The role of a sarafan-“sinyak” in the wedding rite of Pinega

The article brought a sharper focus to semantic peculiarities of a scaled costume's construct in the traditional wedding rite of Pinega district, Arkhangelsk Province at the end of XIXth — early XXth century. A dress of an ordinary peasant girl, who got married wearing dark blue sarafan and a white chemise — “koklushnitsa”, that were sewed from linen domestic production, became a subject for research. The author came to a conclusion that the main role of a sarafan (local name “sinyak”) in the structure of a Pinega wedding was to emphasise and increase the tragic side of the rite — leaving the paternal home, farewell with relatives, parting with girl's easy life. There are texts from wedding's lamentation of the bride named “posidelki” (get-together) and “bachelorette party”.