Driving a bush ( walking with a bush, driving a bush ) - a ritual of a bypass type dedicated to the Trinity (less often to the day of Ivan Kupala ) and the eponymous character - dressed in verdure [1] .
The rite is common in the western regions of Ukrainian and Belarusian Polesie , in some places in the Grodno and Vitebsk regions; similar to other roundabout rites of the spring-summer cycle, the main object of which is a person dressed in green grass and tree branches (see Dodola , Green Yuri , Mermaid ).
Content
- 1 Description
- 2 See also
- 3 notes
- 4 Literature
- 5 Links
Description
The rite participant is usually a girl, less often an old woman. The girl is taken by lot, or the very fit, or an orphan teenage girl. Her whole was decorated with flowers, grass, branches so that even her face was not visible. In some places, the central figure of the procession was called the “maladaya” (bride, young wife), in which case other participants dressed in white clothes instead of the traditional green decoration.
Participants in the procession went around the house. Approaching the house, the “bush” bowed to the owners, and other participants asked for permission to sing: “How much more will the bush grow?” After receiving permission, they performed benevolent and great “bush” songs, for which the hosts gave them money and food (eggs, pies, bacon ) When going around houses, the “bush” usually behaved passively, and did not participate in singing. Other participants in the procession reported in songs that they were collecting money for clothes and shoes for the mummers.
In some cases, the owners asked the participants to visit their fields and gardens. In this case, the chorus joined the songs: “Dzeh bush vadzіlі, there is pashanіchanka radzila”. Then the girls returned to the owners and told them: "May God, so that you can live on such a crop, like our bush." For this, the owners gifted the girls.
After completing the rounds, participants outside the village tore the greens from the mummers, and burned it in a fire, threw it into the water, and threw it on a tree. The remnants of the branches of a woman could be taken home as a medicine or as a charm from mice in barns with grain [2] .
See also
- Spikelet driving
- Arrow driving
- Removal of Marena
- The funeral of Kostroma
- Seeing the mermaids
Notes
- ↑ Agapkina, Vinogradova, 2004 , p. 68.
- ↑ Agapkina, Vinogradova, 2004 , p. 68-69.
Literature
- Bush / Agapkina T.A., Vinogradova L.N. // 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. 68-69. - ISBN 5-7133-1207-0 .
- Sharaya O. West Polesie rite Bush: sociocultural features and symbolism // Gіstarynaya Brahma. - 2008. - No. 1 (23).
- Kitova S. Water of the bush at Polissa // Folk creativity and ethnography. - 1972. - No. 3. - S. 67-73.