| Title of the article: |
Calendar rites of Ostashkovsky district of Tver province: early spring period |
| Author(s): |
SITNIKOVA S. A. |
| Section: |
History and Culture of Slavic World |
| Year: |
2014 |
| Issue: |
№ 4 (34) |
| Pages: |
28-43 |
| Index UDK: |
394.262.2 |
| Index BBK: |
63.5 |
| Abstract: |
The given article is the study of calendar ritual tradition of Tver province. It is dedicated to the comprehension of authentic folk-ethnographic field study material about early-spring rites, recorded by the author in Ostashkov region. The article examines authentic folk-ethnographic evidences of people's reassessment of Christian dates of Lent, dedicated in church calendar to 40 holy martyrs and to the middle of Lent. It is shown on the basis of field study materials that these days in people's calendar are connected only with the theme of spring, with the arrival of birds and with coming sowing. All this accounts for the central place of bread goods in ceremonial complex of early-spring ritual zone. As a bread products, pastry and bakery goods serve as an attribute of the harvesting spell. Forming the baked goods into shapes like nuts, crosses and birds (flying, or sitting in the nest) underlines the intrinsic ritual idea of fertility by the symbols of new life (nuts, bird in the nest with eggs), by the symbols of the fire and sun (crosses), and by the symbols of souls of dead ancestors (birds). The article lists the facts about active ritual oracular and spell-casting practices, recorded in contemporary Ostashkov villages, that emphasize the meaning and spiritual tension of earlyspring calendar period for farmers. The trustworthiness of the received facts is secured by the multiplicity of evidences and by strict designation of the geographical zones of their existence and zones of their fixation, that do not always coincide. The article makes an attempt to preserve the direct speech of the informants, where possible, with the marked dialectal stress in the words. |
| Keywords: |
Tver local tradition, calendar rite, early spring ritual complex, ritual pastry, oracular ritual practice, producing magical incantation actions |
| Bibliography: |
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