The Kupala wreath is a ritual object, an element of decoration, an obligatory attribute of the Kupala games. It was made from fresh greenery and flowers before the start of the celebration of Ivan Kupala by the fire.
In the Kupala ceremonies and games, wreaths served as an obligatory head decoration for their participants (mostly girls), as well as an attribute of youth games and round dances (wreath exchange, selection and redemption, throwing and catching them, etc.).
Content
Traditions
The ritual use of the Kupala wreath is also associated with the magical interpretation of its form, bringing the wreath together with other objects that are round and with holes (ring, hoop, roll, etc.). The customs of milking or filtering milk through it are based on these signs of a wreath, crawling through and pushing something through the wreath, looking, pouring, drinking, washing through it.
Additional semantics are given to the wreath by the special properties of the plants that served as their material (for example, periwinkle, basil, rose, geranium, blackberry, fern, oak and birch twigs, etc.), as well as the symbolism of the very act of making it - weaving (cf. the value of such items as a broom, tow, thread, net, etc.). Poltava, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kiev provinces wreaths were woven from canufer, lovage, zirok, divine wood, ax, barvinochek, cornflower, mint, rue, resedy and other fragrant herbs [1] .
Making a wreath is a special ritual regulating the composition of performers (usually girls, women), ceremonial time and place of weaving (for example, the threshing floor ), the number, size and shape of the wreath, method of weaving, additional decorations (threads, ribbons, garlic, etc.) p.) [2] .
At the final stage of the ceremony, the wreath was most often destroyed: burned in a bonfire, thrown into the water, into a well, thrown at a tree, carried to a cemetery, etc. Some of the wreaths were retained, then used for treatment, to protect the fields from hail, to worms. From the eastern and western Slavs they wondered by wreaths: they were thrown into the river and by movement in the water they tried to find out their fate; they left wreaths for a day in the courtyard, noticing whose wreath would wither (to which misfortune threatens); put it under a pillow at night to see a prophetic dream; they threw wreaths at the trees - the wreath caught from the first throw promised a quick marriage. In southern Poland they wove a large wreath from wild flowers and set it on the top of a burning tree: if the wreath fell on the ground without burning it was considered a bad sign.
Kupala wreaths, like the Troitsk ones , were used to protect the home, livestock, and vegetable gardens: they were hung over the doors of houses and sheds, “so that evil would not penetrate” ( siles. ); put on the beds with peas and beans, "so that the lightning does not burn the colors" ( Krakow .); put on the horns of the cows "against the witches" ( poles. ).
In order to give wreaths greater magical and healing power, Poles and Lusatians wove them early in the morning on the day of St. Yana (24.VI) in complete silence from herbs of an odd number, added keen-smelling and burning plants.
If the wreaths were not used during the year, then on the eve of the next holiday of Kupala they were burned; throwing wreaths was forbidden, since it was believed that the newly collected Kupala herbs would not help.
Cleansing and healing properties were attributed to Ivanovo wreaths and among the southern Slavs. In northwestern Bulgaria, in Ivanov's day, one large wreath was made, through which all the participants in the “for health” ritual climbed. Such a wreath was kept for a year and, in the event of illness, they dragged the patient through it. The Serbs in Ivanov's day made many wreaths, wove garlic into it, threw it into the garden, field, livestock pens, on the roof of the house to protect it from damage, bathed patients with water, into which Ivanovo wreath was lowered. In western Serbia ( Drahachevo ), it was believed that the wreath woven on Petrov’s day also had a protective force: it was hung at the gate, and when the city cloud approached, the hostess tore it away and waved towards the cloud in order to drive it away [3] .
See also
- Ivanovo herbs
- Wreath
- Ivan Kupala
Notes
- ↑ Tereshchenko, 1848 , p. 79.
- ↑ Vinogradov, Tolstaya, 1995 , p. 314.
- ↑ Vinogradov, Tolstaya, 1995 , p. 315-316.
Literature
- Wreath / Vinogradov L. H., Tolstaya S. M. // Slavic Antiquities : Ethnolinguistic Dictionary: 5 t. / Total. ed. N.I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences . - M .: Int. relationship , 1995. - T. 1: A (August) - G (Gus). - p. 314–318. - ISBN 5-7133-0704-2 .
- Tereshchenko A.V. 5. Prostrate rites // Life of the Russian people: fun, games, round dances . - SPb. : Printing house of military schools, 1848. - 181 p.