Shchi in the Russian North: cultural and linguistic symbolism

The article deals with the reconstruction of cultural and linguistic symbolism of shehi based on the dialects of the Russian North (the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions, as well as the northeast part of the Kostroma region). The article includes lexical material from published lexicographic sources and also from lexicographic files of the Russian North Dialects Dictionary and the Ural Federal University Toponymic Expedition. Usually by shehi peasants meant a meat soup with barley or oat groats, as well as a soup made from sauerkraut. Two different phonetic forms, shehi and shti, can be present on the same territory, in which case their meanings are differentiated. In the Russian North, shehi was a part of the basic diet: this soup could be an everyday or holiday dish, depending on the ingredients. The dialects distinguish between shehi and all the other, more liquid soups, which were categorized as pokhlebka (broth). Shehi could be eaten at any meal, in rich households as well as in poor ones. Cabbage shchi was the most usual food, it symbolized the monotony of the peasant diet and could be considered a prototype of any food. Shchi was served at home as a part of festive meals: at weddings eating shchi together meant the agreement between the two families that were establishing new family relations. Shehi was also symbolically linked with the house which the bride was leaving. The distinctive phonetics of the word shehi determined the creation of sayings based on rhymes shehi - poloshehi (shchi - rinse), shehi - shli (shchi - went). The easy cooking and common ingredients gave birth to such idioms as kak shti varit (as if he/she was cooking shchi), i. e. "easily, in a relaxed way", or shehi pokhlebat' (to sup shchi), i. e. "badly, senselessly". The word shehi is used as an euphemism for 'blood' in the idiom shti prolit' (to spill shchi), which means 'to fall'.