So I was with my nephew at McDonalds yesterday and I was surprised to see he got a Matryoshka doll in his happy meal. We had gone to the movie Hotel Transylvania last week, so I even recognized the cartoon characters for once. The matryoshka dolls were for sale all over the place in Tallinn, St. Petersburg and on the ship. There were hundreds of them to choose from. The name Matryoshka (literally "little matron") is a diminutive form of a Russian female first name Matryona or Matriosha. Nice names.
The first Russian nested doll set was made in 1890 - which surprised people because you'd think they were an old old tradition. Usually the outer layer is a woman, and the smallest is a baby. A lot of the Americans asked about the "babushka dolls". The tour guide corrected them and said that Babushka means "grandmother". Actually, I thought a babushka was a head covering. Most likely means both.
She also told us that the dolls were not original to their country, but were first seen by some Russians on a trip to Japan. According to wikipedia, the original dolls were either a Daruma doll or Seven Lucky Gods. A Daruma doll is a hollow, round Japanese traditional doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen tradition of Buddhism. They are typically red and depict a bearded man (Dharma). The dolls are designed to be rich in symbolism and are regarded as a good luck object or used for goal setting.
When purchased, the figure's eyes are both blank white. A user will then select a goal or wish and will paint in one of the figure's two eyes. Once the desired goal is achieved, they get to fill in the second one.
