Imagine a force of evil in the days of the holidays in literature and art

The holiday period, extending from Christmas to Epiphany, was perceived in the Slavic folk tradition as a time when the boundary between the world of people and the otherworldly world becomes thin. This allowed not only the souls of ancestors to visit the living, but also gave relative freedom to dark, chthonic forces. The image of the unclean in the holidays is not just a symbol of evil, but a complex folklore-mythological complex that found a vivid reflection in Russian literature and art.

In folk culture, the unclean force in the holidays manifested itself in two ways. On the one hand, it was dangerous: according to beliefs, devils, demons, kikimoras and other "unclean" creatures were particularly active at this time, capable of harming a person, misleading, frightening. On the other hand, its activity was structured and subordinate to certain rules, making it partly predictable and even allowing it to be included in ritual practices such as disguise. By participating in carols and games, people, wearing masks and skins ("dress up as devils"), temporarily embodied these spirits, in order to, on the one hand, please them, and on the other hand, neutralize them through the ritual.

In 19th-century Russian literature, the holiday uncleanliness transformed from a folk character into a powerful artistic and philosophical symbol. A classic example is Nikolai Gogol's story "The Night Before Christmas" (1832). Here, the unclean (the devil, the witch Solokha) is depicted with a comical, almost domestic tone. The devil steals the moon, retaliates against the blacksmith Vakula, but in the end is defeated by human cunning and the power of love. Gogol skillfully weaves demonology into the fabric of folk life, showing that the unclean is active in the holidays, but not omnipotent before simple faith and goodness.

A more eerie and metaphysical image is presented in the famous story by the same Gogol "Viy" (1835). Although the action takes place not strictly in the holidays, but rather during the Easter week, it is entirely built on the confrontation of the seminarian Kolya Brut with the demonic world, activated in the "time without time" between great holidays. The image of Viy, the "eyeless" unclean, embodies a blind, but all-seeing infernal power, before which formal, insincere faith is powerless. Here, the unclean is already an existential horror, destroying the soul.

In the 20th century, the tradition was continued by Mikhail Bulgakov in the novel "The Master and Margarita". The famous ball of Satan, which Woland gives in "spring full-moon days," partly inherits the holiday tradition of "the unclean's revelry." The famous Woland and his entourage (Koroviy-Fagot, Azazel, Bегемот) are an artistic, intellectual unclean, which, appearing in Moscow, conducts its "holiday" judgment over human vices. Their images lack primitive evil; they are powerful inspectors, revealing moral flaws in the world.

In visual art, the theme of holiday uncleanliness was revealed through illustrations to literary works and scenography. The brightest example is the works of the artist Ivan Bilibin. His illustrations to "The Night Before Christmas" (1930s) created the canonical visual image of Gogol's characters: the cunning, sly devil with a goat's face and thin legs, and the plump, attractive Solokha. Bilibin stylized the unclean force under the lubok, making it both scary and funny.

In theater and cinema, especially in Gogol's adaptations (for example, in Alexander Rou's film "The Night Before Christmas," 1961), the images of the unclean took on a plastic embodiment. The emphasis was often on carnival, grotesque, which emphasized the ancient connection of the holidays with the world of inverted norms, where the unclean becomes a participant in the game action for a time.

Interesting fact: In the Slavic tradition, the peak of the unclean's activity fell on "scary evenings" between New Year's Eve (Vasilevsky evening) and Epiphany. It was believed that at this time divination was most reliable, as it was at this time that the unclean, wandering among people, could open a veil of the future. Thus, it served not only as a threat, but also as a source of secret knowledge, making its image ambivalent.

In this way, the image of the unclean force in the days of the holidays evolved from a folklore demon-"jester" and a dangerous spirit to a deep literary symbol. In art, it served to reveal themes of temptation, fear, moral choice, and to understand the nature of the holiday as a time of testing faith and human nature in the face of the irrational. Holiday uncleanliness became an integral part of the cultural code, reflecting the eternal human desire to understand, protect oneself from, or even laugh at the dark forces of existence.

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