Folklore of Karachay-Cherkessia

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A very talented people live in Karachay-Cherkessia

The culture of Karachay-Cherkessia has its own, nationally distinctive, specific, centuries-old certainty of the spiritual life of the people, recorded in peculiar traditions, values ​​and institutions.

Participants of the republican festival of folklore in KCR. Photo: http://blago-kavkaz.ru
Participants of the republican festival of folklore in KCR. Photo: http://blago-kavkaz.ru

This is an impressive complex of components - symbols, language, traditions, as well as art forms - musical, theatrical, pedagogical. The folklore of Karachay-Cherkessia is a unique source of preserving the spiritual traditions and identity of the people of the republic. The works of this folklore and its content constitute the very life, worldview and artistic and aesthetic views of the people.

Modern performers of Karachay-Cherkessia

Islam Itlyashev

Islam Itlyashev

Amirina

Amirina

Ike

Ike

Mariana Albotova

Mariana Albotova

Song forms of folklore of Karachay-Cherkessia

The most voluminous heritage of the folklore of Karachay-Cherkessia has reached us in song forms (songs of magnificence, spells, conspiracies of the forces of nature, etc.). At the same time, pagan deities were often replaced in these songs by Muslim deities and saints. So, for example, in the old texts “Bismi-llahi-r-rahimani-r-ra-him” - this “In the name of God, the merciful, the merciful” came from the Arabic language into Karachay-Balkar magical poetry. A noticeable feature of Karachay folklore is the personification of mythological characters (pagan deities) into biblical ones (images of Christian saints). For example, in the song for calling rain “Chop, Chop”, the features of the pagan deity of thunder and lightning are embodied by the biblical Prophet Elijah (Eliya). Similar features were transferred to the folklore of other peoples of the North Caucasus, who went through a period of adoption of the Christian faith in the past.

Based on genre characteristics, we classify many of the ritual songs of Karachay-Circassian folklore that have survived to this day as ritual. They do not have a developed system of images, and the subject of the image becomes the ritual itself and the need for its implementation. Ritual songs are songs of appeal and show similar characteristics to incantatory songs: they are performed on behalf of a group, much less often on behalf of one person, and the songs themselves are built primarily on exclamatory intonations.

An example is the song and poetry ritual of making rain. It was performed by men. The main role in this matter was assigned to a person with the abilities of a magician, and it was believed that his spell would reach the heavens. The ritual took place as follows: they took a horse’s skull, stood in a circle, read pagan prayers in turn - conspiracies, and then threw the skull into a pool or river. According to the pagan worldview, it was bound to rain after this. The words in the conspiracy were: “Choppa, choppa, rain, rain. Eliya, Eliya, lei, lei..."

Hunting poetry

One of the oldest forms of verbal art in Karachay-Cherkessia is hunting poetry, since hunting was an obligatory stage in the development of folklore. The deep traditions of the institute of hunting in the history of Karachay-Cherkessia are confirmed by numerous archaeological, ethnographic, folklore and linguistic sources. In folklore, hunting was one of the most replicated themes of collective labor, because hunting played a crucial role in life as one of the main sources of food.

The folklore of Karachaevo-Cherkessia as a whole has the features introduced and transferred to the neighboring peoples: connection with the cults of the water element, personifying fertility; the similarity of the ritual-timed context; the presence of attributes (stuffed animals, dolls), personifying mythological characters; assignment of an important place to song performance, as well as the similarity of forms of singing songs.

Today folklore musical instrumental and song works cause real delight and lively interest. Each performance of amateur and professional creative teams convinces: there are talented people in Karachay-Cherkessia. Their participants are, as a rule, people of all ages: from children to the elderly. Among them are skilled craftsmen, amazing musicians, singers and dancers.

Photo in the top: http://noghay-rayon.ru

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