From the author: This article is devoted to the symbolism of the Russian language and its reflection in the names of household items, as well as the hidden meaning of such an object as a rocker and the ritual of collecting water. The rituals of ancient Rus' are a large layer of our cultural heritage. Now many of the rituals have been lost, just as the objects associated with them have lost their meaning, but reminders of them are preserved in the language and in our unconscious. This article began with a conversation, or rather with childhood memories. Not mine, although I remember very well the rocker arm, which had not been used for a long time, and which hung in the barn of my grandparents. My mother indulged in memories in the morning and remembered how, as a child, she carried water with a rocker arm. “If the water is only in one bucket, then the rocker hangs on one side and you can’t carry the water,” my mother thought. As a child, I tried to carry buckets like then, attaching them to a stick. It’s inconvenient, and not easy. Delving into folk wisdom, I, in turn, thought about what a beautiful and true metaphor and what deep meaning the ritual of carrying water itself hides. That’s why the rocker is designed to carry two buckets, and even maintain balance, and for this, both buckets, according to the laws of physics, must be evenly filled. In general, this is a whole art - to take water with a rocker and then carry it, so as not to spill it! The very culture of man in Rus' was organized so that in the process familiarization with everyday life, a person received a symbolic experience that prepared him for family and relationships. The yoke itself is a symbol of the relationship between a man and a woman. If both buckets are full, then it moves easily, but if one is empty and the other is heavy, then there will be no way and there won’t be any water. Carrying it like that will make your back ache and you won’t want any kind of relationship. Buckets on a rocker are a symbol of balance and the task of carrying water was purely feminine in Rus'. So in relationships, a woman’s task is to maintain balance. Initially (ideally), the condition for balance is a marriage in which both partners are equally filled and the woman’s task is to control this fullness. Why is balance a woman’s task? Yes, simply because by nature a woman has there are the makings for successfully completing this task, and it is no coincidence that it was women in Rus' who mastered the art of carrying buckets on a rocker. With the help of a rocker, a woman learned to maintain balance physically, and along the way, the brain also trained with the muscles, gradually mastering the art of balance. How skillfully, if desired, a woman can throw the yoke of a relationship from one shoulder to the other, how softly and wisely she can move it if there is less water in one bucket, how sensitively she is able to help her partner get what he needs, subtly and skillfully bending his waist! A woman and her mind are by nature more flexible, more plastic, than a man’s concretely effective way of thinking. Using a rocker, without removing it from their shoulder, Russian girls, bending over the water, collected water into buckets, so that they could then easily carry it without spilling a drop. Thus, a seemingly everyday event in Russian culture, turned into a ritual that fulfilled the tasks of initiation. You say, “why did the poor women work as laborers, and the men didn’t carry water at all?” But no, they did, but they just didn’t take up the yoke - not a man’s task. Buckets in hand and off you go! - this is like a man. Everyone worked, both women and men, but they did not interfere with “foreign” territory and were completely independent. They didn’t sit and wait for the help of their husband/wife, but did it themselves, but only in a different way than their partner. At home, a man will grab buckets and bring water, and if in the hayfield, then the woman will take the yoke and go to the water, bend over and scoop up full buckets. In our age of technological progress, both men and women have learned to do many seemingly purely feminine/male tasks themselves using household appliances. But this does not mean that this is a new event! And before, in the villages there lived hermit men or widowers who did the laundry and cooked cabbage soup. Well, I won’t talk about the strength of Russian women. And they mowed along with the men, if necessary, and chopped wood. And now it’s no secret to a person that those...