In the darkest corner of the attic, there is an old chest with children's toys - real treasures from the mid-nineties. There is a brown GAZ Chaika, a blue bus, a train, a model doll, a lot of once brightly colored dishes, a water tower, Tetris, and a rainbow spring. The total deficit was a thing of the past, and the capital's Detsky Mir had a fairly decent assortment of domestically produced toys and coveted imports
I dive into this "toy sea" and somewhere in the depths of the chest I pull out a wooden horse, a little more searching and I find a spoon carved from an old pear. And finally I find it-a triskach or, as they say, a derkach or a vertushka. This wooden musical instrument is known to different peoples of the world. It looks like a flag and consists of a handle (the flagpole), a wooden box (the flag cloth), and a wheel with teeth. Holding the handle, we rotate the box around it, and the teeth of the wheel make a cracking sound. I remember that for us kids, these were our favorite toys carved out of wood by our grandfather. We were fascinated to watch the magical process of how an ordinary piece of wood was transformed into a shape that also made sounds. We were allowed to play with the rattles only in the summer in the village on the street. They were probably quite loud for a city apartment
My grandfather loved to look at our modern toys and tell us what he used to play with as a child. He always called the ball "opuka" and said that when he was a kid, he used to collect bundles of cow hair with his friends in the pasture. Then all the collected wool had to be rolled into a large elastic ball. And from morning to evening, he would play with the ball, keeping an eye on the herd
Memory has turned all the factory toys into one bright spot, and the ones made by my grandfather remain in my memories as three-dimensional, sonorous, and full of emotion. What is the secret of these old Ukrainian toys?
Sacredness and protective function as the primary basis of toys
Archaeologists find the oldest toys, amusements, prizes, and trinkets in the settlements of the Mizyn culture (about 25,000 years old) and the Trypillian culture (5-6,000 years old). These were mostly clay figures depicting animals, birds, household items, and female images of guardians. There are scratched patterns on them - circles, wavy lines, rhombuses. In some places there are remnants of natural paint. All these images were amulets and were meant to protect an adult and a child.
Motanky are interesting ritual dolls that originally served as sacred amulets. It was believed that the spirit of the clan lived in the motanka, helping and protecting it. These dolls were made from scraps of fabric and thread without using a needle or scissors (so as not to pierce or cut off the fate). Motanky always have an "empty" face. Our ancestors believed that a dark spirit could enter the doll through the face or that the soul of a particular living person could be attached to it. Mostly, the faces of motanka dolls depicted a cross with colored threads, a symbol of the sun. Motanka dolls were created for various ceremonial and calendar holidays. Couples were presented with paired motanka dolls for their wedding, designed to protect the new family. A young wife was given a motanka with a baby so that she would get pregnant and give birth to a healthy child. The mother would make a motanka amulet for the baby. There were dolls filled with different grains to attract a good harvest and prosperity.
At a certain stage of our history, the motanka doll turned from a purely amulet to a toy, while retaining its primary function. Mothers began to give the dolls to children who were sick, so that the motanka would absorb the disease. After recovery, the doll was burned along with the disease that had passed into it. Over time, they began to make a separate type of motanka doll as a common toy for children
We should also mention dolls made of straw, dried grass, and flowers. They were made seasonally, when the material was plentiful. Such dolls were used in rituals dedicated to honoring the sun, to increase the harvest and protect against the evil eye. Most of the straw toys for children's amusement were made and are still made today in Volyn and Podillia. Straw dolls resembling people and various animals, such as horses, bulls, and deerwere created from straw
In areas where there were a lot of water bodies, willow grew well and was also used to make children's toys. Actually, dolls made of wicker are almost never found, instead, small wicker toys prevail - baskets, various interior and household items
The birds made of dough - larks - had a sacred meaning. These are not classic toys that are played with all the time, but ceremonial ones. In the spring, women would bake larks and give them to their children, so that they would sing spring songs and call the birds home from the wilderness. In winter, they baked gingerbread in the shape of roosters and horses for Christmas.
Ukrainians have an interesting type of toy: cheese figures of horses, lambs, and other animals. They are still popular in the Carpathian region. To create such a figurine, you need to throw a special starter and fermented sheep, goat, or cow cheese into boiling water. Form animal figures from the soft, plastic mass and quickly dip them into the salt solution. The richer the solution, the stronger the toy. Then the finished figures are decorated with "cheese thread" or painted. Cheese animals also have a ceremonial significance: relatives give them to each other on ancestor's remembrance days in spring and autumn. In some places, a large cheese lamb is placed on the graves of shepherds.
The beliefs of the peoples who lived on the territory of modern Ukraine for thousands of years endowed not only everyday objects but also children's toys with special meanings. But was it only the sacred function that was at the heart of children's play?
Reflection of everyday life in toys. Socialization of children
Children in all cultures imitate adults, their actions and lifestyles. Since ancient times, toys have had not only a protective but also an educational and social function. Many toys were miniature representations of household items and tools. Dolls resembled people of a particular profession or social status. In their games, children could recreate the lives of adults and learn to live in a world unknown to them.
The materials used to make children's toys were very diverse and depended on the natural conditions of the region and the peculiarities of the landscape: clay, wood, straw, vine, cheese, canvas, dough, vegetables, flowers, and hay. It is known that babies played with dried poppy seeds. Another type of toy for the youngest was a rattle made from the trachea of a goose or duck filled with various cereals: wheat, corn, millet, and peas. Such a toy was painted and hung by a string over the cradle.
Children always like the various sounds that are created by toys. From the time of Trypillian culture to the present day, whistles have been popular. Clay figures of animals and birds with a hollow body. Wooden toys that created sound are flutes, woodpeckers, and turntables
Initially, toys were made by parents and close relatives. With the development of fairs in the second half of the 18th century, craftsmen began to make and sell children's toys. Toy production reached its heyday in the mid-19th century. Each region formed its own centers of various toys
In Podillia, Pidniprovia, and Prykarpattia, wooden toys made of pear, apple, willow, aspen, and linden were the most popular. They were carved and turned from a solid piece of wood, including toy dishes, tools and other household items, animal and bird figures, and toy weapons. By the way, small wooden swords and sabers were found during excavations of the Kyivan Rus and Cossack periods. This shows that in wartime children imitated adults and learned to use toy weapons. Movable wooden toys were also popular, such as carts, terns, birds pecking at grain, mills, horses on wheels and rocking horses, and movable figures of blacksmiths in pairs. Yavoriv wooden toys are still popular today, including toy furniture, musical instruments, horses and riders, and many other products. The main feature and value of the Yavoriv toy is its painting. It is made in traditional colors - yellow, green and red. It has two main elements of the design: a circle (in the form of a flower or the sun) and a verbivka (a branch with leaves). People started painting these toys in the 20s of the 20th century
Volyn and Polissya were famous for toys made of fabric and various natural materials such as cattails, straw, corn husks, etc.
Clay toys were made in well-known centers of Ukrainian pottery: Kyiv region (Vasylkiv, Dybyntsi), Podillia (Bar, Bubnivka, Adamivka), Poltava region (Opishnia), Ivano-Frankivsk region (Kosiv), Chernihiv region (Ichnia), Cherkasy region (Hromy), Lviv region (Mykolaiv, Stara Sil), Kharkiv region (Valky), Kirovohrad region (Tsvitna), Ternopil region (Vyshnivets, Honcharivka). Interesting are the "coins" or "driki" - miniature figures of household items. At fairs in the 19th century, they cost one kopek and got their name from there
In the 21st century, humanity is increasingly striving to bring nature back into its own life or itself back to nature. This is reflected in everyday habits, care for the environment, worldview, and children's toys. Craftsmen who create craft toys from natural materials are reappearing. There are those who have inherited knowledge from older relatives and continue the family business. Others attend workshops and art studios where they learn a new craft
It is logical that in the age of digital technology and artificial intelligence, toys should be appropriate, because children learn about the world through them. But despite all the achievements of civilization, there is something original and elusive about toys made of natural materials. They carry the warmth of the sun, the purity of water, the passion of fire, the love and skill of those who create them. Such toys become not just fun, but a real code of the people, which a child unconsciously reads when playing with a wooden horse, clay whistle or a brightly colored rag doll
Prepared by Olena Koval
Sources used
https://nibu.kyiv.ua/exhibitions/562/
https://vseosvita.ua/library/prezentacia-ukrainska-narodna-igraska-sire-zoloto-svitu-196625.html
https://vseosvita.ua/blogs/ukrainska-narodna-dytiacha-ihrashka-57010.html
https://ocnt.com.ua/tradycziyi-narodnoyi-ukrayinskoyi-igrashky/
Photo/figure references: all images are from online sources.
