My uncle's wife is a native from Russia. When they got married and moved here, she brought all her magnificent Russian treasurers. Among her collections, the Russian nesting dolls were my favorite. Matryoshka, as what they call it, consists of a wooden figure which separates top from bottom and reveals a smaller figure of the same sort inside. She had collected them since she was a little girl, so she had quite a few. When she visited her homeland in Moscow, she got me my own Matryoshka dolls, because she knew how much I adore them. The Matryoshka is considered the most famous souvenirs from Russia.
Matryoshka has a Latin root "mater" that means "Mother". This name was associated with the image of a mother of a big peasant family who was very healthy and had a portly figure, the smaller figures inside as her children. Over the years, the dolls are representations of people belonging to the mercantile sector, of blueblood descent and indigents. The first Russian matryoshka was launched in 1980 at a children's education workshop held in Moscow. Its founder, Sava Mamontov, was a famous entrepreneur and lover of the arts. Nesting dolls come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They are simply captivating as an ornament as supposed to being plain. There are also the noticeably stylish and exquisite nesting Russian Easter Eggs. In Japan, they have their own version called the kokeshi dolls. Kokeshi dolls, originally depicting Buddhist gods, have been existing way before Russia's own were created.
The dolls usually consisted of 2 to 24 pieces with the most popular amounts being 3, 8 and 12. In 1913, the Exhibition of Toys in St. Petersburg displayed a 48-piece matryoshka made by N. Bulichev.
Chinese nesting boxes are roughly a thousand years old. Probably the next thing we have to nesting dolls came from the Shaker's nested boxes. Our present day decorative nesting boxes are the descendants of 18th century Shaker wooden, one box inside another, idea. Originally, they were made for practical purposes to store things and save space. You can just pile everything, one box inside the other until it's just one big box left, then you can put it on a shelf. Before, they come in rounds and ovals, today, there are various shapes and sizes to choose from. Nesting boxes are fantastic presents for special occasions, but to make it more thrilling especially during Christmas, you can place another surprise inside in every box. Isn't that exciting?
I can still recall when I was at a very young age, I contracted the chicken pox. A friend of my grandmother's brought a present over to cheer me up. It was a huge box. I opened it and found another box, only smaller and inside it was a surprise. The huge box contained 9 smaller boxes. I would open one box each day and find tiny presents in it. A box would contain some coloring materials paired with a book; in another, a puzzle; and in still another box, a set of jackstones. It was an exceptional and selfless gesture that made me start a tradition of my own by gifting friends and family with nesting boxes as well.
Nesting boxes come in all shapes, sizes, colors and themes. So, why not start a tradition of your own? Who knows, maybe someone will gift you with one that will delight your inner child!
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