СARVERS OF GINGERBREAD BOARDS: TRADITIONS OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

Abstract

This article is devoted to the traditions and features of the craft of gingerbread boards' carvers of Tver. As known, the history of the emergence and the development of the printed gingerbread is inextricably linked with the folk cultural tradition. From the first steps, the gingerbread started to be actively introduced into the folk ritual practice, not only in the calendar agrarian ritual zone, but also in the family household ritual circle, often replacing other forms of ceremonial baking. The whole process of making gingerbread was sacred, including the manufacture of a carved board, the preparation of the gingerbread and its functioning in the ceremony. That is what explains the high status of the printed gingerbread, which it acquired in the social life of our compatriots, although its meanings have partly changed nowadays. The importance of making a gingerbread board was due not only to the sacred nature and patterns that the carver applied, but also to the price of work and material. However, the value of gingerbread was provided primarily by the magical role of dough ingredients, such as flour (obtained from grain), honey, floral spices, but at the same time it was largely determined by the cost of gingerbread. Unfortunately, the cultural zones of the folk gingerbread tradition are poorly and unevenly understood. One of the little-studied pages in the history of printed gingerbread is the work of masters-carvers of gingerbread boards, who largely determined the plan for expressing the mythological and poetic sacred meanings of the traditional gingerbread.