That was able to do 10-year-old girl a century ago in Russia

• What was able to do 10-year-old girl a century ago in Russia

In ancient times, the education of boys and girls in Russia was very different. And if the first parents raised as miners, the second - as future mothers and housewives. And if a 12-year-old girl said that she was "nepryaha" and the boy that he was "alone can drive the grandmother" - it was a great shame for the child and his parents.

Young Shvachka.

Preparation for the main role of women began very early maturing girls and was accompanied by a variety of traditional rites. Especially important was the preparation of a dowry, which she has participated in early childhood itself. She wove it, sewing, embroidering, spinning, knitting and master.

The young spinner. Author: Nicholas Dubovskoy.

Folk traditions and customs are fully reflected in the external appearance of the girls, who from an early age her hair plaited in a single braid, symbolizing the union of the three vital forces. While it spun so that it is strictly laid down along the spine. This was due to a belief that the forces of light passed from the hair in it and filled with energy. After marriage braid divided into two. And it was a symbol that the forces will need twice - at the very young girl and her baby.

Trying dowry. Author: Fedotov Sychkov.

Ancient "Domostroy" - the statute under which the peasants lived, was an unwritten law. He demanded from the father of the family rigor in the education of their children. This was especially true daughters, as to give his daughter in marriage immaculate, and besides, accustomed to different labor, was considered a matter of great pride for the parents.

Daughters began much earlier accustomed to feasible work than sons. Apparently here and gone, the girls matured faster.

"Small business is better to great idleness" - according to this principle mother brought her daughter, and training any agricultural or handmade work she began with a personal example. Showing and explaining the intricacies of her daughter and the sequence of execution of a particular case, it involved a little in the process.

"On the eve of the holiday." Author: Yuri Kugach.

For example, if five or six years of age a small hostess took care of ducklings il chickens, then by ten or twelve she was driving cows out to pasture, and they could be milked. Sooner grafted labor skills were allowed women to endure all the hardships of peasant everyday life. And not for nothing that for centuries the people a proverb: "On the profession all light will pass - will not perish."

The little helper.

Thus the little daughter of five-six years on the peasant Code was to learn the basics of spinning, to help his mother managed the house: washing dishes, cleaning, cooking simple meals, as well as to sweep the floor, wash and clean the shop, shake out and clean the rugs, make the bed , shake up it, change the torch, candles, clean kerosene lamps; look after the poultry and cattle. And under its supervision could leave younger siblings.

Children feeding chickens in the barn. Author: George Savitsky.

At the age of 10, the girl, the last original "science" of mothers, grandmothers, requirements tightened, and she became an adult responsible for the work that was entrusted to her. She had to collect firewood and fetch water from the well, to clean and heat the stove, cook porridge and cooking borsch, cook cakes and other pastries. Often a decade girly himself had to wash and rinse the laundry in the river, and then hang it out to dry. And if the summer it was almost like a game, then wash in the hole in the winter turned into quite an ordeal.

His infant nurse.

And in large families care for younger lay on the shoulders of an older sister who already own could perepelenat and feed from the horn, to lull and entertaining songs, "Pestushko" and rhymes.

Naymichka. Author: Chariton Platonov.

Often a girl 10-11 years, parents could give in nyanki- "Pestunov" to look after other people's children. With "Pestunov" paid or products, or a piece of fabric, and even money. So, this season the girl could earn three to five rubles.

Spinners. Author: Ivan Kulikov.

It is very important for girls in adolescence was a master of weaving elements, since all fabrics for clothing, towels, tablecloths peasants produced themselves. Therefore, the cloth and call homespun.

At first the girl was taught "to wind the thread on the bobbin (birch-tube coil), then - scutch and spin from him tow (yarn)." In some regions, combed and spun wool. As a rule, they engaged in weaving winter big "womanish" companies.

And if in five-seven years old little girl was seized with the primary skills of spinning yarn on the spindle or spinning wheel, which was producing for her father on a smaller scale, then to 10 years it could have on their own weaving on the loom to a belt or towel. With the years, she began to prepare a dowry for themselves.

The Reaping. Author: A. formation. A lot of responsibility was for the little hostess and not at home. She had to knit bundles collected spikelets, hay rake; planting seedlings, weeding the weeds and water the garden; mouth of cow, goat, geese, ducks; remove the manure and clean the cattle.

The peasant children are fathers in a lunch box. Author: Alex Kivchenko.

However, based on the foregoing, we should not think that rural rebyatnya in Russia was deprived of normal childhood joys. At leisure, younger girls played in "Mothers and Daughters" dolls motanki who sewed clothes and come up with jewelry. A few older women gathered at gatherings where frolicking, singing, knitting, embroidering and sewing. And children of all ages were sent into the forest to collect berries, mushrooms, herbs, twigs. These entertainment they also adapt to adult life.

At work. Girlfriends. Author: Fedotov Sychkov.

All my childhood and adolescence, the girl was under the patronage of his father, who gave her in marriage, these charges are passed on to her husband. In Russia, it was said: "My father saves daughter to the crown, and her husband to the end." And by becoming his wife, she was required to check the husband as head of the family. And what it taught my mother and father she brought her children and grandchildren. And mastered by labor skills from an early age was the main key to its survival into adulthood.