Comedian ( Belorussian. Kamaedzitsa ) is a Belarusian national holiday associated with the meeting of spring. The holiday is celebrated on March 24 (April 6) on the eve of the Annunciation and is dedicated to the awakening of the bear [1] .
| Comedian | |
|---|---|
| Type of | folk |
| Value | waking bear |
| Is celebrated | Belarusians of Begoml village, Minsk province |
| date of | March 24 (April 6) [1] |
| Traditions | pea lumps are prepared, a repnik, oat jelly . Imitation of a waking bear from hibernation |
| Associated with | The Annunciation |
The only source testifying to this holiday is an article by the priest Simeon Nechaev for 1874 [2] , partially reprinted by ethnographer P.V. Shein and therefore became popular. Nechaev observed Komoyeditsa in the village of Begoml, Borisov district, Minsk province .
“On this day, special dishes are prepared, namely: for the first course, a dried replica is prepared as a sign that the bear eats mainly vegetable food, herbs; oatmeal is served in the second course because the bear loves oats; the third dish consists of pea lumps, which is why the day itself was called "comedian". After lunch, everyone - old and small - lie down, do not sleep, and every minute, in the slowest way, roll from side to side, as much as possible trying to adapt to turning the bear ” [3] .
It is believed that the next day, "the bear rises." In Belarus they said: "A bear lies on a sheep ’s lair and starts to suck its paw, on Sretenie it turns over and sucks another paw, and on the Annunciation it leaves the den."
B. A. Rybakov in his studies believed that the name comedian comes from the same Indo-European root as the other Greek. κωμῳδία " comedy ". The holiday itself was erected by the Rybakov era during the Stone Age and was associated with the hunting cult of the bear [4] .
According to L. S. Klein , the name of the holiday is “later borrowing from the Latinized Polish culture, and therefore it is not to the east, from the Russians ”. The name may indeed be associated with Greek comedy, but not as an ancient relative, but as a borrowing in Belarusian from Greek through Latin means. To explain this name, there was a custom to eat pea coma, and since the comedians coincided with the first cattle pasture, the mummers ("pea buffoons") began to depict a bear - " cattle god " in Slavic representations [5] . At the same time, L. S. Klein does not cite this Polish version of the holiday.
See also
- Annunciation day
- Driving a bear
- Cult of the bear
- Russian bear
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Shane, 1902 , p. 162.
- ↑ Nechaev, p. 228-230.
- ↑ Shane, 1902 , p. 162–163.
- ↑ Fishermen, 1987 .
- ↑ Klein, 2004 , p. 101.
Literature
- Klein, L.S. Resurrection of Perun. To the reconstruction of East Slavic paganism . - SPb. : Eurasia, 2004.
- Rybakov, B. A. Chapter 13. Pagan rites and festivals of the XI-XIII centuries. // Paganism of Ancient Russia / Reviewers: V.P. Darkevich, S.A. Pletnev. - M .: Science, 1987.
- Priest Simeon Nechaev. “Nothing of religious rites and superstitions in the Bogomlsky parish, Borisov district”. Minsk. Diocese. Vѣdom. 1874, No. 7, unofficial, pp. 229-30.
- Shein P.V. Materials for the study of everyday life and the language of the Russian population of the North-West Territory. Collected and brought into order P.V. Sheinom. Tom III. Description of the home, clothing, food, employment; transmission of time, games, faith, customary law; sorcery, witchcraft, sorcery, treatment of illnesses, remedies for misfortunes, beliefs, superstition, acceptance, etc. - SPb. : Printing House of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1902. - 535 p. Archived April 2, 2015 on Wayback Machine