Baptismal cuckoo

The ceremony consisted of a solemn, with crying and songs, burial of a “cuckoo” - a smartly decorated anthropo- or ornithomorphic pupa (usually made of grass “ cuckoo's tears ”) ^[3] and was accompanied by cumulation , fortune-telling and ritual meal ^[3] . After a certain period of time, the participants of the ceremony returned to the place of burial and “pulled out” the cuckoo back, again with special ritual songs, followed by “meditation”.

In the village of Vyshnye Foams of the Belgorod Region, in the garden, a “cuckoo” was planted on an apple tree and codied under it. At the end of the ceremony and the meal, the “cuckoo” was disassembled — they embroidered the ribbons and took them for themselves, and left the main branch in the attic ^[4] .

In the village of Timonovo, Belgorod Region, a “cuckoo” was carried in a meadow or in a garden and planted on a tree in foliage so that no one would find it, and left there until Trinity. After Trinity, it was removed from the branch, believing that they were ruining the cuckoo's nest. Then both kumas went to the well, threw a cuckoo into it and waited for the one to get the cuckoo in a bucket of water. According to custom, the removed cuckoo was not thrown away, but planted on a well ^[5] .

In the village of Koloskovo, Belgorod Region, the common “cuckoo” was made of rags or from the swamp grass of Kugin, dressed up in a dress and scarf. After cumulation, the cuckoo was buried - hidden in the branches of trees or buried in the ground. The girls gathered again at Trinity and walked to the oak, where they pulled a cuckoo, returned dresses to each other and carried a scarecrow to the river. At the river, every girl there weaved for herself a cuckoo of kugi in the form of a girl's braid. For a common cuckoo, a grass raft was made and lowered onto a raft on water. Following the common doll, each of the participants threw her cuckoo woven from grass ^[6] .

Only the girls, as a rule, participated in the burial of the “cuckoo”; moreover, in some areas, the need to keep the time and place of the ceremony in strict secrecy from the youths was emphasized ^[7] , and the dress of the cuckoo itself imitated the funeral attire of a deceased woman who died in her childhood ^[7] .

The most common dates for the ceremony - Ascension Day - Trinity Day ; the actions of the initial stage also occurred on the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth Sunday after Easter , the second Monday after Easter, Nicolin day , Trinity, Spirits day , the final - on Spirits day, Tuesday after the Spirit of the day, All Saints Day, Peter's day ^{[ 3]} .

At the end of the Petrovsky post, the Hutsuls made cumulation of guys and girls ^[8] , at a time when the cuckoo ceases to cook (cf. “The cuckoo choked on Mandry ’s day ”).

Various scholars interpret it as the rite of causing rain ^[9] , the agrarian “funeral” ritual similar to the “ funeral of Kostroma ” ^[3] , the initiation age-gender ritual ^[7], and so on.

The “cuckoo” figurine made of plants was dressed in a girl’s sundress, and a head scarf was tied around the head, more often as black as a widow (kaluga). Sometimes they made paired dolls - “male” and “female”: they dressed the cuckoo as a bride, and the corn as a groom (Belgorod) ^[8] .

The cuckoo was perceived as a widow or unmarried girl who needs to be married ^[8] . The ritual of the cuckoo’s funeral was similar to the burial of “mortgaged dead” ^[9] .

• Bernshtam T. A. The rite of passage “Baptism and the funeral of a cuckoo” // Material Culture and Mythology: collection. MAE / Res. ed. B.N. Putilov. - L .: Nauka, 1981 .-- T. 37 . - S. 179–209 .
• Christening the cuckoo / Vinogradova L.I. // Slavic antiquities : Ethnolinguistic dictionary: in 5 volumes / under the general. ed. N. I. Tolstoy ; Institute of Slavic Studies RAS . - M .: Int. Relations , 1999. - T. 2: D (Give) - K (Crumbs). - S. 672–674. - ISBN 5-7133-0982-7 .
• Cuckoo / Gura A.V. // 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. 36–40. - ISBN 5-7133-1207-0 .
• Cherednikova M. P. "The voice of childhood from a distant distance ..." (Game, magic, myth in children's culture). - M .: Labyrinth, 2002 .-- 224 p. - (Investigations in the field of philology, history and traditional culture: school of V. Ya. Propp). - ISBN 5-87604-012-6 .
• Zimina T. A. Baptism and the funeral of a cuckoo // Russian Ethnographic Museum .

Recommended

• Kedrina R. E. The Rite of “Baptism” and “Cuckoo's Funeral” in connection with popular nepotism. // Ethnographic Review 1–2 (1912): 92–93.
• Rusanova N. The rite of “the baptism and burial of a cuckoo” in the Belgorod region // Folklore and literature: problems of study. Digest of articles. - Voronezh: Voronezh State University, 2001. - S. 238–244 .
• Smirnov V. A. The rite of “baptism” and “burial of the cuckoo” and the Kupala ritual poetry of the Eastern Slavs. // Russian folklore 20 (1981): 62–70.

• Cuckoo tears (genamikheev.narod.ru)
• Trinity Christmas time. Baptism and the funeral of a cuckoo // BGCNT
• "Cuckoo-ryabushechka, Weeping little bird " (berkana.org.ua)
• Ritual doll "Cuckoo" // Belgorod State Museum of Folk Culture
• How to make a cuckoo doll (rudocs.exdat.com)
• The rite of "baptism of the cuckoo" of the village of Vyshnye Peny, Rakityansky district, Belgorod region (culture.ru)
• Production of ceremonial cuckoo dolls in the village of Shelaevo, Valuysky district, Belgorod region (culture.ru)
• The tradition of making the ritual doll "cuckoo" in the village of Timonovo, Valuysky district, Belgorod region (culture.ru)
• Rite of “cuckoo’s funeral” in the village of Koloskovo, Valuysky district, Belgorod region (culture.ru)
• Preparation of a loaf on the “cuckoo's name day” in the village of Pochaevo, Graivoronsky district, Belgorod region (culture.ru)