Will be taken to the tundra: How the Nenets celebrate the wedding

The Nenets now more often travel around the tundra not on reindeer, but on snowmobiles. They live in cities and towns, not in camps. Future wives are met on the Internet, not through matchmakers. However, they prefer to celebrate weddings the way their ancestors did. In this issue, you will learn how to organize a Nenets wedding in full accordance with the traditions.

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1. Times are changing: the traditional Nenets wedding, organized according to all the canons and rules, is rarely celebrated now. However, even today, having previously registered with the registry office, many Nenets decide to celebrate the celebration according to the customs of their ancestors.

2. Of course, not in the way their great-great-grandparents and great-great-grandfathers did, but according to a simplified scenario. And yet the key elements of the rite are preserved - otherwise the blessings of marriage from the spirits cannot be received, and without it the young family will not be able to become happy.

When my daughter studied at the institute, she met Andrei. They were friends for several years, then decided to get married. They said that they were ripe to start a family and children. My husband and I met Andrey's parents and together we decided that we wanted the wedding to be in accordance with all the rules. Without three-story cakes and Coca-Cola, but as it should be. We have many relatives in the villages, we agreed with them that we will celebrate there. I believe that our ancestors knew how to enter into family life in order to live in peace and harmony until old age. And we must preserve the traditions of our people. Those who do not follow them get divorced. And in our family there was not a single divorce, because we respect traditions.

Tatyana Yadne, mother of the bride from Tyumen, SmartNews

3. A century ago, the wedding ceremony would have been preceded by more than one year of matchmaking and finding out the degree of relationship of future spouses. Then negotiations would begin with relatives on the amount of the bride price, preparation of the dowry. Then, on a special wedding train, the groom would take the bride hundreds and even thousands of kilometers from another camp.

The Nenets had a strict ban on marriages between members of the same clan. Therefore, the degree of relationship was clarified in advance very carefully. If there were no obstacles of this kind, a matchmaker was sent. Usually he was a respected person who, after several rounds of negotiations, had to obtain the consent of the bride's relatives. And then the bargaining began on the amount of the ransom for her. A very interesting form of bargaining was often used: the father of the bride took a long wooden staff and made notches on it, the number of which corresponded to the amount of the ransom. And the matchmaker, if he was not satisfied with the conditions, cut off the extra notches with a knife. When the parties came to an agreement, the staff was split in half. One part was kept before the wedding in the bride's family, the other - with the groom.

Sergey Sinelnikov, ethnographer, SmartNews

Now everything is simpler: you decide to get married - appoint a day of celebration. It is not necessary to sew special wedding dresses, you can do without them. If you really want to emphasize adherence to the traditions of your ancestors, the bride can complement the outfit with a special beaded headband, and the groom can wear a red cloth shirt over a deer skin coat. Everything, you can invite guests.

4. By the way, few guests are invited to a Nenets wedding, and the celebration itself is celebrated for only one day: life in the tundra has always been harsh, there is simply no time to organize multi-day festivities. A tent is set up in advance, in which the young will settle for a while. If the bride and groom live in the city, then they will spend only one night in it, and then return to a modern comfortable apartment. But for the tundra dwellers, who are engaged in traditional crafts, this is a temporary dwelling and now it may well become permanent.

For a Nenets wedding, chum is an obligatory element. You can do without matchmakers, ransoms, festive outfits, but you can’t do without the plague. He is the center of the universe, a symbol of the world order, and all initiation rites, one of which is marriage, are associated with him.

Before entering the sacred dwelling, the newlyweds go through a rite of purification by fire. They pass in the most literal sense - they step over the fire at the entrance to the chum. And right after that, the bride herself makes the first fire in her new home.

Fire among the Nenets, like most other peoples, has always been considered sacred. This most destructive of the four elements was feared and revered. It was believed that fire cleanses from worldly filth and heals. He was perceived as a woman, and therefore only another woman, the keeper of the hearth, had to communicate with a capricious and wayward creature. The spirit of fire Tu Hada knows the innermost secrets, and well-being in the house depends on it.

Sergey Sinelnikov, ethnographer, SmartNews

5. The way the bride kindles the first fire in the furnace is watched carefully. By the way it flares up, it will be seen whether Tu Hada blesses this marriage. It caught fire right away - so everything will be fine. Can't ignite - wait for problems. Bright high tongues of flame, crackling of logs - for good, smoke - for misfortune.

After that, it's time to sit down at the festive table. The order and composition of dishes are strictly regulated and cannot be changed. The main treat is venison shurpa.

Spoiled Europeans will hardly like this dish. In the traditional version, no spices, seasonings, or roots are put into venison shurpa. Even onions are banned. Only meat and salt. The quality of the dish depends entirely on the freshness of the meat. And just by this criterion, Nenets cuisine will give 100 points ahead of any European one. Deer are slaughtered just before cooking. After removing the foam, the meat is cooked for a long time at a very low boil. It turns out a thick, rich broth with pieces of fragrant meat. If you abandon stereotypes, then you begin to understand that such a shurpa is a very tasty and delicious dish.

Sergey Belousov, culinary specialist, SmartNews

6. Previously, the bride and groom certainly had to eat the heart and tongue of a deer. However, at modern weddings, they can do without eating these offal and eat the same as the rest of the guests. In addition to shurpa, the guests are always treated to northern fish, salted and lightly salted. Delicate stroganina made from fish or meat is especially popular.

But strong drinks are not categorically welcomed: the life of a whole herd depends on the reindeer breeder, in the morning he must be on his feet and with a fresh head. Of course, modern realities have made their own adjustments to these once strict rules and alcohol began to appear on wedding tables, where it had no place before. But even now it is considered that getting drunk at a wedding is a shame.

7. When the young people and guests have tasted the treat, it's time for the cultural program. At traditional weddings, the Nenets prefer traditional entertainment.

There were a lot of competitions at our wedding. First they shot with a bow. Then they competed in jumping over sleds. They put them in a row and watched who jumped over the sled more. Then they pulled the stick. They also threw an ax, who will throw it further. The main competition was the throwing of the lasso - tynzey, as we call it. It had to be thrown over a trochee, a vertically placed stick. I really wanted to have reindeer sleigh races, but it was not possible to organize them. And yet it was very interesting.

Natalia Salinder, a recent fiancee, SmartNews

The key moment of wedding fun is jumping on the argish - this is how the Nenets call a kind of train made up of sleds tied one after another. Deer act as a locomotive. Argish is loaded to capacity with things, so that they rise like a mountain above the sledges, and then they drive around the place of celebration several times. The task of the guests is to jump onto any of the "cars" and try to stay on it. If the rope that binds the sledges together breaks, this is a very bad sign.

8. While the guests are having fun, the bride and groom are forbidden to join them. They must behave with restraint, not show emotions - they are not welcome in the tundra.

We were told that we were to stand aside and watch, on no account to take part in the entertainment. And not laughing yet - it will not lead to good. It was very difficult to resist when my friends rolled down the argish. And the most ridiculous were the stick pulling competitions. Natalya and I only squeezed each other's hands tighter so as not to roll with laughter. Nothing, they passed the test, because we ourselves wanted everything to be according to custom.

Andrey Salinder, recently fiancé, SmartNews

When the celebration is over, the bride and groom can go to the chum. From that moment on, it is believed that a new family appeared in the tundra, which will continue the Nenets family. They will ride not on deer, but on all-terrain vehicles, communicate on the Internet and send their children to institutes, but they will keep the traditions of their ancestors.