What kind of festivities there were at Russian fairs. What is a fair

A fair (yarmonka) is a large trade congress and the delivery of goods at a special time of the year, an annual trade that lasts for weeks, a large rural bazaar, to which merchants and other trading people gathered on certain days of the year in a place known to them. This is where they brought their goods. Here the buying and selling took place, that is, the fair, which lasted not just one day, but sometimes even a whole month. Everyone knew well in which month, on which days of the church calendar, on the feasts of which Orthodox saints, time was allocated for fairs. The dates of the largest fairs were determined so that merchants, at the end of one fair, had time to move to another.

In Dmitrovsky district, the largest fairs were held in Dmitrov itself and the village of Rogachevo.

Fairs in Dmitrov

The center of city life was the market. On market and fair days, the entire existence of the city was subordinated to the interests of trade. Wooden shopping arcades, built at the beginning of the 19th century, were located in the city center. On the road to the market there were forges and taverns. A merchant or peasant who came to the city first stopped at the forge - to feed or shoe the horses, and then went to the tavern. On the market square there was also a parking lot for “public transport” - cab drivers.

In the description of 1785 there is mention of an annual autumn fair, which began on September 15 and lasted a week, according to the description of 1787 - two weeks. “To this place merchants come with goods from Moscow, Pereslavl Zalessky, Yuryev Polsky and bring small quantities of brocade and silk, paper and woolen fabrics and other small goods that are sold to that city and to residents coming from the district.

There is a weekly market on Monday and Thursday, when the peasantry gathers and brings bread, hops, plows, wheels, sieves and other small items for sale.”

In the 18th century, the Dmitrov merchants conducted extensive trade and had large capital: “The trade and trade of the local merchants consists of the sale of various silk fabrics from shops, vegetable and yuft goods, grape drinks, brought from Moscow and St. Petersburg and other cities, they also sell canvas, wax, candles, food supplies and various items; and some buy grain in considerable quantities in their district, and more in the lower and Ukrainian cities and send it for sale by water communication and by land to St. Petersburg; others buy cattle, which are used only to feed the local inhabitants, and leather and sheepskins are sold in this city alone. They also practice crafts and handicrafts, while others are engaged in gardening garden vegetables, which they transport to nearby cities and counties and receive considerable profit from it.

The fair takes place annually on September 15 and lasts two weeks; merchants from Moscow, Pereslavl Zalessky, Yaroslavl, Kashin and other cities come to it, from which they mostly bring various silk fabrics, gentlemen and vegetable goods, foreign cloth and Russians in considerable quantities ; and trading days are weekly on Mondays and Thursdays.

The human needs necessary for food and food for life are received from district residents, who bring all kinds of bread, meat and other food supplies on trading days.”

Two annual fairs were held in Dmitrov - spring and autumn. The main one was “Borisoglebskaya”, dedicated to “Boris Day” - May 2, old style - and Nikitskaya on September 15. At the fair, everyone traded as and where they could. Rich, respectable merchants traded in rows. Middle-class traders - in wooden shops, in booths and tents, in stalls and kiosks. Those who are poorer are in huts covered with splint or matting, or even straight from carts and carts.

A detailed description of the Dmitrov fair is contained in the memoirs of A.I. Elizarova (1903-1983), originally from an old Dmitrov family:

“Three days a week were market days: Sunday, Monday and Thursday. It wasn’t just Dmitrov’s gardeners who traded at the bazaar, but people from surrounding villages and hamlets also came, each with their own goods. They brought live cattle, stood carts with live piglets, traded from carts, or simply sat on the ground. They brought a lot of pottery, entire villages were engaged in this business, they worked manually, in an artisanal way; there were villages that bent and made sleds and sleds. The Rogachevsky district collected and bought animal horns, from which they made combs and combs. Timonovskaya forest district carried dried and salted mushrooms, cranberries; from near Rogachev - wood chips: tubs, barrels, tubs, troughs, tubs - everything was transported to the Dmitrovsky bazaar, and most of all there were vegetables. In the fall, the goods at the markets were more varied: apples were sold from carts not individually, but in measures, half measures; so many carts were brought in that there was not enough space at the market; they stood right on the streets and set up tents with imported goods: watermelons, melons, grapes, tomatoes. Now every gardener has tomatoes, but before they were an imported product. In the fall, more cattle were brought in, and more piglets were brought in. And what fairs there were in Dmitrov! There were two fairs: the Borisoglebsk fair - on May 2, old style - and on September 15, the Nikitskaya fair. Borisoglebskaya - or, as they called it, Boris's Day - was more populous, richer, more varied in goods than Nikitskaya. This fair could no longer fit in the city, but was located behind the Boris and Gleb Monastery. Now this monastery is located within the city, houses have been built around it, but before it was outside the city, and the monastery buildings - the Theological School, where the sons of the clergy were trained for the theological seminary, and other houses where teachers and other employees of the school lived - already stood in field. The fair stretched from the monastery and almost all the way to the forest - Tabora.

A few days before Boris's Day, the city government was flooded with tenants - traders who rented land for tents during the fair. The rent was per square arshin, and the closer to the city there was one fee, and the further away, the cheaper. There were our Dmitrov traders, and visitors from Zagorsk - puppeteers and other toy makers, a village from Astretsov - exporting bone toys. There were Tatars with lace, scarves, shawls, and there were even Chinese with “fanza” and “che-sun-chey”.

There were a lot of people with different utensils; they traded both in tents and just on the ground. The tents were stretched in two rows, and the distance between the rows was large so that the public could freely approach the tent. Most of all there were tents with toys and sweets. Entire mountains of gingerbread cookies of all possible shapes and denominations towered on the counters of the tents, how many sweets there were, both in and without papers, and what oriental sweets! There was no such thing as halva, but pods! How all the guys loved them, and now I would try them, but for some reason they are no longer available anywhere. For some reason, we called this fair “pits”. And these “pits” began as early as midday on May 1st and were called “podtorzhye”. Only city residents walked at Podtorzhye. After walking around the fair, we usually entered the monastery for the All-Night Vigil. This was the most important holiday of the monastery. Boris and Gleb were commemorated on May 2nd. On Boris’s day itself, from early morning, people from all over, from all the surrounding villages, flocked to the “pits,” and there were more children than adults. A mile away from the “pits” you can hear: whistles, trumpets, mother-in-law’s tongues, crying, who among the people “lost their mother”, multi-colored balls are visible in the air from a distance. By the second half of the day, the village public is already drawn to the city, the guys are running, some with a horse, some with a doll, some firing from a pistol as they go, and everyone is carrying pods, gnawing all the nuts. And in the city there is still pleasure awaiting you: there in the market square there is a carousel spinning, you can sit on a horse, you can sit in a boat, and all the pleasure is just a patch. And there the booth stands, for a long time on the stage the “red” one has been ringing a bell - inviting people. Instead of the village, the Dmitrov public is drawn to the “pits” and also with the guys. This is a “clean” audience. Dmitrov girls, young merchant women, and other audiences go to show themselves, to show off their attire. If you want to know how women dress in Dmitrov, go to the “pits”, you will see everything there. If May 2 is a cold day, wear drape clothes: drape rotundas, water poufs, diplomats, jackets, sakis; hats with feathers and birds were worn with rotundas and water poufs, but hats did not go with diplomats and sakas; scarves, scarves, and kerchiefs were worn. And if Boris’s day is warm, then your eyes run wild, looking at the outfits of Dmitrov’s fashionistas - what kind of capes you will see there, what fancy scallops the collars and hems of these capes are trimmed with: some are trimmed with cords, others with embroidery. At one time, “mephistopheles” were in fashion - a kind of semi-long cloak down to the knees, but this cloak was very wide, sleeveless, gathered at the collar, and lay on the figure in deep ruffles with a very large and fluffy collar, this collar also ended in scallops.

And there were all sorts of hats - one fashionista has a whole flowerbed on her head, all sorts of flowers on her hat. This whole crowd is walking around decorously, shopping in the tents, whatever they need.

Sometimes a drunken monk walks among the audience, gnawing nuts, boldly looking around. The strong monastic charter is forgotten, the black cassock is forgotten. How good it is in God’s world, how bright, how joyful! And how many beauties there are around! Well, so what, the holiday of “wine and oil” will go on today, and tomorrow... again the same monastery, a white stone wall and “Lord, have mercy!”

The festivities at the fair go on for a long time, and the city does not sleep - some go to the carousel, some go to the booth. The carousel and booth usually remained in Dmitrov until Nikolin's day - May 9th. Nikola is a holiday in Rogachev. The Rogachevites won’t lose face either, their fair is no worse than Dmitrov’s. Rogachevo is a rich village. Both the carousel and the booth from Dmitrov are heading to Rogachevo.

Another fair in Dmitrov is Nikitskaya. This one already has a different character. Here people do not gather for a party, business people gather: who is carrying goods, who needs to buy something, and all of it fit in the market square.”

Fairs in the village of Rogachevo

The village of Rogachevo (the first written mention dates back to 1389) is a rich merchant village with good stone houses and a church, one of the largest in Russia. Located on a large highway between the cities of Dmitrov and Klin and having a shipping pier in close proximity at the mouth of the Yakhroma and Sestra rivers, the village of Rogachevo has long been famous for its local trade.

In the second half of the 19th century, Rogachevo was not inferior to neighboring cities - Klin and, especially, Dmitrov. In Rogachevo there were about fifty shops with a guest courtyard on the square, with church shops and with shops under houses, four tanneries and one glue factory, six taverns, four drinking establishments.

The annual trading working capital reached up to a million rubles. “Trade, which includes manufacturing, haberdashery and colonial goods, is mainly grain and meat. The original butchers are the Negins."

Trade items, with the exception of meat, were brought mainly from Moscow and partly from St. Petersburg. But the larger Rogachev merchants - all peasants - went to buy goods at fairs in Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Rybinsk, Pskov and other cities.

The purchased goods were delivered to Rogachevo from remote places either by rail to the city of Klin, and from there by caravan 30 versts to Rogachevo, or by water: the Volga, Dubnaya and Sestra rivers to the pier 9 versts from Rogachevo; from Moscow along the Dmitrovskoe highway or along the main road - Rogachevka.

By the beginning of the 20th century, wealthy merchants began trading meat in Moscow, gradually taking over almost the entire meat trade in Okhotny Ryad. Here, almost every butcher shop was sold by natives of the village. Their workers were fellow countrymen and poor relatives from Rogachevo.

The description of the Dmitrov district in 1787 states that “there are hardly any fairs in the entire district, except in the village of Rogachev on May 9, June 27 and September 25, which attract merchants from the cities of Pereyaslav-Zalessky, Klin and Dmitrov with Chinese , calico, various silk materials, and from various surrounding villages with horses, carts, wheels, sieves, gratings, with a small amount of various breads. Moreover, in the same village there are weekly trading days on Mondays, on which the peasantry also comes from different villages and brings both their peasant products for sale and purchases goods.”

At the beginning of the 20th century there were two weekly markets (on Sundays and Thursdays) and two fairs a year (Nikolskaya Summer and on the tenth Friday of Easter).

In addition, there were two so-called prefabricated markets: before St. Nicholas Day - in winter and on Monday of the third week of Lent. Up to ten thousand people flocked to both fairs and public markets. At the Nikolskaya Fair there was a fairly significant horse fair.

At the fairs they traded textiles, haberdashery, bread, salt, fish, and livestock. An abundance of people, many stalls with sweets and children's toys, a horse market, a carousel, booths, organ grinders.

On Sundays and Thursdays there was a market along the main street.

An interesting place to look for antiques and coins is the area of ​​the ancient fair. Most often, the fair in the old days was held near churches. Thus, people came and gathered from distant farms and villages to visit the temple and buy vital things for the household and delicacies for children, or to bring their natural products and livestock for sale (exchange).

Sloboda.

In medieval times, villages appeared in Rus' that were exempt from paying duties; on the Don these were free Cossack settlements. They had churches and their own fairs. These were quite large settlements, many of them completely disappeared. Churches were destroyed during Soviet times, and people left in the 60-70s for cities and regional centers in search of good wages and comfort.

Finding the site of an ancient fair is easy if you know in your area where large villages with churches were located. Naturally, there were no solid buildings on this site. Most often this is an open, level area near the church, where there is a well for drinking water and good access on all sides.

For example, in our area, the eastern regions of the Rostov region, fairs are not so ancient, since the main settlement by peasants and Cossacks took place in the 18-19th century. But if we take into account the early Middle Ages and ancient times, then there is still a lot of unexplored and interesting things here.

What can you find at fairs?

The main finds on the territory of the ancient fair are:

coins - lost items from different periods, depending on the emergence and death of the village.

The second item of finds were crosses, icons, jewelry, and, in general, metal-plastic objects.

The third is fragments of ceramics, horse jewelry and harness parts.

An antique fair can contain many interesting and worthwhile antiquities. The main thing is not to make a mistake, because in the old days there were not only fairs, but also cemeteries near churches.

Is it possible to find treasure at fairs?

It is almost impossible to find a treasure at the site of the ancient fair, because they were seasonal, there were no permanent buildings there, with the exception of rich shopkeepers and merchant chambers. It can be assumed that the coins were buried in case of sudden danger, but this is rather an exception. Some treasure hunters talk about wallets with coins found on the fair grounds.

The fair is interesting for coins, household items and metal plastics lost during trade.

Interesting site materials

From now on, the pre-revolutionary fair in Russia would be called a festival. These were not just trades, but large cultural centers: operas and ballets were staged here, concerts were given and the first films were shown. Famous artists and singers came to tour the fair. About how entertainment has changed - from the fun of buffoons with bears to Chaliapin's concerts - in the material of the portal "Culture.RF".

Ancient fairs: from booth to cultural center

Alexander Cherednichenko. Fair (fragment). 2009. Private collection

Boris Kustodiev. Booths (fragment). 1917. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

The first fairs appeared in Rus' in the 10th–12th centuries. Then they were called “torgi” or “torzhki”. They took place in both cities and villages, lasted only a few days, and sold one product here: for example, bread, livestock or fabric. The word “fair” itself came into Russian from German (from Jahrmarkt: Jahr - year, markt - market) in the 17th century, when foreign traders began to come to the markets.

Buffoons were responsible for entertainment at fairgrounds in those years. They gave performances with bears and goats, played pipes, balalaikas, and rattles. However, the priests were unhappy with the “cultural programs”.

Makariev is fussing about,
It boils with its abundance.
An Indian brought pearls here,
Fake European wines,
Herd of defective horses
The breeder brought it from the steppes,
The player brought his decks
And a handful of helpful bones,
Landowner - ripe daughters,
And the daughters are last year's fashions.
Everyone fusses, lies for two,
And everywhere there is a mercantile spirit.

Thanks to the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, even the architectural appearance of the city changed when trading was moved there from the Makaryevsky Monastery after a major fire. To equip the trading community, large-scale construction was launched here. The main building was erected by Augustin Betancourt, the author of the Moscow Manege. The fair house consisted of 60 buildings with more than two thousand shops. When arranging the shopping arcades, the specifics of trade were taken into account: for example, for Asians selling tea, separate Chinese aisles were built, decorated in national style. On the territory of the fair, the Spassky Old Fair Cathedral was erected according to the design of the French architect Auguste Montferrand, who built St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The organizers of the fair also took care of representatives of other faiths: an Armenian-Gregorian church and a mosque also appeared here.

In the center of the trading town there was a square, in different parts there were not only shops and stores, but also pharmacies, taverns, taverns, blacksmiths, barbers, theaters, and a bank. In Nizhny Novgorod, an underground sewerage system, unique for those years, operated, thanks to which the city was kept clean.

The cheerful life of the “great market place”

Alexander Pushnin. At the fair (fragment). 1960. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Anna Cherednichenko. To the market (fragment). 1947. Private collection

Fairs of the 19th century became real cultural centers. In small towns, entertainment was still provided by booths, animal trainers and puppet theaters. One of their heroes - the cheerful Petrushka - became the public's favorite. People were also entertained with the help of rayki: this is the name of a box equipped with magnifying glasses and popular prints with everyday scenes. The Raeshniks moved the pictures and supplemented the performance with short funny sayings. For example, like this: “And this is the Vistula River, the water in it is sour, whoever drinks this water will live a hundred years.”.

The entertainment area in the fair town of Nizhny Novgorod was called “Merry Scooter” - there were booths, gardens, a photo studio and entertainment pavilions. One of them even showed a movie. Concerts were held in the main house of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair.

Another guest performer was singer Fyodor Chaliapin. He recalled the fair in his book “Mask and Soul”: “The fair was buzzing with every possible sound that a person could imagine before the invention of radio. At the fair, the bright colors of Russia mixed with the colorful colors of the Muslim East. The life of the great marketplace flowed spaciously, cheerfully, and riotously.”.

The history of the Irbit Drama Theater named after A.N. began with fair performances. Ostrovsky. Writer Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak talked about the cultural life of Irbit in the novel “Privalov’s Millions.”

The performances were so popular that the theater was "packed with fairground audiences." “On armchairs and chairs there was everything that was famous for dozens of miles: Moscow commercial aces, Siberian industrialists, manufacturers, vodka kings, buyers of bread and lard, fur traders.”, wrote Mamin-Sibiryak. The fair also influenced the architecture of Irbit: in the 19th century, several stone buildings, shopping and entertainment establishments were built in the city.

March 28 2014

1859 List of villages where weekly bazaars are established

1859 List of villages where weekly markets are established, by county.

….e) List of villages in which weekly
bazaars, by district.
In the Vladimir district there are 14 fairs annually, of which 12 are in villages and 2 in monastic settlements; weekly bazaars exist in 4 different villages, in Cherkutin, Stavrov, Undol, Obrashchikha.

In the Suzdal district there is one fair and weekly bazaars are held in.

In Shuisky district there is a fair in the village. Navels or Nikola Shakhma; weekly bazaars in the villages of Teykovo, Vasilyevsk, Dunilov, Kokhma; and in the village of Ivanovo 2 times a week.

In Kovrovsky district the fair happens in the village. Lyubtse; weekly bazaars in the villages of Lezhnev, Voznesensk, Usolye, Aleksin, Osipov, Bolshaya Vsegodishy and Klyasemsky town were re-established in the village. Pavlovsky.

In Vyaznikovsky district there are 4 fairs annually in one village. Kholui; weekly bazaars, which also take place in the Meshchera settlement, Nikologorsky churchyard and village. Palekh. In the Voskresensky churchyard, in the larger Mugreevo; re-established in Gruzdev.

In Gorokhovsky district there are two fairs in Pestyaki and one each in the villages: upper and lower Landekhi, Mytu, Fominki, Sergiev Gorki, Grishin, Kozhin, Frolov, Zolin and at the graveyards: Voznesensky, Indrusky and Arkhangelsky, at the Fdorishcheva Hermitage and near the village. Zolotov; weekly bazaars are held in the villages: both Landekhi, Pestyaki, Mytu, Fominki, Sergivy Gorki, Voznesensky and Uspensky churchyards.

There are no fairs in Murom district; weekly bazaars exist in the villages: Zyabltsik Pogost, Novoselki, Yakovtsevo, Klin, Monakovo and Bulatnikov, in Lipovitsky Pogost.

There are no fairs in the Melenkovsky district either, but weekly markets in the Gusevsky town of Batashev and the Zheleznitsky Shepelevsky district, and in some villages, occur only during local holidays; in the village Lyakhakh hosts weekly bazaars.

In the Sudogodsky district there are fairs every year: in Alexandrov there are six, in Moshko there are three; one at a time, in the churchyards: Ilyinsky and Yegoryevsky; bazaars are held weekly in the mentioned villages: Alexandrov, Moshku, in the Ilyinsky churchyard and Smolin.

In Pokrovsky district there are 5 fairs, in the provincial town of Kirzhach and in other villages, there are up to 28 of them. In Zinoviev, Andreevsky, Frolishchi, Smolnev, there are weekly markets. Re-established in Orekhov and Novosergievsky churchyard.

There are no fairs in Alexandrovsky district; weekly auctions were established in the village. Konstantinov, but people gather for trade in this village only three times a year; re-established in the village. Baku.

In the Pereslavl district there are 4 trading villages: Nagorye, Vashki, Romanovo and Ryazantsovo, where there are weekly markets, however, only at a time when the residents are not busy with field work; there are no fairs.

There are no fairs in Yuryevsky district; weekly auctions take place in the villages of Sima and Onkovo; re-established in and.

In general, there are up to 3,000 fairs and bazaars in settlements, villages, churchyards and hamlets of the province; not including in this regard the small fairs that happen in almost every village during temple holidays.

....most of the trading villages, and especially the first and second categories, are located in the districts: Shuisky, Vyaznikovsky, Gorokhovsky and Kovrovsky; then in Vladimirsky, Muromsky and Sudogodsky; finally in Yuryevsky and Suzdal; in the remaining districts: Pereslavsky, Aleksandrovsky, Pokrovsky and Melenkovsky, there are only third-rate trading villages, if you do not include the Gusevsky crystal and cast iron factories in Melenkovsky district.
All the best trading villages are located along the ancient trade route of Moscow with the East, along Stromynsky, and Novgorod with the East, between the river. Volga, Klyazma and Oka.
N. Dubensky.
April 28, 1859 St. Petersburg.