Playing musical instruments used to be part of Ossetian ritual prayers, including those at sacred places. Musical sounds allowed people to communicate with the forces of the upper, divine world. According to traditional beliefs, the sound of musical instruments attracted farn, that is heavenly grace, into the home. For that reason, the heads of string instruments were most often made in the shape of either a ram with horns or ram’s horns only, which symbolized farn in the Ossetian culture.
The process itself was considered sacred: as researchers note, before cutting down a tree to create an instrument, one had to pray. A person with a guilty conscience could not make an instrument. It was considered unacceptable to cut down a tree under a new moon and before the last quarter of the lunar phase. The folk craftsmen said that it would rot quickly.
Although it was traditionally men who played musical instruments, women began to do so as early as in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Singers and folk musicians enjoyed great respect and popularity. This respect was down to the role the instrument played in connecting man and gods. For centuries, the skill of making and playing the Ossetian musical instruments was passed down from generation to generation.