Mordovian national costume

Mordva is one of the peoples of the Finno-Ugric group that originally lived in central Russia and the Volga region. The history of this people left an imprint on all spheres of life, and clothing was no exception.

The originality of this people was reflected in the creation of the Mordovian costume. The Mordovian costume, especially the female one, is very colorful. Some historians consider the creation of this type of costumes to be the pinnacle of needlework for Mordovian women.

As a rule, Mordovian craftsmen made fabrics for sewing clothes on their own. For shirts, they wove a strong dense fabric, for outerwear they produced broadcloth and woolen fabrics. Despite the fact that the national dress was divided into two types, characteristic of two ethnic groups - Erzi and Moksha - it had many common features.

These include :

• the main canvas for sewing, woven of white linen or hemp;
• the shirt and outerwear were straight cut;
• compulsory embroidery on individual elements with woolen threads. The embroidery was most often red, dark blue, or black;
• beads, coins and shells were used as decoration;
• bast shoes were woven from bast;
• to give the legs massiveness and evenness, they were additionally wrapped with onuchi.

The Mordovian costume is incredibly beautiful due to the large number of additional elements, rich embroidery. Considering various finishing options, one never ceases to be amazed and admire the imagination of the craftswomen, their harmoniously developed taste.

The women's national costume stands out especially.

This is one of the few types of national clothing that a woman could not completely put on herself, but always resorted to the help of craftswomen. Sometimes the process of vesting took up to two hours!

The main part of a woman's costume is a panar (shirt) made of white linen, decorated with hand embroidery. By the nature of the embroidery, ornament, color, it was easy to identify a woman's belonging to a particular ethnic group. The shirt did not have a collar and looked very much like a tunic. This part of the costume was worn by both ethnic groups: the Erzi and the Moksha.

The Moksha woman's shirt was girded with a special belt - a frame. Decorated it with fluffy tassels. The Moksha's shirt was usually shorter than that of the Erzi, so they put on trousers - poksty.

Instead of a frame, Erzya used a complex decoration like a belt - a pulai. By the way the pulai was decorated, one could find out about the wealth of a woman, about her belonging to a certain genus. Wealthy Mordovian women generously decorated the belt with shells, beads, sewed on beads, coins, sparkles. As a result, the weight of the belt could reach 6 kilograms.

There were two types of pulai decoration. The right side has been 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 a kafton-krda.

The outer clothing of the Mordovians was made of canvas and decorated with embroidery and ribbons. Erzya called it rutsya and was used only on special occasions. Moksha wore outerwear (muskas) every day.

Jewelry was of great importance in folk costume. Thanks to jewelry, a woman could express her mood, emphasize her status. What was the peculiarity of the jewelry?

• a wide variety of temple pendants, decorated with stones, bird feathers, beads.
• young girls adorned their foreheads with a fringed fabric strip. Fringe was most often made from drake feathers.
• hair was decorated with braids, which were woven from beads.
• circles were cut out of cardboard or birch bark, they were covered with bright fabric and either embroidered or decorated with beads. Such circles were sewn to the headdress above the ears.
• breast ornaments delight with their variety. It could be beads or necklaces with bugles. Bibs made of leather or fabric strips were very popular among Moksha. Bibs were decorated with embroidery, buttons, shells, ribbons.

The headdresses of the Mordovians were different for married and unmarried women. The girls wore a narrow bandage made of embroidered cloth and beaded cardboard. Married women wore different headdresses. The main rule is that the dress had to completely hide the woman's hair.

Compared to women's clothing, men's clothing did not differ in such colorfulness and variety of elements.

Great importance was attached to the sash. 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 attaching to a belt. Special attention was paid to the decoration of the belt. Stones, intricate patterns, metal inserts were an integral part of the sash of a Mordovian man.

In the summer, men complemented their suit with another white shirt. Moksha was called Mushkas, and Erzya was called Rutsya. In the autumn-spring period, they complemented their clothes with a cloth coat with folds in the back at the waist. Also in everyday life there was a chapan - a swing caftan with a wide scent and long sleeves. Long sheepskin coats were worn in winter.

Both women and men were shod in bast shoes. The best material was elm or linden. On solemn occasions, the Mordovians used boots made of calf or cow skin. The boots had a sharp-toed shape and a folded bootleg. Like the Russians, the Mordovians used felt felt boots in winter.

Before putting on shoes, feet were wrapped with footcloths. Usually there were two pairs: the upper for the calves and blue for the feet. In the cold season, woolen onuches were often used over footcloths. Smooth and thick legs, wrapped in onuchi, spoke of the good taste of the hostess.

The children's costume of the Mordovians was not much different from the adult. Only in the version for the girl had much fewer layers and decorations.

Currently, the Mordovian national costume can be found quite rarely. It is no longer used in everyday life. Some elements can be found in villages among the elderly population. Complete sets with all possible decorations are presented only in houses of folk art or local history museums in Mordovia, reminding the modern generation of the skill of ancient craftswomen.