There is a widespread opinion on the Internet that now the well-known expression is misunderstood - supposedly our ancestors meant that the first pancake baked on Maslenitsa had to be taken to “who,” that is, to the bear. We checked whether this is actually true.
Every year, on the eve of Maslenitsa, many publications appear telling about the “real” origin of the well-known saying. The main thesis of such texts is the same: you need to say not “kom”, but “koma” - this is how in the old days they called bears whose hibernation ended just during Maslenitsa, and our ancestors fed the animals with pancakes. Hence the supposedly “original” name of the holiday - Komoeditsa. Some even conclude from this that the words “coma” and “comatose” also come from an old Russian word meaning “bear”. Sometimes the authors of such publications also claim that the proverb has come down to us in an abbreviated form: in full it supposedly sounds like “the first pancake is for the people, the second is for acquaintances, the third is for distant relatives, and the fourth is for me.” Texts with such content are especially loved by regional publications, for example in Rostov, Penza And Tomsk areas, as well as in Yamal. Similar explanations can be found on the website of the bookstore chain "Read-city" and companies Bonduelle.
First, you need to figure out whether in the old days the saying “the first pancake is lumpy” was written differently and, therefore, could have had a different meaning. One of the most famous pre-revolutionary collections of proverbs and sayings was compiled by Vladimir Dal, the author of the famous dictionary. In his work “Proverbs of the Russian People,” published in 1862, he leads such a formulation: “The first damn thing, but it’s lumpy.” This expression was used in a similar form before: for example, Pushkin in a letter to Vyazemsky in 1831 reported: “Yakovlev publishes the almanac “Blin” for Maslenitsa. It’s a pity if his first pancake is lumpy.” As we can see, for at least 200 years the phrase has not been connected in any way with bears. However, the supposedly “full” version of the saying is even younger - for the first time these words sounded in the song from the 1972 film “Here is My Village.” The words of this composition are in no way connected with Maslenitsa or bears.
However, Maslenitsa is an ancient holiday, and a horizon of two centuries is unlikely to be enough to dissuade the supporters of this linguistic assumption. Let us turn to the argument that the bear (lump) awakening from hibernation gave the already forgotten name of Maslenitsa - Komoeditsa. This holiday was reported at the beginning of the 20th century by ethnographer and folklorist Pavel Shein. In his work on the life of Belarusians, he made reference to the priest Simeon Nechaev tells about an unusual tradition in one of the districts of Borisov district: “This holiday always takes place on the eve of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is dedicated in honor of the bear. On this day, special dishes are prepared, namely: dried turnips are prepared for the first course as a sign that the bear eats mainly plant foods and herbs; oatmeal jelly is served for the second course, because the bear loves oats; the third course consists of peas lumps, which is why the day itself received the name “comedia”. After lunch, everyone - old and young - lies down, does not sleep, but every minute rolls from side to side in the slowest way, trying as best as possible to adapt to the turning of the bear.” In the same work, Shane explains that comas were lean balls of peas or other legumes that were “served at the end of a meal, sometimes upon leaving the table, to whip (that is, have fun).” Thus, Komoeditsa has nothing to do with Maslenitsa, and Komoeditsa is not a bear at all.
Linguist Svetlana Guryanova connects the emergence of an erroneous folk etymology with the famous Soviet historian Boris Rybakov, who was not professionally involved in linguistics and whose works on the history of Ancient Rus' and Slavic folklore have been used in professional circles more than once were exposed criticism. Rybakov wrote, that “on March 24, Belarusians celebrate the holiday of the “comedians” (analogous to the Greek “comedies” of archaic times) - the holiday of the awakening bear. The bear (komos) was the beast of Artemis, corresponding to the Russian goddess Lada.” The historian does not provide any references to sources confirming such statements. As already mentioned, Komoeditsa gave its name to a dish made from peas, but the word “comedy” really is happening from the Greek root “komos”, but it means “walking, cheerful procession”. Bear in Greek and at all sounds like "arktos".
Returning to the formulation mentioned by Dahl “the first pancake, but it’s lumpy,” Guryanova agreesthat we understand this saying not quite the same way as our ancestors, but bears still have nothing to do with it. What is important in this phrase is not the word “lumpy” at all - the fact that the pancake is the first one plays a much larger role. Symbolically, it was intended for ancestors and deceased relatives, so it was especially offensive to spoil it. This is how a saying appeared, which, with the passing of the corresponding tradition, lost its connection with the ritual.
Finally, the most logical explanation for why no pancakes were brought to bears on Maslenitsa is that it was simply dangerous. Moreover, our ancestors’ fear of these animals was not only practical, but also symbolic. Linguist Yesenia Pavlocki reminds: They were so afraid of bears that they didn’t even name them explicitly. The very word “bear”, which has come down to our times, is a euphemism, educated from the words “honey” and “eat”.
Photo: Yaroslav Gunin
Not true
- https://naukatv.ru/articles/708
- https://meduza.io/episodes/2020/07/20/drevnim-lyudyam-bylo-skuchno-molchat-i-oni-pridumali-yazyk-razoblachaem-narodnuyu-etimologiyu-i-ob-yasnyaem-kak-razgovarivat-s-lingvofrikami
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/bear
If you find a spelling or grammatical error, please let us know by highlighting the error text and clicking Ctrl+Enter.
