There was also a genre of Christmas story, Christmas tale, in Russia. The tone was set by the translated short stories of Dickens and Andersen, whom the Russian reader fell in love with extremely. In 1876, Dostoevsky wrote the Christmas story “The Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree,” a true masterpiece of Christmas literature.
Unfortunately, he rarely wrote stories and thought in novels. And here I put the tragedy of this world into a few pages. “Christ always has a Christmas tree on this day for little children who don’t have their own tree there...” And he found out that these boys and girls were all just like him, children, but some were still frozen in their baskets, in which they were thrown onto the stairs to the doors of St. Petersburg officials, others suffocated in the chukhonkas, from the orphanage while being fed, others died at the withered breasts of their mothers, during the Samara famine, others suffocated in third-class carriages from the stench, and yet they are all here now, they are all now like angels, they are all with Christ, and He himself is in the midst of them, and stretches out his hands to them, and blesses them and their sinful mothers... And the mothers of these children still stand right there, on the sidelines, and cry; each recognizes their boy or girl, and they fly up to them and kiss them, wipe away their tears with their hands and beg them not to cry, because they feel so good here...” The boy is dying. The story was republished annually. It did not become popular children's reading, and could not have become; it is intended for prepared readers of Dostoevsky.
Here the motif of “feast during the plague” appears. For some - illumination, noisy holidays in palaces, for others - homeless frost, hunger, death. So much for “social motives”. But what about without them in our classics with its critical realism, which was not an empty invention of literary scholars?
Fyodor Mikhailovich also composed poetry. I did not strive for coherence and smoothness - as, indeed, in prose. What’s interesting is that he didn’t paint using stencils. “I read your poems and found them very bad. Poetry is not your specialty,” his brother wrote to him. But what makes them remarkable is that every now and then they turn into muttering. There is a naive, raw sentimentality in these poems - on the verge of parody:
Baby angel on Christmas Eve
God sent to earth:
“How will you go through the spruce forest,
- He said with a smile, -
You cut down the Christmas tree and the little one
The kindest on earth,
The most affectionate and sensitive
Give as a memory of Me.”
1854
Like the poems of Captain Lebyadkin, these lines will resonate in children's and absurdist poetry of the twentieth century. In addition, Dostoevsky’s “God’s Gift” still remains in the school reading repertoire.
Perhaps, best description Christmas in the twentieth century - nostalgic “Nikita’s Childhood” by Alexei Tolstoy. This is a sophisticated idyll. How in detail and lovingly the life-loving Tolstoy describes the preparation of toys, the happy ritual of Christmas, when children “moan with delight”: “They dragged a large frozen Christmas tree into the living room. Groin knocked and slashed with an ax for a long time, adjusting the cross. The tree was finally raised, and it was so high that the soft green top bent under the ceiling. The spruce smelled cold, but little by little its compacted branches thawed, rose, fluffed up, and the whole house smelled of pine needles. The children brought heaps of chains and cardboard boxes with decorations into the living room, placed chairs next to the tree and began to clean it up. But it soon turned out that there were not enough things. I had to sit down again to glue the pound cakes, gild the nuts, and tie silver ropes to gingerbread cookies and Crimean apples. The children sat at this work all evening, until Lilya, with her head down with a crumpled bow on her elbow, fell asleep at the table.” This was written in the unidyllic twenties. Then many people remembered their childhood; Tolstoy did this in an exemplary way.
In the pre-war years, Boris Pasternak rarely appeared in poetry. It was difficult to predict that he would be drawn to the “archaic.” The mask of Yuri Zhivago, the hero of the novel, allowed him to escape reality. However, Pasternak long ago learned to escape from it into fundamental translations, in Goethe and Shakespeare... He not only turned to a new aesthetic for himself, the poet’s worldview changed:
It was winter.
The wind was blowing from the steppe.
And it was cold for the Baby in the den
On the hillside.
The breath of the ox warmed him.
Pets
We stood in a cave
A warm haze floated over the manger -
This is how the canon of Christmas poems developed in the twentieth century. Warm, but not hot.
At the peak of anti-religious propaganda, Joseph Brodsky began to write Christmas poems “following Pasternak.” It was a long-term literary campaign, which he readily discussed: “I had an idea at one time, when I was 24-25 years old... to write a poem every Christmas... It was 1972...”. We must give him his due: the idea was almost realized. And Brodsky started even earlier: in 1962 he wrote the famous “Christmas Romance”, which, however, has almost no gospel texture. By that time he had not yet read the Bible. But a year later a poem appeared, oversaturated with biblical signs:
The Savior is born
in the bitter cold.
Shepherds' fires burned in the desert.
The storm raged and exhausted the soul
from the poor kings who delivered gifts.
The camels raised their shaggy legs.
The wind howled.
A star blazing in the night,
watched the three caravans on the road
converged into the cave of Christ like rays.
This is a kind of archaic manifesto, which in 1963 was perceived as a challenge. Poets then remembered the first cosmonauts much more often than the heroes of the Gospels, and the popularity of Christian aesthetics arose among the intelligentsia closer to the early seventies. Definitely, Brodsky was fascinated by “The Poems of Yuri Zhivago.” Khrushchev promised to present the “last priest” to society any moment now, and the valiant parasite, in the voice of a sexton, repeated biblical names like a spell.
Brodsky began to write poetry no less “unearthly” than Pasternak on behalf of Zhivago. This helped to avoid any manifestations of the Soviet situation, which the poet was terribly afraid of. He achieved his goal: Christmas poems were incompatible with the magazine market of the time. Snobbery towards Soviet reality became the reason for the biblical cycle. Brodsky’s best Christmas poems contain more of the urban whirlwind of the 20th century and less meaningful biblical enumeration:
At Christmas everyone is a bit of a magician.
There is slush and crush in food.
Because of a can of coffee halva
Besieges the counter
people laden with a pile of bundles:
everyone is his own king and camel.
Here it is rather a panorama of the New Year’s Eve, rather than the Christmas bustle of Leningrad, although there is some gospel symbolism: when Brodsky remains in the museum space of ancient Bethlehem, he only repeats the melodies and rhythms of Yuri Zhivago. It turns out colder than Pasternak's.
And the best poem about Christmas, in my subjective opinion, was written by Mandelstam. He did without rhetoric, without “artistic retelling.” And the work turned out to be uneven. Uneven and nervous. Eight lines, fragmentary narrative. But real poems:
They burn with gold leaf
In the woods christmas trees,
Toy wolves in the bushes
They look with scary eyes.
Once you read these lines, you will never forget them. Although they were not written for textbooks.
Arseniy Zamostyanov
The holiday of the Nativity of Christ occupies a large place in the life of the whole world. All over the globe, wherever the name of Christ is preached, this great day is celebrated, and every year, with every repetition of this holiday, it brings with it, as it were, a fresh stream of love and light. In every home, in every family, preparations are made for this day every year, children look forward to it with joyful impatience, parents think with love about the pleasure ahead for their children, the thought of a festive tree fills all hearts.
Purpose of the work : tell about the history of the holiday, its traditions, illustrate it with the works of outstanding Russian painters.
There is a Christmas haze all around.
Bells ring in the darkness,
And get along with them
The words sound: “Peace on earth and happiness to all”
Every time we step over
the threshold of the New Year, my soul becomes
especially warm, because after a few
Days away the Christmas holiday will come! Christmas is amazing
a time when the heart is filled with anticipation
miracle... And this miracle happens!..“Christ is born, praise!” - rushes over the Universe, - “Christ from heaven, meet me!” - the whole world sings the glory of the Creator. Angelic powers and the human race together glorify Him whose love has no boundaries. And that's probably why it's Christmas Christ is called “Winter Easter”.
Light was an important component of winter pagan holidays. With the help of candles and fires they drove out the forces of darkness and cold. In Christianity, candles are considered an additional symbol of the importance of Jesus as the Light of the world. Christmas candles signify the victory of light over darkness. The candles on the tree of paradise gave birth to our beloved Christmas tree. .
Meanwhile, people arrived in Jerusalem from
some eastern country, the Magi, or
sages. Studying the stars. They saw
how a new unusual star appeared in the sky
and realized that the expected Messiah had been born.
The Jewish king Herod, having heard about the appearance unusual star, and, therefore, about the birth of a new king, he was afraid that his power would be taken away from him, because he was not a Jew. Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem to find out about the Child. He planned to kill him.
The same star walked across the sky before the Magi, showing them the way, and led them exactly to where the born baby Jesus was.
Many poets and writers directly or indirectly addressed the theme of Christmas. The works of A. A. Fet “Christmas” and I. A. Bunin will be transferred to the nostalgic world of the patriarchal Russian holiday. New Year»
IN In Russian poetry of the 20th century, Boris Pasternak and Joseph Brodsky addressed the gospel theme.
Joseph Brodsky made a kind of vow, and almost every year, throughout his poetic life, he always wrote a Christmas poem.
The Nativity of Christ, the day when the Savior appeared in our world, is a great event for every Christian. The church service of the holiday and numerous icons of the Nativity of Christ, which have repeatedly become the subject of attention of researchers, theologians and art historians, and the theme for art exhibitions, are filled with a feeling of joy and jubilation.
The iconography of the Nativity of Christ developed gradually, as did the divine service of the holiday, however, its main features emerged already in the early Christian period. The main sources of iconography were the Gospel and church tradition.
Christmas. Vishnyakov I.Ya.
Christmas
- Lukovnikova E. Iconography of the Nativity of Christ // Alpha and Omega, 1994.
- Orlova M.A. On the formation of the iconography of the Christmas stichera “What shall we bring to You...” // Old Russian Art. Balkans. Rus. St. Petersburg, 1995
- V.V. Frost "Big children's encyclopedia of New Year and Christmas celebrations."
- History of the Christmas holiday. Yakov Ushakov
- Christmas. Konstantin Pobedonostsev
- http://www. r r A vmir.ru
- Encyclopedia "Around the World"
Slide 2
Reflection of Slavic traditions and legends in the story (fiction and reality) Evil and good in N. V. Gogol’s story “The Night Before Christmas”
Slide 3
Reality is something that really does not exist in the imagination. Fiction is something that is based on imagination, fiction, something magical, incredible.
Slide 4
List the characters in the story “The Night Before Christmas”
Real heroes Vakula Oksana Chub Head Clerk Kum Tkach Kumova's wife Divchina Parubki Fantastic creatures Devil Solokha (“at one with the devil”) Patsyuk (“akin to the devil”)
Slide 5
The night before Christmas is special: the night before the greatest Christian holiday - the birth of Jesus Christ.
What do you know about the Christian holiday of Christmas and the night before Christmas?
Slide 6
On Christmas night, carolers carry with them a star, symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem, and a small nativity scene.
Slide 7
Children and adults put on masks and costumes (they try to dress so as not to be recognized), gather in groups and walk from house to house, singing carols (special songs containing words of glorification of the holiday and asking for alms).
Slide 8
Songs and screams were heard louder and louder through the streets. The crowds of pushing people were increased by those who came from neighboring villages. The boys were naughty and crazy to their heart's content. Often, between carols, some cheerful song was heard... Small windows rose... and old women leaned out of the window with sausage in their hands or a piece of pie. Boys and girls vied with each other to set up their bags and catch their prey...
Slide 9
The plot of the story “The Night Before Christmas” is based on the folk Christian holiday - the Nativity of Christ. The image of Christ the Savior is invisibly present on the pages of the story, bringing light and goodness to people, giving hope...
Slide 10
Slide 11
The symbolic title of the story “The Night Before Christmas”
The last day before Christmas has passed. A clear winter night has arrived. The stars looked out. The moon majestically rose to the sky to shine good people and to the whole world, so that everyone can have fun caroling and praising Christ...
Slide 12
Why does the struggle between good and evil forces, light and darkness intensify on the eve of Christmas?
Evil forces are most active on the eve of Christmas, trying to force people into last night before the Birth of Christ, violate Christian commandments.
Slide 13
Ten Commandments of the Law of God 1. I am the Lord thy God; May you have no gods other than me. 2. Do not make yourself an idol. 3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 4. Remember the Sabbath day. 5. Honor your father and your mother. 6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Do not commit adultery. 8. Don't steal. 9. Don't lie. 10. Don’t covet someone else’s good
Slide 14
What commandments could the blacksmith Vakula break on the night before Christmas?
I wanted to kill myself. Sell your soul to the devil.
Slide 15
What commandments does Oksana break on the night before Christmas?
Envy Narcissism.
Slide 16
How do representatives of the forces of evil influence the fate of the main characters?
Slide 17
The devil, to play a petty trick on the blacksmith Vakula: in the dark Chub - Oksana's father will not leave the house anywhere, and the date will not take place. Who stole the month and why? Why did the devil take revenge on the blacksmith? The blacksmith painted a picture of the Last Judgment in the church, where the poor devil was beaten with anything.
Slide 18
What did the witch collect in her sleeve on the night before Christmas? Stars
Slide 19
What gives the narrator and the old women reason to believe that “Solokha is definitely a witch”?
Slide 20
How did the witch and the devil get into the house? Through the pipe.
Slide 21
Who is Pot-bellied Patsyuk, why did Vakula go to him for help? Pot-bellied Patsyuk was once a Cossack, and was also known, in everyone’s opinion, to be associated with evil spirits.
Slide 22
What did Pot-bellied Patsyuk eat during his conversation with Vakula? And how does this characterize him? Dumplings, dumplings with sour cream. I broke my fast. However, what the hell! after all, today is a hungry Kutya; and he eats dumplings, tasty dumplings! What a fool I really am: I stand here and accumulate sin! back!" - and the devout blacksmith ran headlong out of the hut.
Slide 23
How can you tame the devil?
The sign of the cross. Assignment: How did Vakula tame the devil?
Slide 24
Where and why did Vakula go, riding the devil? To the queen in St. Petersburg for slippers for Oksana.
Slide 25
THE TALE ABOUT THE JOURNEY OF JOHN OF NOVGORODSKY ON THE DEMON
John (in the world Ilya) (d. 7. XI. 1186) - Archbishop of Novgorod. …Once, during John’s nightly cell prayer, a demon, tempting the saint, climbed into his washstand. But the archbishop outwitted the evil one by making the sign of the cross over the washstand, and John imprisoned the demon in him. As a reward for liberation from the spell, the demon carries John to Jerusalem within one night and returns him to Novgorod. During his stay in the holy city, John manages to pray at the Holy Sepulcher.
Content
- Feast of the Nativity of Christ
- Christmastide
- Waits
- Feast of Mercy
- Christmas stories by Russian writers
- Special genre
- Bylichki
- Customs
- The rise of the Christmas genre
- Christmas and Yuletide story
- Passion for the Yuletide story genre
- Signs of the genre
- "God is the beginning of good"
- Inner transformation
- Where does the Christmas story begin?
- Family theme
- The ideological originality of the Christmas story
- “He was the purest and bright holiday, he was a memory of the golden age, the highest point of that feeling that is now on its way out - the feeling of home. The holiday of the Nativity of Christ was bright in Russian families, like Christmas tree candles, and pure as resin. In the foreground there was a large green tree and cheerful children; even adults, not experienced in having fun, were less bored, huddling near the walls. And everything was dancing – both the children and the dying candles,” recalled A. Blok. In this statement one can already feel the nostalgia of a 20th century person for what was lost.
- The days from Christmas to Epiphany were (are) called Christmastide.
- The name Christmastide goes back to the adjective “holy”. Holidays were especially loved, joyful and very solemn also because the Christian Church timed three major holidays to coincide with them: Christmas (January 7, according to the new style), St. Basil's Day (January 14), Epiphany (January 19). The atmosphere of holiness, joyful reverence for the miracle that had taken place - the birth of the Divine Child - was maintained in every family by visiting churches, acts of mercy, thematic conversations, readings, and singing carols on Christian and biblical themes.
- Carolers performing the troparion of the holiday “Your Nativity...”, Christmas hymns, majestic songs about how Christ was born, how God’s messengers came to visit their owners, were called Christoslavs. Often they walked around courtyards and houses with a star attached to a large stick and symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem, which led the Magi to worship Christ swaddled in a manger. From the constant movement of the hand, the star on the pole made constant revolutions, behind which the voids inside were illuminated - it was very beautiful, attractive. They also walked around with a nativity scene, a special box with puppets, performing performances based on the Gospel story.
- Wishing the owners health, a good harvest, prosperity, the carolers also reminded them of the need to be generous, merciful, help the weak, the poor, visit the sick, do good deeds, be abstinent, etc., because
- Christmas brings renewal, universal love and reconciliation: God sent His Son into this sinful world to save humanity from sins and eternal destruction. From the day of His birth a new time began on earth.
- These are days of forgiveness of insults, reconciliation, visiting friends, this is a time of good deeds. Everyone is filled with great joy of life. And most importantly, what is done during the day is measured against the eternally living commandments of Christ.
- The story of I.S. Shmelev “The Summer of the Lord”, the chapters “Christmas” and “Christmastide”, tell about the reverent participation in the holiday of a traditional Orthodox family, about family comfort and peace of mind, the desire to get closer to the saving ideal. The festive atmosphere of Christmastide is described in the famous ballad by V.A. Zhukovsky “Svetlana”, in the novel by A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. In the story “The Night Before Christmas” by N.V. Gogol, Christmas time is cheerful and mischievous. Joyful, exciting, poetic - in one of the chapters of the epic “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy.
- But in Russian literature, as is known, a special genre of works has developed - Christmas and Yuletide stories.
- A common Christmas gift for 19th-century readers were Yuletide stories published in magazines and newspapers. They were very different: kind and touching, fantastic and ironic, sad and even mournful, edifying and sentimental, but they always tried to soften people’s hearts. With all the variety of holiday stories, the main thing was preserved - a special, Christmas worldview. The stories contained dreams of a kind and joyful life, of generous and selfless souls, of a merciful attitude towards each other, of the victory of good over evil.
- In the literary community, both Western European and Russian, the terms “Christmas” and “Yuletide” were not strictly distinguished. For example, the subtitle of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens states: “a Christmas story.”
- Historically, Christmas stories grew out of folklore tradition and are associated with oral genre Yuletide tales, the content of which were stories about what happened in former times on Christmastide, about various encounters with evil spirits in dangerous places, or during fortune telling, or at a Yuletide party.
- Of course, these stories (bylikki) carried echoes of paganism, superstition, and a mixture of pagan and Christian.
- For a long time, the Slavs had a custom during Christmastide to dress up, put on masks, perform fortune telling, organize skating and dancing, light fires, and so on. With the spread of Christianity in Rus', these ancient rituals were not eradicated, but were complicated by new ones. This is reflected in the literature. In any collection of Christmas stories you can find stories about fortune telling, putting on masks, and so on. The Church has long condemned such behavior as sinful. The decree of Patriarch Joachim of 1684, prohibiting Yuletide “possessions,” states that they lead a person into “soul-destructive sin.”
- The heyday of the Christmas story comes in the 19th century, and this is connected with the development of the Western European tradition of the Christmas story, which came to Russia along with the work of Dickens. In the 1840s, his famous Christmas stories “A Christmas Carol”, “The Bells”, “The Cricket on the Stove” and others were published. No less significant in this regard were the works of Hoffmann “The Lord of the Fleas” and “The Nutcracker”, and Andersen’s fairy tales, in particular “The Christmas Tree” and “The Little Match Seller”.
- From this moment on, a passion for the Christmas story genre began in Russia. However, simultaneously with the true masterpieces of the genre, weak works appeared, about which N.S. was ironic. Leskov, one of the main representatives of this genre in Russian literature.
- Leskov was one of the first to identify the genre features of Christmas stories. In the story “The Pearl Necklace” (1885) he wrote: “It is absolutely required of a Christmas story that it be timed to coincide with the events of the Christmas Eve - from Christmas to Epiphany, that it be somewhat fantastic, that it have some morality, at least some kind of refutation harmful prejudice, and ... so that it certainly ends cheerfully. ...He must be true incident(emphasis added by Leskov).”
- Or again - in the first paragraph of the unfinished Christmas story “Malanya's Wedding” he writes: “I will tell you, honorable readers, a small story that follows all the rules of a Christmas story: it has a very sad beginning, a rather confusing intrigue and a completely unexpected, cheerful ending.” . And, finally, a mandatory property of such a story, according to Leskov, should be “virtue,” that is, the value orientation of the author. Without this condition, all external genre features may turn out to be opposite in function, and the story may turn into an “anti-Yuletide.”
- Leskov was firmly convinced that “God is the beginning of good.” Only this path opens the way to salvation and transformation, the resurrection of “dead souls.”
- In this Christmas story, the author strives to lead the hero to internal transformation, because evil is defeated, first of all, within a person.
- Christmas stories often begin with a description of the misfortunes and difficulties of human existence. A grandmother, barely making ends meet, has nothing to please her grandchildren for the holiday (“Christmas Tree”), a mother is unable to buy a gift for her child (P. Khlebnikov, “Christmas Gift”), and the inhabitants of a St. Petersburg slum have no money for a tree (K. Stanyukovich, “Yolka”), a gifted young man is undeservedly oppressed by his stingy uncle (P. Polevoy, “The Slavers”), a forced peasant, at the whim of the master, must kill his pet bear (N. S. Leskov, “The Beast”), having lost his ticket for train, the old woman cannot get to her dying son (A. Kruglov, “On Christmas Eve”). However, there is always a way out, all obstacles are overcome, obsessions are dispelled.
- The most important theme of Christmas stories is the theme of family. Family circle, warmth of relationships, mutual love- this is the ideal. But evil in the world leads to orphanhood, suffering, loneliness, therefore, in Western European and Russian literature, Christmas stories often choose the fate of an orphan and the possibility of overcoming orphanhood, for which it must happen miracle. (This is not always a miracle in the sense of a “happy ending.” The ending on earth can be tragic, but the miracle of meeting Christ in the heavenly world opens up a different perspective for a blessed life, without suffering, for those who have suffered in earthly life. An example of this - story by F.M. Dostoevsky “The Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree.”)
- Ideological originality of Christmas stories
- The genre affiliation and ideological originality of Christmas stories are determined by the content of the holiday of Christmas and Holy Days: they direct a person’s consciousness to the search and affirmation of the ideas of love, mercy, kindness, and compassion. Accordingly, in true Christmas and Christmas stories, the main motives should be: firstly, joy and light from the very appearance of Christ in the world, secondly, compassion and mercy for all those who suffer, thirdly, the obligatory triumph of sacrifice, the highest in the Christian value system virtue, the victory of love over hatred, good over evil, humanity over inhumanity.
- http://art.1september.ru/articlef.php?ID=200702305
- Kucherskaya M.A. Russian Christmas story and the problem of the canon in modern literature. Author's abstract. dis. . Ph.D. Philol. Sci. M., 1997.
- Samsonova N.V. The Christmas text and its artistic anthropology in Russian literature of the 19th – first third of the 20th centuries. Author's abstract. dis. . Ph.D. Philol. Sci. Voronezh, 1998.
- Viduetskaya T. P. The genre of the story in the works of N. S. Leskov II Scientific. report Higher school: Philol. science. 1961. No. 2 (14). P. 92.
