Oh You Little Braid lyrics and meaning

Vai tu kasele, šilkų saujele,
Neilgai dryksosi per liemenėlį /2x

Šį vakarėlį per vakrėlį,
Rytoj rytelį lig pusrytėlių /2x

Ims vainikėlį, dės nuotetėlį,
Skirs tave jauną nuo seserėlių /2x

Skirs tave jauną nuo seserėlių,
Kai lelijėlę iš rūtų daržo /2x

Skirs tave jauną nuo motinėlės,
Nuo motinėlės pas anytėlę /2x

Nuo motinėlės pas anytėlę,
Nuo tėtužėlio pas šešiurėlį /2x

Oh You Little Braid: song interpretation

This song can be understood as a wedding song about the end of maidenhood. At the beginning the little braid, a handful of silk, is addressed and told that it will not hang down the body for long. The braid can be interpreted as a sign of maidenhood.

Then it is said that this evening or tomorrow before breakfast they will take the wreath and place the nuometas, the married woman's headcloth, separating the young woman from her sisters like a lily from the rue garden. The removal of the wreath and placement of the nuometas can be understood as the passage from maiden to wife.

At the end it says she will be separated from her mother to go to the mother-in-law, and from her father to go to the father-in-law. These images can be interpreted as separation from the birth family and entry into the husband's kin. That is one possible meaning, but the wedding motif of the end of maidenhood is clear.

Oh You Little Braid: symbols and phrases

Little braid, handful of silk
The girl's braid hanging down her body. It marks maidenhood.
Wreath removed, nuometas placed
The girl's wreath is exchanged for the married woman's headcloth. It marks the transition from maiden to wife.
Separated from sisters, a lily from the rue garden
A lily taken from the rue garden. It marks the leaving of maidenhood and the birth family.
Mother-in-law and father-in-law
The husband's mother and father, to whom the bride goes. They mark the new kin group.

Oh You Little Braid: song history

"Oh You Little Braid" belongs to wedding songs sung about the end of maidenhood and the bride's transition into the husband's kin. The song is built on the central wedding-ritual motif of removing the wreath and putting on the nuometas: the long braid, "a handful of silk," is addressed and told it will not hang down the body for long, because this evening or by tomorrow morning the wreath will be taken and the nuometas placed.

No exact recording place or time is given on this page, so the song is presented by genre features. The text is marked by a gradual listing of separations: the bride is separated from her sisters, from her mother, from her father, and led to the mother-in-law and father-in-law. The comparison with a lily taken from the rue garden is a conventional wedding formula linking rue and the wreath with maidenhood.

sources

  • Lietuvių liaudies dainynas, vols. 1-23, Vilnius 1980-2011 (LLTI)
  • A. Juška. Lietuviškos svotbinės dainos, 2 vols., Vilnius 1955
  • Lietuvių liaudies dainų katalogas, 6 vols., Vilnius 1972-1986

Oh You Little Braid: sources