Old maids
Instance, moms and dads considered they unbecoming to marry from other youngest child ahead of the brand new oldest and you may, as eldest needed a groom and probably parties and you will gatherings, the fresh new youngest wasn’t permitted to and you can, thus, remained “inside the maidenhood”. Needless to say, there are along with girls exactly who just could not get a hold of two they preferred. Peasant society treated them therefore harshly that it is unpleasantly alarming now.
People who ended up being kept given that girls were titled a selection regarding insulting nicknames: vekovukha (‘century-old one’), odnokosok (‘one-braided girl’, due to the fact single girls wore one braid inside adulthood), ‘gray-haired’, perespelok (‘the newest very ripe one’). Particularly a good girl can also be taken inside the village because of the her moms and dads towards the a good sledge, shouting: “Nadolba, nadolba! (A keyword definition more or less “heavy due to the fact a brick”) Who wants an effective nadolba?” In the event the a household agreed, they may currently “hit a great deal” and just have hitched the following day.
To remain an excellent vekovukha are experienced regarding the community a beneficial disgrace – it actually was considered that such as for instance a woman had not knew her fertility possible. Also lameness, lop-sidedness or becoming hunchbacked hollГ¤ndska flickor fГ¶r Г¤ktenskap just weren’t considered a hurdle so you can wedding.
When the good girl failed to elizabeth more than 25 years dated, youngsters do prevent inviting their unique on the gatherings and you may she’d be taboo to put on girls’ gowns. Now, their own attire had to be away from dark color, such as those of widows and you can old feminine. The fresh new vekovukhas constantly lived ilies for the an alternate building, where they remaining her very own household.
Widows and you may vekovukhas, even with the slightly disadvantaged status, had been regarded as on town given that bearers regarding physical and spiritual purity. As such, it met of many extremely important ceremonial properties – primarily pertaining to the latest changeover to the other globe. Given that signs out-of emptiness and you may low-parity, widows and you may centenarians didn’t attend wedding events, births, christenings – but they participated in the newest rites and you can washing of dry, watched over the body before the funeral service, in general managed and you may remaining the brand new funeral life style.
Another significant “work” is actually the latest “plowing” of your own arable land by vekovukhas and you may widows, that has been common in many provinces, with women that are pregnant (exactly who symbolized virility) harnessed on plow. Which crucial ritual were to be done only symbolically because of the “barren” women in this new darkness out-of nights, with the intention that, on the contrary, the fresh home might be rich when go out showed up.
Of several vekovukhas and you may widows, immediately following paying many years within updates, began exercising men medication and you can witchcraft within their advancing years. But, there had been including feamales in the newest Russian countryside, just who felt like which they carry out real time by yourself right from its younger years.
Nuns
The girls whom failed to stick to the members of the family roadway of life, but chose the path off servitude so you can God, have been entitled chernichkas. The term chernichka is actually good feminitive types of the term chernets (‘one when you look at the black robes’) – an effective monk whom belonged for the “black” (celibate) clergy. To become a chernichka, an excellent girl needed to state her should right after attaining the age marriage – this is how brand new girl create begin to be enjoy so you’re able to events and you can people because of the village young people. This may occurs from the girl’s sorts of private piety – or on account of a vow from her moms and dads.
Through to declaring their appeal, brand new girl needed to give away all their unique colorful maidenly clothing and you may don dark clothing, for example an excellent vekovukha otherwise a great widow. Brand new braid has also been symbolically slashed while uttering the language: “As the my tresses does not come back to one another, I won’t go back to my maidenhood.”