Traditional Festive Rituals in Modern Chuvash Culture

556 Yulia Krasheninnikova Acknowledgements The article is written for the project of RFH (No 14-04-00077a). Notes 1 All translations of texts from Russian into English are the work of the author. All local terms, folklore texts and quotations from interviews are in italics. Our explanations are given in the square brackets. The archive number and year of the folklore record are given in the round brackets. 2 In this case the term portit’sa means ‘to get spoilt’, ‘to spoil’ or ‘go bad’; it differs from the portit’ ‘to spoil or harm by witchcraft’. References Tolstoy, N. I. 1984. Fragment slavyanskogo yazychestva: arhaicheskiy ritual-dialog. In Slavianskiy i balkanskiy fol’klor. Etnogeneticheskaya obshchnost’ i tipologicheskie paralleli. Moskva: Nauka, pp. 5–72. Vlasov, A. N. and T. S. Kaneva. 2006. K probleme fenomenologii lokal’nyh tradiciy (po rezul’tatam issledovaniya fol’klornoy kul’tury Evropeyskogo Severo-Vostoka Rossii. In Narodnaya kul’tura Evropeyskogo Severa Rossii: regional’nye aspekty izuchenia. Syktyvkar: Syktyvkarskiy gosudarstvenny universitet, pp. 16–39. Zherebtsov, I. L. 1994. Gde ty zhivesh. Naselennye punkty Respubliki Komi: Istoriko-demograicheskiy spravochnik. Syktyvkar: Komi knizhnoye izdatel’stvo. Abbreviations AA – Author’s personal archive, records of 2006, 2009, 2010 years. ILLH – Folklore collection of the Institute of Language, Literature, and History of the Komi Research Centre, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Syktyvkar), AF – audio collection, VF – video collection. SA KomiSC – Scientiic Archive of Komi Scientiic Centre, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Syktyvkar). F – fond (collection), op. – opis’ (list), d. – delo (ile), l. – straniza (page). Ekaterina Iagafova, Valeria Bondareva Samara State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities, Samara, Russia Traditional Festive Rituals in Modern Chuvash Culture Abstract. The paper describes traditional elements of the ritual, represented in the current calendar holidays and customs of the two ethno-religious groups of the Chuvash – adherents of traditional beliefs (“pagans”) and the Orthodox Chuvash. In the modern ritual practice of both groups there still exist a number of traditional elements. The rituals described here represent the actual practice of modern festive and ceremonial life of both pagan and Orthodox Chuvash. They contribute to developing and strengthening of ethnic identity and to the consolidation of the community on various levels of social interaction (family and family-related groups, rural community, regional community). Key words: ritual, festive ceremonial culture, the Chuvash, pagans, Orthodox, traditional elements, syncretism Ritual practice in the culture of any people is determined by their way of life, economic and cultural activities and at the same time relects historical milestones. The formation of the festive ritual of Chuvash farmers was inluenced by the seasonality of agricultural cycles. The majority of these ceremonies were held in the spring, summer and autumn months, as periods of the most intensive agricultural work (Salmin 2004: 162–174). Rituals preceded farming activities, sanctioned them and were believed to ensure the welfare and material prosperity of the people who participated in the rites. By “traditional rituals” we mean items of cult practice dating back to the religious beliefs and practices within the so-called Chuvash “folk religion” – Chuvash faith (chāvash tēnē); the latter is often referred to as “paganism” in scientiic literature. Contrary to the opinion of Chuvash ethnographer Anton K. Salmin, who believes there is some “terminological awkwardness” in the concept of “traditional rituals” (Salmin 2007: 57), the authors of the paper think it is possible to use it in the meaning of well-established 558 Ekaterina Iagafova, Valeria Bondareva (and in this sense “traditional”) forms of religious behaviour of the members of ethno-cultural communities that have symbolic nature and are part of the tradition. At the same time, we cannot but agree with the above mentioned author that terminology in the ield of religious and ritual culture should relect the ethnic aspect (hence the proposed terms “folk ritual” and “folk rite”) and that the terms should be used in the native language. In the Chuvash language the complicated term yāla-yērke (literally “custom-order”) semantically corresponds to not only the concept of ritual and rite, traditionally differentiated in the Russian literature on the subject (Bayburin 1991, 1993; Toporov 1988), but to the concept of custom as well (Salmin 2007: 55–58). These arguments were taken into account in this study, the aim of which was to identify features of the functioning of “traditional rituals” in the modern festive ritual Chuvash culture. The system of religious beliefs and practices of the Chuvash is fairly well described in the publications of Gyula Mészáros (2000), Petr V. Denisov (1959), Anton K. Salmin (1990, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2007), Georgy E. Kudryashov (1974) and Ekaterina A. Yagafova (2007a, b), but the problem of its transformation in the process of modernization of the Chuvash society in the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century has been understudied. Focused study of the problem of religious syncretism with elements of traditional beliefs and rituals, the so-called “Chuvash paganism”, in modern Chuvash culture affected only ethnic and religious Chuvash-Muslim community (Yagafova 2011). The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to rectify this omission. The article describes the traditional ritual elements that persist in modern calendar celebrations and ceremonies of two ethno-confessional Chuvash groups – adherents of traditional chān chāvash (literally “true Chuvash”) faith and Orthodox Chuvashes. The modern festive ceremonial culture of both groups is a syncretic form of “paganism” and Orthodox traditions. This article was prepared using ield data collected in the Chuvash villages of the Ural-Volga region in 2001–2010 (E. Iagafova’s ield materials). The Chuvash “paganism” area historically covered all zones of the Ural-Volga region, but had signiicantly narrowed by the beginning of the 21st century and the number of unbaptized Chuvashes Traditional Festive Rituals in Modern Chuvash Culture 559 decreased from 17.8 thousand (at the beginning of the 20th century) to about 5 thousand. One thousand of these live in Samara Zavolzhie and more than 3.4 thousand – in the Zakamskiy districts of Tatarstan. The remaining local groups of unbaptized Chuvashes are settled in the Republic of Bashkortostan (more than 500 people), Ulyanovsk region and Chuvashia. The latter group is currently distributed among more than 40 villages (Yagafova 2007 a: 100). Sacriice rituals in honour of Tura the great god (uchuk, sumār chűk) and of domestic spirits (hűkleme, kilēsh pātti, etc), rituals of puriication (sēren, munkun) and propitiation of the spirits of ancestors (simēk, kalām kun / munkun, kēr sāri) still igure in the ritual calendar of unbaptized Chuvashes. Munkun is a signiicant, well-preserved ritual that starts on the Wednesday of Holy Week. On its eve a swing is erected and in some villages (New Aksubaevo) people ire guns and draw a borderline round the house with an iron object (timēr karta) on the night of munkun. In the morning, the irst guest to arrive at the house is seated on a pillow in order to ensure the safe arrival of the next brood of chicks (Chuvashskoe Shaymurzino). Also starting from the morning children collect coloured eggs while during the day people pay visits to male relatives – ret/ kalām pātti (literally “a row / kalām porridge”), beginning in the house of ancestors called tēp kil. In each house the chűkleme prayer is held, during which everyone faces the east and the senior man in the family says a prayer, thanking the god Tura for preserving the cattle during the winter and for the family’s wealth in the past year and asking the same for the next year. In the past, in every house people used to open a barrel of beer (pichke puslani) and nowadays there is the ritual of beer treat when personalized ladles of beer are served: savāsh kurki, sűre kurki. While walking from house to house people sing “guest” songs. In recent years the visit-paying tradition has been in decline. Instead, all the relatives get together to pray in the tēp kil. On the next day, Thursday, a ceremony for the commemoration of ancestors (vattisen kunē / vattisene hyvni) is held. This also includes paying visits to relatives and elements of hyvni (‘sacriice’), as well as the sāra kurki ‘beer treat’. The commemoration day ends with sēren – the repeated collection of eggs and other treats by adolescents and unmarried young men. After splitting into groups they 560 Ekaterina Iagafova, Valeria Bondareva Traditional Festive Rituals in Modern Chuvash Culture 561 visit all the houses of the village shouting “Sēren!” and making a noise with rattles. As the participants in the ceremony come up to a gate, they knock on it with sticks; the ritual is called sēren shakkani. They gather all the collected treats on the outskirts of the village, where they eat them and have fun around the bonire until midnight. At the end they burn the sticks and rattles, which are believed to have accumulated “evil” as the young men went through the village, so the third name of the ritual is shujtansene hāvalani (‘expulsion of the evil spirits’) (Staroye Afonkino). On Friday the saltak kēreki ritual is held only in families in which sons are in the army. One of the most striking elements of the ritual calendar of the unbaptized Chuvash is ‘summer prayer’ (uchuk), in which all the inhabitants of the village participate. Traditionally, ive species of animal (duck, goose, lamb, ram and bull) are brought during prayers in honour of Tura the Supreme God, his assistants and the spirits of water, light, and land. Nowadays, this sacriice procedure does not exist in all villages. In Staroye Afonkino it is observed only during the so-called ‘grand prayer’ (pysāk uchuk), which is held every three years and in Staroye Surkino only one kind of animal, usually a bull, is sacriiced today. In Yultimirovka village it is necessary irst of all to slaughter three sheep on behalf of all the villagers, after which people make individual sacriices. Those who wish to do this get in a queue and the head of the ritual distributes the names of spirits or deities, to which their sheep will be sacriiced. The list of spirits and deities consists of eight names and goes as follows: Turā amāshne, Pűlēhse, Kepene, Valle, Arhana, Hērlē şyra, Kashi chűka. Other sacriices are made with the saying: Aslinchen kēsēnnine, kēsēnninchen asline (“From old to young, from young to old”) which symbolizes kinship unity. Before its throat is cut water is poured over the sacriicial victim and people wait until it begins to shake, a sign that it is a godly beast. Near the victim they put a bowl with salt, in which the dough for a round cake (yusman) is later kneaded. The cake has three big tucks on its periphery (sāmsa – “nose”) and a hole in the middle (kāvapa – “umbilical cord”). During prayers they put the yusman next to the sacriiced meat together with millet or wheat porridge. People from Yultimirovka bring from home three little pashalu cakes (about 10 cm. in diameter) made of pastry and ive Figure 1. Uchuk Prayer in Staroe Afonkino, Shentalinskiy region, Samara Oblast, 1997. Photo by E. Iagafova. large yusmans (about 20 cm. in diameter). Tucks are made only on one cake which is brought by the man who makes the sacriices for the “sheep” prayer. Porridge is prepared in six cauldrons: ive of them with meat broth, in another one they add eggs; and there is one more cauldron in which they cook broth or soup. People have their meal only after the prayers, during which pieces of meat, pots of porridge, and the cake are presented one by one and the skins of the slaughtered animals are spread in front of worshippers facing the east. The leading worshipper cuts pieces of meat, the “nose” and “umbilical cord” of the cake, eats it and treats his closest assistants as well. The text of the prayer and of the whole procedure is described in detail in the ethnographic literature; there is also an archive description of the ritual as it took place in Staroye Afonkino village. The crucial point is that the prayer texts and the rite sequence are preserved as close to the original ones as possible. In Zakamie uchuk is included in the Semik-Troitsa cycle of ritual activity and is held on the Thursday after Orthodox Pentecost and 562 Ekaterina Iagafova, Valeria Bondareva one week after simēk – the day of annual commemoration, on which Chuvashes visit the graves of their ancestors and “feed” them with home-made pancakes, eggs, scallions, candies, cookies, fruit, and drinks. People crumble treats, put them on the ground, pour yupa on graves or special grave poles yupa, eat, and drink the remaining food before leaving the cemetery. On Sunday there is another rite after uchuk – sumār chűk ‘the prayer for rain’. Chuvashes cook porridge of milk, butter, cereal, green onion, and eggs collected by people from the same street. Traditionally, children intentionally destroyed a nest of a sparrows, bathed the parent bird in the river, put its chicks into eggshells on the water, and let them loat away saying: “Chir-chēr kaytār” (“Let diseases go away!”). Nowadays this ritual is no longer held or else imitation birds are fashioned from clay. Eggshells are strung on a stick struck into the ground by the river near the prayer place. The rite inishes with the pouring of water. In some villages both prayers merged into one or are held at different times in one day: uchuk – during the day, and sumār chűk – in the evening (New Aksubaevo, Klementeykino, Erepkino). During the semik ritual cycle in Staroye Afonkino the sabantuy / akatuy is also held. It is devoted to the completion of spring work and unites people not only of one village, but of the entire agricultural enterprise. For example, until recently Staroye Afonkino inhabitants have celebrated it together with Orthodox Chuvashes from Saleykino and Mordvinians from Podlesnaya Andreevka. Thus, sabantuy is not only an inter-confessional, but also an inter-ethnic holiday, which demonstrates rapid changes in the socio-economic situation of the village. The festival to celebrate the holiday includes a competition in strength and agility combined with a discotheque, an amateur artist concert and a fair. Games and uyav / vāyā round dances beginning on the day known as “Summer Nikola” and ending on Petrov day (dates observed by both groups) serve as a similar platform for inter-confessional dialogue. The activities are held jointly in mixed villages. Local “pagans” living in the same village with local baptized people have adapted well to their customs: they celebrated Easter together with the end of the munkun cycle (kēsēn munkun), chűkleme (Yultimirovka) and village holidays, combined with one of the largest Traditional Festive Rituals in Modern Chuvash Culture 563 Orthodox holidays such as Shrovetide (Novoye Ilmovo) or “Winter Nikola” (Novoye Aksubaevo), etc. The autumn sacriice called kērhi sāra is made on Thursday at the end of the lunar month, usually in late October. It is held at the same time as the commemoration of ancestors. Prayers to house spirits (kil-yish pātti) and cattle spirits (karta pātti) are still offered by unbaptized Chuvashes. They are held in certain locations; offerings of porridge and cakes pashalu and yusman are made during the prayers. In modern ritual practice there are still a number of traditional elements common for both religious groups. During the New Year cycle surhuri / sēnē sul / svetke the traditions of offering treats with dough balls, riazhenije (mumming or guising with masks and special costumes) and various types of fortunetelling (using rings, etc.) are upheld. During sāvarni Shrovetide sledging, pancake baking, a ritual meal, and paying visits with singing of special songs are widespread. Some of the rituals described above (for example, simēk, kēr sari) may be found in the culture of Orthodox Chuvashes. The kēr sari is carried out in both religions at the same time, while the simēk is celebrated on different days: unbaptized people hold it on Thursday, the Orthodox – on Saturday (Staroye Afonkino, Saleykino). Traditions which involve visit-paying and offering of treats are also to be found among Orthodox Chuvashes during munkun (Easter), but they name it in different ways: sāra pichki usni (‘opening the barrel of beer’), kalām pātti sini (‘treating with porridge of the kalam festival’). munkun ertel (‘artel of munkun’), kalām kun (‘the day of kalam’), kalām yērki (‘group of kalam’). In Sukkulovo, for instance, there are several stages of paying visits on the irst day. In the morning irhi ēskē is held, involving the closest relatives (parents and children, brothers and sisters); during the meal the head of a sheep, specially slaughtered for the holiday, is served, (hence the name of the holiday – surāh pus sini). Participants in this rite are called pus ertelē (literally “the team of the head”). By lunchtime other relatives visit the house of the oldest member of the family. The main dish of the meal is porridge, so participants in this stage are called pātā ertelē (literally “the porridge team”). People visit each other’s houses for one or even two days. 564 Ekaterina Iagafova, Valeria Bondareva Traditional Festive Rituals in Modern Chuvash Culture 565 The ritual known as Chűkleme was adapted to the Orthodox tradition better than any other one. It it well into the cult of Saints and nowadays some autumn-winter Christian holidays (Epiphany / Christmas / Winter Nikola) are celebrated as civic festivals by all the villagers. In most areas it kept its autonomy or merged with kēr sāri / avtan sāri (funeral rites), signiicantly changing the original principal division between the days of sacriice in honour of the spirits of ancestors and of oblation. Figure 2. Uyav Farewell in Devlezerkino, Chelno-Vershinskiy region, Samara Oblast, 2008. Photo by E. Iagafova. The most stable rituals in the Orthodox Chuvash villages of Zakamie are greeting and bidding farewell to summer with round dances and games called uyav. During the rites people perform a special type of song (uyav yurrisem), singing of which is forbidden at other times. The ceremonies of meeting or greeting and of bidding farewell ujav, using these songs, must take place in certain areas of the village (places set aside for games, on the outskirts of the settlement, on the borders between households, etc). A “pagan” – Orthodox syncretism appeared as Christianity spread in some Chuvash villages of Bashkiria where “paganism” had been traditionally strong. Local baptized Chuvashes understand that certain customs’ do not conform to Christian standards, but consider these customs as their own and do not intend to abandon them. They say: “Yālana tumasan pitē yāvār pulat, tessē. Savānpa epēr tāvatpār. Vylākh, sem’eshēn – pārakhmappār!” (“If you do not follow your customs, they say, life will be hard. That is why we follow and follow them. Whether it is for the sake of cattle or family – we will not forget them!”). The rainmaking rite called sumār chűk has turned out to be relatively stable. The reasons for this are: high demand for the ritual among farmers interested in encouraging optimal weather conditions for the ripening of crops, organizational convenience such as availability of products and few participants, and the dominance of the entertainment component: a common meal followed by splashing water on each other ensures that everybody has fun and that young people are kept entertained for the whole day. The sumār chűk rite became a syncretic “pagan”-Christian ceremony among baptized Chuvashes. Worshippers turn to Tura, at the same time mentioning Jesus Christ and crossing themselves (Uezybashevo). In Tyaterbashevo people think this custom is blessed by the Orthodox Church. Thus, traditional rituals form the basis of religious life for unbaptized Chuvash and are included in the actual practice of the modern festive ritual culture of Orthodox people. In both ethnic and confessional groups, they are the basic element of syncretized forms of religious practices. For the unbaptized, the Chuvash religion exists in the form of pagan-Orthodox syncretism with the dominance of traditional rituals, while for the baptized Chuvash it exists in the form of Orthodox-pagan syncretism, where the elements of the Chuvash folk religion in general complement the orthodox religious practices of the community. Traditional rituals are an important factor in the formation and strengthening of both ethnic identity and community consolidation among the Chuvash at various levels of social interaction: in families, family-related groups, rural communities, the regional community, and as the basis for inter-religious dialogue in both groups. 566 Ekaterina Iagafova, Valeria Bondareva Acknowledgement The research was accomplished with inancial support from the Russian Foundation for Humanitarian Studies (RFH), project No. 14-01-00360 “Festive Culture of Chuvashes at the Turn of the 20th-21st centuries”. Field materials by E. Iagafova: 2001–2010: 2001, Samara region, Shentalinsky area (Staroye Afonkino, Saleykino), Pohvistnevsky area (Staroye Gankino); 2002, Republic of Tatarstan, Aksubayevsky district (Novoye Aksubaevo, Staroe Timoshkino), Drozhzhanovsky district (Chuvashskoe Shaymurzino), Buinsky district (Runga, Starye Burunduki); 2003 Almetyevsky district (Staroye Surkino, Klementeykino); 2005, Nurlatsky area (Yakushkino, Erepkino) Cheremshansky district (Novoye Ilmovo); Republic of Bashkortostan, 2002, Ermekeevski area (Sukkulovo); 2003, Bakalinski area (Yultimirovka), 2004, Miyakinski district (Uyesybashevo), Sterlibashevski district (Tyaterbashevo). References Bayburin, Albert K. 1991. Ritual v sisteme znakovyh sredstv kultury. In Etnoznakovye funkcii kul’tury. Moskva: Nauka, pp. 23–42. —— 1993. Ritual v tradicionnoy kul’ture: Strukturno-semanticheskiy analiz vostochnoslavyanskih obryadov. Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka. Denisov, Petr V. 1959. Religioznye verovaniya Chuvash. 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Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest, vol. 42, no 2: 113–135. THE RITUAL YEAR 10 Magic in Rituals and Rituals in Magic Edited by Tatiana Minniyakhmetova and Kamila Velkoborská innsbRuck – taRtu 2015 Contents THE RITUAL YEAR 10 Magic in Rituals and Rituals in Magic The Yearbook of the SIEF (Société Internationale d’Ethnologie et de Folklore) Working Group on the Ritual Year General Editor: Emily Lyle Editors for this Issue: Tatiana Minniyakhmetova, Kamila Velkoborská Foreword Language Editors: Jenny Butler, Molly Carter, Cozette Grifin-Kremer, John Helsloot, Billy Mag Fhloinn, Emily Lyle, Thomas McKean, Neill Martin, Elisabeth Warner The Ritual Year and Magical Features 13 Lyle Emily (Edinburgh, Scotland) The Cosmic Connections of the Eight Key Points in the Indo-European Ritual Year 19 Gunnell Terry (Reykjavik, Iceland) The Background and Nature of the Annual and Occasional Rituals of the Ásatrúarfélag in Iceland 28 Håland Evy Johanne (Bergen, Norway; Athens, Greece) Magical Ceremonies during the Ritual Year of the Greek Farmer 41 The Yearbook was established in 2011 by merging former periodicals dedicated to the study of the Ritual Year: 9 volumes in 2005–2014. Mihaylova Katya (Soia, Bulgaria) The Fortune-Telling Customs of Andrzejki and Katarzynki in the Polish Ritual Year 61 Innsbruck, Tartu: ELM Scholarly Press. Publication is supported by the authors and the project IRG 225, Estonian Folklore Institute. Gierek Bożena (Kraków, Poland) Rituals of the Easter Period in Poland 70 Multari Anna (Messina, Italy) Coptic Magic and Its Phases 83 Lielbārdis Aigars (Riga, Latvia) Catholic Saints in the Latvian Calendar 91 Testa Alessandro (Pardubice, Czech Republic) The Re-Enchantment of Europe: “Traditional” Carnivals and the Belief in Propitiatory Magic (Two Ethnographic Cases from Italy and Czechia) 100 Mifsud Chircop Marlene (Msida, Malta) Good Friday Processions on Contemporary Malta 110 Layout: Liisa Vesik Front Cover Photo: Yuri Lisovskiy “Four Houses – Four Seasons” Front Cover Design: Andres Kuperjanov Advisory Board: Maria Teresa Agozzino, Marion Bowman, Jenny Butler, Molly Carter, Kinga Gáspár, Evy Håland, Aado Lintrop, Neill Martin, Lina Midholm, Tatiana Minniyakhmetova, David Stanley, Elizabeth Warner ISSN 2228-1347 ISBN (paper) 978-9949-544-54-7 © Authors SIEF Working Group on the Ritual Year Griffin-Kremer Cozette (Rambouillet, France) Doing Things Rightways and Three Times. From Maying Practices to Standard Procedures 121 Mag Fhloinn Billy (Limerick, Ireland) Sacriicial Magic and the Twofold Division of the Irish Ritual Year 130 Symbolism of Fire, Food, Ritual Objects and Magical Spaces Sedakova Irina (Moscow, Russia) Magico-Religious Symbolism of a Candle in the Slavic Calendar Rituals 141 Minniyakhmetova Tatiana (Innsbruck, Austria) Ritual Fire in the Annual Cycle of Udmurt Calendar Customs 152 Wilk Urszula (Warsaw, Poland) The Valencian Festival of Las Fallas as an Example of Symbolic Violence 162 Ek-Nilsson Katarina (Uppsala, Sweden) Folk Belief and Rituals about Bread in Sweden. Some Interpretations and Comparisons with Today’s Hipster Culture Shutova Nadezhda (Izhevsk, Russia) Ritual as a Means of Organizing the Traditional Udmurt Sacred Space (The late 19th – early 20th century) 213 Khudyaev Andrey (Arkhangelsk, Russia) Magic Ritual and its Spatial Structure in Archaic Cultures of the North 220 Verebélyi Kincső (Budapest, Hungary) Das Haus als geistiges Kraftfeld 230 Innovations in Traditions Gareis Iris (Frankfurt on Main, Germany) Politics and Magic in the Ritual Year: Case Studies from Pre-Columbian Peru to the Present 239 Rancane Aida (Riga, Latvia) Motifs of Sacriice in the Context of the Present-Day Search for Spiritual Experience in Latvia: Traditions and Innovations 248 171 Urboniene Skaidre (Vilnius, Lithuania) The Destruction of Religious Monuments in Lithuania in Soviet Times: Stories, Magic and Beliefs 258 Ramšak Mojca (Ljubljana, Slovenia) The Magic of Wine Marketing: Invented Rituals of Slovene Wine Queens 177 Divination, Fortune-telling Rychkov Sergey (Kazan, Russia) Magic of a Toast 187 Sánchez Natalías Celia (Zaragoza, Spain) Magical Poppets in the Western Roman Empire: a Case Study from the Fountain of Anna Perenna Kuhn Konrad (Basel, Switzerland) Relics from the ‘Lost Valley’ – Discourses on the Magic of Masks Voigt Vilmos (Budapest, Hungary) Rebus – Charms – Evil Forces – Magic 269 275 194 Tuczay Christa Agnes (Vienna, Austria) Necromancy from Antiquity to Medieval and Modern Times 203 Šaknys Žilvytis (Vilnius, Lithuania) 286 Magic or Entertainment? Marriage Divination and the Ritual Year in Lithuania Klimova Ksenia (Moscow, Russia) Fortune Telling in the Modern Greek Ritual Year 294 Vlaskina Nina (Rostov-on-Don, Russia) The Types of Divination Used by the Don Cossacks: Highlighting Areas of Distribution 303 Astral Objects, Plants and Magic in Healing Strategies Velkoborská Kamila (Pilsen, Czech Republic) Magic as practised by the Brotherhood of Wolves (Czech Republic) 384 Malita Joanna (Kraków, Poland) Magic in Everyday Life of Polish Wiccans 394 Kõiva Mare, Kuperjanov Andres (Tartu, Estonia) The Moon, Astronomic Objects and Symbolic Rites in Healing Strategies 313 Reasoning of Supernatural: Theory and Practice 405 Tchoekha Oksana (Moscow, Russia) Lunar Magic in the Modern Greek Folk Tradition 323 Savickaitė Eglė (Kaunas, Lithuania) Reasoning Supernatural Experiences: Rationalism and Intuition Mishev Georgi (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) Where Do You Come From, Ash? – I Come From a Pure Place. Magical Healing Practices from the Region of the Thracian Cult Center of Starosel, Plovdiv region, Bulgaria 335 Fournier Laurent Sébastien (Nantes, France) The Magic of Traditional Games: From Anthropological Theory to Contemporary Case Studies 414 422 Ippolitova Aleksandra (Moscow, Russia) Circumscription Ritual in Russian Herbals of the 17th–early 20th Centuries 346 Zanki Josip (Zadar, Croatia) Embodiment and Gender: Constructing Balkan Masculinities Sidneva Svetlana (Moscow, Russia) The Magic Herbs in the Modern Greek and Italian Calendar Customs 356 Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism, Paganism and Neo-Paganism, Cults and Wicca in the Old and New Traditions Sorcerers, Witches and Magic Practices Baiduzh Marina (Tyumen, Russia) Constructing the Image of Witch in Contemporary Russian Mythological Beliefs and Magical Practices 433 444 Zoric Snjezana (Seoul, Republic of Korea) The Magic of Performance in Korean Shamanic Ritual – gut 367 Betea Raluca (Berlin, Germany) Magical Beliefs for Stealing the Milk of Animals. A Case-study on the Romanian Villages in Transylvania (18th–19th Centuries) 453 Fehlmann Meret (Zurich, Switzerland) “The Earth’s Unseen Powers of Growth Need to be Nourished” – on Images of Seasonal Pagan Rituals in Popular Culture 376 Dillinger Johannes (Oxford, Great Britain) Treasure and Drache. Ritual and Economy in the Early Modern Period Sivilova Yana (Sofia, Bulgaria) Magic versus Rational Reasoning in Anecdotal Tale 460 Magic and Rituals in Family Tradition Analysing Magic in Rituals and New Field Researches Paukštytė–Šaknienė Rasa (Vilnius, Lithuania) Ritual Year of Godparents and Godchildren in Contemporary Society in Lithuania 471 Stolyarova Guzel (Kazan, Russia), Danilova Olga (Yoshkar-Ola, Russia) Magic in the Traditional Culture of the Russian Population in the Mari Region 479 Mykytenko Oksana (Kiev, Ukraine) Padlock and Key as Attributes of the Wedding Ceremony: Traditional Symbolism and Contemporary Magic (on the Material of the Slavic Tradition) 487 Rychkova Nadezhda (Kazan, Russia) Magic as Communication in Family Rituals of Russians in Tatarstan 497 Beyond the Threshold and Magic Value Pócs Éva (Budapest, Hungary) The Living and the Dead at the Time of the Winter Solstice in Central Eastern European Beliefs 507 Stahl Irina (Bucharest, Romania) The Nine Miraculous Graves: Seeking Help from Beyond 519 Neubauer-Petzoldt Ruth (Erlangen, Germany) The Year of Magical Thinking – Rituals and Magical Thinking in Autobiographical Literature of Mourning 532 Krasheninnikova Yulia (Syktyvkar, Russia) Magic Beliefs and Practices of Holy Thursday in the Modern Tradition of the Peasant Population of the Russian North (based on materials of the XXI century) 547 Iagafova Ekaterina, Bondareva Valeria (Samara, Russia) Traditional Festive Rituals in Modern Chuvash Culture 557 Koval-Fuchylo Iryna (Kyiv, Ukraine) Ukrainian Calendar Cry: the Magical Value and Functional Features of the Tradition 568 Graden Dorothy Clark (Valparaiso, USA) Archaic Magic as Background to Artistic Inspiration and Interpretation 579 The Authors 583 SIEF Working Group on the Ritual Year Inaugural Meeting 589 The Conferences 589 The Publications 590 Conference Memories 592