Mordva is one of the ethnic groups of the Finno-Ugric group that originally lived in central Russia and the Volga region. The history of this people has left its mark on all spheres of life, clothes are no exception.
The Mordovian national costume appeared at the dawn of the development of this nation among the peasant population, and was endowed with some characteristic features, such as specific cuts, special fabrics, and specially selected jewelry.
The originality of this people was reflected in the creation of the Mordovian costume. Mordovian costume, especially women's, is very colorful. Some historians consider the creation of this type of costume to be the peak of the craft of Mordovian women.
As a rule, Mordovian craftsmen made fabrics for sewing clothes on their own. For shirts, they wove a strong dense cloth, for outerwear they produced cloth and woolen fabrics. Despite the fact that the national clothes were divided into two types, characteristic of two ethnic groups - Erzi and Moksha - she had many unifying features.
These include :
- the main canvas for sewing, woven from linen or hemp white;
- the shirt and outerwear had a straight cut;
- Mandatory embroidery on individual elements with woolen threads. Embroidery was most often red, dark blue or black;
- as decoration used beads, coins and shells;
- bast shoes were woven from a bast;
- to give the legs massiveness and evenness, they were additionally wrapped in onuchi.
It is worth noting that due to the fact that the costume was created by the peasant estate, it is very comfortable in everyday life. All parts had a certain functionality.And the parts that served as decoration could be removed or put on, depending on the situation.
Mordovian costume is incredibly beautiful due to the large number of additional elements, rich embroidery. Considering the various finishes, you never cease to be surprised and admire the fantasy of the craftswomen, their harmoniously developed taste.
Women's national costume
The women's national costume stands out especially.
This is one of the few types of national clothing that a woman could not completely wear herself, but she necessarily resorted to the help of craftswomen. Sometimes the vestment process reached two hours!
The outfit of Moksha women was more colorful and multicolored than the Erzya.
The main part of the women's costume is a panar (shirt), sewn from a white canvas, decorated with hand embroidery. By the nature of embroidery, ornament, color, it was easy to identify a woman's belonging to a particular ethnic group. The shirt had no collar and looked very much like a tunic. Both ethnic groups had this part of the costume: both the Erzi and the Moksha.
The shirt of a woman-moksha was belted with a special belt - a frame. Decorated with fluffy tassels. The Moksha shirt was usually shorter than the Erzi shirt, so they pulled off the Poksta pants.
Moksha used special towels as a shirt decoration - keska rutsat, their number reached six pieces.
Instead of the Erzya frame, they used a complex decoration like a belt - a bullet. By the way the bullet is decorated, one could find out about the wealth of the woman, about her belonging to a certain genus. Rich Mordovian women generously decorated the belt with shells, beads, sewed beads, coins, sparkles. As a result, the weight of the belt could reach 6 kilograms.
An interesting fact is that every Erzya girl should have made such a belt by her majority. And then throughout his life he was her integral companion. A Mordovian woman was required to appear among men only with a bullet.
There were two types of bullet decoration. The right side was decorated with embroidery. Then, almost to the knees, a fringe was sewn, most often black, but on holidays they replaced it with blue or green.
On top of the panar, women wore a semblance of a dress - a sundress or kafton-krda.
They also often wore long, almost knee-length tank tops of black color, which had numerous folds on their backs.
The outer clothing of the Mordovians was made of canvas and was decorated with embroidery and ribbons. The Erzya called it Rutsya and was used only in solemn occasions. Moksha wore outerwear (mushkas) daily.
Of great importance in the folk costume was given to jewelry. Thanks to jewelry, a woman could express her mood, emphasize her status. What was the feature of the jewelry?
- a wide variety of temporal pendants decorated with stones, bird feathers, beads.
- young girls decorated their forehead with a fringed fabric strip. Fringes were most often made from drake feathers.
- the hair was adorned with nakosami, which were braided from beads.
- circles were cut out of cardboard or birch bark, they were covered with bright cloth and either embroidered or decorated with beads. Such circles were sewn to the headdress over the ears.
- Breast jewelry delight in its diversity. It could be beads and necklaces with bugles. Bibs made of leather or fabric strips were very popular with moksha. The bibs were decorated with embroidery, buttons, shells, ribbons.
Mordovian hats were different for married and unmarried women. The girls used a narrow bandage of embroidered fabric and beaded cardboard. Married women had different hats. The main rule is that the dress should completely hide the woman's hair.
Erzyanki preferred tall cone-shaped or cylindrical pangos, while moksha wore trapezoidal caps. Also used head towels or shawls.Traditionally, women did not spare jewelry so that their clothes were different in beauty and variety.
Men's national costume
Compared to women’s, men's clothing was not so colorful and varied.
Mordovian men in many ways had clothes similar to Russian men. Hemp shirt (panar) and pants (ponkst) were the basis of the Mordovian costume. For special occasions, a more elegant shirt made of thin linen was worn. Panar was never tucked into his pants, but worn over a ponkst, belted with a sash belt.
Kushak attached great importance. It was made of cowhide, and a buckle made of iron, bronze or silver was used as decoration. The buckle could be ring-shaped or solid with a special shield for fastening to a belt. Belt decoration was given special attention. Stones, complex patterns, metal inserts were an integral part of the sash of a Mordovian man.
The belt was also used to attach weapons or other equipment.
In the summer, men complemented their suit with another white shirt. Moksha was called Mushkas, and Erzya - Rutsya. In the autumn-spring period they supplemented their clothes with a cloth coat with folds at the back at the waist. Also in use was a chapan - a swinging caftan, which has a wide smell and long sleeves. In winter, sheepskin coats of great length were worn.
As a headdress, men used felt hats with short brim. Sun-dried hats eventually replaced the traditional cap. In summer, they were saved from the sun in cotton caps, and in winter they were warmed with a cap with earflaps.
Footwear
Both women and men were shod in bast shoes. The best material was elm or linden. In solemn cases, the Mordvinians used boots made of calf or cow leather. The boots had an pointed shape and a folded top. Like Russians, in winter Mordovians used felt felt boots.
Before putting on shoes, legs wrapped in footcloths. Usually there were two pairs: upper for calves and blue for feet. In the cold season, cloth onuchs were often used on top of footcloths. Smooth and thick legs wrapped in onuchs spoke of the good taste of the hostess.
Children's national costume
Mordovian children's costume was not much different from an adult. Only in the version for the girl had much fewer layers and decorations.
Modern models
Currently, the Mordovian national costume can be found quite rarely. In everyday life, they no longer use it. Some elements can be found in villages among the elderly. Complete sets with all possible decorations are presented only in the houses of folk art or local history museums of Mordovia, reminding the modern generation of the skillfulness of ancient craftswomen.
