Have you ever thought about origins of gestures? According to numerous research, people receive most information thanks to gestures and facial expression. Every nation has their own national gestures. In this article, we are going to tell you about Russian national gestures and their origins.
Originally, this gesture was supposed to be the improvisation of an oath. According to one hypothesis, in the past Russians used this expressive gesture to display a cross on their chest and to demonstrate their loyalty to the Orthodox faith. It is also known that during executions or corporal punishment, the executioners tore the tops of the person’s shirt. Therefore, voluntarily tearing your clothes indicated a willingness to ascend the scaffold in the name of truth.
A Russian person scratches his head if he is thinking about something. According to one version, the gesture comes from folk magic: this is the way our ancestors summoned the help of a forefather.
This gesture is also very expressive. When a person threw his hat on the ground, he articulated a really desperate decision. For a Russian man, his hat was a symbol of his dignity and integration into society. If a person took off his hat in public, it was considered to be shameful. When a person took off his hat and threw it on the ground voluntarily, he was demonstrating a willingness to take an insane risk in which the price for failure would have been expulsion from society.
When a person beat his chest, this way he demonstrated his loyalty, repentance, or he tried to convince someone in something. The gesture originated in the time of nomads and integrated in Russian culture thanks to the Tatar-Mongols who came to Russia. In religion, the chest was a symbol of humility, sorrow, repentance, and punishment.
In modern Russian culture flicking a finger on the neck is interpreted as an invitation for a drink. There are a lot of versions of the origin of this gesture. It is believed, that in the 15th century Russian Tsar wanted to reward a talented craftsman and asked him what he had wanted to receive as a reward. The craftsman asked for the right to have a free drink in any pub. So, he received a tattoo on his neck which confirmed his right for a free drink. The gesture confirmed “the document”.
This gesture is common across many cultures. Russians most likely picked it up from German travelers who used it as a vulgar gesture in an attempt to seduce Russian girls. In Russian tradition, the gesture was transformed into a symbol of absolute and final refusal. Eventually, it became a means of defense against evil spirits.
Now you know some facts about the most common Russian gestures and their origins.
As it seems to us, Daugavpils is the best place to learn Russian now, because our city is situated in the EU and NATO, but at the same time 90% of the city’s population speak Russian at home.
Etude on Dvinsk by F.Fedorov
The Baltic region is one of the most catastrophe prone regions of the 2nd millennium, especially its second part; it is the centre of attraction of ‘geopolitical’ interests of the European world. Probably the most tragic fate has befallen to the eastern part of the present Latvia and its multi-titled town of Dinaburg – Dvinsk – Daugavpils. During its 730 years long history, the town went through five rather autonomous periods of development, five different lives (German, Polish, Russian, Latvian, Soviet), and at the beginning of the 1990s it entered into the 6th period.
The history of Dinaburg – Dvinsk – Daugavpils is the history of five attempts by the town to begin its life anew; and this is determined not only by the fact that the town was four times burned down and had to start life from scratch, but first and foremost because each of these periods was characterized by a total change of ethnos and the socio-cultural field.
The present article deals with the cultural space of the town in one of the most efficient periods of its development – from the 1860s till World War I.