SLFK 214, March 16, 2004
We have already noted, following Turner, that ritual is very structured
This then permits the anti-structure that is characteristic of the liminal period
Turner gets structural ideas from VanGennep
Separation leading into the limens
Then the transitional period of the limens itself
Then reincorporation, reintegration - back to normal once the limens is past
Pre-limens tends to be period of cleansing
Spring cleaning before Easter
The various fasts and this is true of the Christmas period which is where I stopped last time
The Advent fast is not as strict as Great Lent before Easter, but fast nonetheless
Day before Christmas, as in Christmas Eve - complete fast = no food at all until the first star
Evening star supposed to be like Star of Bethlehem
Youngest (most liminal) child sent out to look for it
Already mentioned the meal with the 12 Lenten dishes to affect the crops in all 12 months of the year
When discussing the dishes, mentioned that the stuff that is esp. magical unites qualities of the animal and the vegetable
Veggie product that mimics animal product - poppy seed milk
Compare to marshmallow which is a US holiday food
US also makes animals out of vegetable substances, as in all the chocolate animals, eggs
General feeling of union - which these foods symbolize
This is Turner's communitas Russian style
Union of man and nature
Union of man and animal
Treats for all of the farm animals - usually cookies
Blessing on animals (in US it is usually done on Thanksgiving)
Food also goes to all sorts of people
Gift to midwife
Gifts to beggars
Comparable to American food exchange
Christmas parties
Gifts to service people
The special role of carolers
This should happen during the Lenten Christmas Eve meal - kids come
Older carolers come towards New Year
Russian carol is analogous to US trick or treat
Christmas time koliady
Group of children
Go from house to house
Sing carols and get treats
Nature of carols has some analogy to trick-or-treat
As in carols threaten
Then wish good things to the members of the household
Good things have to do with house, crops, cattle and the family, like lots of children
Nature of gifts in response to the carols
Food and type of food chosen
Tends to be fatty
As opposed to American sweet
The gift of the lock of combed and carded, but unspun flax
Magic of cloth and this is new beginning cloth (or cloth to be)
Used also on umbilical cord of babies
How food is eaten, American and Russian
American is very individualistic
Each kids has his own bag and gets to eat his own candy
Russian, communal bag
One kid carries bag with goodies for all that will be divided and SHARED
Another kid carries the lantern that was once probably representative of the sun and now stands for the star of Bethlehem
Caroling by older groups
In this country, tends to be young adults of both sexes
Look at content of American carols; they have to do with matching up and getting married
Note mistletoe also
Slavic one is a male debutant parade of sorts
They are both warding off the ancestors and parading their assets
Already mentioned union of generations alive now and the ancestors
Special period when ancestors return and showed the various costumes
Usual structure I know
St. Andrew's Eve is more raucous
Then Christmas is solemn and serious
The dressing up comes with New Years
Christmas in Western Ukraine video
The video is kind of a potpourri
Mixes Christmas and New Years and mixes celebrations in 3 villages
In this material reversals are of normal behavior
If status it is NOT high/low because there is just not that much difference between the various village dwellers
Rather it is child/adult
And as they saw with the preparing of the didukh (and with other events) male/female
Other Post-holiday events
New Years and fooling around
The Christmas plays
Other games at this time - including mock funeral
Fortune-telling
Done at this time
As well as St. Andrew's Eve
Epiphany and the water festival
Honoring both Christ and St. John the Baptist
If Christmas is associated with fire, this is the water festival
Blessing of the waters
The non-religious version of Epiphany is called Khreshchenie
Again associated with John the Baptist
This is a water festival (to balance the one at midsummer?)
Go down to river or lake
Cut hole in ice
In shape of cross
Height of a man
Priest blesses water
People take this water and keep it, like in the Snopot video
Use for health, self and others (cattle)
More extreme version - priest throws in cross and men dive for it
Male "sacrifice"
Mock?
Please recall the male sacrifice in conjunction with ancestor cult
Epiphany comes 12 days after Christmas
American On the first day of Christmas, etc. song
Dundes parody
So, this is all highly symbolic - not just in Russia, but US
What is the symbolism?
What does it mean?
Why is it there?
We will have a quick look at Bogatyrev and then the rest of the year
Start with material in US
Holiday season is late fall to New Years, as in Thanksgiving to New Year (or maybe creep and start earlier)
US Christmas
Communitas - cards and/or gift-giving
Including those horrible letters: during the past year my family and I
Office parties and reversal of status, normal behavior
Guy in red suit - can be interpreted as a vegetation fertility symbol
Stays fat even though he lives at the North Pole where nothing grows
Is married to Mrs. Claus, but not babies; only elves
Thus he is productive rather than reproductive like the terracotta goddess figurines
Please notice that elves are super-productive - make all those toys
How Santa travels
How he enters house
Other seeming remnants of vegetation fertility
The tree - which is sacrificed by dad and son
Use of all sorts of evergreen things
Big festival of lights - sun magic?
Then there is a period of quiet
Recall need for alternation - ritual and ordinary days
Structure and anti-structure
True there are various minor holidays
Ground Hog Day
Valentine's Day
President's Day
But the big stuff comes toward the equinox, as in Easter
There are various secular celebrations also, such as Dogwood Festival
Easter has a serious religious side and a side that is not so serious and not so religious, at least not contemporary mainstream religion
Easter Bunny
Easter egg hunt
The various foods of Easter - marshmallow peeps, chocolate bunnies
The jelly bean "eggs"
The dressing up aspect of Easter - Easter Parade and showing off your clothes
The spring cleaning aspect
Seems to have a pagan element - bunny is associated with sex
Eggs are associated with new life and the sun - sunny side up as a cooking method
The showing off of wealth is like potlatching
So what is up?
Other than the reversal aspect of Easter (you get to overeat foods that are not good for you), what are people doing and why?
Easter egg hunt at Church of Our Savior and Mrs. Hallock as the Easter Bunny