Cumpling is a rite of initiation in the cycle of spring-summer holidays of the eastern and southern Slavs, as well as a form of youth union [1] .
In the East Slavic territory, cumulation is known in most regions of European Russia (especially in central Russia and to a lesser extent in the Russian North), as well as in northeastern Ukraine and eastern Belarus, and in Ukraine and Belarus clearly degenerate forms. In the Gomel region, for example, it was a joint walk of men and women in nature.
Content
Traditions
Cumulation occurred on one of the holidays of the Trinity cycle ( Ascension , Semik , Trinity , Spirits day ), sometimes earlier - on the 2nd Sunday after Easter, the so-called. Kumishnoe, Kumitny Sunday , and sometimes on Peter's Day [2] [3] . There are known cases of cumulation on Nicholas vernal: “And on Mikola go to the forest and girls cum. We’ll come to the grove, make a bonfire. Put a frying pan on the stones. We collect and fry yaishnyu into a frying pan of some twigs ”(Siberian immigrants from the Mogilev province) [3] .
The very process of establishing nepotism was called crowing, cumming, sevening (from Semik).
In the overwhelming majority of cases, it was girls who reached adulthood; they were smoking in pairs (very rarely - in four); from time to time they all crowded together, including putting on one wreath at a time. In addition to this (but usually on other days, later) girls with boys, boys among themselves, women among themselves, women with men and men among themselves could make noises, and the cumulation between women and men was orally significantly wider than the cumulation of guys with the girls.
Cumulation was usually the middle episode of a difficult Trinity holiday, which began with the establishment (choice in the forest, bringing it into the house, decoration, dressing) of the Trinity tree (birch, maple branch, etc.) or with a “cuckoo” ring (in the South Russian regions) , cumulation was part of the “ cuckoo ’s funeral ” ceremony) and culminating in a joint meal of girls (sometimes together with guys who joined the girls after cumulation), and also very often - fortunetelling with wreaths; at the same stage, as a rule, the development of birch occurred, more precisely, a wreath curled on it, and actually maturation. (See Trinity ).
The main way of cumulation was the following: the girls approached a wreath curled on a birch tree in which a cross or eggs were hung, kissed and exchanged gifts through this wreath. In a more general sense, cumulation consisted of exchanging between the cumming things, among which are crosses, clothes, scarves, wreaths, rings, beads, eggs, cakes, in mutual hugs and kisses (cf. Smolensk expression to cum on something, i.e. ., on the monist, rings, scarves, etc.). At a joint meal prepared in a fold with compulsory fried eggs; in overcoming by the cumulants a certain spatial boundary, which is symbolized by the “gate” of intertwined branches of neighboring trees, a large “wreath” like a hoop formed by the intertwined tops of neighboring trees, through which the crowners pass, an ordinary wreath curled in a tree through which the girls kiss, standing on to both sides of it (the most typical case), as well as a circle formed by shoelaces of crosses hung on a tree branch through which girls kissed and exchanged things. Cumulation was accompanied by an oath: the girls kissed a cross that hung in a curled wreath. In the Nizhny Novgorod region the girls hung an egg in a wreath and kissed it on both sides.
The concluded union was short-lived and was torn apart after a week or a half (on the Trinity, in the Peter’s conspiracy, etc.) by the so-called deliberation, which consisted of performing actions opposite to those that took place at the conclusion of the union (the girls crossed the wreath in the opposite direction, back, “Exchanged”, that is, returned things taken as a guarantee of friendship, pronounced sentences or sang songs indicating a break in ties: “We think it over, godfather, we think it over ...”). However, sometimes the period for which the union was concluded turned out to be longer (six weeks, a year, all life) [4] .
See also
- Baptismal cuckoo
- Ascension Day
- Semik
- Trinity Day
- Whit Monday
- Petrov day
Notes
- ↑ Agapkina, 2004 , p. 42, 45.
- ↑ Zelenin, 1995 , p. 252-253.
- ↑ 1 2 Fursova, 2003 .
- ↑ Agapkina, 2004 , p. 42.
Literature
- Cumulation / T.A. Agapkina // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 2004. - T. 3: K (Circle) - P (Quail). - S. 42–46. - ISBN 5-7133-1207-0 .
- Zelenin D.K. Selected Works. Essays on Russian mythology: Those who died by unnatural death and mermaids. - M .: Indrik , 1995. - 432 p. - ( Traditional spiritual culture of the Slavs . From the history of study). - ISBN 5-85759-018-3 .
- Fursova E.F. Calendar rites. Part 2: Customs and rites of the summer-autumn period . - Novosibirsk: Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS , 2003. - 267 p. - (Ethnography of Siberia). - ISBN 5-7803-0116-6 . Archived May 29, 2007 on Wayback Machine