im stupid but full of love

what i really like on deads’ holidays is the joy and happiness around everyone. we go to the graveyard, we clean the gravestones and tombs and the fences and no one is crying! (except me: when i see the portraits of my grandparents and my aunt who died before my birth in her 20 i just cAn’T) i even remember the words of my mom when according to mari tradition she poured some vodka or any other drink out of the glass on the ground beside the grave of my greatgrandfather. She tried to pour just a little, but suddenly almost quarter of the bottle was poured on the ground. and what did my mom said? “oh, grandpa, are you that thirsty? seems like you miss alcohol pretty much” oh my god. it get me thrilled. another curious thing about Semyk week is the night from Wednesday to Thursday. It is believed that this is one of the rare times when the deads come out of their graves and walk just like alives. Mari are not afraid of them, but still, you know, who would like to see their dead granny in an old house at night? that’s because we always say the special words when leaving the graveyard: “don’t come to us - we will come to you ourselves”. Nevertheless, the night between Wednesday and Thursday is traditionally the night of joy and games among the youth. me and my friends organized a little festival on the shore of local river with the campfires, roast sausages, guitar songs and scary tales :) jumping over the fire and “the kiss bottle” is included too, yeaaaaaah every 10 years (when the queue of oher villages of my region is coming) the big regional Semyk takes place in my village. We meet guests of different nationalities and there is a tradition of russian “bread and salt” and many other treatments: if you are guest in the village on Semyk, you should walk down the main streets and all homes should give you some treats like pirozhki, bliny or any other traditional food (including alcohol hehehe). We usually put the tables outside on the street, cover it with beautiful ornamental tablecloths and put all the treatments on it, but this is not all: you should show that people in your house are smart, skilled, hard-working, especially girls. That’s why it is accepted to hand all hand-made carpets, cloths, fabrics and dresses next to the table. I think it is connected with the marriage tradition: single men who came from another village could notice some single women who is skilled and can cook well, and then they can marry.  speaking of me: no one would ever marry me as i don’t cook well and not skilled at all :) fortunately, it’s 21 century and women can do and be anything and anyone they want to! maybe this is not very interesting holiday, but it means that totally ALL mari people are very careful and patient to their ancestors as well. and what’s the point - deads are someones that we can’t see, but feel, and therefore talk to them like to alives. maybe they are just spirits, but years ago they were just like you and me. and one day you and me will become spirits too. that’s why it’s important.

i swear - this song is the most beautiful and important thing that happened to me. i don’t know the exact name as it is folk song but i can translate it into english :)  the white flower, the blue flower, plowing in the field. how happy, how joyful is it with the friends. at a high hill, how gentle  did the early strawberries grow. let us, dears, live together just as like as the strawberries do.  don’t you feel it? the mari spirit of family comes :)

me wearing mari-stylized dress!!!! i have some another traditional dresses that my grandma and mom used to wear :) the mid-may in russia is the time of bloom of apple-trees so my father and i organized a little photoshoot in local abandoned village called Dunaevo. today there is no a single house or its ruins or any other sign of civilization here, and the only thing reminding about the past of these place is an amazingly large apple garden. every spring the whole village turns white and pink - should i even mention the wonderful smell of these beauty! ^^ perhaps the smell of blooming appletrees is my favourite one :)  by the way tomorrow is a great mari holiday called Semyk (Semok) - it symbolizes the end of field work and planting, and i think i’ll do the special post about it hehehe

Russian provincial yards are not the best background for such pure photo but.... From yesterday in my town it is allowed to go out for a walk and the appletrees started blooming! The flowers smell like heaven :з omg my favourite season doesn’t stop to give me enjoy and pleasure

old mari proverb

three days before Easter (on Thursday of Easter week) mari people selebrate kugeche (кугече) - very significant religious holiday for us. it’s the day when the deads come from their world to visit the alives and to eat some traditional treats. to respect their visit, we usually make a sort of altar with the treats for the deads in our homes. you should wake up very early to have a banya (you all know that russian phenomenon), then in home we do special dishes filled with grain and put homemade candles from twine and beeswax in it. when we put the candles, we say the names of our dead relatives and friends we want to remember and to treat. it is believed that this holiday is very holy, kind and the deads can talk to alives on this day. also, it is allowed to go to graveyard to clean and tidy up the graves.  for me it’s a very mystic holiday - as it’s the only day of year when i can feel that all my family gather to greet and spend time together - no matter if they are dead or alive. in the photo: my mom doing the altar on Kugeche.

today! me and my parents went to the deep forest to watch the bloom of some spring herbs. in russia may of 2020 turned extremely warm and even hot and kaluzhnitsa (these yellow flowers in a background) is blooming earlier than always. the english name for them is marsh-marigold or kingcup :) it’s not ranked as the protected herb, and it usually grows next to brooks, springs and swamps, where the soil is wet. finally i touched the alive nature after so long mouths of russian winter! the air is so fresh and that i feel dizzy omg

i’m not an expert in christian holidays but as far as my father confesses orthodox christianity and one my friend studies religion and its history i have some basic information about its traditions :) we all know that in every religion, the world of the dead and the afterlife has its own interpretation, for example, in buddhism it is believed that after death your soul moves to another body or just another objest like tree or animal. But the thing that unites all religions is great respect to those who passed away and became a part of afterlife. among different groups of mari there are different thoughts about the world of deads, so i don’t know exactly the traditions of mountain mari BUT i can explain something from meadow-eastern and meadow mari’s idea about this topic! to begin with, deads’ world is parallel to alives’ world, so it’s possible to go from one to another, but only for the chosen - for mari druids called karts (карты karty) or onajen (Онаёҥ , the last “n” is like [ŋ] in english). they become a kind of link and conductor between the worlds. when one dies, there are three sessions of wakes (tbh i don’t know the exact translation.... it is the day when the friends and siblings of the deceased gather to remember and honour him, usually with some traditional dishes and drinks) when it’s been: +three days +7 days +40 days (according to christianity) after the death. It’s interesting that mari people don’t consider funeral as something tragic and mournful. yes, we can cry, but we think (just as in many other religions) that after death you meet with your ancestors and dead relatives, and this is a great honour as the family is almost the most important thing in mari’s worldview. sometimes we even dance on funeral :o and of course there are some special songs for this occasion. infortunately (ok i’m crazy i mean fortunately) i don’t know any of them, but i’m sure they are not that sad and  sorrowful. when mari bury deadmen, they put the branches of different trees with the words of spell to help the dead on the road to his ancestors, for example: Rowan, to lean on, and spruce, to banish evil spirits. in some old provincial mari villages there is an ancient tradition of swinging (or swaying... how to say it?) the coffin with the body above the grave pit, traditionally 3 times, and every other time lower it down lower, with the words “don’t be scared” every time they swing it. i think this is just... something so sacral that i’m scared a little. and here comes the most frightening detail of mari’s funeral process among meadow mari there is a special rite. when the young lady or the child dies, the locals choose one man to become the one who will lead the dead to the afterlife (as they are too weak to do it themselves because of many spirits on the road trying to scare the dead and not let him to reunit with the ancestors). after funeral he spends 3 days on graveyard without any food or water or communication with others. it is believed that he can even meet and talk to deads. after 3 days the locals take him from the graveyard to clean him from the death dust and return to world of alives. some traditions are still alive in my family and some are not even used in my region, but all mari are similar with the special attitude to the death. this is very mysterious and creepy, but still very interesting.  no subscribers hahahaha but i feel that my english become richer in lexic :)

history teacher of my course entering and taking off his jacket because of hot

me two years ago on national mari holiday Semok! picking up dandelions light-heartedly like i will never become that vicious hamster as today 

i said before that i’m mari... and this is one of the extincting nationalities of Volga and Ural region in Russia and as far as i know mari are the last pagans (as their official religion) in Europe... i’m literally witch before quarantine started i talked with foreigners in my uni and i was naturally shocked when someone of them said something like “wait you are not russian??? you were born here and you speak russian whats the trick?”  surprise man i’m not russian hahah BECAUSE! there are more than 100 different nationalities in Russia, and citizenship of Russia and russian nationality have different meaning in russian. i can say that i’m from Russia, i have russian passport and i should follow the Russian Constitution (россиянин\россиянка) while my roots, language and appearence tell me “lol look at this innocent mari child listen well you are not russian you have your own native language and culture” (русский\русская). Sometimes the number of people naming themselves a part of certain ethnic group is extremely small, for example, the vol (воль [vol’]) people’s number is about only 70. fortunately, there are about 547000 of those who call themselves mari, and this nationality is on the 14th place in the rating of the most numerous ethnic groups of Russia. however i can’t say that my national culture is enriching and preserved, as OUR LOVELY RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT doesn’t give a /// about anyone but russians (lol russians too - just google the film called “Athlandita of Russian North” Атлантида русского севера) Furthermore, maris have their own state unit - republic of Mari El (from mari language - the land of mari) with the capital city Yoshkar Ola (from mari language - the Red Town). another interesting fact is that there are three main ethnogroups of mari: +mountain mari +meadow mari +eastern-meadow mari (this is me hahaha) Every group has its unique traditions and language - although we all are relatives, sometimes we can’t even understand each other :) for example, due to eastern-meadow mari’s neighbourhood with tatars, we have a lot of tatar words in our language. In ancient times mari was very militant people. There is a historical episode called Cheremis wars, when mari and some other Ural people make war with the russians, who was trying to conquer territories closer to the Ural and Volga and expand their influence on all Eurasia. It was certainly the 16th century - times when Ivan the Terrible was on the russian throne and he was literally moving heaven and earth to expand the borders of the country. There are three parts of these wars - the first, the second and the third (ok logically) that ended with the win of russians. This phenomenon is not typical for Russia at that time, as when the conquerors сame to new territories with some little barbarian tribes, they resolved the conflict with the money or just threat and only a few decided to start a war with them (even if they started it, the battle was not long due to the huge amount and better equipment and armour of russian army). Speaking of cheremises, the wars lasted from 1552 to almost end of the 16th century. In the early times of USSR the problem of indigenous people of some regions was being ignored and the priority was the ideological component, so the mari hadn’t even the official name of the nationality, not to mention their city’s name. Before the end of 1920s all nationalities spread on the banks of the Volga was called Cheremises (черемисы), and this name did not distinguish tatars, maris and even some udmurts and bashkirs, and from those times we bear a name of mari people with a proud! maybe later i’ll tell about my culture more :) and as this is my english hometask i could make maaaany mistakes hahaha but i did my best!

me on the 3rd floor in my study group consisting of only girls just like any other group in my institute

some problems with my english but still.... just wanted to say that in russia (espesially in province) we say “Masha are going to go to the cinema today” meaning “masha and her family” by that and sometimes it sounds very stupid but we dont actually say that when we talk about ourselves.... these middle-ural non-binary vibes