The word refrain derives from the French language and specifically from the word refrain , and its meaning comes to say that we are talking about a kind of short sentences . In reality, sayings are as old as proverbs, only that over time, around the Modern Age, they would acquire a new nuance related more specifically to popular phrases and not so much religious as the proverbs in their origin.
The sayings are very short texts that generally lack an author , since they come from popular and local ideas that were transmitted from generation to generation due to their brevity, and also to their frequent rhymes that are easy to assimilate by all types of public.
Sayings help us to know the world through the eyes of those who came before us. In them our ancestors spoke to us about the weather, the customs of a certain place, the destination, social aspects of life or existential … Of course, in most cases these sayings had an ideological and / or instructive character, intoning in this way that “brief sentence” to the population that indicates the etymology of its own name, saying.
While it is true that most of them have been falling into disuse, either because they are no longer fulfilled or because they contain too many topics or negative ideas that today must be banished, such as machismo, the truth is that they involve a very important part of our cultural heritage and therefore it is necessary to know them.
ORIGIN AND MEANING OF SAYINGS
The experience of a town, or of a certain group or place, was in charge of coining these short phrases as a life experience. Experiences that show a very important part of our past based on oral culture as a consequence of the high illiteracy that existed among the general layers of society. That is why sayings have been so popular among our grandparents, because with them they acquired certain wisdoms and were able to assimilate life situations that they accumulated as a vital and cultural experience, regardless of having been able to go to school or not.
Let’s not let these little treasures disappear or accumulate just between the walls of a nursing home or a humble home in any rural area. Let our little ones also have the privilege of sharing what were authentic traditions of the past, even if they only do it to gain knowledge of our historical and cultural past, and not so much to take popular sayings as absolute truths or axioms.
In the Forest, which we advocate for the promotion of reading , we believe that it is necessary to have a good book of sayings at home or at school, so that in this way children can approach them and learn them as we or our grandparents did, thus preserving what our ancestors cared for and valued so much. Because, whoever resembles yours deserves honor …
Excellent article! Thank you for thinking about what popular wisdom can inherit and thus enrich what the books give us.