National holiday “Kosovorotka Day”: historical context
“The Kosovorotka was traditionally considered a symbol of folk attire among Russian men. According to historical evidence, the first written records of the Kosovorotka date from the middle of the XII century and are associated with the city of Suzdal – the center of Russian statehood in North-Eastern Russia. This period of our history is associated with the name of the Holy Blessed Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky (1111 – 1174), the ruler of Vladimir-Suzdal Russia, the first Russian Autocrat, during which the political and economic center of Ancient Russia moved from the South-West to the North-East. “The First Great Russian Rus” called Grand Duke V.O. Klyuchevsky. It is not surprising that it was during the reign of Andrei Bogolyubsky in the lands that subsequently formed the skeleton of Great Russia that the braid began its victorious march so that in modern times (XVII-XIX centuries) it would become exclusively a Russian national shirt, ”the concept says the introduction in Russia of the national holiday “Kosovorotka Day”, posted on the websites of the authors of this initiative – the Association “Russian Domostroy” and the IOF “Link of Generations”.
Kosovorotka firmly entered the national memory and historical traditions of the Russian people. At the same time, it had an omnipotent character: the kingshirt was worn by kings (Ivan the Terrible, Alexei Mikhailovich), and emperors (Alexander III, Nikolai II), and high-born boyars, and merchants, and philistinism. But truly unlimited was the devotion to the turn of the Russian peasantry – the basic basis of the Russian State.
The peasantry has a beautiful and symbolic family tradition of giving parents a new braid to their adult son at the beginning of haymaking. Traditionally, this happened on July 12 (June 29, old style) on the Day of the Apostles Peter and Paul. On this day, the Petrov post was ending, in villages and villages their inhabitants were preparing for haymaking. Haymaking usually lasted two to three weeks and was considered difficult but festive in the Russian countryside: both women and men wore holiday clothes for haymaking, after work round dances, games and dances were arranged. Since ancient times on this day – July 12 – parents gave their adult son a new braid in which he went out into the world as a full-grown adult worker.
The establishment of the “Kosovorotka Day” holiday is intended to revive in Russian society as a whole and every Russian family, in particular, the tradition of wearing the Kosovorotka as an element of the national costume of the Russian people, as well as giving it to parents for their sons with the wishes to be real workers of Russia.
Kosovorotka Day is proposed to be held annually on July 12th. This is the day of the apostles Peter and Paul and the beginning of haymaking, on which it was customary for the Russian peasantry to give adult sons new braids that were worn precisely at the haying season.
The celebration of Kosovorotka Day is intended to mark the beginning of a new state policy to strengthen the patriotic principles of educating the Russian people as a state-forming people of Russia in alliance and fraternity with all the indigenous peoples of our Fatherland.
Source: ARD News Bulletin