| Title of the article: |
The signs of the cross and circle in Tver province tradition |
| Author(s): |
SITNIKOVA S. A. |
| Section: |
Culturology |
| Year: |
2015 |
| Issue: |
№ 2, (36) |
| Pages: |
75-91 |
| Index UDK: |
394.262.2 |
| Index BBK: |
008+63.5 |
| Abstract: |
The given paper is based on folk-ethnographic material, collected by the author during the expeditions of long standing in Tver region. There paper studies the semantic of ornamental grapheme «circle» and «cross» using Tver ritual traditions and models of folk art. The paper gives authentic evidences that these archaic symbols, which appeared in Indo-European culture very early, have been preserved in Tver peasant culture in decorative art and in ritual practice until nowadays. The material structure is connected with the structure of traditional peasant calendar-agrarian circle. The ritual functioning of circle and cross symbols in the ritual cycle of winter Christmastide, which is seen in Christmas-tide fortune-telling, in producing rituals and in ritual round and crosswise grain pastries are described. The research of ritual function of circle and cross in folk-ethnographic evidences of the period of early spring and of Tver summer ritual complex demanded an appeal to rituals where the attributes are wheel, circle, wreaths, crosses, connected with the magic prophecies, with conjuring producing practice and magic actions of protective character. In each ritual-magic episode of the Tver calendar-ritual system the symbols «cross» and «circle» reflect the world outlook of different cultural-historical eras, thus they always keep their sacral meaning. According to requirements of modern folklore studies the expeditionary material is given with great precision of speech dialect features of informants and with exact designation of geographic zone and time records. |
| Keywords: |
Tver local tradition, calender ritual, signs of cross and circle, ritual oracular practice, invocating produce actions, ritual cake |
| Bibliography: |
1 Golan A. Mif i simvol [Myth and symbol]. Moscow, RUSSLIT Publ., 1994. 375 p. 2 Russkiy narodniy ornament [Russian national ornament]. Moscow, GOLDEN BOOKS Publ., 2008. Issue 1: Shit'yo, tkani, kruzheva / ob'yasnitelniy tekst V. Stasova [Part 1: Sewing, cloths, laces/ explanatory text by V. Stasov]. 144p. 3 Toporov V. N. Ob odnom class simvolicheskih tekstov [On one class of symbolic texts]. BALKANO-BALTO-SLAVICA: Simpozium po structure teksta. Predvaritelniye materiali i tezisi [Symposium on the text structure Preliminary materials and thesis]. Moscow, Institut slavyanovedeniya i balkanistiki AN SSSR (Institute of Slavic studies and Balkan studies AS USSR) Publ., 1979, pp. 116–130. |
| PDF file: |
 Download |
