In Issue No. 1 of the 1909 volume of the journal *Ethnographic Review* (a periodical published by the Ethnographic Department of the Imperial Society of Natural Science Enthusiasts), a wonderful article titled “Little Russian Ritual Cookies of the Kursk Governorate” was published.
It was written by the ethnographer and folklorist Raisa Sergeevna Dankovskaya. After the death of her mentor (the outstanding ethnographer Nikolai Fedorovich Sumtsov), she was destined to become the director of the Museum of Sloboda Ukraine. Right at the beginning, the author writes:
In the Little Russian settlements of the Kursk Governorate mentioned in this article, ceremonial cookies as described here have already disappeared: some types of cookies disappeared more than 35 years ago, others about 25 years ago, and only a few minor varieties are still lingering on.
The author of this article was able to reconstruct the patterns for these cookies thanks to the fortunate circumstances of his stay in the Little Russian settlements of Kursk Province, among elderly women who reconstructed these patterns from memory and added their own explanations. All of these explanations have been included in the description provided here…
In total, the article featured more than 15 such Ukrainian recipes and associated rituals, collected from various settlements in the Belgorod District (then part of the Kursk Governorate). They were prepared for various holidays (Easter, Trinity Sunday, Epiphany, and weddings). In her study, Raisa Sergeevna also included photographs of the baked goods she described. Well, now let’s finally turn our attention to the baked goods themselves. However, due to the sheer volume of the study, we won’t be able to cover them all.
For weddings, the Ukrainians of the Graivoronka (Novostroevka) settlement baked a “Small Wedding Bun.” A rich dough was made from uncrushed wheat, rolled out into a long but not particularly wide strip about 1.5–2 wide, and cut diagonally on one side into narrow strips, and then rolled up spirally to form a rosette.
These pastries were baked in the homes of the bride and groom according to the number of bridesmaids, groomsmen, and guests feasting at the wedding.
On the eve of the wedding, while the bride was visiting her bridesmaids, her younger sister or younger brother would carry the “little cones” in a bag for her. Upon entering a friend’s house, the bride would hang her “rushnik” by the front door—which she had previously been carrying draped over her arms—and, taking the “cone” from her sister or brother, would turn to the friend’s parents, bowing deeply and saying:
“My father asked, my mother asked, and now I ask too—please let my little friend go, and here’s a ‘little checker’ for you.”
The bride would set this cone on the table—for which the maid of honor’s parents thanked her—and then walk to the front door, pick up her towel, and, without waiting for the maid of honor, quickly leave. “Small pinecones” were handed out to the bridesmaids during the feast that the bride hosted for them at the senior bridesmaid’s house the day before her wedding. Pinecones were distributed to boyars and acquaintances on the wedding day. While the bride was going around to gather her bridesmaids, the groom would travel in two or three troikas to visit the boyars, accompanied by his brother or a relative, who also carried the pine cones behind him. Upon entering the home of the boyars’ parents, the groom would recite the same words as the bride, with the sole difference being that he would ask them to release the boyar to him.
The “big wedding bun” was a large, round, sweet roll.
At the top, in the middle, there was a small knob, and at the bottom, a hoop attached to the knob with thin sticks stuck into it to hold it in place more securely.
Between the cone and the hoop, all around the cone, various dough decorations were placed in the form of birds (larks), rings, pretzels of various shapes, the number 8, and sliced “nuts”—and everything was always arranged in pairs. All of these were also attached with sticks. Then a “twig” (a cherry branch) was inserted into the center of the cone; it always had an even number of branches—so that everything would come in pairs.
This “twig” was then wrapped in a narrow strip of dough, cut on one side into narrow, diagonal strips, so that after baking it looked like a twig with little leaves.
A small dough lark was placed on each of the “twig’s” branches. Once the cone with the “branch” was baked, on the eve of the wedding, the bride’s friends would decorate it with a narrow red silk ribbon with paper attached, called a “lopotushka.” A large cone was prepared separately by both the bride’s parents and the groom’s parents.
On the wedding day, when the groom was on his way to the bride’s house, a large cone was carried along with him. This task was entrusted to the groom’s younger sister (if he had one), who was called the “svitilka.” She also carried a “sword”—a bouquet of yellow immortelles, cornflowers, and three-leaved violets. The groom’s pine cone was left with the bride’s parents, while the groom took the bride’s pine cone with him when he traveled with her to his parents’ home. On the wedding day, the groom’s attendants would divide the bride’s bundle among themselves, while the bride’s bridesmaids would divide the groom’s bundle among themselves.
“Knyshi” were baked for any holiday. They were made from rich dough and shaped like vatrushki, but without a filling. There was a proverb associated with them: “As long as Grandma has knyshi, Grandpa won’t even have a soul.”
During Maslenitsa, Trinity Sunday, and, on rare occasions, in the fall, people would make “gorishki.” The dough was rolled out into a rope about 2 centimeters thick and then cut into small squares. These squares were placed on the index finger and then run along the teeth of a wooden comb. They were then fried in a skillet in lard. At the same time, “gorihi” were also made. They were prepared from the same dough and in the same way as “gorishki,” only four times larger.
They also made “magpie ears” using pork fat. The dough for them was rolled out very thinly, as thin as twigs, and cut into 4-centimeter squares. Then, the corners of these squares were pinched together in pairs, folding them in opposite directions. Finally, they were fried in a skillet.
Equally interesting is the wedding loaf from the Ukrainian settlement of Slonovka. It was made from rich dough and was round in shape. On top of it, parallel to one another, 3, 4, or 5 rings of dough were placed, crossed by the same number of rings, creating a sort of lattice. These rings were scored along the edges on both sides, forming a zigzag line. In the gaps of the lattice, they molded “little barrels,” birds (larks), and cones made of dough. The loaf was placed on the “vika” (lid) of the mixing bowl, which was left on the bowl. At the bride’s house, this task was performed by married women, who sang while preparing it:
Money—usually a silver coin (10 kopecks)—was placed inside the loaf. Once the loaf was baked, this center piece was cut out and given to the bride on her wedding day, when she was already seated at the table.
When they carried the loaf on a tray to put it in the oven, they sang:
“Oh, the oven walks on its own two feet,
and the baking pan is carried in people’s hands.
Bake, bake, a nice loaf for us.”
Then the loaf from the “vika” was placed on a shovel and put into the oven. At that moment, four women stood near the stove and kissed each other crosswise. Finally, they tossed the dough bowl toward the ceiling so that it struck it. Other women standing nearby would say to these four, “What are you doing? You’ll break the wooden bowl!” and they would reply, “We don’t need the bowl, as long as the loaf turns out well.”
On the wedding day, the wedding loaf remained with the bride’s parents until the groom arrived with his boyars to fetch the bride; at that point, the senior boyar, or “druzhko,” would divide it among the “druzhki” (the bride’s friends). The bridesmaids standing nearby would tease the person cutting the loaf and nudge him or her, as if trying to get in the way. As they did so, they would sing:
Sometimes a friend would be shy. If he couldn’t handle the teasing, he’d be teased even more. But if he gave everyone just a small piece, those who had been mocking him would chant:
“A friend is cutting a loaf of bread;
he has seven children,
but they’re all barefoot—
they’ve taken the whole loaf.”
The day after the wedding, guests were given a loaf of bread baked at the groom’s home.
Raissa Sergeevna went on to continue her ethnographic research. Issues 3–4 of the journal *Ethnographic Review* for 1915 featured her article on the baking of wedding loaves in the Zmiyevsky District. In June of that year, she received information about them from Arina Cherepaha, who lived in the village of Zadonetskoye. In this village, residents of moderate and modest means had preserved the custom of baking a wedding loaf on the eve of the wedding, that is, on Saturday.
On Friday night, dough for the wedding loaves was prepared in the homes of the bride and groom. Around 3 or 4 a.m. on Saturday, young, well-dressed women would come to these homes to shape and bake the loaves. They did not bring any ingredients—these were prepared by the bride’s and groom’s mothers. The dough was kneaded in troughs by two women, neither of whom was allowed to be a widow. Two others placed the loaves themselves into the oven. While baking, they sang songs which, according to the author of the article, “make you want to cry—they’re so beautiful.”
The bride and groom each had three baked.
The first ones were called “princely loaves.” They were made small and round, and the women invited to shape them would place 1–2 kopecks of their own money inside each one. This money was intended for the bride and groom. They were also decorated with small raised dots made of dough.
The second type was called “great loaves.” They were baked round and large, with the size depending on the family’s wealth. They were also decorated with dough balls. On the bride’s “great loaf,” bundles of wheat ears tied with a red ribbon as thick as a fist were either stuck into the bread or, alternatively, bundles tied to a stick were inserted into the center.
The third loaves had special names. The bride’s loaf was called the “long loaf.” It was made long, with rounded ends, and decorated with small dough balls. As for the groom’s loaf, 60-year-old Arina Cherepaha couldn’t remember its name. However, she clarified that it was made round, smaller than the “grand” loaf but larger than the “princely” one.
After the wedding ceremony, on Sunday, at the bride’s home, the “great loaf” was shared among the guests and the newlyweds. At the same time, ears of grain from the loaf and the “princely loaf” were placed in a handkerchief. Also placed there were: the groom’s shirt and headdress, two new wooden spoons, tied with a ribbon (for the newlyweds), and the candles with which the matchmaker had accompanied the bride to the church—these were placed in a “small enamel mug” filled with rye grains. The matchmaker then carried all of this to the groom’s house for the bride.
Then, when the newlyweds arrived at the groom’s house, his “large loaf” was shared. The next day, on Monday, two men from the bride’s family would take the “long loaf” and some black bread from her home, wrap them in a tablecloth, and carry them to the groom’s house. Upon arrival, they would unfold the tablecloth on the table and place the loaf and the bread on it. The “long loaf” was shared among everyone, and they would take the black bread back to the bride’s house.
The groom’s third loaf was also meant for Monday morning. If the bride was considered “good,” the women would decorate it with viburnum branches, sticking them into the top. Then they would take it to the bride’s parents.
Wealthy residents of the village did not bake wedding loaves themselves; instead, they ordered bread from the town bakery.
Whenever Raisa Sergeevna asked Arina Cherepaha follow-up questions about the karavai ritual, she always replied with the same phrase: “That’s the way it’s supposed to be.” From this, the ethnographer concluded that the meaning of many rituals has already been forgotten.
A little over 100 years have passed. People today try not to order bread from the local bakery. After all, for many young people, the symbol of wealth is precisely the wedding loaf, made according to ancestral recipes that have miraculously survived to this day. We know about these recipes, in part, thanks to the materials collected by Raisa Sergeevna Dankovskaya. For this, she deserves our honor and praise.
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