SLFK 212, March 30, 2004
Russian and Ukrainian birth customs
With something like birth, where there is a big physical component involved, cultures feel that what they are doing is dictated by biological necessity
Some of it may indeed be
Prechtel on universals, esp. among those cultures close to nature
He may be right
There is a great deal of folk wisdom, which I follow
The experimental component of folk wisdom
Lots of it SEEMS biological to the culture in which it is practiced
Can be shown to be cultural through comparison to other cultures
Swaddling is good example
The reasons for it
Scratching
Straight limbs
Baby likes it; it is like womb
But Americans don’t do it and kids are just fine
Comparison of biological elements and cultural
The 3, 7, 40 days may be based on biology
How to tell cultural elements when they fit other parts of the culture
American desire for aggressive personality and slap kid to get it to start breathing after birth
Other cultures place on mom, treat kid much more gently
Want passive personality
Swaddling supposedly gives you passive personality big time
You learn to put up with all sorts of shit
Supposedly why Russian peasants put up with what they did under tsarist rule
Then BURST forth in revolution
Slavic ideas of the baby’s body (and personality) as malleable
Molding of the child, esp. head, by the midwife
Swaddling is a type of molding
Americans think it is set
You don’t mold the baby
You find out your personality, aptitude
Go through baptism
Soviet effect on baptism practices
Considered so important, still done during the Soviet era
But needs to be done in secret and can’t always be done at the right time
Now, the time is quite flexible, as a result of the Soviet era
Lots of mini rituals of childhood
You could argue that a child is an anomalous being and needs these
The perekhid, mladenchik an obligatory childhood seizure
May actually have basis in fact
Different ideas about death and the relationship of body and soul
About death it is feared, but not in the same way as here
Here you pretend it is not coming, though less so now
Euphemisms of passing away
Going to sleep child reaction to this
Deceased is “loved one” not body
There, you get ready, though you should not know exactly when you will die
Death is seen as the time when you finally get to rest
To no longer have the cares of the world
But also horrible, and horrible in the sense that you are eaten by worms
This is in some folk songs
Person, usually daughter, misses mother and says take me with you
Mother speaks from the grave and says you don’t really want to be here
One aspect that shows you that coming of death is good is that prolonged death is seen as bad; indication that something is wrong
When the time comes, your soul should see angels and want to join them
Your body should long to lie on/in the ground
Prolonged death agony not good
Soul clings to life
Should want to go to the heavenly kingdom
If it clings, something is wrong
Like spirit possession and it is usually malevolent spirit
Or person was a witch or a sorcerer
Or unresolved conflict, debt in this life
Perhaps something the person wanted and never got all the more reason not to have excessive desire
The 2 types of goodbye in Russian
How to help out if person is having a hard time dying, taking a long time
Imagine US hospitals and how long the terminally ill or just very elderly kept on life support, or the extreme measures to prolong life
How to help die in Russia
Laying on ground body longs for this as soul sees angels or devils
Lighting the way
Making death “soft” straw or lamb’s skin
Sheep as chthonic animal in tales
Straw and dead vegetation associated with the dead
Put in coffin or under coffin
Breaking central roof beam, konek ‘
Like the doors deal with a woman in delivery
Extreme cases, sorcerer, witch
Breaking the roof over the place where the dying person is lying
Vigil over dying person
Or dying person asks to be left alone
Vigil seems to be more common
The point when the soul leaves the body is very dangerous
People needed to “watch over” the situation and make sure that nothing is done to either the body or the soul
Once person is dead, preparation of the body
Washing right in the house
Talking to the corpse to get it to move when it is in rigor mortis
Laying on straw
Age of women who get to wash the corpse
Zhytto in the bra method
Helene Sanko and washing dad
Why can’t the deceased by washed in the bathhouse?
What is done with the water used to wash the deceased?
Should be thrown in a place where no one will ever walk
Can be used as medicine to dull, “deaden” pain
Can be used for casting nasty spells
Tying the arms and legs for when rigor mortis sets in
Remnant of the shroud
The ropes used for this are called puty
Must be removed when the person is buried so that person can walk around freely in the other world
May be stolen by witches and sorcerers and used like the “dead” water
Dressing the body, and giving the deceased all of the things he or she will need in the afterlife
Corpse has to spend the night in the house
Here you have to have a vigil for sure
Animals jumping over corpse
Pranks with the corpse
Pokoianie symbolism of the corpse stood up
Treatment of the water in the house
Clocks
Mirrors
Deceased not to “cling” to something, not to linger
Back to water
Recall water and rusalki
Water during the wedding
As a way to fend off curse of the pregnant woman
Link between water and mirrors
In rusalki stories
Both are “window” or portals to the other world
Water and mirror what the babka I met did with the mirror during her molitvy when I got my village incantation treatment
Body laid out on a bench in the icon corner
Salt on tummy
Puty
Coins on eyes
Question of will the body putrefy
The petrified saints
Lenin
Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov and Father Zosima
Icon lamp kept constantly lit
Position of body hand crossed
Head in icon corner feet pointing toward the door
Helps soul leave
Body-soul connection versus body-soul separation
Obviously there is a great deal of conflict here
Body and soul SHOULD separate
Body decay in the earth
Soul go to the other world, the land of spirits
But the things that happen in the other world are seen in very concrete and corporeal terms
The comfortable shoes
The removal of the puty
The necessity of food, drink
There is often a towel and a glass of water left for the deceased for 40 days
Kolivo can be left out
When lying in the house, body can be in coffin
More often on cloth and coffin prepared after death
By neighbors, not relatives
Avoidance of direct contact with the deceased, esp. by males
Sometimes coffin carried with gloved hands, or hands wrapper in kerchiefs
Contents of coffin
Straw
Herbs
Cloth underbody usually lies on this in the icon corner and picked up this way to be placed in the coffin
Placing things needed for the journey and the afterlife
Favorite things, including pipe or smokes, vodka
Hat, kerchiefs (spares)
Work implements: ax, spindle
Money for the journey usually put in at the end, like at graveyard
In some areas, also food for the journey
The “passport” or prokhidna or provodnychok
Paper wreath on the head
Laying out of body in coffin, or on cloth and lifted and placed inside
Coffin can be outdoors or no
Laments
Regular vigil members
Lamenters should be all
Women of a certain age can be professional lamenters
Lament stories
You should not learn lament; it should come naturally
But they all know traditional formulas and can complete any formula we start
Tale of girls playing lament and what happens to girl playing dead person.
Who should lament and how much
Lament contents
Account of life
And of death
Description of the journey of the soul in the land of the dead
Soul sits in the icon corner
Soul hovers near the body
Soul goes and visits god
Soul goes through the mytarstva 20/21 of them; or 40?
Steps of the funeral, then more on body/soul connection and what happens after death
Service in the home is one option
The 9 candles held by the relatives and passed back more evidence of the corporeal nature of the afterlife
Removal
At doorway either great care to avoid touching, so that soul will not “cling”
Or knocking 3 times to give the deceased a chance to say goodbye
In yard more goodbyes (can be in the home before the body/coffin is carried out)
Sprinkling of holy water
Leaving the yard and the gate
Zhytto whole rye berries; some places yes and others no
The closing of the gates
Water
Rushnyk
Some people stay behind to clean up and prepare for the wake
The procession down the road
At least some part of it must be on foot
Icon
Picture of the deceased
Both in rushnyky
Cross
Flowers
Coffin lid
Priest and pevcha
Coffin on the nary/mary
Relatives
Friends and others
Three stops at crossroads
Must stop at ALL crossroads and must stop at least 3 times
Laments, prayers
People sit by the roadside, wait for procession and join in
Prohibition on looking a procession through a window
Entry into graveyard
Church service?
At grave this is already dug
Additional service or prayers
Laments and kissing goodbye
Closing the lid and lowering the coffin on the special towels
Zapechatuvannie the 4 cuts
(Soviet era alternative)
All relatives throw a handful of dirt
Closing the grave
Cookies and candy passed out in graveyard for the commemoration of other deceased
You give for the sake of your own relatives
Return to the home of the deceased
Wash hands 3 times in the yard
The wake and meal
Kolivo or kanun
3 spoons are obligatory from ALL present
Then meal kisel’ is the last item
Singing of psalmy
All go home
Taking the deceased a meal to the grave the next morning
Commemoration 3 days after
(6), 9 and 40 days
Then 6 months and 1 year
Then the deceased enters the category of ancestors and is commemorated on special ancestor days
These come at certain times of the year, NOT tied to the date of death
Up to 1 year, commemorations tied to date of death
After that, no