The origin of the Mari people, who they are from. Mari people

The distant ancestors of the Mari came to the Middle Volga around the 6th century. These were tribes belonging to the Finno-Ugric language group. Anthropologically, the closest people to the Mari are the Udmurts, Komi-Permyaks, Mordovians, and Sami. These peoples belong to the Ural race - transitional between Caucasians and Mongoloids. Among the named peoples, the Mari are the most Mongoloid, with dark color hair and eyes.


Neighboring peoples called the Mari “Cheremis”. The etymology of this name is unclear. The self-name of the Mari - “Mari” - is translated as “man”, “man”.

The Mari are among the peoples who have never had their own state. Starting from the 8th-9th centuries, they were conquered by the Khazars, Volga Bulgars, and Mongols.

In the 15th century, the Mari became part of the Kazan Khanate. From this time on, their devastating raids on the lands of the Russian Volga region began. Prince Kurbsky in his “Tales” noted that “the Cheremisky people are extremely bloodthirsty.” Even women took part in these campaigns, who, according to contemporaries, were not inferior to men in courage and bravery. The upbringing of the younger generation was also appropriate. Sigismund Herberstein in his “Notes on Muscovy” (16th century) points out that the Cheremis “are very experienced archers, and they never let go of the bow; they find such pleasure in it that they do not even let their sons eat unless they first pierce the intended target with an arrow.”

The annexation of the Mari to the Russian state began in 1551 and ended a year later, after the capture of Kazan. However, for several more years, uprisings of conquered peoples raged in the Middle Volga region - the so-called “Cheremis wars”. The Mari were the most active in them.

The formation of the Mari people was completed only in the 18th century. At the same time, the Mari writing system was created based on the Russian alphabet.

Before October revolution The Mari were scattered throughout the Kazan, Vyatka, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa and Yekaterinburg provinces. An important role in the ethnic consolidation of the Mari was played by the formation in 1920 of the Mari Autonomous Region, which was later transformed into an autonomous republic. However, today, out of 670 thousand Mari, only half live in the Republic of Mari El. The rest are scattered outside.

2. Religion, culture

The traditional religion of the Mari is characterized by the idea of ​​the supreme god - Kugu Yumo, who is opposed by the bearer of evil - Keremet. Sacrifices were made to both deities in special groves. The leaders of the prayers were priests - karts.

The conversion of the Mari to Christianity began immediately after the fall of the Kazan Khanate and acquired a special scope in the 18th-19th centuries. The traditional faith of the Mari people was brutally persecuted. By order of secular and ecclesiastical authorities, sacred groves were cut down, prayers were dispersed, and stubborn pagans were punished. Conversely, those who converted to Christianity were provided with certain benefits.

As a result, most of the Mari were baptized. However, there are still many adherents of the so-called “Mari faith,” which combines Christianity and traditional religion. Paganism remained almost intact among the Eastern Mari. In the 70s of the 19th century, the Kugu Sort (“big candle”) sect appeared, which tried to reform old beliefs.

Adherence to traditional beliefs contributed to the establishment national identity Marie. Of all the peoples of the Finno-Ugric family, they have preserved their language, national traditions, and culture to the greatest extent. At the same time, Mari paganism contains elements of national alienation and self-isolation, which, however, do not have aggressive, hostile tendencies. On the contrary, in traditional Mari pagan appeals to the Great God, along with a plea for the happiness and well-being of the Mari people, there is a request to give good life Russians, Tatars and all other peoples.
The highest moral rule among the Mari was respect for any person. “Respect your elders, pity your younger ones,” says the popular proverb. It was considered a holy rule to feed the hungry, help those who ask, and provide shelter to the traveler.

The Mari family strictly monitored the behavior of its members. It was considered dishonor for a husband if his son was caught in some bad deed. The most serious crimes were mutilation and theft, and popular reprisals punished them in the strictest manner.

Traditional performances still have a huge influence on the life of Mari society. If you ask a Mari what the meaning of life is, he will answer something like this: remain optimistic, believe in your happiness and luck, do good deeds, because the salvation of the soul is in kindness.

Mari(Mar. mari, mary, mare, mӓrӹ; earlier: rus. cheremisy, Turkic chirmysh listen)) are a Finno-Ugric people in Russia, mainly in the Mari El Republic. It is home to about half of all Mari, numbering 604 thousand people (2002). The remaining Mari are scattered across many regions and republics of the Volga region and the Urals.

The ancient territory of the Mari was very wide (see the article Mari Territory), currently the main territory of residence is between the Volga and Vetluga rivers.

There are three groups of Mari: mountain (they live on the right and partially left bank of the Volga in the west of Mari El and in neighboring regions), meadow (they make up the majority of the Mari people, occupy the Volga-Vyatka interfluve), eastern (they were formed from settlers from the meadow side Volga to Bashkiria and the Urals) - the last two groups, due to historical and linguistic proximity, are combined into a generalized meadow-eastern Mari. They speak Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) and mountain Mari languages ​​of the Finno-Ugric group Ural family. Among many Mari, especially those living in Tatarstan and Bashkiria, the Tatar language is widespread. Most Mari profess Orthodoxy, but some remnants of paganism remain, which, combined with the ideas of monotheism, form a unique Mari traditional religion.

Ethnogenesis

In the early Iron Age, the Ananyin archaeological culture (VIII-III centuries BC) was formed in the Volga-Kama region, the bearers of which were the distant ancestors of the Komi-Zyryans, Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts and partly the Mari. The beginning of the formation of these peoples dates back to the first half of the 1st millennium.

The area of ​​formation of the Mari tribes is the right bank of the Volga between the mouths of the Sura and Tsivil and the opposite left bank along with the lower Povetluga region. The basis of the Mari were the descendants of the Ananyians, who experienced the ethnic and cultural influence of the Late Gorodets tribes (ancestors of the Mordovians).

From this area, the Mari settled eastward all the way to the river. Vyatka and in the south to the river. Kazankas.

Story

Meadow and mountain “Cheremis” (Mari) on the map of Muscovy in 1593

The first mention of Cheremis is found in the 6th century. from the Gothic historian Jordan. The ancestors of modern Mari interacted with the Goths between the 5th and 8th centuries, and later with the Khazars and Volga Bulgaria. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the Mari were part of the Golden Horde and the Kazan Khanate. During the hostilities between the Moscow state and the Kazan Khanate, the Mari fought both on the side of the Russians and on the side of the Tatars. After the conquest of the Kazan Khanate in 1552, the Mari lands that had previously depended on it became part of the Russian state. On October 4, 1920 it was proclaimed autonomous region Mari as part of the RSFSR, December 5, 1936 - ASSR.

Joining the Moscow state was extremely bloody. Three uprisings are known - the so-called Cheremis Wars of 1552-1557, 1571-1574 and 1581-1585.

The Second Cheremis War was of a national liberation and anti-feudal nature. The Mari managed to raise neighboring peoples, and even neighboring states. All the peoples of the Volga and Urals regions took part in the war, and there were raids from the Crimean and Siberian Khanates, the Nogai Horde and even Turkey. The Second Cheremis War began immediately after the campaign of the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey, which ended with the capture and burning of Moscow.

Ethnic groups

• Mountain Mari (Mountain Mari language)
• Forest Mari
• Meadow-Eastern Mari (Meadow-Eastern Mari (Mari) language)
• Meadow Mari
• Eastern Mari
• Pribel Mari
• Ural Mari
• Kungur, or Sylven, Mari
• Upper Ufa, or Krasnoufimsky, Mari
• Northwestern Mari
• Kostroma Mari

Settlement

The bulk of the Mari live in the Republic of Mari El (324.4 thousand people). A significant part lives in the Mari territories of the Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod and Kostroma regions. The largest Mari diaspora is in the Republic of Bashkortostan (105 thousand people). Also, the Mari live compactly in Tatarstan (19.5 thousand people), Udmurtia (9.5 thousand people), Sverdlovsk (28 thousand people) and Perm (5.4 thousand people) regions, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Chelyabinsk and Tomsk regions. They also live in Kazakhstan (4 thousand, 2009 and 12 thousand, 1989), in Ukraine (4 thousand, 2001 and 7 thousand, 1989), in Uzbekistan (3 thousand, 1989 G.).

Anthropological type

The Mari belong to the Subural anthropological type, different from classic options The Ural race has a noticeably larger proportion of the Mongoloid component.

Language

The Mari languages ​​belong to the Finno-Volga group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic languages.

In Russia, according to the 2002 All-Russian Population Census, 487,855 people speak Mari languages, including Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) - 451,033 people (92.5%) and Mountain Mari - 36,822 people (7.5%). Among the 604,298 Mari in Russia, 464,341 people (76.8%) speak Mari languages, 587,452 people (97.2%) speak Russian, that is, Mari-Russian bilingualism is widespread. Among the 312,178 Mari in Mari El, 262,976 people (84.2%) speak Mari languages, including Mari (meadow-eastern Mari) - 245,151 people (93.2%) and Mountain Mari - 17,825 people (6 ,8 %); Russians - 302,719 people (97.0%, 2002).

Traditional clothing

The main clothing of the Mari was a tunic-shaped shirt ( Tuvir), trousers ( yolash), as well as a caftan ( seam), all clothing was girded with a waist towel ( solyk), and sometimes with a belt ( ÿshto).

Men could wear a felt hat with a brim, a cap and a mosquito net. Shoes were leather boots, and later felt boots and bast shoes (borrowed from Russian costume). To work in swampy areas, wooden platforms were attached to shoes ( ketyrma).

Women had common waist pendants - decorations made of beads, cowrie shells, coins, clasps, etc. There were also three types of women's headdresses: a cone-shaped cap with an occipital blade; soroka (borrowed from the Russians), sharpan - a head towel with a headband. Similar to the Mordovian and Udmurt headdress is Shurka

Religion

Before converting to Orthodoxy, the Mari people had their own pagan traditional religion, which retains a certain role in spiritual culture today. A small part of the Mari professes Islam. The Mari's commitment to their traditional faith is of keen interest to journalists from Europe and Russia. The Mari are even called “the last pagans of Europe.”

In the 19th century, paganism among the Mari was persecuted. For example, in 1830, on the instructions of the Minister of Internal Affairs, who received an appeal from the Holy Synod, the place of prayer - Chumbylat Kuryk - was blown up, however, interestingly, the destruction of the Chumbylat stone did not have the desired effect on morals, because the Cheremis worshiped not the stone, but the inhabitant here to the deity.

Names

From time immemorial the Mari had national names. During interaction with the Bulgaro-Tatars, Turkic-Arab names penetrated the Mari, and with the adoption of Christianity - Christian ones. Currently more used christian names, a return to national names is also gaining popularity.

Wedding traditions

One of the main attributes of a wedding is the wedding whip “Sÿan lupsh”, which is a symbol of a talisman that protects the road along which the newlyweds must pass.

Mari people of Bashkortostan

Bashkortostan is the second region of Russia after Mari El in terms of the number of Mari residents. There are 105,829 Mari living on the territory of Bashkortostan (2002), a third of the Mari of Bashkortostan live in cities.

The resettlement of the Mari to the Urals took place in the 15th-19th centuries and was caused by their forced Christianization in the Middle Volga. The Mari of Bashkortostan for the most part retained traditional pagan beliefs.

Education in the Mari language is available in national schools, secondary specialized and higher educational institutions in Birsk and Blagoveshchensk. The Mari public association “Mari Ushem” operates in Ufa.

Famous Mari

• Bykov, Vyacheslav Arkadyevich - hockey player, coach of the Russian national hockey team
• Vasiliev, Valerian Mikhailovich - linguist, ethnographer, folklorist, writer
• Kim Vasin - writer
• Grigoriev, Alexander Vladimirovich - artist
• Efimov, Izmail Varsonofevich - artist, king of arms
• Efremov, Tikhon Efremovich - educator
• Efrush, Georgy Zakharovich - writer
• Ivanov, Mikhail Maksimovich - poet
• Ignatiev, Nikon Vasilievich - writer
• Iskandarov, Alexey Iskandarovitch - composer, choirmaster
• Yyvan Kyrla - poet, film actor
• Kazakov, Miklai - poet
• Vladislav Maksimovich Zotin - 1st President of Mari El
• Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich Kislitsyn - 2nd President of Mari El
• Columbus, Valentin Khristoforovich - poet
• Konakov, Alexander Fedorovich - playwright
• Lekain, Nikandr Sergeevich - writer
• Luppov, Anatoly Borisovich - composer
• Makarova, Nina Vladimirovna - Soviet composer
• Mikay, Mikhail Stepanovich - poet and fabulist
• Molotov, Ivan N. - composer
• Mosolov, Vasily Petrovich - agronomist, academician
• Mukhin, Nikolai Semenovich - poet, translator
• Sergei Nikolaevich Nikolaev - playwright
• Olyk Ipay - poet
• Orai, Dmitry Fedorovich - writer
• Palantay, Ivan Stepanovich - composer, folklorist, teacher
• Prokhorov, Zinon Filippovich - guard lieutenant, Hero of the Soviet Union.
• Pet Pershut - poet
• Savi, Vladimir Alekseevich - writer
• Sapaev, Erik Nikitich - composer
• Smirnov, Ivan Nikolaevich (historian) - historian, ethnographer
• Taktarov, Oleg Nikolaevich - actor, athlete
• Toidemar, Pavel S. - musician
• Tynysh Osyp - playwright
• Shabdar Osyp - writer
• Shadt Bulat - poet, prose writer, playwright
• Shketan, Yakov Pavlovich - writer
• Chavain, Sergei Grigorievich - poet and playwright
• Cheremisinova, Anastasia Sergeevna - poetess
• Eleksein, Yakov Alekseevich - prose writer
• Elmar, Vasily Sergeevich - poet
• Eshkinin, Andrey Karpovich - writer
• Eshpai, Andrey Andreevich - film director, screenwriter, producer
• Eshpai, Andrey Yakovlevich - Soviet composer
• Eshpai, Yakov Andreevich - ethnographer and composer
• Yuzykain, Alexander Mikhailovich - writer
• Yuksern, Vasily Stepanovich - writer
• Yalkain, Yanysh Yalkaevich - writer, critic, ethnographer
• Yamberdov, Ivan Mikhailovich - artist

Wikipedia materials used

Faces of Russia. “Living together while remaining different”

The multimedia project “Faces of Russia” has existed since 2006, talking about Russian civilization, the most important feature of which is the ability to live together while remaining different - this motto is especially relevant for the countries of the entire post-Soviet space. From 2006 to 2012, within the framework of the project, we created 60 documentaries about representatives of different Russian ethnic groups. Also, 2 cycles of radio programs “Music and Songs of the Peoples of Russia” were created - more than 40 programs. Illustrated almanacs were published to support the first series of films. Now we are halfway to creating a unique multimedia encyclopedia of the peoples of our country, a snapshot that will allow the residents of Russia to recognize themselves and leave a legacy for posterity with a picture of what they were like.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Faces of Russia". Mari. "Mari El Republic. From Shorunzhi with love"", 2011

MARIANS, Mari, Mari (self-name - “man”, “man”, “husband”), Cheremis (obsolete Russian name), people in Russia. Number of people: 644 thousand. The Mari are the indigenous population of the Republic of Mari El (324.4 thousand people (290.8 thousand people according to the 2010 census)). The Mari also live in the neighboring regions of the Volga region and the Urals. They live compactly in Bashkiria (105.7 thousand people), Tataria (19.5 thousand people), Udmurtia (9.5 thousand people), Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Sverdlovsk and Perm regions. They also live in Kazakhstan (12 thousand), Ukraine (7 thousand), and Uzbekistan (3 thousand). The total number is 671 thousand people.

According to the 2002 Census, the number of Mari living in Russia is 605 thousand people, according to the 2010 census. - 547 thousand 605 people.

They are divided into 3 main subethnic groups: mountainous, meadow and eastern. Mountain Mari inhabit the right bank of the Volga, meadow Mari inhabit the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, eastern Mari live east of the Vyatka River, mainly in the territory of Bashkiria, where they moved in the 16-18 centuries. They speak the Mari language of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic family. The following dialects are distinguished: mountainous, meadow, eastern and northwestern. Writing based on the Russian alphabet. About 464 thousand (or 77%) Mari speak the Mari language, the majority (97%) speak Russian. Mari-Russian bilingualism is widespread. The Mari's writing is based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

Believers are predominantly Orthodox and adherents of the “Mari faith” (Marla Vera), combining Christianity with traditional beliefs. The Eastern Mari mostly adhere to traditional beliefs.

The first written mention of the Mari (Cheremis) is found in the Gothic historian Jordan in the 6th century. They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. The core of the ancient Mari ethnic group that formed in the 1st millennium AD in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve were the Finno-Ugric tribes. Close ethnocultural ties with Turkic peoples(Volga-Kama Bulgarians, Chuvash, Tatars). The cultural and everyday similarities with the Chuvash are especially noticeable.

The main traditional occupation is arable farming. The main field crops are rye, oats, barley, millet, spelt, buckwheat, hemp, flax; garden vegetables - onions, cabbage, radishes, carrots, hops, potatoes. Turnips were sown in the field. Of auxiliary importance were the breeding of horses, cattle and sheep, hunting, forestry (harvesting and rafting of wood, tar smoking, etc.), beekeeping (later apiary beekeeping), and fishing. Artistic crafts - embroidery, wood carving, jewelry (silver women's jewelry). There was otkhodnichestvo for timber processing enterprises.

The scattered layout of villages in the 2nd half of the 19th century began to give way to street layouts: the Northern Great Russian type of layout began to predominate. The dwelling is a log hut with a gable roof, two-partitioned (hut-canopy) or three-partitioned (hut-canopy-cage, hut-canopy-hut). A small stove with a built-in boiler was often located near the Russian stove, the kitchen was separated by partitions, benches were placed along the front and side walls, in the front corner there was a table with a wooden chair for the head of the family, shelves for icons and dishes, on the side of the front door there was a wooden bed or bunks, There are embroidered towels above the windows. Among the eastern Mari, especially in the Kama region, the interior was close to Tatar (wide bunks at the front wall, curtains instead of partitions, etc.).

In the summer, the Mari moved to live in a summer kitchen (kudo) - a log building with an earthen floor, no ceiling, and a gable or pitched roof, in which cracks were left for smoke to escape. In the middle of the kudo there was an open hearth with a hanging boiler. The estate also included a cellar, a cellar, a barn, a barn, a carriage house, and a bathhouse. Characteristic are two-story storage rooms with a gallery-balcony on the second floor.

Traditional clothing - a tunic-style shirt, trousers, an open summer caftan, a hemp canvas waist towel, and a belt. Men's headwear - a felt hat with a small brim and a cap; For hunting and working in the forest, a mosquito net type device was used. Shoes - bast shoes, leather boots, felt boots. To work in swampy areas, wooden platforms were attached to shoes.

A woman's costume is characterized by an apron, waist pendants, chest, neck, and ear jewelry made of beads, cowrie shells, sparkles, coins, silver clasps, bracelets, and rings. There were 3 types of headdresses for married women: shymaksh - a cone-shaped cap with an occipital blade, worn on a birch bark frame; a magpie, borrowed from the Russians, and a sharpan - a head towel with a headband. A tall women's headdress - shurka (on a birch bark frame, reminiscent of Mordovian and Udmurt headdresses) fell out of use in the 19th century. Outerwear was straight and gathered kaftans made of black or white cloth and fur coats.

Traditional types of clothing are partly common among the older generation and are used in wedding rituals. Modernized types of national clothing are widespread - a shirt made of white and an apron made of multi-colored fabric, decorated with embroidery and ribbons, belts woven from multi-colored threads, caftans made of black and green fabric.

Rural communities usually included several villages. There were ethnically mixed, mainly Mari-Russian, Mari-Chuvash communities. Families were predominantly small and monogamous. There were also large undivided families. Marriage is patrilocal. Upon marriage, the bride's parents were paid a ransom, and they gave a dowry (including livestock) for their daughter. The modern family is small. They come to life in the wedding rituals traditional features(songs, National costumes with decorations, wedding train, presence of everyone).

The Mari developed traditional medicine, based on ideas about cosmic life force, the will of the gods, damage, the evil eye, evil spirits, souls of the dead. In the “Mari faith” and paganism, there are cults of ancestors and gods (the supreme god Kugu Yumo, the gods of the sky, the mother of life, the mother of water, etc.).

Archaic features of the cult of ancestors were burial in winter clothes (in a winter hat and mittens), taking the body to the cemetery in a sleigh (even in the summer). The traditional burial reflected ideas about the afterlife: nails collected during life were buried with the deceased (during the transition to the next world, they are needed to overcome mountains, clinging to rocks), rosehip branches (to ward off snakes and a dog guarding the entrance to the kingdom of the dead), a piece of canvas (on which, like a bridge, the soul crosses an abyss into the afterlife), etc.

The Mari have many holidays, like any people with a centuries-old history. There is, for example, an ancient ritual holiday called “Sheep's Foot” (Shorykyol). It begins to be celebrated on the day winter solstice(December 22) after the birth of the new moon. During the holiday, a magical action is performed: pulling sheep by the legs so that more sheep will be born in the new year. A whole set of superstitions and beliefs was dedicated to the first day of this holiday. The weather on the first day was used to judge what spring and summer would be like, and predictions were made about the harvest.

"Mari Faith" and traditional beliefs V last years are being reborn. Within the framework of the public organization "Oshmari-Chimari", which claims to be the Mari national religious association, prayers began to be held in groves; in the city of Yoshkar-Ola it owns the "Oak Grove". The Kugu Sorta (Big Candle) sect, active in the 19th and early 20th centuries, has now merged with the “Mari faith”.

The development of national self-awareness and political activity of the Mari people is promoted by the Mari national public organization "Mari Ushem" (it was created as the Mari Union in 1917, banned in 1918, resumed activity in 1990).

V.N. Petrov

Expensive ax of a lost ax

How do people become wise? Thanks to life experience. Well, that's a very long time. And if you need to quickly, quickly gain intelligence? Well, then you need to listen and read some folk proverbs. For example, the Mari.

But first brief information. The Mari are a people living in Russia. Indigenous people Republic of Mari El - 312 thousand people. The Mari also live in the neighboring regions of the Volga region and the Urals. Total in Russian Federation 604 thousand Mari (2002 census data). The Mari are divided into three territorial groups: mountainous, meadow (forest) and eastern. Mountain Mari live on the right bank of the Volga, meadow Mari - on the left, eastern - in Bashkiria and the Sverdlovsk region. They speak the Mari language, which is part of the Volga subgroup of the Finnish group of the Finno-Ugric family of languages. The Mari have a written language based on the Cyrillic alphabet. The faith is Orthodox, but there is also its own, the Mari faith (Marla faith) - this is a combination of Christianity with traditional beliefs.

As for Mari folk wisdom, it is carefully collected into proverbs and sayings.

The ax of a lost ax is precious.

At first glance, this is a strange proverb. If you really regret the lost axe, then the whole thing, and not his separate parts. But folk wisdom is a subtle matter, not always immediately perceptible. Yes, of course, the ax is also a pity, but the ax handle is more pity. Because it is more dear, we take it with our hands. The hand gets used to it. That's why it's more expensive. And it’s easy to draw conclusions from this proverb. And it's better to do it yourself.

Here are some more interesting Mari proverbs, supported by centuries of folk experience.

A young tree cannot grow under an old tree.

A word will give birth, a song will give birth to tears.

There is a forest - there is a bear, there is a village - evil person There is.

If you talk a lot, your thoughts will spread. (Very useful advice!)

And now, having gained a little Mari wisdom, let’s listen to a Mari fairy tale. More precisely, a fairy tale. It is called:

Three brothers were chopping wood in the forest. It's time for lunch. The brothers began to cook dinner: they filled the pot with water, built a fire, but there was nothing to light the fire with. As luck would have it, not one of them took any flint or matches with them from home. They looked around and saw: a fire was burning behind the trees and an old man was sitting near the fire.

The elder brother went to the old man and asked:

- Grandfather, give me a light!

“Tell forty-one tales, I’ll give you,” answered the old man.

The elder brother stood and stood, and didn’t come up with a single fable. So he returned with nothing. The middle brother went to the old man.

- Give me a light, grandfather!

“I’ll give you money if you tell forty-one fables,” the old man replied.

The middle brother scratched his head - he didn’t come up with a single tall tale and also returned to his brothers without fire. The younger brother went to the old man.

“Grandfather,” says the younger brother to the old man, “my brothers and I got ready to cook dinner, but there is no fire.” Give us fire.

“If you tell forty-one tales,” says the old man, “I will give you fire and, in addition, a cauldron and a fat duck that is boiling in the cauldron.”

“Okay,” agreed the younger brother, “I’ll tell you forty-one fables.” Just don't be angry.

- Who gets angry at fables!

- Okay, listen. Three brothers were born to our father and mother. We died one after another, and there were only seven of us left. Of the seven brothers, one was deaf, another was blind, the third was lame, and the fourth was armless. And the fifth one was naked, he didn’t have a scrap of clothing on him.

One day we got together and went to catch hares. They entangled one grove with threads, but the deaf brother already heard.

“There, there, there’s a rustling noise!” - shouted the deaf man.

And then the blind man saw the hare: “Catch it!” He ran into the ravine!”

The lame man ran after the hare - he was about to catch it... Only the armless man had already grabbed the hare.

The naked brother of the hare put it in his hem and brought it home.

We killed a hare and made a pound of lard from it.

I started to crawl back out, but the rope broke, and I fell back into the ground. I’m sitting, sitting in a hole, and then spring has come. The crane built a nest for itself and brought out the baby cranes. The fox got into the habit of climbing after crane babies: today he will drag one away, tomorrow another, the day after tomorrow he comes for the third. I once crept up to a fox and grabbed it by the tail!

The fox ran and dragged me along with it. At the exit I got stuck, and the fox rushed - and the tail came off.

I brought home a fox tail, cut it open, and inside there was a piece of paper. I unfolded the piece of paper, and there it was written: “The old man who is now cooking a fat duck and listening to tall tales owes your father ten pounds of rye.”

- Lies! - the old man got angry. - Fable!

“And you asked for tall tales,” answered the younger brother.

There was nothing for the old man to do; he had to give up both the boiler and the duck.

A wonderful fable! And mind you, not a lie, not a lie, but a story about something that did not happen.

And now about what happened, but in the depths of history.

The first written mention of the Mari (Cheremis) is found in the Gothic historian Jordan in the century. They are also mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years. A major role in the development of the Mari ethnic group was played by close relations with the Turkic peoples.

The formation of the ancient Mari people takes place in centuries.

For centuries, the Mari were under economic and cultural influence Volga-Kama Bulgaria. In the 1230s, their territory was captured by the Mongol-Tatars. Since the century, the Volga Mari were part of the Kazan Khanate, and the northwestern Mari, the Vetluga Mari, were part of the northeastern Russian principalities.

In 1551-52, after the defeat of the Kazan Khanate, the Mari became part of the Russian state. In the century, the Christianization of the Mari began. However, the Eastern Mari and some of the Meadow Mari did not accept Christianity; they retained pre-Christian beliefs for centuries, especially the cult of ancestors. Since the end of the century, the resettlement of the Mari to the Cis-Urals began, intensifying in -XVIII centuries. The Mari took part in the peasant wars under the leadership of Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev.

The main occupation of the Mari was arable farming. Of secondary importance were gardening, livestock breeding, hunting, forestry, beekeeping, and fishing.

Traditional clothing of the Mari: a richly embroidered shirt, an open summer caftan, a hemp canvas waist towel, a belt, a felt hat, bast shoes with onuchas, leather boots, felt boots. A woman's costume is characterized by an apron, caftans made of cloth, fur coats, headdresses - cone-shaped caps and an abundance of jewelry made of beads, sparkles, coins, and silver clasps.

Traditional Mari cuisine - dumplings stuffed with meat or cottage cheese, puff pancakes, cheesecakes, drinks - beer, buttermilk, strong mead. Mari families are predominantly small. The woman in the family enjoyed economic and legal independence.

IN folk art Wood carving, embroidery, patterned weaving, and birch bark weaving are practiced.

Mari music is distinguished by its richness of forms and melody. Folk instruments include: kusle (harp), shuvyr (bagpipe), tumyr (drum), shiyaltish (pipe), kovyzh (two-string violin), shushpyk (whistle). Mainly dance tunes are performed on folk instruments. Among the folklore genres, songs stand out, especially “songs of sadness,” as well as fairy tales and legends.

It's time to tell another Mari tale. If I may say so, magically musical.

One cheerful bagpiper was walking at the festival. He went on such a spree that he didn’t even make it home—the drunkenness knocked his quick legs down. He fell under a birch tree and fell asleep. So I slept until midnight.

Suddenly, through his sleep, he hears someone wakes him up: “Get up, get up, Toidemar!” The wedding is in full swing, but there is no one to play. Help me out, my dear.

The bagpiper rubbed his eyes: in front of him was a man in a rich caftan, a hat, and soft goatskin boots. And next to him is a dun stallion harnessed to a black lacquered carriage.

We sat down. The man whistled, whooped and off we went. And here is the wedding: big, rich, guests, apparently and invisible. Yes, the guests are all playful and cheerful - just play, bagpiper!

Toydemar is sweating from such a game, and asks his friend: “Give me, savush, that towel that’s hanging on the wall, I’ll wash my face in the morning.”

And the friend answers:

- Don’t take it, I’d rather give you something else.

“Why doesn’t he allow you to wipe yourself off with this? - the bagpiper thinks. - Well, I’ll try. At least I’ll wipe one eye.”

He wiped his eye - and what does he see? He sits on a stump in the middle of the swamp, and tailed and horned animals are jumping around him.

“So this is the kind of wedding I ended up at! - thinks. “We need to clean up quickly.”

“Hey, dear,” he turns to the main devil. “I need to get home before the roosters.” From the morning of the holiday in neighboring village invited.

“Don’t bother,” the devil answers. - We'll deliver it right away. You play excellently, the guests are happy, and so are the hosts. Let's go now.

The devil whistled - a trio of dun ones and a varnished carriage rolled up. This is how a drugged eye sees, but a clean eye sees something else: three black crows and a gnarled stump.

Landed and flew. Before we had time to look around, there was the house. The bagpiper came quickly at the door, and the roosters were just crowing - the tailed ones ran away.

Relatives to him:

- Where have you been?

- At the wedding.

- What kind of weddings are these days? There wasn't one in the area. You were hiding here somewhere. We were just looking out into the street, you weren’t there, and now you showed up.

— I drove up in a wheelchair.

- Well, show me!

- It’s standing on the street there.

We went outside and there was a huge spruce stump.

Since then, the Mari have said: a drunk can get home on a tree stump.

The Mari have many holidays. Like any nation with a centuries-old history. There is, for example, an ancient ritual holiday called “Sheep's Foot” (Shorykyol). It begins to be celebrated on the day of the winter solstice (from December 22) after the birth of the new moon. Why such a strange name - “Sheep's Foot”? But the fact is that during the holiday a magical action is performed: pulling the sheep by the legs. So that more sheep are born in the new year.

In the past, the Mari associated the well-being of their household and family, and changes in life, with this day. Especially great importance had the first day of the holiday. Getting up early in the morning, the whole family went out to the winter field and made small piles of snow, reminiscent of stacks and stacks of bread. They tried to make as many of them as possible, but always in odd numbers. Rye ears were stuck into the stacks, and some peasants buried pancakes in them. In the garden they shook branches and trunks of fruit trees and bushes in order to collect a rich harvest of fruits and berries in the new year.

On this day, the girls went from house to house, always went into the sheepfolds and pulled the sheep by the legs. Such actions associated with the “magic of the first day” were supposed to ensure fertility and well-being in the household and family.

A whole set of superstitions and beliefs was dedicated to the first day of the holiday. Based on the weather on the first day, they judged what spring and summer would be like, and predicted the harvest: “If the snow pile swept into Shorykyol is covered with snow, there will be a harvest.” “There will be snow in Shorykyol - there will be vegetables.”

Fortune-telling occupied a large place, and the peasants attached great importance to its implementation. Fortune telling was mainly associated with predicting fate. Girls of marriageable age wondered about marriage - whether they would get married in the new year, what kind of life awaited them in marriage. The older generation tried to find out about the future of the family, sought to determine the fertility of the harvest, how prosperous their farm would be.

An integral part of the Shorykyol holiday is the procession of mummers led by the main characters - Old Man Vasily and the Old Woman (Vasli kuva-kugyza, Shorykyol kuva-kugyza). They are perceived by the Mari as harbingers of the future, since the mummers foretell to householders a good harvest, an increase in the number of livestock in the farmstead, and a happy family life. Old Man Vasily and the Old Woman communicate with good and evil gods and can tell people that whatever the harvest is, such will be life for each person. The owners of the house try to welcome the mummers as best as possible. They are treated to beer and nuts so that there are no complaints about stinginess.

To demonstrate their skill and hard work, the Mari display their work - woven bast shoes, embroidered towels and spun threads. Having treated themselves, Old Man Vasily and his Old Woman scatter grains of rye or oats on the floor, wishing the generous host an abundance of bread. Among the mummers there are often Bear, Horse, Goose, Crane, Goat and other animals. Interestingly, in the past there were other characters depicting a soldier with an accordion, government officials and priests - a priest and a deacon.

Saved especially for the holiday hazelnuts, which are treated to mummers. Dumplings with meat are often prepared. According to custom, a coin, pieces of bast and coal are placed in some of them. Depending on who gets what while eating, they predict their fate for the year. During the holiday, some prohibitions are observed: you cannot wash clothes, sew or embroider, or do heavy work.

Ritual food plays a significant role on this day. A hearty lunch at Shorykyol should ensure food abundance for the coming year. Lamb's head is considered a mandatory dish. In addition to it, traditional drinks and foods are prepared: beer (pura) from rye malt and hops, pancakes (melna), unleavened oat bread (sherginde), cheesecakes stuffed with hemp seeds (katlama), pies with hare or bear meat (merang ale mask shil kogylyo), baked from rye or oatmeal unleavened dough “nuts” (shorykyol pyaks).

It seems to us that the expression “dance from the stove” came into the Russian language from the Mari! From the stove holiday!

The Cheremis are neither baptized nor circumcised, and thus they are pagans. They live near the city Nizhny Novgorod, in the forests on both banks of the Volga, from Vyatka and Vologda to the Kama River.

Near the town of Vasiligorod, which was built only from wood by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich and which he populated with soldiers to protect against the Crimean Tartars, located on the Volga, the Cheremis Tartars also live, located a long distance above Kazan. The Sura River flows past the mentioned city, which used to be the border between the Russian and Kazan regions.

These people are fast runners and good archers. They are also classified as Tartars, they have a special language; Previously they were under the rule of the Kazan kings.
Little grain grows in their country; it is brought there and exchanged for furs. Some Cheremis live in houses, but most live in tents or in the fields. Men leave their wives if they do not bear children within three years.

These peoples give Their Royal Majesty, as a sign of recognition, certain gifts in the form of furs.

The Cheremis do not use any other weapons except bows and arrows. They are divided into mountainous, or Pogorsky, and meadow, or meadow. They have their own language and number over 20,000 people. They are all farmers or hunters and are very fertile, although they give birth reluctantly, probably because they get together very early, for they get married already at 12–13 years of age, especially the rich ones. They make themselves bows and arrows for hunting, for which they also use dogs. Men walk around dressed like Russian peasants; they know neither the priest nor the church. They have a lot of honey and animals; most of them are pagans, but a few are Mohammedans; they use many carts and horses. They live calmly and in peace, only during the apostasy of Stenka Razin, when he was defeated and executed, a large number of them died.

They marry as close relatives as they like, do not know incest, imitating in this the inhabitants of the island of Ceylon, for the real king of this island, the son of Raja Sing, who conceived him with his eldest daughter, has now married his own sister again. This is a pious man, according to their superstitious law. They bury honey in vessels and pots in the ground: it oxidizes there - and they quickly get drunk from it. They also have beer and vodka; they love to eat cabbage and cucumbers. There are no harlots among them, and fornication among them is a crime for which they kill. They love to drink. They worship trees and idols, place animals on wooden pine poles, leave them and thus worship them. They don't have writing. They live around and near Kazan. Wine is unknown to them. They burn their dead or bury them and sometimes throw them into the water. They take two - three - four wives: as many as they can feed.

When they pronounce an oath, they place a piece of bread on the points of two sabers and put it into the mouth of the one who pronounces the oath; others drink salt water when taking the oath.

Men shave their entire head, but not their beard.

Women wear strange clothes: with wide sleeves, like the Japanese, the seams are trimmed with blue silk, wide pants, but there is no skirt on top and shoes made of tree bark; they have a wooden shovel or a wooden hat, which they attach on top and which serves them as a cap, tied to the belt: it is decorated with beads or snakes, bells, bells, and they dangle on the forehead and shoulders; they have long locks at the back; a copper or silver coin is glued to the forehead, just as women in Vyatka, the city of Their Royal Majesties, wear wide wooden hats on their heads.

There is such a peculiarity: although these Cheremis live in houses, they still do not have villages. Each one builds a home for himself in the forest, so far from the others that they cannot even call each other.

About the Cheremis, I was told the following in writing from a neighboring place:

“The settlements of the Cheremis peoples begin at Vasiligorod, a previously existing city, named after the king of the same name and built by him. They inhabit this area along both banks of the Volga, up to the city of Kazan. They live mostly in shacks, their daily food is fried game and fish. They are good archers and they encourage their children to practice archery. They are said to be an infidel, thieving and cruel people, but otherwise of good character. They are divided into Pogorsky and Meadow. The former are called mountains because they inhabit the mountainous, or high, right side of the Volga, and the latter are named after the lowlands, since they live on the left side of the Volga, in flat fields: this is a forested, tree-rich, fatty land. The former, due to lack of food, force their cattle to graze or fatten near these meadows. They speak the same language.

The pagan Cheremis have the following customs, which differ little from the customs of the Chirkassians: their children, when they are six months old, receive a name on a certain day, usually their parents. They have no written language and no organized religion. Still, the majority recognize and honor the one and immortal beneficent God, whom they sometimes call upon, but no less they worship the sun and the moon, especially the sun in spring, because thanks to its power and beneficence the earth, livestock and people experience goodness. And when they dream of some animals at night, they pray to them the next day. When someone was once asked about the beginning of the Earth, he answered: “Tsjort snai”, which means “The Devil knows”; Moreover, he was asked further if they knew the devil, and he replied that the Cheremis knew him very well: he was a spirit that could cause a lot of harm to a person, and he caused harm to the Cheremis if they did not pacify him with proper sacrifices.

Sacrifice was apparently a major part of their idolatry, as they report as follows:

“The sacrifice must take place in certain places, namely 40 versts * south of Kazan, four versts make one mile, near a swamp near the Nemda River, in which, according to them, the devil rules, and whoever comes there without a gift or sacrifice is now he’s drying up, yes, lethargy will take over him so quickly that he can barely get home. 10 versts from there there is another, famous among them, water called Shoshma, lying between two mountains. It is only two cubits deep, but it never freezes, no matter how severe the winter. Here, as they say, the devil also lives, and he is much more powerful and severe than in the mentioned place, which is why the Cheremis are very afraid of him and consider him more holy than [the one who lives with] Nemda, but sacrifices cannot be made near Shoshma, and whoever of the Cheremis comes too close to this water or steps into it will suddenly fall and die, but it does not harm strangers and Christians.

Their prey consists of oxen, cows and sheep; they cook the meat on the fire: near this fire they stretch the skin on the poles, then hold a dish with boiled meat in one hand and a bowl of honey in the other, then they say the following words: “This is what I sacrifice to God, he will deign to accept this from me and give it to me.” for this oxen, sheep (this or anything they desire). Go away, victim, and bring my request to God.” They throw the meat, the stretched skin, and the honey into the fire. When a rich man dies among them, his relatives and friends eat his best horse near the named sacrificial places and hang his clothes there.

They take as many wives at the same time as they want and can, even if these women were their relatives or sisters, whom they buy as many as they want and can support. Men's clothing is a long caftan and stockings. Being married, they shave their heads bald; unmarried people leave a bunch of hair on their heads, braiding them in several braids. Children who are most loved by their parents wear a nose ring. Women walk with their faces uncovered, but covered with coarse cloth and canvas; the rich wear stockings and outer caftans, like men, only their heads are often tied with a white scarf. The bride wears an ornament on her head, elbow-length, in the form of a horn, at the end of which hangs a multi-colored silk tassel and in the middle of it is a bell.”
The above message ends here.

They believe that after 1,000 years people will rise again, in which they apparently imitate the ancient Pythagoreans. When someone dies, he is buried according to his occupation. If it was a peasant, then several peasant things are placed above his head on the grave; if he lived by beekeeping and honey - a hive, etc. They give the dead with them in the coffin a flint so that they can make fire until the time of their Sunday, and also an ax to build a hut.

They have nothing in common with Christianity or Alkoran, except for some who are Mohammedans, and some others who, thanks to the efforts of the Muscovites, accepted Christianity. All of them are subordinate to Their Royal Majesties. They take the oath of allegiance in the following way: two swords are placed crosswise on the table, and everyone who is about to take the oath puts his head under the cross of swords and thus receives a square-shaped piece of bread from the hands of the Russian chancellor, after which he returns his head back. The meaning is that they will be faithful to the king until the sword, that is, until death, from whom they receive maintenance and bread.

"Our Father" in Cheremis language

Our Father - Memnan uziu,
like you - ilimazet
in heaven. – Kiusuiluste,
hallowed - volgusertes,
Your name is tinin liumet
let him come - tooles,
Your kingdom – Tinin Vurduschu
Thy will be done -Tininjerek jerek ilies,
yako na – kusu i
heaven – Kusiuluste,
and on the ground. – i ijulniu,
Our daily bread - memnon kedzin Kinde,
Give us in the afternoon - puske malana ikelset,
And leave it to us – i kode malana
our debts are memnon suiluk,
As we also leave – kuse me kondena
to our debtors - malano tuirulisticzy,
And don’t lead us in – i tzurty memnon
into temptation – i langoske,
but deliver us – i utura memnon
from the evil one – i Jalaez.

These Cheremis are irreconcilable enemies of the Kalmaks, as well as the Crimea.

The land writer Maginus says about the Cheremis and Mordovians that they live in dense forests, without houses, that they speak their own language and that some of them are Mohammedans, that both women and men walk quickly and shoot archery well; they eat (he says) honey and game, and rarely eat bread. They dress in hairy skins and believe (that is, those who are pagans) that people [after death] will have the same thing as animals. They sometimes sacrifice animals to God, the skins of which they stretch on sticks, and before it they perform a service, throwing a bowl of honey, which they then pour into the fire near the stretched skin; They pray for livestock and for all sorts of worldly blessings for them. They pray to the sun and moon, and honor the animals and livestock that they dreamed about at night. Their language is different from the language of other Tartars. When they bury a dead person, they hang his clothes on a tree, slaughter his horse, if he was wealthy, and eat it on the river bank. Men there wear long canvas caftans and shave their heads bald, but unmarried men wear a braid at the back, which is sometimes tied up. The women wear rough white linen clothing and their heads are tied.” This is where Maginus' message ends.

The Principality of Kassimov lies here, next door, on the Oka. The inhabitants there tend towards Tartar customs, both in language and in other respects. Women paint their fingernails black and walk bareheaded.

The clothing of the Cheremis, according to what a Persian merchant who traveled there told me, is often made of white coarse fabric, and [they also wear] Russian cloth caftans. The clothes of men and women are almost the same in appearance, so that they cannot be distinguished by their clothes, only the women have their heads uncovered and have a braid at the back, to which a horse or cow's tail is tied, which is tucked into the belt with which both men and women are girded. The girls wear a thin board, six to eight inches wide, made of white planed wood, which rises above the forehead to three spans, with a slight tilt forward. On top of this board hang small half-moons carved from wood and other things, which dangle, causing a sound when they move, and this serves as decoration and pleasure for them. They live in the forest, in separate houses. When a child is born, they plant a tree and make sure that one branch is added to it every year, thus remembering the age of the child, since they cannot read, write, or count. Under a tree, especially one planted for their daughter, they usually bury a large clay pot at the root. It is filled with some prepared drink and closed well, covered with earth on top and left closed until the child’s wedding day, when it is opened and, to amuse mutual families and relatives, they drink it. This drink is very cool and strong and causes intoxication. They do not know any crafts; they engage in shooting, fishing, hunting and do a little plowing.

They know nothing about God or Heaven, and they also do not know what the Universe is or what happens in it; they are simple-minded and bad; their whole religion consists of asking for advice and help from some priests who say they know how to cast magic and consult with the devil; they beat some drums, mutter a few words, and then announce that this or that animal is to be slaughtered—a sheep, a goat, a cow, or a horse—and that the skin is to be stretched over poles and worshiped. They ask, depending on need, for health, an increase in the number of livestock, good hunting, fishing, a good harvest, for all their expectations lie in worldly comforts and well-being, and therefore near every house one can see some stretched skin at the end of a pole, which this wretched people worship.

These people reach a very old age, and eyewitnesses told me that they saw some at the age of 130 years and talked with them.

They don't have any entertainment. These peoples are not numerous: obviously, they either moved earlier or died out. In their localities there is often not a single house within 10 miles. The houses are all the same type and bad. The most important thing in household utensils is the boiler.

They hunt with dogs, but shoot game and fish with blunt arrows; besides this, they have poorly made nets with which they catch them. They carry a bow and arrow, but have no firearms at all; they move from place to place on foot.

In appearance they are not at all beautiful, but ugly, but not as flat-faced as Samoyeds: in appearance they are a cross between Samoyeds and other people.
To transport goods or cargo, they use reindeer with sleighs in winter and carts in summer.
These parts contain some of the heaviest pine trees you can find anywhere.”
Here ends the account of the mentioned Persian traveler.

N. Witsen “Northern and Eastern Tartaria, including areas located in the northern and eastern parts of Europe and Asia,” 1692

The Mari ethnic group was formed on the basis of the Finno-Ugric tribes that lived in the Volga-Vyatka interfluve in the 1st millennium AD. e. as a result of contacts with the Bulgars and other Turkic-speaking peoples, the ancestors of modern Tatars.

Russians used to call the Mari Cheremis. The Mari are divided into three main subethnic groups: mountain, meadow and eastern Mari. Since the 15th century the mountain Mari fell under Russian influence. Meadow Mari, who were part of the Kazan Khanate, for a long time put up fierce resistance to the Russians during the Kazan campaign of 1551-1552. they sided with the Tatars. Some of the Mari moved to Bashkiria, not wanting to be baptized (eastern), the rest were baptized in the 16th-18th centuries.

In 1920, the Mari Autonomous Region was created, in 1936 - the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in 1992 - the Republic of Mari El. Currently, the mountain Mari inhabit the right bank of the Volga, the meadow Mari live in the Vetluzh-Vyatka interfluve, and the eastern Mari live east of the river. Vyatka is mainly in the territory of Bashkiria. Most Mari live in the Republic of Mari El, about a quarter live in Bashkiria, the rest live in Tataria, Udmurtia, Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Sverdlovsk, and Perm regions. According to the 2002 census, more than 604 thousand Mari lived in the Russian Federation.

The basis of the Mari economy was arable farming. They have long grown rye, oats, barley, millet, buckwheat, hemp, flax, and turnips. Vegetable gardening was also developed; mainly onions, cabbage, radishes, carrots, and hops were planted; from the 19th century. Potatoes have become widespread.

The Mari cultivated the soil with a plow (shaga), a hoe (katman), and a Tatar plow (saban). Cattle breeding was not very developed, as evidenced by the fact that there was only enough manure for 3-10% of the arable land. If possible, they kept horses, cattle, and sheep. By 1917, 38.7% of Mari farms were uncultivated; a large role was played by beekeeping (then apiary beekeeping), fishing, as well as hunting and various forestry trades: tar smoking, logging and rafting, and hunting.

During the hunt, the Mari up to mid-19th V. They used bows, spears, wooden traps, and flintlock guns. Okhodnik work at woodworking enterprises was developed on a large scale. Among the crafts, the Mari were engaged in embroidery, wood carving, and the production of women's clothing. silver jewelry. The main means of transportation in summer were four-wheeled carts (oryava), tarantasses and wagons, in winter - sleighs, firewood and skis.

In the second half of the 19th century. Mari settlements were of the street type; the dwelling was a log hut with a gable roof, built according to the Great Russian scheme: hut-canopy, hut-canopy-hut or hut-canopy-cage. The house had a Russian stove and a kitchen separated by a partition.

There were benches along the front and side walls of the house, in the front corner there was a table and chair especially for the owner of the house, shelves for icons and dishes, and on the side of the door there was a bed or bunk. In the summer, the Mari could live in a summer house, which was a log building without a ceiling with a gable or pitched roof and an earthen floor. There was a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape. A summer kitchen was set up here. A fireplace with a hanging boiler was placed in the middle of the building. The outbuildings of an ordinary Mari estate included a cage, a cellar, a barn, a barn, a chicken coop, and a bathhouse. Wealthy Mari built two-story storerooms with a gallery-balcony. Food was stored on the first floor, and utensils were stored on the second.

The traditional dishes of the Mari were soup with dumplings, dumplings with meat or cottage cheese, boiled lard or blood sausage with cereal, dried horse meat sausage, puff pancakes, cheesecakes, boiled flat cakes, baked flat cakes, dumplings, pies with fillings of fish, eggs, potatoes , hemp seed. The Mari prepared their bread unleavened. The national cuisine is also characterized by specific dishes made from the meat of squirrel, hawk, eagle owl, hedgehog, grass snake, viper, dried fish flour, and hemp seed. Among the drinks, the Mari preferred beer, buttermilk (eran), and mead; they knew how to distill vodka from potatoes and grain.

The traditional clothing of the Mari is a tunic-shaped shirt, trousers, an open summer caftan, a hemp canvas waist towel, and a belt. In ancient times, the Mari sewed clothes from homespun linen and hemp fabrics, then from purchased fabrics.

Men wore felt hats with small brims and caps; For hunting and working in the forest, they used a headdress like a mosquito net. On their feet they wore bast shoes, leather boots, and felt boots. To work in swampy areas, wooden platforms were attached to shoes. The distinctive features of the women's national costume were an apron, waist pendants, chest, neck, and ear jewelry made of beads, cowrie shells, sparkles, coins, silver clasps, bracelets, and rings.

Married women wore various headdresses:

• shymaksh - a cone-shaped cap with an occipital blade, put on a birch bark frame;
• magpie, borrowed from the Russians;
• tarpan - head towel with headband.

Until the 19th century. The most common women's headdress was the shurka, a tall headdress on a birch bark frame, reminiscent of Mordovian headdresses. Outerwear was straight and gathered kaftans made of black or white cloth and fur coats. Traditional types of clothing are still worn today by the older generation of Mari; national costumes are often used in wedding rituals. Currently, modernized types of national clothing are widespread - a shirt made of white and an apron made of multi-colored fabric, decorated with embroidery and mites, belts woven from multi-colored threads, caftans made of black and green fabric.

Mari communities consisted of several villages. At the same time, there were mixed Mari-Russian and Mari-Chuvash communities. The Mari lived predominantly in small monogamous families; large families were quite rare.

In the old days, the Mari had small (urmat) and larger (nasyl) clan divisions, the latter being part of the rural community (mer). Upon marriage, the bride's parents were paid a ransom, and they gave a dowry (including livestock) for their daughter. The bride was often older than the groom. Everyone was invited to the wedding, and it took on the character of a general holiday. Wedding rituals still contain traditional features of the ancient customs of the Mari: songs, national costumes with decorations, a wedding train, the presence of everyone.

The Mari had a highly developed ethnoscience, based on ideas about cosmic life force, the will of the gods, corruption, the evil eye, evil spirits, and the souls of the dead. Before the adoption of Christianity, the Mari adhered to the cult of ancestors and gods: the supreme god Kugu Yumo, the gods of the sky, the mother of life, the mother of water and others. An echo of these beliefs was the custom of burying the dead in winter clothes (with a winter hat and mittens) and taking the bodies to the cemetery in sleighs even in the summer.

According to tradition, nails collected during life, rosehip branches, and a piece of canvas were buried along with the deceased. The Mari believed that in the next world nails would be needed to overcome mountains, clinging to rocks, rose hips would help drive away the snake and dog guarding the entrance to kingdom of the dead, and along a piece of canvas, like on a bridge, the souls of the dead will cross into the afterlife.

In ancient times, the Mari were pagans. Christian faith they accepted in the 16th-18th centuries, but despite all the efforts of the church, the religious views of the Mari remained syncretic: a small part of the Eastern Mari converted to Islam, and the rest remain faithful to pagan rites to this day.

Mari mythology is characterized by the presence of a large number of female gods. There are at least 14 deities denoting mother (ava), which indicates strong remnants of matriarchy. The Mari performed pagan collective prayers in sacred groves under the guidance of priests (cards). In 1870, a modernist-pagan sect, Kugu Sorta, arose among the Mari. Until the beginning of the twentieth century. Ancient customs were strong among the Mari, for example, when divorcing, a husband and wife who wanted to divorce were first tied with a rope, which was then cut. This was the whole ritual of divorce.

In recent years, the Mari have been making attempts to revive ancient national traditions and customs, uniting in public organizations. The largest of them are “Oshmari-Chimari”, “Mari Ushem”, and the Kugu Sorta (Big Candle) sect.

The Mari speak the Mari language of the Finno-Ugric group of the Uralic family. The Mari language is divided into mountain, meadow, eastern and northwestern dialects. The first attempts to create writing were made in the middle of the 16th century; in 1775, the first grammar in Cyrillic was published. In 1932-34. an attempt was made to switch to the Latin script. Since 1938, a unified graphics in the Cyrillic alphabet has been established. Literary language based on the language of the meadow and mountain Mari.

Mari folklore is characterized mainly by fairy tales and songs. There is no single epic. Musical instruments represented by a drum, a harp, a flute, a wooden pipe (puch) and some others.