to notify the area about their readiness... But they were told that the pipe was in a different place))).

Traditional three-layer pancakes. Baking for a wedding.

Pay attention to the bride's monists.

It turns out that, having conquered the Cheremis, Ivan the Terrible forbade blacksmithing to foreigners - so that they would not forge weapons. And the Mari had to make jewelry from coins.

One of the traditional activities is fishing.

Beekeeping - collecting honey from wild bees - is also an ancient occupation of the Mari.

Animal husbandry.

Here are the Finno-Ugric people: in a sleeveless jacket, a representative of the Mansi people (taking photographs), in a suit, a man from the Komi Republic, followed by a fair-haired Estonian.

End of life.

Pay attention to the bird on the perch - the cuckoo. A link between the worlds of the living and the dead.

This is where our “cuckoo, cuckoo, how long do I have left?”

And this is a priest in a sacred birch grove. Cards or maps. Until now, they say, about 500 sacred groves - a kind of temples - have been preserved. Where the Mari sacrifice to their gods. Bloody. Usually chicken, goose or lamb.

An employee of the Udmurt Institute for Advanced Training of Teachers, administrator of the Udmurt Wikipedia Denis Sakharnykh. As a true scientist, Denis is a supporter of a scientific, non-sneaky approach to promoting languages ​​on the Internet.

As you can see, the Mari make up 43% of the population. Second in number after Russians, of whom 47.5%.

The Mari are mainly divided by language into mountainous and meadow. Mountain people live on the right bank of the Volga (towards Chuvashia and Mordovia). The languages ​​are so different that there are two Wikipedias - in the Mountain Mari and Meadow Mari languages.

Questions about the Cheremis wars (30-year resistance) are asked by a Bashkir colleague. The girl in white in the background is an employee of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who calls her area of ​​scientific interest - what do you think? - identity of the Ilimpiy Evenks. This summer he is going to Tours in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and maybe even stop by the village of Essey. We wish good luck to the fragile city girl in mastering the polar expanses, which are difficult even in summer.

Picture next to the museum.

After the museum, while waiting for the meeting to start, we walked around the city center.

This slogan is extremely popular.

The city center is being actively rebuilt by the current head of the republic. And in the same style. Pseudo-Byzantine.

They even built a mini-Kremlin. Which, they say, is almost always closed.

On the main square, on one side there is a monument to the saint, on the other - to the conqueror. City guests chuckle.

Here is another attraction - a clock with a donkey (or mule?).

Mariyka talks about the donkey and how it became the unofficial symbol of the city.

Soon three o'clock will strike and the donkey will come out.

We admire the donkey. As you understand, the donkey is not an ordinary one - he brought Christ to Jerusalem.

Participant from Kalmykia.

And this is the same “conqueror”. First imperial commander.

UPD: Pay attention to the coat of arms of Yoshkar-Ola - they say it will be removed soon. Someone on the City Council decided to make the elk antlered. But maybe this is idle talk.

UPD2: The coat of arms and flag of the Republic have already been changed. Markelov - and no one doubts that it was him, although parliament voted - replaced the Mari cross with a bear with a sword. The sword faces down and is sheathed. Symbolic, right? In the picture - the old Mari coat of arms has not yet been removed.

This is where the plenary session of the conference took place. No, the sign is in honor of another event)))

A curious thing. In Russian and Mari;-) In fact, on the other signs everything was correct. Street in Mari - Urem.

Shop - kevyt.

As one colleague, who once visited us, sarcastically remarked, the landscape is reminiscent of Yakutsk. It’s sad that our hometown appears to guests in such a guise.

A language is alive if it is in demand.

But we also need to provide the technical side - the ability to print.

Our wiki is among the first in Russia.

An absolutely correct remark by Mr. Leonid Soames, CEO of Linux-Ink (St. Petersburg): the state does not seem to notice the problem. By the way, Linux Inc. is developing a browser, spell checker and office for independent Abkhazia. Naturally in the Abkhazian language.

In fact, the conference participants tried to answer this sacramental question.

Pay attention to the amounts. This is for creating from scratch. For the whole republic - a mere trifle.

An employee of the Bashkir Institute for Humanitarian Research reports. I know our Vasily Migalkin. Linguists of Bashkortostan began to approach the so-called. language corpus - a comprehensive codification of the language.

And on the presidium sits the main organizer of the action, an employee of the Mari Ministry of Culture, Eric Yuzykain. Speaks fluent Estonian and Finnish. He mastered his native language as an adult, largely, he admits, thanks to his wife. Now she teaches the language to her children.

DJ "Radio Mari El", admin of the Meadow Mari wiki.

Representative of the Slovo Foundation. A very promising Russian foundation that is ready to support projects for minority languages.

Wikimedists.

And these are the same new buildings in a quasi-Italian style.

It was the Muscovites who began to build casinos, but a decree banning them arrived just in time.

In general, when asked who finances the entire “Byzantium”, they answer that it is the budget.

If we talk about the economy, there were (and probably are) military factories in the republic producing the legendary S-300 missiles. Because of this, Yoshkar-Ola used to even be a closed territory. Like our Tiksi.

About two and a half thousand Mari live in the Tonshaevsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region. They speak the northwestern dialect of the Mari language, intermediate between the mountain and meadow Mari languages. Eighty percent, as experts say, the language of the Tonshaev Mari coincides with the mountain language. But the dialect has sounds (phonemes) that are not found in either the mountain or meadow languages. In addition to the Tonshaevsky district, the northwestern dialect is spoken by the Mari of the Sharangsky and Tonkinsky districts of the Nizhny Novgorod region, as well as the Yaransky and Kiknursky districts of the Kirov region. In total, according to the results of the latest census, there are about ten thousand people.

The distant ancestors of the Tonshaevsky Mari are mostly from the Yaransky district, and some difference in the dialect occurred as a result of the ethnic isolation of this group and under the influence of the Vetluzhsky Mari, who came from the basin of the Bolshaya and Malaya Kakshi rivers. For a long time, the natural habitat for the Mari was the forest - it was the whole meaning of their life. The surrounding trees, rivers, animals and plants - everything had a divine origin. Birch and oak trees were especially revered, because they grew on the sites of the ashes of a man adopted by the supreme god and killed by Keremet, the god’s younger brother. For all his sins, God brought Keremet down to earth. That is why the main religious ritual of the Mari was dedicated to Keremet. God is far away in heaven, and Keremet is nearby, on earth.

According to the ideas of the Mari, the gods were located in a certain sequence - in steps. Above all stands the most important god, Kugu Yumo (Great God). Then come the main gods, a step lower were the deities personifying heavenly creatures, natural phenomena, world elements and forces - Ketse-Yumo (god of the sun), Osh ketse Yumo (god of a bright day), Yur-Yumo (god of rain), Mardezh-Yumo (god of the wind), Ur-Yumo (god of animals)… Not all gods have equal rights, some can argue even with the Almighty. The Supreme God, as the main one, maintains order among the national gods and resolves disputes and contradictions that arise between them. In addition to the gods, man is surrounded by many spirits. They are everywhere - in the underground of the house, in the attic, under the stove, in the barn, in the bathhouse. Everyone needs to be treated, cajoled, asked for something. The Mari worshiped their gods in sacred groves-monasteries, which by their purpose were public or tribal. As a rule, groves were located in elevated areas and represented a small area of ​​forest where it was forbidden to graze livestock, break branches and cut down trees, visit these places unnecessarily, etc.

There are 12 sacred groves on the territory of the Tonshaevsky district. Three of them, Duplyakovskaya and two Penkovsky, had generic meaning. Keremet was worshiped in them. Romachinskaya and Groznaya groves have intercommunal significance. The formidable grove, located near the village of B. Ashkaty, is dedicated to the god Ketse-Yumo. It is known to Mari living outside the region. The Romachinskaya Grove, dedicated to Osh Pandash (Surtan), a canonized Mari prince, is also widely known. Sacred linden tree in the village of Romachi, Tonshaevsky district. Along with groves, the Mari also venerate individual trees, which, according to their beliefs, can cure a serious illness or protect them from misfortune. Such trees were usually linden or birch. The Tonshaevskaya Mari know Gorintsevskaya, Mayakovskaya, Romachinskaya and other sacred linden trees as healing trees. As gifts, linden was given food or money with a request for the healing of a sick person. Gifts were brought to the Penkovskaya sacred birch to protect against misfortune. It is believed that sacred trees have great power; if you harm the tree or take away the gifts and sacrifices intended for it, the person who did this will die or go crazy.

Public prayers and sacrifices in the groves were held several times a year, usually in spring, summer and autumn. In the spring, prayers were held at the end of April - beginning of May. At this time, they turn to the gods to help them grow a good harvest of bread and hay and give good weather. Autumn prayer was held at the end of October - beginning of November as a sign of gratitude to the gods and deities who gave a good harvest of grain and healthy livestock. Summer prayer was required so that the gods would send members of the community peace and tranquility, health and family happiness, good luck and prosperity in all matters. In addition, there were community, tribal, household, and private prayers and sacrifices for some important event (birth of a child, wedding, illness, death, etc.). The process of prayer and sacrifice was carried out in accordance with generally accepted traditions. All participants in the ritual must wash in the bathhouse the day before and dress in everything clean and white. Depending on the significance of the grove, only women or men or the entire adult population of the village could participate in the ritual. For sacrifice they tried to choose white animals - a bull, a ram, a goose, and in the vicinity of Ashkat - also a foal. If there were none, then the animal was wrapped in white cloth. Whether such a sacrifice was pleasing to the gods or not was determined by the direction of the smoke from the fire, the splashing of blood on the hearth and hot water on the animal. If the gods did not accept the sacrifice, then everything was repeated on the second or third day. The sacrificial animal had to be completely eaten, so people always went to the grove with this expectation. The bones of the eaten animal were buried in the grove, each time under a new tree. All objects of the sacrificial ritual were also kept in the grove.

The formidable grove near the village of B. Ashkaty, Tonshaevsky district. A more complex ritual was also carried out in the Groznaya Grove, when conversion and sacrifice were made to a large number of gods. They asked the sun god Ketse-Yumo for “more silver” so that there would be prosperity in the house. Surtan (surnitsa), the keeper of the home and hearth, was approached with requests to ensure order in the family and to avoid quarrels and swearing. They asked the wind god for protection from storms, strong winds and bad weather. The ritual was called “Mardesh Fog”. The “Vet Shue” ritual is an appeal to the gods for protection from high water and flooding.

“Kabak drink” is an offering to the gods as a gift of vodka. They splash it three times on the fire with the words “here is your drink.” If the vodka burns well, it means the gods accept this gift. The squirrel was sacrificed during the ritual “Kozh votke kudalshe” - an animal running along a tree. At first the whole thing, then only the tail or a piece of fur. Duck and goose entrails were used as sacrifices in the “Vet Vokte Ieshee” ritual. In other rituals, dried ram entrails and three pieces of bread, cut from different sides from one loaf, were used. Not only prayers were held in sacred groves, but also marriages. The bride and groom were married under the main birch tree, walking them around the tree three times. Here, under the birch tree, a wedding celebration was celebrated for a week. The whole life of Mari was connected with the fulfillment and observance of many beliefs and traditions. So, before the wedding, the groom must stealthily steal the bride. This must be done so as not to anger the family spirit (Port Ozu) of the bride's home. He considers the people living in the house to be his property. Therefore, the groom must, unnoticed by everyone, kidnap the girl and bring her to his house, where she will be under the protection of Port Ozu of the groom’s house, then her family spirit will calm down and will not be angry.

A whole complex of beliefs and prohibitions is associated with water. You cannot pollute clean water in a well, river or lake by washing clothes and draining slops, otherwise the mistress of the water, the goddess Vud-Avu, will severely punish you. After a certain time you cannot swim in the river. If this happened, then the goddess of water could hide the water far in the forest as punishment. The lake near the settlement dried up, and a new one, exactly the same, appeared in the forest. She could drown the culprit, or he would die on the shore. The fisherman always lost luck in fishing. Washing was supposed to be done only in specially buried wells several tens of meters from the water. A person who accidentally destroyed a tree near the water had to plant ten in return, otherwise he could be expelled from the village. You need to appease the owner of the water, bring her gifts (boiled porridge), then she will give you a lot of fish. No less important were the beliefs associated with the forest. They determined the rules of behavior in the forest. There it was forbidden to shout loudly, break branches, go near the roots of fallen trees, or pick mushrooms and berries after a certain period of time. The quantity of forest products collected (mushrooms and berries) and the timing of the hunt were regulated. Rare and endangered animal species were considered sacred and prohibited from hunting. In the village of Oshary, such an animal in the 19th century was the reindeer. Violation of these rules was severely punished by the forest spirit Ate-Malahai. He could confuse a person in the forest, drop a tree on him, or deprive a hunter of luck or life from the bite of a poisonous snake.

By preserving their sacred groves, the Mari did not just preserve a piece of forest. Sacred groves are multifunctional objects. These are not only places of prayer, but also part of the untouched taiga forest, confined to the points of water disintegration. They help preserve underground moisture, protect streams and lakes, preventing soil erosion.

The Mari treat certain tree species with special respect, considering birch, linden and oak to be sacred. They believed that the souls of the dead could inhabit trees and communicate with living people. Birch is the tree of girls, the male tree is oak, and the female tree is linden. These three trees are often the main ones in sacred groves, or act as healing trees.

Thank you very much for the photographs provided (wet collodion photographs 13x18 cm format)

In the summer of 2016, Mikhail, together with Nizhny Novgorod ethnographers and folklorists Olga Alexandrova, Olga Lyapaeva and Andrei Kharlov, went to the Tonshaevsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region in order to describe the life and customs of the Tonshaevsky Mari. The keeper of Mari antiquities Vyacheslav Terkin provided invaluable assistance.

Mari villages are rarely located along the road; for hunters, beekeepers, and fishermen, communication with other settlements was not very important. To this day, many villages retain their outskirts. The houses do not look different from Russian ones. But the Mari have retained a special relationship to their home. Home is a connection with the world of ancestors and the world of descendants. You can't sit on the threshold - you sit on the head of an ancestor. If the child does not sleep well, you need to pour water on all the door hinges. A sick child can be reborn, as it were, passed from hand to hand through a window opening. Even an empty Mari house is a sacred object. No one can take anything from there; the house “dies” itself for a long time, gradually collapsing. In every old Mari house, sacred objects were kept - dried goose and duck feet, squirrel tails, intended for sacrifice in case of illness or misfortune - by touching them, you can enter into a relationship with the spirits of someone else's family and bring yourself into big trouble.

A well is a special place. The Mari believe that one can take revenge for an unjust insult by asking the spirits about it three times, turning to them at dawn through a well.

Harmonist and guardian of Mari culture Vyacheslav Terkin

The belt (ÿshtö) was an indispensable part in the general complex of men's clothing and performed not only a utilitarian function - sheaths, leather bags for tobacco, flint and tinder, a wallet for money, etc. were hung from it, but it was also equipped with various pendants which played the role of amulets. The Mari had various woven belts made of wool, silk and hemp threads. Leather belts were popular. Wedding and holiday men's belts were decorated with beads, silver coins, and sometimes embroidery.

Coins occupy an important place in decoration. Shiny coins were a symbol of the sun; it was believed that the ringing of silver drove away evil spirits. An important element of the Mari costume were belts and waist pendants. Richly decorated with bones, pom-poms, beads, cowrie shells, and coins, they were perceived as jewelry.

The most ancient breast decoration was the clasp - sulgama. Over time, it turned into a large chest decoration made of coins sewn in the form of scales onto a piece of leather or canvas.

Among the Mari there were certain age differences in the wearing of clothing and jewelry. The costume of a married young woman under the age of 40 was the most rich in decoration and embroidery. It differed from the girl’s costume primarily in the presence of a headdress. This was a symbol of the woman's marital status. In addition, according to the ideas of the Mari, a bare-haired woman could attract crop failure, drought and epidemics.

Embroidery (tÿr) on shirts was located at the collar, at the chest slit, on the back, on the cuffs of the sleeves and on the hem. This was due to the ancient ideas of the Mari - all holes on clothing should be protected from diseases and the evil eye. The ornamentation of clothing included gender, age and social signs. Improvisation of embroidery is a later phenomenon. Embroidery was done mainly with red wool or silk threads of various shades from dark red to brown. Festive canvas shirts were additionally decorated with coins, beads, braid and braid. Among the Eastern Mari, along with canvas, shirts were made from motley fabrics. From the end of the 19th century, the Russian kosovorotka made from factory-made fabrics began to spread among the Mari.