Kika (clothes)

Kika (kichka) is an old Russian women's headdress with horns, a kind of warrior (soroka - without horns, kokoshnik - with a high front).

Appearance

Kika was an open crown adorned with pearls, beads and other precious stones. Actually, not only the entire headdress, but also its lower part, which was made of glued canvas, was called kiko directly. Since this part covered the hair, its other name was the volosnik. With the help of inserts made of hard materials, for example, birch bark, the front part of the dress was shaped like horns, hooves or shoulder blades. A beaded nape was put on at the back, and an elegant soroka was worn on top.

Wearing traditions

For the first time, "human" is mentioned in a document of 1328. Horned kicks were worn in antiquity, their special form was associated with the beliefs that existed at that time. Later, the kika became an attribute of the attire of a newlywed and married woman, since, unlike the girl's "crown", she completely hid her hair. In this regard, kika began to be called the "crown of marriage." Kiki were worn mainly in Tula, Ryazan, Kaluga, Oryol and other southern provinces. In the 19th century, the wearing of kiki began to be persecuted by the Orthodox clergy - peasant women were required to wear a kokoshnik. In this regard, by the beginning of the 20th century, this headdress was almost everywhere replaced by a warrior or a scarf, only occasionally a kiku could be found in the southern regions of Russia. In the Voronezh region, the kichka was preserved as a wedding dress until the 1950s.