Russian folk art ... What is its value?

Throughout life, we are surrounded by different objects and things. These are clothes, dishes, furniture ... They represent our second, man-made nature, reflecting the level of social development that influences spirituality. Therefore it is of great importance with what toys our children play and what things serve us in everyday life. In the old days, people surrounded themselves with objects that today seem to us as Russian folk art - this is a flower-embroidered towel, colorful nested dolls, woven bright kerchiefs, decorated with ornaments wooden and earthenware sewn from cloth dolls.

Today we are surrounded by household items manufactured on the conveyor belt. We do not cut out the kitchen cutting board as a gift to our mother and do not decorate it with scorched ornament, do not embroider towels, do not knit socks, because all this can be bought ready, beautiful and new. But for some reason our spirituality is sad and joyless. We do not sing to the children of songs before going to bed and increasingly suffer from depression, having forgotten how to create and make for the sake of the joy of their loved ones. But at the same time we vaguely remember that once Russian oral folk art was the basis of education of the younger generation.

Today we earn money. Returning from work, at the same time we buy food. We come home and hurry to turn on the TV. It seems all right, but some kind of emptiness depresses us. We lack spirituality and aesthetics in life, therefore handmade crafts again become very fashionable in all developed countries. The higher the level of human development, the more expensive our Russian folk art is.
Foreigners go to Russia to get acquainted with the decorative and applied riches of our people. Pottery, lace, Khokhloma, Palekh, painted caskets and written eggs are just a small list of the wealth that Russian folk art represents - man-made, cheerful, with a colorful character. Nature itself chose all the best from these nuggets and preserved for centuries, passing on to us unique traditions.

Even hand-crafted hand-made articles, drawings on lubke or birch bark have amazing power and convey a miraculous sense of beauty, because unknown masters performed these objects with love in order to please their relatives and decorate their hard life in a severe northern country.

Russian folk art gives us the images formed by the worldview of people. Even having peeked somewhere a story for his product, the master adds his vision and soul to it. For example, noblemen began to decorate their palaces with lions in the 18th century, and Nizhny Novgorod wood carvers peeped at the appearance of these wonderful animals and decorated their huts by cutting out on the wooden shutters and window-sills very good-natured lions reminiscent of the mugs of domestic cats.

Is this not a confirmation of the rule that Russian folk art does not copy anything? It is always a separate and unique art, having roots in antiquity. By creating, our Russian people believed in good forces and coaxed them. So, embroidering a towel or a lower shirt, the woman portrayed birds of paradise amidst bright colors. According to popular belief, when this bird sings, people for many years live in happiness and grief they do not know. Sitting behind embroidery or behind a weaving loom, the woman sang heartfelt songs, drawing in the house good and happiness.