How did they treat sleep and dreams in Russia: What was the Bayun cat, what is the danger of insomnia and other ancient beliefs

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Sleep in old Russia was taken very seriously. It was believed that this is an opportunity to visit the other world, look into the future or the past, see people long gone and even find out your fate. Many characters in fairy tales and lullabies were credited with the ability to establish sleep or deprive a person of this benefit. From the beginning of the 19th century, the heroes of the dream world began to be described in literary works, their images were used in painting and music. Read what the cat Bayun was like, whether there was a fabulous dream-grass, what insomnia looked like and what it could do with a person.

Bayun the cat: why he could not lull anyone

In the old days, in order for a child to fall asleep quickly and sleep well, a cat was put in a cradle. They said that he would help the baby to be transported into the world of dreams. But the cat Bayun from folk tales was not at all as pleasant as a furry pet. He did not lull the kids, but killed them with his stories. The words “to lull or bait” meant precisely to speak, to speak, and in translation from Bulgarian - to conjure.

Alexander Pushkin described the magic cat in his poem Ruslan and Lyudmila. Today everyone knows the poems about a learned cat walking on a chain and telling fairy tales. In folk legends one could hear about such a "kind" cat sitting on a high pillar or other elevation and killing people. An oak or a tall pillar was the personification of the axis of the universe, and the chain that the cat uses for walks is a kind of connection of times.

What is a dope - a kind old woman or a little peasant, and how did they treat children

The night spirit, whose task was to put people to sleep, namely Sandman, was good with children. They represented this character as a kind little old woman who affectionately strokes a baby, or in the form of a peasant who sings a lullaby and lulls the child to sleep. As you can see, the slumber could be both a man and a woman.

Since the beginning of the 18th century, the word "drema" began to be used in literature as a designation for a half-asleep state, and in the first half of the 20th century, it again received a specific image. Suffice it to recall the well-known poem by Balmont, where he describes a slumber or the work "The Tsar Maiden" by Marina Tsvetaeva, where the slumber appears in the form of a bird.

Insomnia: how she was expelled and what she looked like

Another character, as well as a human condition, is insomnia. If someone did not manage to fall asleep for a long time, they said that these were the tricks of evil spirits. They bore different names - kriksy, bat, night owl, crybaby. To get rid of these unpleasant creatures, one should read conspiracies where they called on the Krix-Varaxes to go away, beyond the distant mountains. If a child could not fall asleep, it was believed that he was stung by perfume. In some provinces, they were represented in the form of worms, bats, ominous birds or flying lights, and sometimes it was a woman in a black scarf. Time passed, and the old cry was dignified often crying children.

Insomnia was a popular topic for poems. Fedor Tyutchev, Alexander Pushkin, Innokenty Annensky, Valery Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova wrote about her. The people, however, perceived everything much easier. Spirits were described, which were called Kriks-Varaks, and which behaved very arrogantly. For example, in the tale of Alexei Remizov, based on Russian folklore, these unpleasant creatures crawled into the garden to the priest, tore off the dog's tail, and then set it on fire.

Was there a dream-grass from which you can sleep all winter

In folk legends and conspiracies, sleep-grass is very often mentioned. In ancient times in Russia it was believed that in order to sleep through the whole winter, bears eat the roots of this plant. And that if a person takes an example from the beast, then he can also go into hibernation. There were and exist today real plants, which in some areas were considered sleep-grass and called poetic names: sleepy stupor, dope, doze-sleep. And they are officially called the open lumbago, common belladonna, sticky resin. People used to say that the sleepy grass blooms on June 18th.

If you pluck the plant at this time, that is, on Dorofeev's day, then you can expect a peaceful life. And to see a prophetic dream, it was necessary to dry the grass and put it under a mattress or pillow. Most likely it is talking about sticky tar, which healers used as a sedative. Belladonna, on the other hand, is essentially a strong poison, and it blooms all summer. And according to researchers, sleep-grass is still lumbago - a plant that is widespread throughout Russia. If you use it freshly picked, you can get poisoned, but the dried lumbago was used by healers to treat nervous disorders.

Sleeping princess: sleep as punishment and eerie details of the tales of the sleeping beauty in different countries

In ancient times in Russia (and not only) they believed that both insomnia, and vice versa, drowsiness, can be sent by sorcerers as punishment for something. On the basis of this belief, plots about a sleeping beauty, a princess, a princess appeared. Charles Perrault, Brothers Grimm, Alexander Pushkin wrote about this. The story, which is beautiful at first glance, in some accounts has terrible details. For example, if you read the French version of "Sleeping Beauty": after the prince woke the princess, they play a wedding, they have children who almost fall prey to the terrible cannibal grandmother.

In the Russian legend, the princess cannot be woken up with a kiss, and the prince has no choice but to fall in love with her lifeless body. And here are just some examples of the use of the legend about a sleeping girl: Pushkin wrote "The Tale of the Dead Tsarevna and the Seven Heroes", the legend inspired the composer Alexander Borodin to create a beautiful romance about a sleeping princess. On the stage of the Imperial Theater of St. Petersburg in 1850, choreographer Jules Perrot's ballet "The Pet of the Fairies" was staged, and almost forty years later the ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" (Tchaikovsky's music) appeared, which is incredibly popular in the art world today.

A dream was considered a sacrament, what was dreamed could come true, or become a warning. That's why with the help of peasant fortune telling, they predicted the future and looked for answers to difficult questions.