Children’s folklore: yesterday, today and tomorrow

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Published on Tuesday, 21 November 2017 17:19

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Why do we need children’s games?

Children’s literature takes a special place in the examples of rich folk art with centuries-old history. Folklore samples are a valuable resource for educating children of different ages. Mr. Vasif Talibov, the Chairman of the Supreme Majlis of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, who takes into account the collection, study and publication of folklore samples in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, said: “These samples of folk art, which are a worthy contribution to ancient and modern civilization, are demonstrating in our modern era, concentrating on our national characteristics, traditions, and everyday life”. From this point of view, examples of folk art reflect the whole aspirations of the people, their wishes, desires and ideals, the outlook of life and the world, and the ideas about good and evil, beauty and ugliness are the main issues.

In these examples of folk art, the thoughts and interests about children who are our future and representatives of the new generation are in the center of attention. Tales and riddles, proverbs, anecdotes and others, all of them have ideas about exemplary child upbringing and child's world. That's why oral literature is a source of moral nutrition for younger children than adults. These examples of children's imagination and thought, thinking, and interests are creating new worlds, new perspectives and imaginary horizons.

As the researchers say, folklore also affects the comprehensive development of children and the formation of creative abilities. Only the national character in literature educates people who have a clear conscience, a strong spirituality, and people who can take the burden of time. As mentioned in the sources, folk literature examples have a very important role in educating children. Tales awaken feelings of love, compassion, patriotism during the upbringing of children. Mothers’ lullabies and other cradle songs create self-confidence in child. Riddles, trying to say tongue-twisters while playing game, make it easier for children to get used to their mother tongue. While evaluating the benefits of tales in child-care, the scientists particularly noted that tales are unique literary examples of folk art. The goal of tales is to be useful. Every character is a symbol of a temper. There is a lesson in every action of people. The good are praised, and the bad are criticized. Children take these characters as an example and keep them in their hearts. Ramazan Gafarli, specialist in folklore, one of the most prominent researchers of children’s folklore in Azerbaijan, writes in his monograph called “The genre system and poetics of children's folklore”: “In some literatures, lullabies, cradle songs, tongue-twisters and others which have been described as “small genres of folklore”, have always met the demands of folk pedagogy and reflected all aspects of the world of childhood with its sweetness and attractiveness. Folk pedagogy is a collection of views, ideas, practical experiences, rules, customs and traditions of working masses in real terms”.

Each genre of child literature examples also has instructive and educational importance. The purpose of tongue-twisters is to create a staggering impact on minds and logic of people by sequencing cases and situations that are surprising and impossible to be in real life. For this reason, tongue-twisters are a kind of word play. Tongue-twisters are surprising and entertaining and they make to have a funny time. Tongue-twisters have strong influences on the development of children's behavior. They develop children's intelligence, knowledge, emotions and behaviors. They also build up children socially and provide the ability of sharing. Tongue-twisters develop and emphasize fluent and accurate use of children’s mother tongue, and build the feelings of love in them. They have a great role in enriching the child's vocabulary. These examples also contribute to the development and enrichment of children's fantasy and imagination. In addition, these children's folklore samples we mentioned above also give children the ability to speak before public and communication skills.

Riddles are useful in teaching curriculum sums that help children’s mental development. They teach children to be able to find uncertain things by their distinctive marks and calculation skills, to know associative relationships and differences between events and things, and serve to develop children's imaginary world and intellect.

Additionally, there are different types of games in children's folklore that play an important role in the development of children's intelligence and mind, and also have a beneficial effect on physical development as a means of entertainment and recreation. “Benovsha”, “Qacamadash”, “Gizlangach”, “Heyba”, “Çilingağac” and others are the favorite games of children. Each of these games plays an important role in the spiritual and physical education of children. Researchers have reported that children learned social relationships when they began to play with friends and the feelings of responsibilities to overcome problems increase by these games.

One of the best supports for children's socialization is just games. Scientists say that games play a significant role in children's language and speech development, develop their relationship skills, strengthen their sense of sharing, taught social rules and provide self-expression. They also note that games develop children’s psychomotor skills and their small and large muscles, make them happy and help to reduce stress. Games create opportunities for children to develop their sense of creativity and build up their sense of belonging. Team games develop behavior in groups, children's environment, skills of understanding and recognizing their friends, and feelings of imagination. According to researchers, children's folklore is necessary for the modern generation to grow up in the national spirit.

Yes, our wise and far-sighted ancestors paid special attention to important issues such as the future, health correct thinking and speech of children, and created beautiful examples for the comprehensive education of children through simple and interesting texts. These examples are now a valuable resource of our national folklore treasure. It is noteworthy that Azerbaijani folklore writers also collected and published examples of Azerbaijani children's folklore, as well as children's games. Some work has been done for this purpose in Nakhchivan too. The book “Children's folklore samples of Nakhchivan”, collected by Rafiq Babayev, the late specialist in folklore,  at the Folklore Department of Nakhchivan Branch of ANAS, with the financial support of the Science Development Fund under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has been of special importance in this respect.

Ramiz GASIMOV

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor

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