For gifts all over Russia

There comes a time of warmth, a time when we all expose our faces to the first gentle spring rays, but also a time of holidays. Defender’s Day, International Women’s Day, has died out, but when the sun is shining, and it’s easy on the soul, you want to make gifts for no special reason. And sometimes you just want to reward yourself for the heroically endured winter and please some gift, not necessarily expensive, but unusual, heartfelt. To warm up in the damp and damp first days of spring, so that pleasant memories were associated with it. And it seems that combining all these qualities in one subject is almost impossible. But, fortunately, our country is not only rich in minerals, but also generous with gifts. Each city has its own unique gift. We will tell you about those that have become symbols – the original brands of these cities.

Tula gingerbread is a visiting card not only of Tula, but of the whole of Russia. Tula glorified Russia not only with weapons, samovars, harmonics, but also with them - sweet, honey, with jam and without a favorite treat for tea - Tula gingerbread.

But this seemingly simple delicacy has a rich history. In the XVIII - XIX centuries gingerbread baked sour and fresh. Sour - from leavened dough - were more expensive and were in demand among wealthy people. The dark browns - on honey and molasses - were sweet and lush. The poor were destined gingerbread from fresh dough, which were cheaper and easier to make.

Carrots differed in variety - stucco, printed, ritual, silhouette. Laminated figureheads - the oldest and most common - were distinguished by simplicity and originality. Carrots with drawings made with the help of boards, people called printed. Carrots were divided according to purpose: gift, farewell, wedding, memorial. Many ancient customs and beliefs were associated with them. No event took place without gingerbread.

It is impossible to say who made the first carrot and when. The first mention of Tula gingerbread is stored in the scribe book and dated 1685. Until our times, there are boards by which you can judge the variety of gingerbread. The boards were cut from birch and pear. The trees are about 30 years old. For gingerbread boards used the lower part of the barrel. This part of the trunk was cut into boards about 5 cm thick, which were dried for up to 20 years. The edges of the boards for strength were lubricated with resin or wax. After the board was ready, the carver-artist applied the drawing. A gingerbread board is a form for gingerbread.

Many folk customs and traditions were associated with gingerbread. They were given as a token of honor and love. Special gingerbread was made in connection with some solemn event. Tula gingerbread was considered by our fathers expensive gifts. According to popular belief, gingerbread had healing properties and helped in the treatment of diseases. In such cases, letters corresponding to the initial letters of the names of the archangels were cut on the board.

Bake gingerbread on ready-made forms. Appearance and beauty depended entirely on form. Carrots with inscriptions were especially appreciated. It was difficult to cut the drawing on the board, and to make the inscription even more difficult.

Carrots were made like bread at home in the villages, and later in the city. All boards were divided into five types: figure, piece, type, honorary, city. Figure boards are rectangular in shape. The patterns on them are simple, the depth of the thread is different. The piece boards were with an image of ornament and a finely patterned notch. These gingerbreads were mainly made for ordinary people and children. Setting boards were used when baking small gingerbread. A large board was divided into parts, each small gingerbread had a finished pattern. Honorary boards indicate the features of a rich life and economic scale, indicate the level of art. Their existence refers to the middle of the XVIII century. These boards are big. The weight of some gingerbread reached several poods. A type of urban gingerbread board combines small boards of late origin with a brief carved inscription indicating the city where the gingerbread was made.

By the XIX century. peasant gingerbread production replaced factory products. Gradually, the carrot lost its ritual value and began to be used only as a delicacy.

Carver boards continue to please master gingerbreadmakers. And despite widespread automation in the confectionery industry, gingerbread labor is still manual.

If you decide to travel to Tula for gingerbread, then be sure to look at the Tula Carrot Museum. It is one of the youngest museums in Tula, but for two years of its work it has gained great popularity not only in Tula, but also in Moscow, Kaluga, Serpukhov, Chekhov and many other cities of the country. The museum presents the history of a unique ancient delicacy that came to us from their depth of centuries, survived the ups and downs, losses and revival. You will learn about ancient traditions and rituals. You will learn how it is made in modern conditions, and you will see gingerbread made on ancient forms. Here the exposition presents the smallest, a little more than half a gingerbread and giant - pood, the only one in the country. During the visit to the museum, you can even get acquainted with the history of our country presented on carrots and events that took place over many years. In the exposition of the museum - gingerbread congratulatory, festive, custom, historical, personal, figure and honorary. In addition, tourists are offered a tasting of gingerbread with tea and the opportunity to purchase freshest delicious souvenirs.

The museum presents gingerbread boards of a variety of forms, among the interesting exhibits there are also unique samples - personal belongings of the Serikov family and confectioner P.I. Kozlov - authentic family photos, documents, household items, packaging for confectionery products V.Grechikhin and D. Filipov and much more. Here the exposition presents the smallest, a little more than half a gingerbread and giant - pood, the only one in the country. The museum has gingerbread congratulatory, festive, custom, historical, personal, figure and honorary (the same in the pre. ozazaza).

The gingerbread is good, but you ate it and didn't. But I want the memory to remain and in the home was useful. Then for you Orenburg and his downer handkerchiefs. The scarf is a collective name: it is a warm shawl, openwork scarf, “web” and openwork palantine. In their amazing agreement, the unique qualities of the down of the local goat breed and the folk understanding of beauty, harmony and order were combined. These soft, fluffy products are the result of manual creative work and rich traditions, where knowledge, skills and ingenuity of collective creativity have been deposited for centuries. Behind each operation, behind each movement of women’s hands is a set of practically honed actions, experienced in life an infinite number of times, the refinement and virtuosity of the executive manner. Freedom in the artisan-technical field gives Orenburg knitters the widest opportunities for creative work. For knitting do not need drawings and descriptions. The execution of the conceived is from memory, according to the artistic and aesthetic norms formed in the craft. With a uniform style, you won’t find two headscarves alike. Each of them reflects the personality of the performer with personal preferences for a particular motif, pattern, element.

Products of our platoshnitsa serve for ten years or more, and shawls have healing properties - help cope with headaches and lumbar pains. This is a wonderful gift to loved ones, dear and close.

The first information about goat fluff products began to appear at the end of the XVIII century, when the Russians, entrenched in the Urals, entered into trade relations with the local population. The harsh climate of the local places, the constantly blowing sharp wind prompted the settlers to become interested in the clothes of nomadic herders, who wore warm telograkes and scarves connected from the down of goats under light outer clothes.

Knitting headscarves, shawls, scarves turned out to be the first thing for the Orenburg Cossacks. Back in 1770, the wife of P. I. Rychkov Alena Denisievna presented to the Free Economic Society yarn made from the down of the local breed of goats, for which she was awarded a gold medal. And in 1862 at the World Exhibition in London, our countrywoman M. I. Uskova was awarded the medal "For shawls made of goat's down".

Fishing is truly unique. Its roots go back to the distant XVII century.

If you want a gift not for yourself, but to decorate the house – for you, Dymkovo toy, Russian art craft, which arose on the basis of local pottery traditions. The name of the toy comes from the settlement of Dymkovo, now the district of the city of Vyatka, where the production of toys at the beginning of the XIX century acquired an independent value. The fishery had a family organization - women and girls sculpted the toy, timed its manufacture to the spring fair. Toy fishing in Vyatka, apparently, arose in ancient times. Many researchers associate the manufacture of clay whistles with the Vyatka spring holiday "whistle" with pagan roots and dedicated to the sun. Participants of the holiday whistled in clay toys and threw painted clay balls. The cult significance of the holiday has long been lost, but the ritual itself remained until the beginning of the XX century. For their production, local red clay is used, carefully mixed with fine river sand. Figures sculpt in parts, curling the desired shape from rolled into pancake clay comas. Individual parts are collected and completed using liquid clay as a binder material. Traces of sculpting are smoothed with a wet cloth to give the product a flat surface. After complete drying and firing, toys are covered with tempera whitewash (before whitewashing was carried out with chalk diluted on milk). Previously, toys were painted with aniline dyes mixed on an egg with kvass, using sticks and feathers instead of brushes. The painted toy was again covered with a whipped egg, which gave the faded aniline colors shine and brightness. Today, tempera paints and soft column brushes are used for painting. The use of a wide range - up to ten colors - gives the toy special brightness and elegance. Strictly geometric ornament is built on a variety of compositional schemes: cells, strips, circles, points are applied in various combinations. Complete the decoration of the toys of diamonds made of sweat or gold leaf, glued over the pattern.

Source: www.rostur.ru