E-mail: mvgask@mail.ru
Tel.: +7 (968) 46–18–86
6, Khibinskiy pass., Moscow, 125373, Russian Federation
Post-graduate student, State Academy of Slavic Culture
The article deals with the issues of existence of the Tver’ gingerbread tradition and is based on the information concerning history, folklore and ethnography. The first mention about the Tver’ gingerbread dates back to the 1620s. Active growth of gingerbread production was noted during following centuries. By the end of the 19th century’ the Tver’ gingerbreads became well-known in Russia and abroad. The Tver’ printed gingerbreads were awarded with prizes at international trade fairs, moreover, merchants from Tver’ kept shops selling printed gingerbreads in London and Paris. Change of the political system in the country at the beginning of the 20th century led to decline of the Tver’ gingerbread tradition. Nowadays splendor of the Tver’ printed gingerbread has gone. However, at our disposal we have some evidence of wide use of printed gingerbread in calendar and family and household rituals as well as in secular life. Gingerbread has entered a wide range of events of human life cycle and has become a symbolic substitute for old ceremonial baked attributes: to bread, pancakes, pies and loaves as well. Along with archaic ceremonial pastries it marks almost all sacral actions in human life and accompanies a person at all stages of the course of life. According to Tver’ folklore and ethnographic materials the role of the printed gingerbread is most evident in wedding rituals. Studying of printed gingerbread from different cultural perspectives seems to allow us to restore another lost page of our traditional cultural history.
Bagdasarov R.V. (2003) Khristianskaya simvolika ryby i ee ispol’zovanie na pryanichnykh doskakh [Christian Symbolism of a Fish and its Usage in Mould Planks for Gingerbread]. Sokhranenie i vozrozhdenie fol’klornykh traditsiy. Sb. mat. nauch.-prakt. konf. Khudozhestvennaya obrabotka dereva. [Preservation and Revival of Folklore Traditions. Proceedings of the ScholarlyPractice Conference on Craft Processing of the Wood]. Moscow. Issue 12. Pp. 72–91. In Russian.
Chernyakhovskaya Yu. S. (1983) Gorodpryanik [Gingerbread Town]. Zhegalov S.K., Zhizhin S.G. (eds.). Pryanik, pryalka i ptitsa Sirin [Gingerbread, Spinning-wheel and Sirin the Bird]. Moscow. Pp. 88–108. In Russian.
Golyshev I.A. (1874) Atlas risunkov s starinnykh pryanichnykh dosok Vyaznikovskogo u., Vladimirskoy gub. [Atlas of Drawings upon Old Mould Planks for Gingerbread from Vyazniki County of Vladimir Province]. Mstera. In Russian.
Gura A.V. (2012) Pryanik [Gingerbread]. Tolstoy N.I. (ed.). Slavyanskie drevnosti. Etnolingvisticheskiy slovar’ [Slavic Antiquities: Ethno-linguistic Dictionary]. In 5 vol. Vol. 4. Pp. 334–338. In Russian.
Dahl’ V. I. (1882) Slovar’ zhivago velika-russkago yazyka [Explanatory Dictionary of the Alive Great-Russian Language. In 2 vol.]. St. Petersburg. In Russian. Kalmykova L.E. (1995) Narodnoe iskusstvo Tverskoy zemli [Folk Art of the Land of Tver’]. Tver’. In Russian. Kandelaki I. (1914) Rol’ yarmarok v russkoy torgovle [Role of Fairs in Russian Trade]. St. Petersburg. In Russian.
Kontsedaylo L.M. Vykhodite k nam, sudarushki, vynosite pyataki [Come on to Meet us, Maidens, Take Coins with You]. URL: http: dnt. tvercult.ru›vihodite.htm (retrieved: 07.10.2013).
Krestnikov I.G. (1914) Vydacha zamuzh [Marriage of a Bride]. Zhurnal 116 zasedaniya Tverskoy uchenoy arkhivnoy komissii [Journal of the 116th Session of the Tver’ Scholarly Archive Committee, 17th of March 1913]. Tver’. Pp. 65–80.
Lavrent’eva L. S. (2012) Pryanichnye doski v kollektsiyakh MAE [Mould Planks for Gingerbread in Collections of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE RAS)]. Radlovskiy sbornik: nauchnye issledovaniya i muzeynye proekty MAE RAN v 2011 g. [Radloff Miscellanea: Research and Museum Projects of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE RAS) in 2011]. St. Petersburg. Pp. 215–220. In Russian.
Postnikov I.N. (1914) Zapiski Bezhetskogo Gorodovogo starosty. Cherty gorodskogo obshchestvennogo byta kontsa XVIII stoletiya. Izdanie TUAK [Notes of Bezhetsk the Town’s Headman. Features of Urban Everyday Life in the End of the 18th Century. Edition of Tver’ Scholarly Archive Committee]. Tver’. In Russian.
Preobrazhenskiy V.A. (1854) Opisanie Tverskoy gubernii v sel’sko-khozyaystvennom otnoshenii. Izdano Uchenym komitetom M.G.I. [Description of Tver’ Province in the Agricultural Aspect. Published by the Scholarly Committee of the Ministry of State Property]. In Russian.
Sakharov I.P. (1885) Skazaniya russkago naroda. Narodnyy dnevnik. Prazdniki i obychai. [Sagas of the Russian People. Folk Diary. Fests and Customs]. St. Petersburg.
In Russian. Shkarovskaya N.S. (1988) Pekarskoe khudozhestvo. Obryadovye figurki i dekorativnye pryaniki [Baker’s Craft: Ritual Figures and Decoratory Gingerbreads]. Sovetskoe dekorativnoe iskusstvo [Soviet Decoratory Art]. Moscow. 1988. Issue 5. Pp. 238–258. In Russian.
Slovar’ uchrezhdennykh v Rossii yarmarok, izdannyy dlya obrashchayushchikhsya v torgovle (1788) [Dictionary of Fairs, Arranged in Russia, Published for Involved in Trade]. Moscow. In Russian.
Stasov V.V. (1877) Duga i pryanichnyy konek [Arc and Gingerbread Horse]. Russkaya starina [Russian Antiquity]. 1877. No. XVIII. Pp. 723– 732. In Russian.
Tereshchenko A.V. (2007) Istoriya kul’tury russkogo naroda [History of Culture of the Russian People]. Moscow. In Russian.
Uspenskiy V.P. (1893) Zapiska o proshlom goroda Ostashkova Tverskoy gubernii [Notes about the Past of Ostashkov the City of Tver’ Province]. Tver’. In Russian.
Vinogradova E.A., Vinogradov A.D. (2002) Tver’ XVI–XVIII vv. Ocherki istorii i ekonomiki [Tver’ in the 16th–18th Centuries. Essays on History and Economy]. Tver’. In Russian.
Zubets I.Z. (2013) Nematerial’noe kul’turnoe nasledie — Rostovskiy pryanik [Intangible Cultural Heritage. Rostov Gingerbread]. URL: http:// www.rostmuseum.ru/publication/srm/017/zubets01.html (retrieved: 07.10.2013).