Traditional Elements of Ukrainian Ethnoculture in Christening Ceremony on Kozelechchyna

Author

Otroshko Liubov – a research fellow at Ukrainian Ethnology Department of the Research Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Traditional Elements of Ukrainian Ethnoculture in Christening Ceremony on Kozelechchyna

Abstract

The article Comparative Analysis of Traditional Elements of Ukrainian Ethnoculture in Christening Ceremony on Kozelechchyna carries out a comparative analysis of conventional and modern elements of Ukrainian ethnoculture in christening ceremony in southwestern Chernihiv Polissia. It analyzes the traditional elements of Ukrainian ethnoculture in the modern christening ceremony in the Kozelets district. It is proven that traditional elements of culture in the christening ceremony have been basically preserved, although they have undergone some transformations.

This study permits reconstructing the structure of traditional christening ceremony by distinguishing regional features of holding this sacred familial action and tracing the safety of traditional elements in modern christening ceremony.

Based on evidences of respondents and auctorial own observations, as well as on relevant ethnographic materials collected and worked up by scholars in the late 19th – early 21^st centuries, the authoress discriminates three stages of studies: pre-revolutionary scientific and popular-science editions of the mid- to late 19th to early 20^th centuries; Soviet and diaspora publications of the 1920s–1990s; and the research of domestic scholars of Ukrainian independence period (1990s to early 21st century).

Modern christening ceremony, having sustained imperial, Soviet and other influences, yet at its core retained folk conventional elements. One of the most significant places, both in the times of yore and nowadays, is traditionally occupied by water, whose healing properties are used in christening ceremony. There have been preserved traditional attributes of baptismal ceremony such as cross, christening towel, festive attire, etc.; however, they have acquired a modern appearance and become more exquisite and valuable. The role of an old woman as an intermediary between a family and a church has been levelled, nevertheless, an elderly woman having her happy family and being close to a family is still invited to be engaged in obstetrics. According to the custom, a baba (midwife) has to cook a ritual porridge (midwife’s porridge), or to bake kalachs (a kind of dough roll), and to take part in a festive regale and an after-christening ceremony (on the next day) – pokhrestyny. At performing a modern christening ceremony, the institution of godparenthood has been preserved almost in its full.

At christening ceremony, preserved are both proper christening in a church and regaling in honour of a lying-in woman and a newborn child, in accord with folk traditions. The ritual of church baptism has been considerably modernized; however, at its core, there still remain some traditional elements as a tribute to ancient traditions. At present, Orthodox families in Ukrainian Polissia mostly try to adhere to the conventional religious ceremony of christening and arrange regales about christening on the occasion of christening at home or in a restaurant, on which kinsmen and close friends are invited. Due to conservatism of a religious ceremony, all necessary for its holding is ruled by church discipline.

Keywords

Kozelets, christening ceremony, baba (midwife), institution of godparenthood, godparents, christening in a church, regale, beliefs.

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