Which Slavs have yellow skin? Ethnic skin types

On Midgard-Earth there live people with different skin colors and a certain territory of residence. This Earthly humanity has ancestors who arrived on Midgard-Earth from various Heavenly Halls - Star Systems, namely: the Great Race - white skin color;
Great Dragon - yellow skin color;
Fire Snake - red skin color;
Gloomy Wasteland - black skin color;
Pekelnogo Mir - gray skin color, foreigners.
The allies of the White Race in the battle with the Forces of Darkness were the People from the Hall of the Great Dragon. They were allowed to settle on Earth, having determined a place in the South-East, at the rise of the Yarilo-Sun. Modern China.

Another ally, the people from the Hall of the Fire Serpent, was assigned a place on the lands in the Atlantic Ocean. Subsequently, with the arrival of the Clans of the Great Race to them, this Land began to be called Antlan, i.e. The land of the Ants, the ancient Greeks called it Atlantis.

After the death of Antlani, righteous people with the skin color of the Sacred Fire, the Heavenly Power (Vaitmara) transferred them east to the boundless Lands at the sunset of Yarila-Sun lying... (American continent).

In ancient times, the possessions of the Country of Black People covered not only the African continent, but also part of Hindustan. The Indian tribes of the Dravidians and Nagas belonged to the Negroid peoples and worshiped the Goddess Kali-Ma - the Goddess of the Black Mother.

Our Ancestors gave them the Vedas - Sacred Texts, now known as the Indian Vedas (Hinduism).

Having learned about the eternal Heavenly Laws, such as the Law of Karma, Incarnation and Reincarnation, and others, they abandoned obscene deeds, bloody human sacrifices to the Goddess Kali-Ma and the Black Dragons.

The enemy of the Great Race and other Races on Midgard-Earth are representatives of the Pekel World, who secretly penetrated onto Midgard-Earth, so the territory of residence is not defined.

God Perun calls them Foreigners (Jews). They have gray skin, their eyes are the color of Darkness, and they are bisexual (initially), they could be a wife or a husband (hermaphrodites, whose sexual orientation changed depending on the phases of the Moon).

They paint their faces with paints to look like the Children of Men... They never take off their clothes in public.

They create all kinds of false religious cults and specifically try to destroy or denigrate the Cult of God Perun, for he warned:

“They covet everything that belongs to others, that does not belong to them... All their thoughts are only about power. The goal of the Aliens is to disrupt the harmony reigning in the World of Light and destroy the Descendants of the Heavenly Family and the Great Race, for only they can give a worthy rebuff to the Forces of the Inferno...

Using lies and very flattering words, they gain the trust of the residents; as soon as they gain trust from the residents, they begin to comprehend their Ancient Heritage. Having learned everything that is possible in the Ancient Heritage, they begin to interpret it in their favor.

They declare themselves to be God's messengers, but they only bring strife and war to the world. Using cunning and vicious deeds, they turn the young away from Wisdom, and teach them to live in idle idleness, to disobey their father’s traditions. They do not know about Heavenly Honor and Truth, because there is no Conscience in their hearts...

With lies and unrighteous flattery they will capture many edges of Midgard-Earth, but they will be defeated and exiled to the country of the Man-Made Mountains (Egypt), where people with skin the color of Darkness and the Descendants of the Heavenly Family will live. And people will begin to teach them to work, so that they themselves can feed their children...

But the lack of desire to work will unite the Aliens and they will leave the country of the Man-Made Mountains and settle throughout all the edges of Midgard-Earth...

Millions of lives will be taken by senseless wars to please the desires of the Aliens, for the more wars and deaths there are, the more wealth the messengers of the World of Darkness will gain.

To achieve their goals, the Dark Forces will even use Fire Mushrooms, bringing death, which will rise above Midgard-Earth.”

Chapter I. Fabric as a thing and a sign in Russian traditional culture

§2. Semantics of color

Color is one of the characteristics of an object. For a modern person, a change in color does not mean a change in the essence of an object in most cases, however, there are exceptions: black mourning clothes, a white wedding dress, blue clothes for a boy and pink for a girl, etc. All of the above examples refer to the colors of clothing. These symbolic expressions of the purpose of certain things appeared in our culture relatively recently, some of them have no roots in it and came from outside, but their influence is quite strong, so strong that, when faced with a deviation from the rules, a person is perplexed. It is fair to assume that if the color of our far from traditional clothing, and perhaps some other things, is important to us today, then the symbolism of color in folk culture is quite important. Thus, color is a sign that receives a symbolic interpretation in folk culture.

The Russians used fabrics of a wide variety of colors, dyeing them with white, black, blue, red, and yellow dyes. The most significant are the oppositions of white and black (light and dark), correlated with the oppositions life/death, good/bad, etc., as well as the triad white-red-black. The symbolism of each of these colors is ambiguous; they often have directly opposite interpretations.

White color, white - in folk culture one of the main elements of color symbolism, contrasted primarily with black and red. White and black colors are at the polar points of the color spectrum, and their names and symbolism are antonymous. White color represents a generalized range of colors in light tones, as well as high color intensity, while black color generalizes dark colors and is associated with low color intensity or its absence. In addition, white represents the absence of color, it is neutral and can be turned into any other color and given any interpretation.

In the symbolic sphere, the correlation white/black (light/dark) can be included in an equivalent series with the pairs good/bad, male/female, living/dead, partly young/middle-aged (old), etc. A correlation between white/non-white is possible, and then the white color can mean sacredness, purity, fertility, light.

The mythological semantics of white color is most clearly manifested in fortune telling, omens, and beliefs. The semantic pair good/bad is identified in relation to the characteristics white/black in a series of signs associated with a butterfly or a sheep, bringing happiness or misfortune according to their color.

The idea of ​​the “kingdom of darkness” as an afterlife, opposed to the “white light,” is characteristic of all Slavs. A Vologda peasant, for example, believed that dead, unbaptized children live in “a dark place and do not see the white light.” White light is ours, “this” light, and it is opposed to “that”, not white light, just as day is opposed to night. White light, like white day, is motivated by the sign “clear, bright, clean.” A similar distinction is made between bad and good weather, predicted by the color of the cow walking ahead of the herd. Sunlight - and the sun itself - is white, so on the first day of the harvest, work must be completed before sunset so that the bread of the new harvest will be white.

The mythological connection of individual objects and phenomena is carried out according to the principle of similarity. So, sometimes the appearance of white moths or butterflies promises an abundance of milk. On the basis of similarity, some productive actions are also carried out: Belarusians placed a stone on a bed of cabbage and covered it with a white scarf so that the cabbage would be white as a scarf, and large and strong as a stone; the peasant put on a white shirt (women wore a headscarf) when going to sow wheat, “so that it would be clean and white, like a shirt,” flax. However, the Slavs were afraid of white things that could cause hail and frost: white things were not taken out into the yard or into the field on some holidays.

Many Indo-European peoples know white mourning. Russians traditionally announced death by hanging a white “plate” or towel on the hut, with which “the arriving dead person wiped away his tears for forty days.” In the Russian North, white funeral clothing is known; dressing deceased girls in white is associated with the funeral-wedding ritual. The image of a woman in white robes represented death. The phraseology “white death” is well known; in some conspiracies, the sick person is called white, and the healthy person is called red. Ryazan peasants believed that picking white flowers in a dream was a sign of a dead person. Death was foreshadowed in a dream by white geese, horses, goats; illness - a girl in white seen in a dream.

White clothes are typical for spirits and mythological characters. Belun is sometimes called a brownie, a white woman is a mermaid, and a huge white creature is a ghoul. Women performing some ritual roles were dressed all in white. Thus, almost all evil spirits dress in white, while the devil wears a black suit and is black himself. White animals and birds, especially rare or non-existent ones, are considered special, witchcraft or kings over their relatives. Treasures lying in the ground turn into white animals. At the same time, white color can protect against the evil eye and damage; Some (clean) days of fasting and holidays were considered white.

The most specific and unambiguous symbolism has the black color, which is associated with darkness, earth, death, and acts as a sign of mourning (in families where there was mourning, Easter eggs were painted black or other dark colors - green, blue, purple). Black characters are usually demonological characters (appearing in the form of a black animal or object): devil, banner, barn, field spirit. Black animal motifs are common: horse, chicken, cat and pig. The appearance of a black animal after the death of a sorcerer is evidence that the devil has emerged from him.

In magical practice, black objects and sacrificial animals were used. A knife in a black sheath protects against fright; a black thorn thorn was driven under the dead man’s nails “so that he would not walk”; A black chicken was carried around the crops to prevent hail and was sacrificed to the plague. The egg of a black chicken helped against night blindness, and the milk of a black cow extinguished a fire started by lightning.

Yellow color, yellowness is a sign endowed with a predominantly negative assessment in folk culture. The color yellow is often conceptualized as a symbol of death; In Slavic beliefs, the appearance of a yellow spot on the hand foreshadows death. Eggs intended for commemoration in Easter, Semitic and Trinity rites are painted yellow. On Easter, when commemorating the dead in cemeteries, they carried red and yellow eggs with them; In Semik, when cumming, girls, kissing through a wreath, give each other a yellow egg. In the “baptism of the cuckoo” ritual, participants in the nepotism ritual at the cemetery exchanged yellow eggs, broke them and left them on the graves. On Saturday, on the eve of Trinity Day, when they commemorated those who died a death other than their own and unbaptized children, eggs were painted not red, but yellow, and distributed to children. Yellow is one of the traditional epithets in the conspiracies of the Eastern Slavs. Plants with yellow flowers are used to treat “yellow” diseases (jaundice, etc.)” Yellow objects (scarves, rings, dishes), chickens with yellow legs, yellow butterflies are endowed with healing properties.

Yellow is rare in the color characteristics of mythological characters. Mythical creatures that lead souls to the “other world” appear in yellow tones, the brownie has yellow hair, one of the fevers is called yellow. Yellow circles appear on the grass where an old man “became a sorcerer” or the eldest woman in his family committed suicide with witches; sometimes the places of round dances and meals of mermaids are marked with yellowed, dried grass. Yellow, along with red, can act as a substitute for gold. In omens, yellow means misfortune, illness or death; whoever sees a yellow butterfly in the spring will be unhappy and in poor health this year.

In the Russian tradition, there is a perception of gold as a sign of chosenness, happiness and the highest court; a similar idea arose within the framework of the solar cult. Golden symbolism, pre-Christian in essence, functioned under conditions of gradual Christianization of culture, merging with religious concepts of retribution and retribution, good and evil. Gold is usually associated with a hero's test and is only received by a select few. Thus, gold objects are sacred in folklore. The mythology of pure, sacred, gold is manifested in conspiracies where the conspirator seeks heavenly protection; Thus, in a conspiracy for a good path, he imagines himself dressed in golden vestments, covered with a golden shroud.

Green color, green - in folk culture correlate with vegetation, variability, immaturity, youth. The perception of green color as shiny, shining, similar to gold and yellow is noted. Such ideas are especially typical for the southern Slavs.

The productive symbolism of the green color is manifested in spring and wedding rituals, for example, Trinity - green Christmastide, Trinity Week - green week. In wedding songs, images of green life, forest, and meadows are often found. In funeral and memorial rites, green acts as the color of the “other world.” Green eggs are known as a funeral meal among the Eastern Slavs. At Easter, eggs were painted green if there was a dead person in the house during the year; this procedure was designed to renew the life of the inhabitants of the house, cleanse them, and free them from the presence of the inanimate. Green color can be an attribute of a “foreign” space, where evil spirits live, where spirits are banished: a green mountain, etc. The color green is present in descriptions of chthonic creatures.

Red color, red - in folk culture one of the main elements of color symbolism, appearing in the opposition white/red, or in the triad white/red/black, where red is opposed to white as non-white, “colored”, “dark”. The symbolism of red is ambivalent. Red is the color of life, sun, fertility, health and the color of the other world, chthonic and demonic characters. The color red is endowed with protective properties and is used as a talisman. Particularly significant in folk ideas are the red thread, the red cloth, and the red egg.

The connection of red with fire is reflected in the language (let a red rooster fly), legends explaining the presence of red in the color of animals; Russian beliefs: about a red flying fiery snake (Russian North Siberia); about “a woman in a red cauldron” (personification of a fire; Russian North); about the fiery red field grass, which seems to people like a scattering of sparks (Vologda). The connection of red with blood is manifested in wedding symbolism; often a red belt is an integral part of the costume of an underage girl. The presence of fresh blood in the body of the “unclean dead” (ghoul, sorcerer) explains the red color of their faces.

The meaning of red as an extraordinary, exceptional color is determined by the evaluative semantics of red “beautiful, valuable, ceremonial.” According to popular beliefs, the main snake has a red crest (Russian North).

The productive semantics of red is realized in a wedding ceremony, in calendar and economic rituals, where it symbolizes abundance and fertility: for example, the last sheaf is tied with red yarn, thread or a scarf. During the first pasture, the cattle were hung with a bell on a red cord. In native rites, the color red acts as a symbol of life and health; the umbilical cord was tied with a red thread; it was believed that the red color of the newborn’s skin indicated his longevity. Funeral rituals express the symbolism of the color red as belonging to the “other world” and at the same time protecting against dangerous contact with the other world. The hands and feet of the deceased could be tied with red thread; Belarusians placed a red thread across the body of the deceased; often the headdress for the deceased was made of red material. The coffin was wrapped several times from end to end with red woolen thread; the pregnant woman tied the red thread on her finger when she went to say goodbye to the deceased. Sometimes on memorial days everything red was taken out of the house. During Rusal Week before Trinity Sunday, drowned people were commemorated by breaking red eggs on their graves. The color red (scarf, ribbon) is present in the East Slavic rites of “baptism” and funeral of the cuckoo.

The red color acts as a talisman; its semantics correlates with the apotropaic semantics of a colored object (the most significant are thread and wool) or a plant. They drew a magic circle with red paint, and on Easter they washed themselves with water in which a red egg or plant was placed. Red thread was widely used as an apotropaic and healing agent; it was tied to an arm or leg and left hanging on plant bushes. For pain in the joints, they tied their hands with red wool, threads, and strips of fabric; it was believed that this would also protect against fever and fear. Red color can protect against snakes, mice, wolves; drive away evil spirits and bad weather.

Many mythological characters are marked in red: for example, a courtyard may look like a thick red snake. Witches and mermaids have red eyes; the skin of devils, mythical aliens; hair or hat of a brownie, mermaid, goblin; the goblin's dress and the brownie's shirt, the goblin's pants and the devil's scarf. "Women in red" are harbingers of misfortune.

Red in conspiracies is a constant epithet of mythical characters: red maiden, red horse. Everywhere among the Slavs, red thread and red plant seeds are used in love magic. When cattle go missing, they “take it” to the mermaids: bast shoes, onuchi, bread and salt are tied with a red ribbon and taken to the crossroads in the forest. In Christmas fortune-telling, a red ribbon symbolized the birth of a child. The predominance of red in the rainbow promises health and a good harvest, wealth. Red days in the folk calendar fall on Holy, Easter, and Fomina (Red Hill) weeks.

The combination of red-white is opposed to the combination of yellow-black in the meaning of life/death, light/darkness, health/illness. The combination of red and white is therefore typical for amulets. Red can also coexist with blue in the same meaning. The combination of red and black is typical for mythological characters and predominates in the costumes of mummers.

Within the framework of the Slavic tradition, it can be confidently stated that red is the dominant color in the semantic structure of the ritual. Marking in red is the most archaic and universal way of modeling ritual objects. This is clearly expressed in the functions of the red thread, the red belt, and the marking of ritual towels, the structure of which necessarily includes a red thread.

The semantics of red color is realized in the universal opposition white/black, which is transformed into a dynamic three-part structure white/red/black. This triad constitutes an invariant of color classification, on the basis of which a system of relations of color semantics in the traditional model of the world is built. The ritual meaning of the color red is ensured by its position as the middle member of the triad, marking boundaries in a system of binary oppositions. The intermediate position of red between white and black is identical to the position of shadow in the light/shadow/dark triad, where shadow is opposed to light, but at the same time does not coincide with darkness. This peculiar ambivalence of the red color forms the basis of its characteristics as a ritual symbol. In the time code day/morning (evening)/night, red corresponds to morning (evening), in the calendar cycle summer/spring (autumn)/winter, respectively, spring (autumn). In the spatial code, the red color corresponds to marginal zones: the threshold of a house, gates, fences - the essence of the boundaries of internal and external, one’s own and someone else’s space.

Thus, color is one of the features that determine the nature of an object. Color can determine the change in meaning of a thing; it is often more important than the name of the object, as, for example, in the case of a black cat. Using the example of the influence of color, one can see how the material qualities of an object “make” a sign, controlling its content.

© N.S. Koshubarova, 2003

Zoology(from ancient Greek ζῷον - animal + λόγος - teaching) - the science of representatives of the animal kingdom, including humans.
Anthropology(from ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος - man; λόγος - science) - a set of scientific disciplines involved in the study of man, his origin, development, existence in the natural (natural) and cultural (artificial) environments. Anthropology studies the physical differences between people that have historically developed during their development in different natural and geographical environments.
Race studies- one of the main branches of anthropology devoted to the study of human races (problems of classification of modern races, their geographical distribution, history of formation, etc.).

Today, there are constant debates between historians on the topic of who were, by their racial and tribal origin, those people whom we call the ancient Romans, ancient Greeks (Hellenes), Etruscans, Galileans..., whose images have come to us in the form of sculptures and mosaic floors paintings?

Look at this portrait of a woman with makeup like today's Russian beauties, dating back to the 3rd century. It is the main attraction of the ancient Galilean city of Tzipori. According to historians, the population of ancient Galilee consisted mainly of Hellenes (Greeks) with a small inclusion of Syrian Arameans. Therefore, the Hellenes are Greeks, and they lived most of all in ancient Galilee. And therefore, the Greek woman is looking at us from the portrait?

Who were those people, very similar to modern Russians, who posed for the ancient sculptor? Were they Greeks?

It is known for sure that they called themselves Hellenes, which can be translated into Russian as “children of the gods.” The root "ell" is well known to us from the Hebrew word "elohim" - gods and the Arabic word "Allah" - the Most High. Here "all" and "ell" are synonyms. From this follows a simple conclusion that the self-name “Hellenes” did not mean nationality. It reflected only the worldview of the so-called “ancient Greeks.”

The theory of the origin of races and nationalities is still so confused that solving this mystery of who is represented in these portraits is extremely problematic if you go the usual way.

“Today, questions of the origin of races are for the most part the prerogative of two sciences - anthropology and genetics. The first, based on human bone remains, reveals the diversity of anthropological forms, and the second tries to understand the connections between the totality of racial characteristics and the corresponding set of genes.

However, there is no agreement among geneticists either. Some adhere to the theory of uniformity of the entire human gene pool, others argue that each race has a unique combination of genes. However, recent studies rather indicate that the latter are right. The study of haplotypes confirmed the connection between racial characteristics and genetic characteristics. It has been proven that certain haplogroups are always associated with specific races, and other races cannot obtain them except through the process of racial mixing.

Modern science relies on two hypotheses of the origin of human races - polycentric and monocentric.

According to the theory of polycentrism, humanity is the result of a long and independent evolution of several phyletic lineages.

Thus, the Caucasoid race formed in Western Eurasia, the Negroid race in Africa, and the Mongoloid race in Central and East Asia.

Polycentrism involves the crossing of representatives of proto-races at the borders of their areas, which led to the emergence of small or intermediate races: for example, such as the South Siberian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Mongoloid races) or the Ethiopian (a mixture of Caucasoid and Negroid races).

From the standpoint of monocentrism, modern races emerged from one area of ​​the globe in the process of settlement of neoanthropes, which subsequently spread across the planet, displacing more primitive paleoanthropes.

The traditional version of the settlement of primitive people insists that the human ancestor came out of Southeast Africa. However, the Soviet scientist Yakov Roginsky expanded the concept of monocentrism, suggesting that the habitat of the ancestors of Homo sapiens extended beyond the African continent.

Recent research by scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra has completely cast doubt on the theory of a common African ancestor of humans.

Thus, DNA tests on an ancient fossilized skeleton, about 60 thousand years old, found near Lake Mungo in New South Wales, showed that the Australian aborigine has no relation to the African hominid.

Theory multi-regional origin races, according to Australian scientists, is much closer to the truth."

It is in this direction that I now invite the reader to think. But I propose to approach this topic from an unusual angle - moving from zoology, studying the life of all animals, including humans.

Imagine now that a brown bear is like a Negro or a Mongoloid, then its closest relative, the polar bear, will be like a European.

In this interpretation of zoology, it is interesting to look at the distribution area of ​​the brown bear, at least within the Russian Federation. Here's the map. Everything shaded brown is the habitat of the brown bear.

And here is the polar bear's distribution area. He is rightly called the ruler of the Arctic. It is perfectly adapted to life in the harshest conditions of the Far North.

With such a zoological comparison and with such a distribution area of ​​the polar bear, it turns out that he is not just a “European”, he is a “Hyperborean”, since his main habitat is the Arctic, the Far North!

The color of its fur coat (white) is adapted to the color of the snow, the color of the fur coat of its southern relative (brown) is adapted to the color of the soil.

A person does not have a fur coat, he has smooth skin, but it also comes in different colors and shades. What is it adapted for? Why are there people with white skin, people with black skin, and several other options in between?

Scientists say that human skin is adapted to the intensity of solar radiation, which can be considered as thermal radiation in the infrared range, as light radiation in the visible range and as ultraviolet radiation.

“For example, dark pigmentation of the skin protects people living in the equatorial belt from excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays, and the elongated proportions of their body increase the ratio of body surface to its volume, thereby facilitating thermoregulation in hot conditions. In contrast to the inhabitants of low latitudes, the population of the northern regions of the planet has predominantly light skin and hair color, which allows them to receive more sunlight through the skin and meet the body's need for vitamin D." .

It’s the same with human eyes! The brightest eyes are those whose ancestors were Hyperboreans - natives of the Far North, that is, a territory deprived of sunlight.

The darkest eyes, respectively, are those whose first ancestors were Africans or were born near the equatorial zone of the planet.

"Eye color indicates geographic heredity. People with blue eyes are most often found in the northern regions, with brown eyes - in places with a temperate climate, people with black eyes live in the equator region. Most people with blue eyes live in the Baltic countries. Interesting fact: in Estonia, almost 99% of the inhabitants have blue eyes.".

What conclusion is asked from this?

If you look now at the world map and find Greece on it, it will be clear why today the white-skinned and light-eyed inhabitants of the Far North love to fly like migratory birds to the places of military and cultural glory of their ancestors!

And if we now look into the works of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, we will find that Herodotus mentions a certain northern country of Hyperborea and emphasizes that "the sages who taught the Greeks the sciences and arts were considered to have come from the country of the Hyperboreans". (Herodot. IV 13-15; Himer. Orat. XXV 5).

And where the “country of the Hyperboreans” was located can be clearly seen if we look at the map of Ptolemy, a late Hellenistic astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, mechanic, optician, music theorist and geographer. He lived and worked in Alexandria, Egypt, where he conducted astronomical observations.

Ptolemy compiled this map of the world around 140 AD.

Color symbols in Slavic mythology

The Slavs were very responsible when choosing one color or another in their lives. The Slavs chose certain colors for everyday life, and others for religious and ritual purposes. The costume was also made in accordance with one’s gender, social status and even mood.

In Slavic mythology, colors also have clear meanings.

But all this variety of color meanings is quite simple to arrange in a logical chain, and all the ambiguity and interestingness of interpretations of this or that color immediately begins to emerge.

The researcher of the worldview of the ancient Slavs, M.V. Popovich, studied a little about color symbols. We are interested not only in the color symbols used in clothing by the ancient Russians, but also in the color symbolism used in myths, epics, and fairy tales.

White color is the sun, air, insight, purity, innocence, purity, holiness, sacredness, salvation, spiritual power. Winter. This color represents daylight hours. Time for work and good deeds.

White color is absolute freedom from all obstacles, freedom for all possibilities. White is also a solution to problems, a new beginning.

Belbog was present in the pantheon of gods as the personification of all light forces.

The symbol of Svyatovit is white. This is due to the fact that Belbog and Svyatovit in tradition are the same force, only in different incarnations, and accordingly they have the same meaning.

Phrases are often found in myths: “white tent” - to designate the Slavic army, “white hands” - to dissociate the Slav from the Pecheneg. The epithet of the Danube River is “white river”. Also, the epithet “white” is associated with “living water.” The “white duck” is always a positive hero in a fairy tale, going back to the ancestor duck from the myth of the creation of the myth. “White birch” is a constant epithet in mythology for one of the Slavic sacred trees.

“Bel is a flammable stone” (Alatyr) – in mythology a sacred, pure place.

“White stone chambers” are a clean, bright, safe living place.

In the folk calendar, “white” days are Maslenitsa days among the Serbs and Macedonians (“white week”); holy days (when there is no fasting) in Serbia and Pomerania (“white days”); Holy Week for Ukrainians and Belarusians (Biliy Tyzhden, Biyela Nyadelya); Holy Saturday among Croats, Slovenes, Czechs and Slovaks (“White Saturday”).

The white shirt was used by the Slavs for religious and ritual purposes, for example, before a battle they dressed under chain mail or without it, just on a clean body.

Black appears almost universally as the color of negative forces and sad events. Black color is also a negation of earthly vanity and splendor.

Black, as the antagonist of white, expresses the idea of ​​“nothing”, nothing like absolute refusal, like death or like “no” in militant protest (like a concentrated clot of aggressive persistence). Black color symbolizes night. This is the time of dark forces. This is the time of sleep, temporary non-existence.

The most specific and unambiguous symbolism has the black color, which is associated with darkness, earth, death (acts as a sign of mourning; cf.: in families where there was mourning, Easter eggs were painted black or other dark colors - green, purple, blue) .

The characters of the Pekelny world are usually black in color (they also appear in the form of a black animal or object): bannik, ovinnik, field spirit “uselnitsa” (Russian). Wolfhound turns into a black horse (Serbian), vampires torture people by turning into a black chicken (Slovenian), witches turn into a black cat, dog, pig (O.Slav.). The appearance of a black animal after the death of the sorcerer is evidence that Viy (Serb.) came out of him.

In magical practice (apotropaic, love, healing), black objects were used, for example: a knife in a black sheath as protection from fright (Serb.), from pestilence (Slovenian); a black thorn thorn was driven under the nail of a dead man so that he would not walk (Serb.); the bone of a black dog scared away the veštica (Serbian); a black chicken was carried around crops to prevent hail (Serb.)

The symbol of Chernobog is black. He personifies the totality of all the dark forces of the Pekel kingdom.

In mythology, black epithets meant: “Black Army” - the enemy army, “Black River” - the one that brings death, “Black Stone” - the entrance to the Pekel kingdom, “Black Raven” - the harbinger of death, etc.

“Black Velvet”, “Black Sables” - the black color here acts as an indicator of the character’s wealth and stature.

Protective braid, as well as black clothing, was not used in ritual activities. In everyday life, she had no symbolic color.

In general, the color red is considered aggressive, vital and full of strength, akin to fire and denoting both love and life-and-death struggle. It is also the color of the sun (Vladimir Red Sun). Red color in Rus' is synonymous with beauty. Red color is blood - a symbol of life, but at the same time a symbol of death.

Bogatyrs in Rus' usually preferred red clothes (pants, boots, caftan, cloak, etc., only the shirt is usually white) hence the epic “red is well done”, and in the meaning “red maidens” - beautiful.

Red - The color of life, fire, fertility, health and at the same time - chthonic characters (red clothes or hats are worn by a brownie, a merman, shulikuns; red eyes, teeth, hair are worn by a witch, shulikuns, mermaids). Particularly significant in folk beliefs are the red thread, red cloth, and red (Easter) egg, which are endowed with protective properties and are used as a talisman.

The color of Yarila, the sun, red is primarily associated with spring, fertility, life and, of course, the spring sun that revives nature to life.

“Spring is red” - in epics and fairy tales it means the arrival of the Spring sun Yarila.

The choice of red clothing characterizes the fact that the owner is confident in himself.

Blue is the color most often seen as a symbol of all things spiritual. Unlike the energetic color red, blue has a “restraining” effect and makes most people thoughtful. This is the color of wisdom. Infinity, eternity, truth, devotion, faith, purity, chastity, spiritual and intellectual life. The blue color of the sky is the calmest and least “material” of all colors.

The color blue is associated with “dead water.” The mysterious “blue lightning” and “blue wine” also have a symbolic meaning and are associated with the Cumans. The black clouds coming from the sea are hordes of Polovtsians advancing on the Russians, and the blue lightning is the sparkling Polovtsian sabers. Blue is the color of the sea. “Deep blue sea” - there is a miracle there - the Yudo fish whale.

Buyan Island. And this epithet means thoughtful, wise infinity.

Blue braid on shirts is used by people who have embarked on the path of spiritual self-improvement.

Green color is ambiguous in meaning. It is life in bright green and death expressed in a deathly grey-green fluorescent light. Youth, hope and joy, but at the same time change, impermanence and jealousy. Green is spring, reproduction, joy, confidence, nature, paradise, abundance, prosperity, peace.

Green denoted the Tree of the World. It is also the color of the devil. But the most important thing is the symbol of the Forest. Also, the symbol of a sown field and young shoots was always painted in green.

The color green correlates with vegetation, variability, immaturity, and has productive symbolism (for the Serbs, the predominance of green in the rainbow means the harvest of cereals; in the Rhodopes, evergreens were used at engagements and weddings).

At the same time, the green color is an attribute of a “foreign” space where evil spirits live: in South Slavic conspiracies on the “green mountain”, “green grass”, “green tree”, evil spirits are expelled. The color green characterizes the characters of folk mythology: green hair on the goblin, mermaid, and merman; water green; Leshys, mermaids, pitchforks, and mermen have green eyes.

“Green garden” - in mythology it is usually used in the metaphorical meaning of “blooming life”.

“Green Wilderness” - usually this phrase is close in meaning to “In the distant kingdom”, that is, very far away.

“Green wine” is a bready young wine. Close in semantic meaning to “green snake” is strong intoxication to the point of hallucination.

In Belarus, green color predominates in national clothing.

Symbol of evergreen nature.

Yellow (gold)

Yellow is the light of the sun, intelligence, intuition, faith, honey. Dark yellow means betrayal, betrayal, jealousy, ambition, stinginess, secrecy, deception, disbelief, theft. Golden yellow is a symbol of the sun and divinity. This is the color of Nobility and dignity.

Gold is an image of light, it symbolizes the light of the sun and in connection with this is an attribute of Russian princes. The sun, gold, Russian princes - they all emit light: the sun is “bright” and “three-bright”.

The color yellow also has a negative meaning; it is often interpreted as a symbol of death (the appearance of a yellow spot on the hand foreshadows death; eggs intended for commemoration are painted yellow). Mythological characters are characterized by yellow hair (the brownie, female forest spirits - “povitruli”); The soul of a woman can turn into a yellow butterfly. Plants with yellow flowers (roots, juice) and yellow objects are used in the treatment of “yellow” diseases (jaundice, fever).

The color symbol of Dazhbog is gold. This is due to the fact that Dazhbog is an image of the small solstice (day). Many artists depict it in golden tones.

"Yellow curls" are used in mythology to designate a character as a Slav.

The choice of clothes in yellow tones characterizes freedom. M.V. Popovich believes that in clothing the color gold is associated with the idea of ​​sacredness, with splendor and glory. White is close to gold as its semantic nuance.

Silver is the color of moderation, the color of old age, knowledge and wisdom acquired over many years. Many attributes of the Magi were made of silver, thereby emphasizing their significance, and they characterize the owner in an appropriate way. They silvered Perun's beard, that is, they aged him.

Silver has a powerful disinfecting property, so the Slavs, well aware of this property, used silverware.

Silver is the metal of the goddess Lelya. It symbolizes love, which, by definition, is true and, accordingly, wise.

According to legend, creatures who were inherently Dasun were afraid of silver weapons.

Magi often wore silver braid on their clothes during holidays.

It is a neutral color with a subtle beauty. The color of inconspicuousness, secrecy. Gray goes almost as well with other colors as black or white, but is often more expressive. The color of undyed linen. The Slavs wore such clothes in everyday life, and it was not scary to get dirty, and it was not noticeable. This color of clothing emphasized everyday life.

In mythology, the epithet “gray” can be given to both a hare and a wolf.

On the one hand, there is a cowardly animal, and on the other, a predator, and both are given the same epithet. This is due to the ability of animals to merge with the world around them.

Gray is the color of Stribog. It most accurately characterizes the neutrality and color invisibility of the wind.

Gray colors in clothes are preferred by those who are characterized by increased sensitivity or rudeness.

Blue - day, sky, life.

Svarog is sky blue. Everything is clear here, Svarog is the prince of heaven.

The choice of clothing in a Blue tone characterizes the fact that a person has achieved satisfaction or strives not to stand out. Girls often use blue colors in their outfits.

The blue color of the eyes made the Slavs stand out from other nations.

Brown

It was associated among the Slavs, first of all, with Mother Raw Earth - the wet nurse. Cheese's Mother Earth gives and takes away life. And the second, no less important image associated with this color is the brown bear, which is included in the circle of cult totem animals of the Slavic people. Often, Slavic knights were personified with this beast.

This color was rarely used in clothing and therefore did not acquire clear symbolism.