Folklore

Until the end of the 10th century, the Eastern Slavs, who had already created their own state - Kievo-Novgorod Rus, - didn't know writing. This period in the history of literature is called pre-literary. Only after the adoption of Christianity in 988 did the Russians acquire written literature. However, even after years and centuries, the bulk of the population remained illiterate. Therefore, not only in the pre-literary period, but also subsequently, many verbal works were not written down, but were passed on from mouth to mouth from generation to generation. These works began to be called folklore, or oral folk art.

The genres of Russian oral folk art include
- songs,
- epics,
- fairy tales,
- puzzles,
- legends,
- Proverbs and sayings.
Most folklore works exist in verse (poetic) form, since the poetic form made them easy to remember and passed on to many generations of people over several centuries.

SONG is a verbal-musical genre, a small lyrical or lyrical-narrative work intended for singing. Types of songs: historical, ritual, dance, lyrical. Folk songs express the feelings of an individual and at the same time of many people. The songs reflect love experiences, people's thoughts about their difficult fate, events in family and social life. Often in folk songs the technique of parallelism is used, when the mood of the lyrical hero is transferred to nature:
The night has no bright month,
The girl has no father...

Historical songs arose after the 10th century and are associated with various historical events and personalities: “Ermak is preparing for a campaign in Siberia” - about the conquest of Siberian lands, “Stepan Razin on the Volga” - about the popular uprising led by Stepan Razin, “Pugachev in prison” - about the peasant war waged by Emelyan Pugachev, “Under the glorious city near Poltava” - about the battle of the army of Peter I with the Swedes. In folk historical songs, the narration of certain events is combined with a strong emotional sound.

EPIC (the term was introduced in the 19th century by I.P. Sakharov) - a heroic song of an epic nature. Originated in the 9th century as expression of historical consciousness Russian people. The main characters of the epics are heroes who embodied the people's ideal of patriotism, strength and courage: Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, Mikula Selyaninovich, as well as the giant Svyatogor, the merchant Sadko, the brawler Vasily Buslaev and others. The plot of epics is based on a vital basis, enriched with fantastic fiction: heroes fight monsters, defeat hordes of enemies alone, and instantly overcome long distances.

Epics should be distinguished from FAIRY TALES - works based on fictional events. Fairy tales can be magical (with the participation of fantastic forces, with the acquisition of wonderful objects, etc.) and everyday ones, in which ordinary people are depicted - peasants, soldiers, workers, kings or kings, princes and princesses - in an ordinary setting. The fairy tale differs from other works in its optimistic plot: good always wins, and evil forces are either ridiculed or defeated.

Unlike a fairy tale, a LEGEND is an oral folk story based on a miracle, a fantastic image, an incredible event that is perceived by the narrator and the listener as reliable. There are legends about the origin of countries, peoples, seas, about the exploits or sufferings of real or fictional heroes.

RIDDLE - an allegorical image of an object or phenomenon, usually based on a metaphorical rapprochement. The riddles are extremely short and have a rhythmic structure, which is often emphasized by rhyme. (“The pear is hanging - you can’t eat it”, “Without arms, without legs, but it opens the gate”, “The girl is sitting in prison, and the scythe is on the street”, etc.).

PROVERB - a short, rhythmically organized figurative folk saying, an aphoristic statement. It usually has a two-part structure, supported by rhythm, rhyme, assonance and alliteration. (“As you sow, so shall you reap”, “You can’t pull a fish out of the pond without difficulty”, “Like the priest, such is the parish”, “The hut is not red in its corners, but red in its pies”, etc.).

A PROVERB is a figurative expression that evaluates some phenomenon of life. Unlike a proverb, a saying is not a whole sentence, but a part of a statement (“Seven Fridays in a week,” “Rake in the heat with someone else’s hands,” “Put your teeth on a shelf”).

Most works of oral folk art are in one way or another connected with the mythological ideas of the ancient Slavs

The word "folklore", which often denotes the concept of "oral folk art", comes from the combination of two English words: folk - "people" and lore - "wisdom". The history of folklore goes back to ancient times. Its beginning is connected with the need of people to understand the natural world around them and their place in it. This awareness was expressed in inextricably fused words, dance and music, as well as in works of fine, especially applied, art (ornaments on dishes, tools, etc.), in jewelry, objects of religious worship... They came to us from the depths of centuries and myths that explain the laws of nature, the mysteries of life and death in figurative and plot form. The rich soil of ancient myths still nourishes both folk art and literature.

Unlike myths, folklore is already a form of art. Ancient folk art was characterized by syncretism, i.e. indistinction between different types of creativity. In a folk song, not only words and melody could not be separated, but also the song could not be separated from the dance or ritual. The mythological background of folklore explains why oral works did not have a first author. With the advent of “author’s” folklore, we can talk about modern history. The formation of plots, images, and motifs occurred gradually and, over time, were enriched and improved by the performers.

The outstanding Russian philologist Academician A. N. Veselovsky, in his fundamental work “Historical Poetics,” argues that the origins of poetry lie in folk ritual. Initially, poetry was a song performed by a choir and invariably accompanied by music and dancing. Thus, the researcher believed, poetry arose in the primitive, ancient syncretism of the arts. The words of these songs were improvised in each specific case until they became traditional and acquired a more or less stable character. In primitive syncretism, Veselovsky saw not only a combination of types of art, but also a combination of types of poetry. “Epic and lyric poetry,” he wrote, “seemed to us to be the consequences of the decay of the ancient ritual choir” 1.

1 Veselovsky A. N. Three chapters from “Historical Poetics” // Veselovsky A.N. Historical poetics. - M., 1989. - P. 230.

It should be noted that these conclusions of the scientist in our time represent the only consistent theory of the origin of verbal art. “Historical Poetics” by A. N. Veselovsky is still the largest generalization of the gigantic material accumulated by folklore and ethnography.

Like literature, folklore works are divided into epic, lyrical and dramatic. Epic genres include epics, legends, fairy tales, and historical songs. Lyrical genres include love songs, wedding songs, lullabies, and funeral laments. Dramatic ones include folk dramas (with Petrushka, for example). The original dramatic performances in Russia were ritual games: seeing off Winter and welcoming Spring, elaborate wedding rituals, etc. One should also remember about small genres of folklore - ditties, sayings, etc.

Over time, the content of the works underwent changes: after all, the life of folklore, like any other art, is closely connected with history. A significant difference between folklore works and literary works is that they do not have a permanent, once and for all established form. Storytellers and singers have honed their mastery of performing works for centuries. Let us note that today children, unfortunately, usually get acquainted with works of oral folk art through a book and much less often - in live form.

Folklore is characterized by natural folk speech, striking in its richness of expressive means and melodiousness. Well-developed laws of composition with stable forms of beginning, plot development, and ending are typical for a folklore work. His style tends toward hyperbole, parallelism, and constant epithets. Its internal organization has such a clear, stable character that even changing over the centuries, it retains its ancient roots.

Any piece of folklore is functional - it was closely connected with one or another circle of rituals, and was performed in a strictly defined situation.

Oral folk art reflected the entire set of rules of folk life. The folk calendar precisely determined the order of rural work. Rituals of family life contributed to harmony in the family and included raising children. The laws of life of the rural community helped to overcome social contradictions. All this is captured in various types of folk art. An important part of life is holidays with their songs, dances, and games.

Oral folk art and folk pedagogy. Many genres of folk art are quite understandable for young children. Thanks to folklore, a child enters the world around him more easily and more fully feels the charm of his native land.

childbirth, assimilates the people's ideas about beauty, morality, gets acquainted with customs, rituals - in a word, along with aesthetic pleasure, absorbs what is called the spiritual heritage of the people, without which the formation of a full-fledged personality is simply impossible.

Since ancient times, there have been many folklore works specifically intended for children. This type of folk pedagogy has played a huge role in the education of the younger generation for many centuries and right up to the present day. Collective moral wisdom and aesthetic intuition developed a national ideal of man. This ideal fits harmoniously into the global circle of humanistic views.

Children's folklore. This concept fully applies to those works that are created by adults for children. In addition, this includes works composed by children themselves, as well as those passed on to children from the oral creativity of adults. That is, the structure of children's folklore is no different from the structure of children's literature.

By studying children's folklore, you can understand a lot about the psychology of children of a particular age, as well as identify their artistic preferences and level of creative potential. Many genres are associated with games in which the life and work of elders are reproduced, so the moral attitudes of the people, their national traits, and the peculiarities of economic activity are reflected here.

In the system of genres of children's folklore, “nurturing poetry” or “maternal poetry” occupies a special place. This includes lullabies, nurseries, nursery rhymes, jokes, fairy tales and songs created for the little ones. Let us first consider some of these genres, and then other types of children's folklore.

Lullabies. At the center of all “mother’s poetry” is the child. They admire him, pamper him and cherish him, decorate him and amuse him. Essentially, it is the aesthetic object of poetry. In a child’s very first impressions, folk pedagogy instills a sense of the value of one’s own personality. The baby is surrounded by a bright, almost ideal world, in which love, goodness, and universal harmony reign and conquer.

Gentle, monotonous songs are necessary for the child's transition from wakefulness to sleep. From this experience the lullaby was born. The innate maternal feeling and sensitivity to the peculiarities of age, organically inherent in folk pedagogy, were reflected here. Lullabies reflect in a softened playful form everything that a mother usually lives with - her joys and worries, her thoughts about the baby, dreams about his future. In her songs for the baby, the mother includes what is understandable and pleasant to him. This is “gray cat”, “red shirt”, “ a piece of pie and a glass of milk", "crane-

face "... There are usually few words and concepts in the chauduel room - you laugh those

Fundamental;! Gsholpptok;

without which primary knowledge of the surrounding world is impossible. These words also give the first skills of native speech.

The rhythm and melody of the song were obviously born from the rhythm of the rocking of the cradle. Here the mother sings over the cradle:

There is so much love and ardent desire to protect your child in this song! Simple and poetic words, rhythm, intonation - everything is aimed at an almost magical spell. Often the lullaby was a kind of spell, a conspiracy against evil forces. Echoes of both ancient myths and the Christian faith in the Guardian Angel are heard in this lullaby. But the most important thing in the lullaby for all time remains the poetically expressed care and love of the mother, her desire to protect the child and prepare for life and work:

A frequent character in the lullaby is a cat. He is mentioned along with the fantastic characters Sleep and Dream. Some researchers believe that mentions of it are inspired by ancient magic. But the point is also that the cat sleeps a lot, so it is he who should bring the baby sleep.

Other animals and birds are often mentioned in lullabies, as well as in other children's folklore genres. They speak and feel like people. Endowing an animal with human qualities is called anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is a reflection of ancient pagan beliefs, according to which animals were endowed with soul and mind and therefore could enter into meaningful relationships with humans.

Folk pedagogy included in the lullaby not only kind helpers, but also evil, scary, and sometimes not even very understandable ones (for example, the ominous Buka). All of them had to be cajoled, conjured, “taken away” so that they would not harm the little one, and maybe even help him.

A lullaby has its own system of expressive means, its own vocabulary, and its own compositional structure. Short adjectives are common, complex epithets are rare, and there are many verbose words.

Baiushki bye! Save you

I cry from everything, from all sorrows, from all misfortunes: from the crowbar, from the evil man - the Adversary.

And your angel, your savior, have mercy on you, from every sight,

You will live and live, Don’t be lazy to work! Bayushki-bayu, Lyulushki-lyulyu! Sleep, sleep at night

Yes, grow by the hour, You will grow big - You will begin to walk in St. Petersburg, Wear silver and gold.

owls of stress from one syllable to another. Prepositions, pronouns, comparisons, and entire phrases are repeated. It is assumed that ancient lullabies did without rhymes at all - the “bayush” song was kept with smooth rhythm, melody, and repetitions. Perhaps the most common type of repetition in a lullaby is alliteration, i.e. repetition of identical or consonant consonants. It should also be noted that there is an abundance of endearing and diminutive suffixes - not only in words addressed directly to the child, but also in the names of everything that surrounds him.

Today we have to talk with regret about the oblivion of tradition, about the ever-increasing narrowing of the range of lullabies. This happens mainly because the inextricable unity of “mother-child” is broken. And medical science raises doubts: is motion sickness beneficial? So the lullaby disappears from the lives of babies. Meanwhile, folklore expert V.P. Anikin assessed her role very highly: “A lullaby is a kind of prelude to the musical symphony of childhood. By singing songs, the baby’s ear is taught to distinguish the tonality of words and the intonation structure of native speech, and the growing child, who has already learned to understand the meaning of some words, also masters some elements of the content of these songs.”

Pestushki, nursery rhymes, jokes. Like lullabies, these works contain elements of original folk pedagogy, the simplest lessons of behavior and relationships with the outside world. Pestushki(from the word “nurture” - educate) are associated with the earliest period of child development. The mother, having unswaddled him or freed him from clothes, strokes his body, straightens his arms and legs, saying, for example:

Sweating - stretching - stretching, Across - fat, And in the legs - walkers, And in the arms - grabbers, And in the mouth - a talker, And in the head - a mind.

Thus, pestles accompany the physical procedures necessary for the child. Their content is associated with specific physical actions. The set of poetic devices in pets is also determined by their functionality. Pestushki are laconic. “The owl is flying, the owl is flying,” they say, for example, when waving a child’s hands. “The birds flew and landed on his head,” - the child’s hands fly up to his head. And so on. There is not always a rhyme in the songs, and if there is, then most often it is a pair. The organization of the text of the pestles as a poetic work is achieved by repeated repetition of the same word: “The geese flew, the swans flew. The geese were flying, the swans were flying..." To the pestles

similar to the original humorous conspiracies, for example: “Water is off a duck’s back, and thinness is on Efim.”

Nursery rhymes - a more developed game form than pestles (although they also have enough game elements). Nursery rhymes entertain the baby and create a cheerful mood. Like pestles, they are characterized by rhythm:

Tra-ta-ta, tra-ta-ta, A cat married a cat! Kra-ka-ka, kra-ka-ka, He asked for milk! Dla-la-la, dla-la-la, The cat didn’t give it!

Sometimes nursery rhymes only entertain (like the one above), and sometimes they instruct, giving the simplest knowledge about the world. By the time the child is able to perceive meaning, and not just rhythm and musical harmony, they will bring him the first information about the multiplicity of objects, about counting. The little listener gradually extracts such knowledge from the game song. In other words, it involves a certain amount of mental stress. This is how thought processes begin in his mind.

Forty, forty, First - porridge,

White-sided, the second - mash,

Cooked porridge, gave beer to the third,

She lured guests. The fourth - wine,

There was porridge on the table, but the fifth one got nothing.

And the guests go to the yard. Shu, shu! She flew away and sat on her head.

Perceiving the initial score through such a nursery rhyme, the child is also puzzled by why the fifth one did not get anything. Maybe because he doesn't drink milk? Well, the goat butts for this - in another nursery rhyme:

Those who don’t suck a pacifier, those who don’t drink milk, those who don’t suck! - gore! I'll put you on the horns!

The edifying meaning of the nursery rhyme is usually emphasized by intonation and gestures. The child is also involved in them. Children of the age for whom nursery rhymes are intended cannot yet express in speech everything that they feel and perceive, so they strive for onomatopoeia, repetitions of the words of an adult, and gestures. Thanks to this, the educational and cognitive potential of nursery rhymes turns out to be very significant. In addition, in the child’s consciousness there is a movement not only towards mastering the direct meaning of the word, but also towards the perception of rhythmic and sound design.

In nursery rhymes and petushki, there is invariably a trope such as metonymy - the replacement of one word with another based on the connection of their meanings by contiguity. For example, in the famous game “Okay, okay, where have you been? - At Grandma’s”, with the help of synecdoche, the child’s attention is drawn to his own hands 1.

joke called a small funny work, statement or simply a separate expression, most often rhymed. Entertaining rhymes and joke songs also exist outside the game (unlike nursery rhymes). The joke is always dynamic, filled with energetic actions of the characters. We can say that in a joke, the basis of the figurative system is precisely movement: “He knocks, strums along the street, Foma rides on a chicken, Timoshka on a cat - along the path there.”

The age-old wisdom of folk pedagogy is manifested in its sensitivity to the stages of human maturation. The time of contemplation, almost passive listening, is passing. It is being replaced by a time of active behavior, a desire to intervene in life - this is where the psychological preparation of children for study and work begins. And the first cheerful assistant is a joke. It encourages the child to act, and some of its reticence, understatement causes in the child a strong desire to speculate, to fantasize, i.e. awakens thought and imagination. Often jokes are built in the form of questions and answers - in the form of a dialogue. This makes it easier for the child to perceive the switching of action from one scene to another, and to follow the rapid changes in the relationships of the characters. Other artistic techniques in jokes are also aimed at the possibility of quick and meaningful perception - composition, imagery, repetition, rich alliteration and onomatopoeia.

Fables, inversions, nonsense. These are varieties of the joke-accurate genre. Thanks to shapeshifters, children develop a sense of the comic as an aesthetic category. This type of joke is also called “poetry of paradox.” Its pedagogical value lies in the fact that by laughing at the absurdity of a fable, the child strengthens the correct understanding of the world that he has already received.

Chukovsky dedicated a special work to this type of folklore, calling it “Silent absurdities.” He considered this genre extremely important for stimulating a child’s cognitive attitude towards the world and very well substantiated why children like absurdity so much. The child constantly has to systematize the phenomena of reality. In this systematization of chaos, as well as randomly acquired scraps and fragments of knowledge, the child reaches virtuosity, enjoying the joy of knowledge.

1 The hands that visited the grandmother are an example of synecdoche: this is a type of metonymy when a part is named instead of the whole.

nia. Hence his increased interest in games and experiments, where the process of systematization and classification is put in first place. Changeling in a playful way helps the child to establish himself in the knowledge he has already acquired, when familiar images are combined, familiar pictures are presented in funny confusion.

A similar genre exists among other nations, including the British. The name “Sculptural absurdities” given by Chukovsky corresponds to the English “Topsy-turvy rhymes” - literally: “Rhymes upside down.”

Chukovsky believed that the desire to play shifters is inherent in almost every child at a certain stage of his development. Interest in them, as a rule, does not fade even among adults - then the comic effect of “stupid absurdities” comes to the fore, not the educational one.

Researchers believe that fables-shifters moved into children's folklore from buffoon and fair folklore, in which the oxymoron was a favorite artistic device. This is a stylistic device that consists of combining logically incompatible concepts, words, phrases that are opposite in meaning, as a result of which a new semantic quality arises. In adult nonsense, oxymorons usually serve to expose and ridicule, but in children's folklore they do not ridicule or ridicule, but deliberately seriously narrate about a known improbability. The tendency of children to fantasize finds application here, revealing the closeness of the oxymoron to the child’s thinking.

In the middle of the sea the barn is burning. The ship is running across an open field. The men on the street are beating 1, They are beating - they are catching fish. A bear flies across the sky, waving its long tail!

A technique close to an oxymoron that helps a shapeshifter to be entertaining and funny is perversion, i.e. rearrangement of subject and object, as well as attribution to subjects, phenomena, objects of signs and actions that are obviously not inherent in them:

Lo and behold, the gate is barking from under the dog... Children on calves,

A village was driving past a man,

In a red sundress,

From behind the forest, from behind the mountains, Uncle Egor is riding:

Servants on ducklings...

Don, don, dili-don,

Himself on a horse, in a red hat, wife on a ram,

The cat's house is on fire! A chicken runs with a bucket, Floods the cat's house...

Stabs- fences for catching red fish.

Absurd upside-downs attract people with their comic scenes and funny depictions of life’s incongruities. Folk pedagogy found this entertainment genre necessary, and it used it widely.

Counting books. This is another small genre of children's folklore. Counting rhymes are funny and rhythmic rhymes, to which a leader is chosen and the game or some stage of it begins. Counting tables were born in the game and are inextricably linked with it.

Modern pedagogy assigns play an extremely important role in the formation of a person and considers it a kind of school of life. Games not only develop dexterity and intelligence, but also teach one to obey generally accepted rules: after all, any game takes place according to pre-agreed conditions. The game also establishes relationships of co-creation and voluntary submission according to game roles. The one who knows how to follow the rules accepted by everyone and does not bring chaos and confusion into a child’s life becomes authoritative here. All this is working out the rules of behavior in future adult life.

Who doesn’t remember the rhymes of his childhood: “White hare, where did he run?”, “Eniki, beniks, ate dumplings...” - etc. The very opportunity to play with words is attractive to children. This is the genre in which they are most active as creators, often introducing new elements into ready-made rhymes.

Works of this genre often use nursery rhymes, nursery rhymes, and sometimes elements of adult folklore. Perhaps it is precisely in the internal mobility of the rhymes that lies the reason for their such wide distribution and vitality. And today you can hear very old, only slightly modernized texts from children playing.

Researchers of children's folklore believe that the counting in the counting rhyme comes from pre-Christian “witchcraft” - conspiracies, spells, encryption of some kind of magic numbers.

G.S. Vinogradov called the rhymes of counting rhymes gentle, playful, a true decoration of counting poetry. The counting book is often a chain of rhyming couplets. The methods of rhyming here are very diverse: paired, cross, ring. But the main organizing principle of the rhymes is rhythm. A counting rhyme often resembles the incoherent speech of an excited, offended, or amazed child, so the apparent incoherence or meaninglessness of the rhymes is psychologically explainable. Thus, the counting rhyme, both in form and content, reflects the psychological characteristics of age.

Tongue Twisters. They belong to the funny, entertaining genre. The roots of these oral works also lie in ancient times. This is a word game included in the component cha

ust into the cheerful festive entertainments of the people. Many of the tongue twisters, which meet the aesthetic needs of a child and his desire to overcome difficulties, have become entrenched in children's folklore, although they clearly came from adults.

The cap is sewn, but not in the Kolpakov style. Who would wear Pereva's cap?

Tongue twisters always include a deliberate accumulation of difficult-to-pronounce words and an abundance of alliteration (“There was a white-faced ram, he turned all the white-headed rams”). This genre is indispensable as a means of developing articulation and is widely used by educators and doctors.

Tricks, teases, sentences, refrains, chants. All these are works of small genres, organic to children's folklore. They serve the development of speech, intelligence, and attention. Thanks to the poetic form of a high aesthetic level, they are easily remembered by children.

Say two hundred.

Head in dough!

(Underdress.)

Rainbow-arc, Don't give us rain, Give us the red sun around the outskirts!

(Call.)

There is a little bear, there is a bump near the ear.

(Tease.)

Zaklichki in their origin are associated with the folk calendar and pagan holidays. This also applies to sentences that are close to them in meaning and use. If the first contain an appeal to the forces of nature - the sun, wind, rainbow, then the second - to birds and animals. These magical spells passed into children's folklore due to the fact that children were early introduced to the work and cares of adults. Later calls and sentences take on the character of entertaining songs.

In the games that have survived to this day and include chants, sentences, and refrains, traces of ancient magic are clearly visible. These are games held in honor of the Sun (Kolya

dy, Yarily) and other forces of nature. The chants and choruses accompanying these games preserved the people's faith in the power of words.

But many game songs are simply cheerful, entertaining, usually with a clear dance rhythm:

Let's move on to larger works of children's folklore - songs, epics, fairy tales.

Russian folk songs play a big role in shaping children’s ear for music, taste for poetry, love for nature, for their native land. The song has been around among children since time immemorial. Children's folklore also included songs from adult folk art - usually children adapted them to their games. There are ritual songs (“And we sowed millet, we sowed...”), historical (for example, about Stepan Razin and Pugachev), and lyrical. Nowadays, children more often sing not so much folklore songs as original ones. There are also songs in the modern repertoire that have long lost their authorship and are naturally drawn into the element of oral folk art. If there is a need to turn to songs created many centuries, or even millennia ago, then they can be found in folklore collections, as well as in educational books by K. D. Ushinsky.

Epics. This is the heroic epic of the people. It is of great importance in nurturing love for native history. Epic stories always tell about the struggle between two principles - good and evil - and about the natural victory of good. The most famous epic heroes - Ilya Muromets, Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich - are collective images that capture the features of real people, whose lives and exploits became the basis of heroic narratives - epics (from the word “byl”) or old Epics are a grandiose creation of folk art. The artistic convention inherent in them is often expressed in fantastic fiction. The realities of antiquity are intertwined in them with mythological images and motifs. Hyperbole is one of the leading techniques in epic storytelling. It gives the characters monumentality, and their fantastic exploits - artistic credibility.

It is important that for the heroes of epics the fate of their homeland is more valuable than life, they protect those in trouble, defend justice, and are full of self-esteem. Taking into account the heroic and patriotic charge of this ancient folk epic, K.D. Ushinsky and L.N. Tolstoy included excerpts in children’s books even from those epics that generally cannot be classified as children’s reading.

Baba sowed peas -

The woman stood on her toes, And then on her heel, She began to dance Russian, And then in a squat!

Jump-jump, jump-jump! The ceiling collapsed - Jump-jump, jump-jump!

The inclusion of epics in children's books is made difficult by the fact that without an explanation of events and vocabulary, they are not entirely understandable to children. Therefore, when working with children, it is better to use literary retellings of these works, for example, I.V. Karnaukhova (collection “Russian Heroes. Epics”) and N.P. Kolpakova (collection “Epics”). For older people, the collection “Epics” compiled by Yu. G. Kruglov is suitable.

Fairy tales. They arose in time immemorial. The antiquity of fairy tales is evidenced, for example, by the following fact: in the unprocessed versions of the famous “Teremka”, the role of the tower was played by a mare’s head, which the Slavic folklore tradition endowed with many wonderful properties. In other words, the roots of this tale go back to Slavic paganism. At the same time, fairy tales do not at all testify to the primitiveness of the people's consciousness (otherwise they could not have existed for many hundreds of years), but to the ingenious ability of the people to create a single harmonious image of the world, connecting everything that exists in it - heaven and earth, man and nature, life and death. Apparently, the fairy tale genre turned out to be so viable because it is perfect for expressing and preserving fundamental human truths, the foundations of human existence.

Telling fairy tales was a common hobby in Rus'; both children and adults loved them. Usually, the storyteller, when narrating events and characters, reacted vividly to the attitude of his audience and immediately made some amendments to his narrative. That is why fairy tales have become one of the most polished folklore genres. They best meet the needs of children, organically corresponding to child psychology. A craving for goodness and justice, a belief in miracles, a penchant for fantasy, for a magical transformation of the world around us - the child joyfully encounters all this in a fairy tale.

In a fairy tale, truth and goodness certainly triumph. A fairy tale is always on the side of the offended and oppressed, no matter what it tells. It clearly shows where a person’s correct life paths are, what his happiness and unhappiness are, what his retribution for mistakes is, and how a person differs from animals and birds. Every step of the hero leads him to his goal, to final success. You have to pay for mistakes, and having paid, the hero again gains the right to luck. This movement of fairy-tale fiction expresses an essential feature of the people's worldview - a firm belief in justice, in the fact that the good human principle will inevitably defeat everything that opposes it.

A fairy tale for children contains a special charm; some secrets of the ancient worldview are revealed. They find in the fairy tale story independently, without explanation, something very valuable for themselves, necessary for the growth of their consciousness.

The imaginary, fantastic world turns out to be a reflection of the real world in its main fundamentals. A fabulous, unusual picture of life gives the child the opportunity to compare it with reality, with the environment in which he, his family, and people close to him exist. This is necessary for developing thinking, since it is stimulated by the fact that a person compares and doubts, checks and is convinced. The fairy tale does not leave the child as an indifferent observer, but makes him an active participant in what is happening, experiencing every failure and every victory with the heroes. The fairy tale accustoms him to the idea that evil must be punished in any case.

Today the need for a fairy tale seems especially great. The child is literally overwhelmed by a constantly increasing flow of information. And although the mental receptivity of children is great, it still has its limits. The child becomes overtired, becomes nervous, and it is the fairy tale that frees his consciousness from everything unimportant and unnecessary, concentrating his attention on the simple actions of the characters and thoughts about why everything happens this way and not otherwise.

For children, it doesn’t matter at all who the hero of the fairy tale is: a person, an animal or a tree. Another thing is important: how he behaves, what he is like - handsome and kind or ugly and angry. The fairy tale tries to teach the child to evaluate the main qualities of the hero and never resorts to psychological complication. Most often, a character embodies one quality: the fox is cunning, the bear is strong, Ivan is successful in the role of a fool, and fearless in the role of a prince. The characters in the fairy tale are contrasting, which determines the plot: brother Ivanushka did not listen to his diligent, sensible sister Alyonushka, drank water from a goat’s hoof and became a goat - he had to be rescued; the evil stepmother plots against the good stepdaughter... This is how a chain of actions and amazing fairy-tale events arises.

A fairy tale is built on the principle of a chain composition, which usually includes three repetitions. Most likely, this technique was born in the process of storytelling, when the storyteller again and again provided listeners with the opportunity to experience a vivid episode. Such an episode is usually not just repeated - each time there is an increase in tension. Sometimes repetition takes the form of dialogue; then, if children play in a fairy tale, it is easier for them to transform into its heroes. Often a fairy tale contains songs and jokes, and children remember them first.

A fairy tale has its own language - laconic, expressive, rhythmic. Thanks to language, a special fantasy world is created, in which everything is presented large, prominently, and is remembered immediately and for a long time - heroes, their relationships, surrounding characters and objects, nature. There are no halftones - there is a tone

side, bright colors. They attract a child to them, like everything colorful, devoid of monotony and everyday dullness. /

“In childhood, fantasy,” wrote V. G. Belinsky, “is the predominant ability and strength of the soul, its main figure and the first intermediary between the spirit of the child and the world of reality located outside it.” Probably, this property of the children's psyche - a craving for everything that miraculously helps to bridge the gap between the imaginary and the real - explains this undying interest of children in fairy tales for centuries. Moreover, fairy-tale fantasies are in line with the real aspirations and dreams of people. Let's remember: the flying carpet and modern airliners; a magic mirror showing distant distances, and a TV.

And yet, the fairy-tale hero attracts children most of all. Usually this is an ideal person: kind, fair, handsome, strong; he certainly achieves success, overcoming all sorts of obstacles not only with the help of wonderful assistants, but above all thanks to his personal qualities - intelligence, fortitude, dedication, ingenuity, ingenuity. Every child would like to be like this, and the ideal hero of fairy tales becomes the first role model.

Based on theme and style, fairy tales can be divided into several groups, but usually researchers distinguish three large groups: tales about animals, fairy tales, and everyday (satirical) tales.

Tales about animals. Young children, as a rule, are attracted to the animal world, so they really like fairy tales in which animals and birds act. In a fairy tale, animals acquire human traits - they think, speak, and act. Essentially, such images bring to the child knowledge about the world of people, not animals.

In this type of fairy tale, there is usually no clear division of characters into positive and negative. Each of them is endowed with one particular trait, an inherent character trait, which is played out in the plot. So, traditionally, the main feature of a fox is cunning, so we usually talk about how it fools other animals. The wolf is greedy and stupid; in his relationship with the fox, he certainly gets into trouble. The bear does not have such an unambiguous image; the bear can be evil, but it can also be kind, but at the same time it always remains a klutz. If a person appears in such a fairy tale, then he invariably turns out to be smarter than the fox, the wolf, and the bear. Reason helps him defeat any opponent.

Animals in fairy tales observe the principle of hierarchy: everyone recognizes the strongest as the most important. It's a lion or a bear. They always find themselves at the top of the social ladder. This brings the tale closer together

ki about animals with fables, which is especially clearly visible from the presence in both of them of similar moral conclusions - social and universal. Children easily learn: the fact that a wolf is strong does not make him fair (for example, in the fairy tale about the seven kids). The sympathy of the listeners is always on the side of the just, not the strong.

Among the tales about animals, there are some quite scary ones. A bear eats an old man and an old woman because they cut off his paw. An angry beast with a wooden leg, of course, seems terrible to kids, but in essence it is the bearer of fair retribution. The narrative allows the child to figure out a difficult situation for himself.

Fairy tales. This is the most popular and most loved genre by children. Everything that happens in a fairy tale is fantastic and significant in its purpose: its hero, finding himself in one or another dangerous situation, saves friends, destroys enemies - fights for life and death. The danger seems especially strong and terrible because his main opponents are not ordinary people,” but representatives of supernatural dark forces: Serpent Gorynych, Baba Yaga, Koshey the Immortal, etc. By winning victories over these evil spirits, the hero, as it were, confirms his high human beginning, closeness to the bright forces of nature.In the struggle, he becomes even stronger and wiser, acquires new friends and receives every right to happiness - to the great satisfaction of his little listeners.

In the plot of a fairy tale, the main episode is the beginning of the hero’s journey for the sake of one or another important task. On his long journey, he encounters treacherous opponents and magical helpers. He has very effective means at his disposal: a flying carpet, a wonderful ball or mirror, or even a talking animal or bird, a swift horse or a wolf. All of them, with some conditions or without them at all, in the blink of an eye fulfill the requests and orders of the hero. They do not have the slightest doubt about his moral right to give orders, since the task assigned to him is very important and since the hero himself is impeccable.

The dream of the participation of magical helpers in people’s lives has existed since ancient times - since the times of the deification of nature, belief in the Sun God, in the ability to summon light forces with a magic word, witchcraft and ward off dark evil. " "

Everyday (satirical) tale closest to everyday life and does not even necessarily include miracles. Approval or condemnation is always given openly, the assessment is clearly expressed: what is immoral, what is worthy of ridicule, etc. Even when it seems that the heroes are just fooling around,

They delight the listeners, their every word, every action is filled with significant meaning and is connected with important aspects of a person’s life.

The constant heroes of satirical fairy tales are “ordinary” poor people. However, they invariably prevail over a “difficult” person - a rich or noble person. Unlike the heroes of a fairy tale, here the poor achieve the triumph of justice without the help of miraculous helpers - only thanks to intelligence, dexterity, resourcefulness and even fortunate circumstances.

For centuries, the everyday satirical tale has absorbed the characteristic features of the life of the people and their attitude towards those in power, in particular towards judges and officials. All this, of course, was conveyed to the little listeners, who were imbued with the healthy folk humor of the storyteller. Fairy tales of this kind contain the “vitamin of laughter,” which helps the common man maintain his dignity in a world ruled by bribery officials, unjust judges, stingy rich people, and arrogant nobles.

In everyday fairy tales, sometimes animal characters appear, and perhaps the appearance of such abstract characters as Truth and Falsehood, Woe and Misfortune. The main thing here is not the selection of characters, but the satirical condemnation of human vices and shortcomings.

Sometimes such a specific element of children's folklore as a shapeshifter is introduced into a fairy tale. In this case, a shift in real meaning occurs, encouraging the child to correctly arrange objects and phenomena. In a fairy tale, the shapeshifter becomes larger, grows into an episode, and already forms part of the content. Displacement and exaggeration, hyperbolization of phenomena give the child the opportunity to laugh and think.

So, a fairy tale is one of the most developed and beloved genres of folklore by children. It reproduces the world in all its integrity, complexity and beauty more fully and brightly than any other type of folk art. A fairy tale provides rich food for children's imagination, develops imagination - this most important trait of a creator in any area of ​​life. And the precise, expressive language of the fairy tale is so close to the mind and heart of a child that it is remembered for a lifetime. It is not without reason that interest in this type of folk art does not dry out. From century to century, from year to year, classic recordings of fairy tales and their literary adaptations are published and republished. Fairy tales are heard on the radio, broadcast on television, staged in theaters, and filmed.

However, it cannot be said that the Russian fairy tale has been persecuted more than once. The Church fought against pagan beliefs, and at the same time against folk tales. Thus, in the 13th century, Bishop Serapion of Vladimir forbade “telling fables,” and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich drew up a special letter in 1649 demanding

We want to put an end to “telling” and “buffoonery”. Nevertheless, already in the 12th century, fairy tales began to be included in handwritten books and included in chronicles. And from the beginning of the 18th century, fairy tales began to be published in “face pictures” - publications where heroes and events were depicted in pictures with captions. But still, this century was harsh in relation to fairy tales. There are known, for example, sharply negative reviews about the “peasant fairy tale” of the poet Antiochus Cantemir and Catherine II; largely agreeing with each other, they were guided by Western European culture. The 19th century also did not bring the folk tale recognition from protective officials. Thus, the famous collection of A. N. Afanasyev “Russian Children's Fairy Tales” (1870) aroused the claims of a vigilant censor as allegedly presenting to the children's mind “pictures of the most crude self-interested cunning, deception, theft and even cold-blooded murder without any moralizing notes.”

And it was not only censorship that struggled with the folk tale. From the middle of the same 19th century, then-famous teachers took up arms against her. The fairy tale was accused of being “anti-pedagogical”; they were assured that it retarded the mental development of children, frightened them with images of terrible things, weakened the will, developed crude instincts, etc. Essentially the same arguments were made by opponents of this type of folk art both in the last century and in Soviet times. After the October Revolution, leftist teachers also added that the fairy tale takes children away from reality and evokes sympathy for those who should not be treated - for all sorts of princes and princesses. Similar accusations were made by some authoritative public figures, for example N.K. Krupskaya. Discussions about the dangers of fairy tales stemmed from the general denial of the value of cultural heritage by revolutionary theorists.

Despite the difficult fate, the fairy tale lived on, always had ardent defenders and found its way to children, connecting with literary genres.

The influence of a folk tale on a literary tale is most clearly evident in the composition, in the construction of the work. The famous folklore researcher V.Ya. Propp (1895-1970) believed that a fairy tale amazes not even with imagination, not with miracles, but with the perfection of composition. Although the author's fairy tale is freer in plot, in its construction it is subject to the traditions of folk fairy tales. But if its genre features are used only formally, if their organic perception does not occur, then the author will face failure. It is obvious that mastering the laws of composition that have evolved over centuries, as well as the laconicism, specificity and wise generalizing power of a folk tale, means for a writer to reach the heights of authorship.

It was folk tales that became the basis for the famous poetic tales of Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Ershov, and fairy tales in prose

(V.F. Odoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.N. Tolstoy, A.M. Remizov, B.V. Shergin, P.P. Bazhov, etc.), as well as dramatic tales (S.Ya. Marshak, E. L. Schwartz). Ushinsky included fairy tales in his books “Children’s World” and “Native Word”, believing that no one could compete with the pedagogical genius of the people. Later, Gorky, Chukovsky, Marshak and our other writers passionately spoke out in defense of children's folklore. They convincingly confirmed their views in this area by modern processing of ancient folk works and the composition of literary versions based on them. Beautiful collections of literary fairy tales, created on the basis or under the influence of oral folk art, are published in our time by a variety of publishing houses.

Not only fairy tales, but also legends, songs, and epics have become models for writers. Certain folklore themes and plots merged into literature. For example, the 18th century folk story about Eruslan Lazarevich was reflected in the image of the main character and some episodes of Pushkin’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. Lermontov (“Cossack Lullaby Song”), Polonsky (“The Sun and the Moon”), Balmont, Bryusov and other poets have lullabies based on folk motives. Essentially, “By the Bed” by Marina Tsvetaeva, “The Tale of a Stupid Mouse” by Marshak, and “Lullaby to the River” by Tokmakova are lullabies. There are also numerous translations of folk lullabies from other languages ​​made by famous Russian poets.

Results

Oral folk art reflects the entire set of rules of folk life, including the rules of education.

The structure of children's folklore is similar to the structure of children's literature.

All genres of children's literature have been and are influenced by folklore.

Old Russian literature appears with the emergence of the state and writing and is based on bookish Christian culture and highly developed forms of oral poetic creativity. The greatest role in its formation is played by folk epic 1: historical legends, heroic tales, songs about military campaigns. Princely squads in Ancient Rus' carried out numerous military campaigns, had their own singers who composed and sang songs of glory in honor of the winners, and called the prince and the warriors of his squad. Folklore for ancient literature was the main source that provided images, plots; through folklore, the artistic poetic means of folk poetry, as well as the people’s understanding of the surrounding world, penetrated into it.

Folklore genres were part of literature in all periods of its development. Writing turned to such genres of folk art as legends, proverbs, glories and laments. Both in writing and in folklore, especially in chronicle writing, old traditional figurative expressions, symbols, and allegories were used. Many legends in the chronicles are close in their motives to the epics; they use, as in the folk epic, poetic images of giant enemies, terrible monsters with whom heroes enter into combat, and images of wise women. Even in historical genres, calls, glorifications, and laments are close to folk poetry. Literary-folklore connections are also characterized by closeness to the heroic epic. The image of Boyan, the singing of glory to the princes, the songfulness and rhythm of the structure, the use of repetitions, hyperbole, the kinship of the images of heroes with epic heroes, the widespread use of folk poetic symbolism (the idea of ​​​​a battle as sowing, threshing, a wedding feast) is characteristic of Old Russian literature. Comparisons of heroes with a cuckoo, an ermine, and Bui-Tur are close to symbolic images. Nature in ancient literature, as in folk poetry, grieves, rejoices, and helps heroes. A characteristic motif is the transformation of heroes, as in fairy tales, into animals and birds. The same expressive and figurative means are used: parallelisms 2 (“the sun is shining in the heavens - Prince Igor in the Russian land”), tautology 3 (“pipes are blowing”, “bridges are being paved”), constant epithets (“greyhound horse”, “black land” , "green grass"). The speech of the heroes is allegorical, the pictures of visions are symbolic. The presence of artistic means in individual works indicates their closeness to the folk poetic system. The connection with folklore is palpable in almost every work of ancient literature, in some places they are more noticeable, in others less so. Some genres are close to the song lyrical genres of folk poetry - these are glories and laments, they contain folk language, folk images and intonation (“oh, bright and red decorated”).

In the 16th and especially in the 17th centuries, ancient literature became increasingly closer to folk art. This is explained both by the general socio-historical factors in the development of the Russian state and by the peculiar nature of the literature of this time. A new democratic reader appears - a peasant, a peasant, a merchant's son, a service man. Literature itself is becoming more democratic and moving away from the canonical norms that constrain its development. The secular principle develops in it. The writer now has greater freedom of artistic creativity, the right to fiction. New genres are appearing: everyday and satirical stories, new themes, new heroes. Ancient scribes used a living spoken language in their works and more widely turned to folklore. Satirical everyday stories represent the treatment of fairy-tale plots and are close to folk poetry in the depiction of characters and comic situations reminiscent of fairy-tale comedy.

The proximity to folklore is also reflected in the depiction of the characters. Thus, the name Ersh Ershovich is reminiscent of fairy-tale names - Voron-Voronovich, Sokol-Sokolovich, Zmey-Zmeevich. As in folk tales, ancient literature presents the image of a poor, but resourceful and cunning man who deceived the judge (“The Tale of Shemyakin’s Court”). Also in the literature of this time, the plot of the work is taken from Russian folk lyrical songs (“The Tale of Grief-Misfortune”), where Grief pursues a married woman or a good fellow. The name itself is popular. The images of Woe and Well done are created in the traditions of folk art: the same artistic techniques - parallelisms, constant epithets, comparisons - that are present in folklore works. The verse is close to the epic.

Many ancient writers were very close to the art of the spoken word. Old Russian narrative literature correlated with the genres of folk art.

In the Middle Ages, folklore complemented literature; these were, according to V.P. Adrianova-Peretz, “two closely coupled regions” 4. The system of literary genres was supplemented by a number of folklore genres and existed in parallel with folklore genres. However, there is a deeper connection between folklore and ancient literature: traditional images, comparisons, metaphors go back to common genetic roots.

An essential element of Old Russian literature and many of its genres are ethnographic features. They appear in chronicles, in descriptions of the life of peoples, classes, tribes, their customs, beliefs, as well as in the description of localities and nature using ethnographic signs, terms and concepts (“Russian land is Polovtsian land”, “horses neigh at Suzdal, victories ringing in Kyiv"). In the description of military attributes 5 - banners, banners, banners - military customs, training, preparation for battle, going on a campaign, ethnographic details are also noticeable. Ethnographic elements reflect real historical events, enhance the verisimilitude of what is depicted, and saturate the work of art with everyday and battle paintings of Rus' of the 11th-17th centuries.

The formation of ancient literature was facilitated by oral speech and business writing. They penetrated into the literary texts of ancient literature. Laconism, precision of expressions in oral speech and business writing contributed to the development of plot and style of presentation in the literary monuments of Ancient Rus'.

The main keepers and copyists of books were monks. Therefore, most of the books that have come down to us are of an ecclesiastical nature. Ancient literature combines secular and spiritual principles. In many genres there is often an appeal to God as a “savior”, “almighty”, trusting in his mercy.... Mention of divine providence and purpose, a sense of the world in its dual essence, “real and divine”, is characteristic of this literature. The works of ancient writers include fragments of monuments of book Christian culture, images from the Gospel, the Old and New Testaments, and the Psalter. After the adoption of Christianity, ancient Russian scribes needed to talk about how the world works from a Christian point of view, and they turned to the books of Holy Scripture.

Introduction

There is a huge number of works devoted to the forms of manifestation of folklore consciousness and folklore texts. The linguistic, stylistic, ethnographic features of folklore texts are studied; their compositional structure, including images and motifs; the moral aspect of folklore creativity and, accordingly, the importance of folklore in the education of the younger generation, as well as much more, are analyzed. In this huge stream of literature about folklore, its diversity is striking, starting from folk wisdom and the art of memory and ending with a special form of social consciousness and a means of reflecting and understanding reality.

Folklore includes works that convey the basic, most important ideas of the people about the main values ​​in life: work, family, love, social duty, homeland. Our children are still being brought up on these works. Knowledge of folklore can give a person knowledge about the Russian people, and ultimately about himself.

Folklore is a synthetic art form. His works often combine elements of various types of art - verbal, musical, choreographic and theatrical. But the basis of any folklore work is always the word. Folklore is very interesting to study as an art of words.

Folklore

The emergence of oral folk art

The history of oral folk art has general patterns that cover the development of all its types. The origins must be sought in the beliefs of the ancient Slavs. Folk art is the historical basis of all world culture, the source of national artistic traditions, and an exponent of national self-consciousness. In ancient times, verbal creativity was closely connected with human labor activity. It reflected his religious, mythical, historical ideas, as well as the beginnings of scientific knowledge. Man sought to influence his destiny, the forces of nature through various spells, requests or threats. That is, he tried to come to an agreement with “higher powers” ​​and neutralize hostile forces. To do this, a person needed strict adherence to a number of rules that showed their salvation in the times of their ancestors. However, if these rules are not followed, then turmoil will begin in nature, and life will become impossible. The totality of rituals constitutes the only effective guarantee against all kinds of bad influences that inspire fear and fear. The rituals were reproductions of mythological stories and included dancing, singing, and dressing up.

The basis of Russian artistic culture is ancient Slavic mythology. Many ancient peoples created their own mythological pictures of the structure of the Universe, which reflected their belief in numerous gods - the creators and rulers of the world. Explaining the origin of the world as the acts of the gods, ancient man learned to co-create. He himself could not create mountains, rivers, forests and earth, heavenly bodies, which means that such myths reflected the belief in supernatural forces that participated in the creation of the Universe. And the beginning of all things could only be the primary element, for example, the world egg or the will of the gods and their magic word. For example, the Slavic myth about the creation of the world tells:

That it all started with the god Rod. Before the white light was born, the world was shrouded in pitch darkness. In the darkness there was only Rod - the Progenitor of all things. At the beginning, Rod was imprisoned in an egg, but Rod gave birth to Love - Lada, and with the power of Love destroyed the prison. This is how the creation of the world began. The world was filled with Love. At the beginning of the creation of the world, He gave birth to the kingdom of heaven, and under it He created the heavenly things. With a rainbow he cut the umbilical cord, and with a rock he separated the Ocean from the heavenly waters. He erected three vaults in the heavens. Divided Light and Darkness. Then the god Rod gave birth to the Earth, and the Earth plunged into a dark abyss, into the Ocean. Then the Sun came out of His face, the Moon - from His chest, the stars of heaven - from His eyes. Clear dawns appeared from Rod's eyebrows, dark nights - from His thoughts, violent winds - from His breath, rain, snow and hail - from His tears. Rod's voice became thunder and lightning. The heavens and all under heaven were born for Love. Rod is the Father of the gods, He is born of himself and will be born again, He is what was and what is to be, what was born and what will be born.

It was inherent in the mythological consciousness of our ancestors to connect various gods, spirits and heroes with family relations.

The ancient cult of the gods is associated with certain rituals - conditionally symbolic actions, the main meaning of which is communication with the gods. The ancient Slavs performed rituals in temples and sanctuaries - specially equipped places for worshiping the gods. They were usually located on hills, in sacred groves, near sacred springs, etc.

Ancient myths gave rise to and reflected various forms of religious life of people, in which various types of artistic activity of people arose (singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, the basics of fine and theatrical arts).

As noted earlier, folklore originates in ancient times. It originated and arose when the overwhelming majority of humanity did not yet have writing, and if they did, it was the lot of a few - educated shamans, scientists and other geniuses of their time. In a song, riddle, proverb, fairy tale, epic, and other forms of folklore, people first formed their feelings and emotions, captured them in oral work, then passed on their knowledge to others, and thereby preserved their thoughts, experiences, feelings in the minds and heads of their future descendants.

Life in those distant times was not easy for most living people, it remains so and will inevitably always be so. Many have to work hard and routinely, earning themselves only a small living, with difficulty providing a tolerable existence for themselves and their loved ones. And people have long realized that they need to distract themselves, those around them and their colleagues in misfortune from the work they do every day, with something fun that distracts attention from the pressing everyday life and the unbearable conditions of hard work.