Fire beads.

Amber Luxury by Old Believers from Transbaikalia.

I'm not a writer on Livemaster. I am a reader. I read a lot enthusiastically, and I am really grateful to writers. But you can't just take. It is time to give. However, this time came a year ago. I visited Old-Believers` Festival of Culture and decided to share my delight with girls (also, with boys who are interested). But I kept putting it off... I couldn`t get down to it... But I promised and someone from above reminded me of it pretty harshly. I hurt my arm. Those who work with felt know that you can`t work like that. So, I couldn`t felt. But I could type. It was high time to fulfil my promise.

First of all, they are family, old believers. Or a fringe group. In the middle of the 17th century, the Romanov dynasty tried to make Moscow a new centre of Orthodox Christianity. But it turned out that Orthodox church in other countries had changed very much under the influence of various factors, especially because of Catholic Christianity. But Russia still followed ancient Orthodoxy. One of the Romanovs, Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed Tishaishi (lit. the Quietest), started to reform the Church. Under his order rites and books were changed. Part of the population did not want to abandon religion of their fathers and grandfathers. So, they were called "old believers".

This is a complex and interesting topic. But today it is not about religion. It is about material culture of old believers. Transbaikalia calls them semeiskie. They appeared in Siberia, in Transbaikalia, when Catherine the Great made them move out from the Polish area. Old believers brought their traditions, skills, clothes, household items — culture of pre-Peter-the-Great Russia — to Siberian wilderness. Among other things, they brought their famous fire bead necklaces — amber beads — favourite carefully stored jewellery of old believers. The Festival welcomed people from several regions and even from China, many could boast of real, inherited from their ancestors, amber.

You cannot overuse jewellery in such a costume. You should have a lot. A lot! Simply, take everything you have, an old believer should wear all her necklaces at once. Up to 20 necklaces! Fire beads are the main ones, large amber beads.

Small and short necklaces are closer to the neck. The first covers neck quite tightly. People believed that tight-fitting amber saved from goiter — thyroid disease. It is possible that this really helped in Transbaikalia, as it lacked iodine and selenium in food. The most luxurious, long and large necklace is near the bottom, it is great if it has a central, very large bead, beautifully set in silver.

Amber has always been very expensive. Girls got their first necklace before their weddings. In my youth, I was indifferent to jewellery. But being under some spell, I queued in the early 1990s and bought an expensive amber necklace. I think, it was genetic memory.

Ancient amber is strikingly different from modern one, though, it would seem that 200-300 years is nothing for eternity that creates it. However, ancient amber is cloudy. It has no glare and flies, evidence of modern heat treatment (probably the results of melting). Old amber is not round, but chopped.

I did not find any serious scientific research on the subject of old believers' amber. But I took a lot of photos and I can share them. Watch and enjoy! I promise to write about old believers` clothes and headdresses in my next article. This topic is much more studied by ethnographers.