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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2023. № 1 (169), 58—69

UDK 930.2:[392.1:392.51](477.86=161.2)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2023.01.058

CUSTOMS, RITES AND BELIEFS, ASSOCIATED WITH THE CHURCH WEDDING OF THE NEWLYWEDS IN POKUTTIA

HOROSHKO-POHORETSKA Lesya

  • ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8741-2467
  • Candidate of Historical Sciences (= Ph.D. in history),
  • Senior Researcher at the Ethnology Institute
  • of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • Svobody Avenue, 15, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: horoshyna@gmail.com

Abstract. The relevance of the mentioned topic is evidenced by the living existence of the wedding ceremony in the Ukrainian tradition. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to consider a complex of customary and worldview phenomena related to the creation of a new family. The object of the study is the traditional worldview and custom-ritual culture of the inhabitants of Pokuttia, and the subject is the customs, rites and beliefs, associated with the church wedding of the newlyweds in Pokuttia. Among the pre-marriage rites the father’s blessing and the last dance of the newlyweds, sprinkling with holy water and grain (sugar) of the young couple are described. The road to the church was accompanied by a number of customary and worldview realities, which aimed to ensure a happy fate for the future spouses (lining up of wedding guests, leading the newlyweds out of the house on a canvas, moving «after the sun», bowing to fellow villagers, etc.). The omens that, according to the beliefs of the inhabitants of Pokuttia, could indicate the fate of the future couple (burning candles, falling of a wreath, crown, necklace, shawl, or the bride’s ring), as well as magical actions by which the newlyweds tried to secure the headship of the family, were also analyzed (squatting on the clothes of the chosen one, tearing the kalach, etc.).

The basis for the research are the materials of the author’s field research during 2013—2014 in the villages of Kolomyjsky, Gorodenkivsky, Sniatynsky, Tlumatsky and Tysmenytsky districts of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, and works of the end of nineteenth and the beginning of twenty-first centuries. The methodology of this work is based on general scientific methodological principles and the basic requirements that apply to the works of historical and ethnological direction.

It was found out that the ethnolocal version of the wedding customs of Pokuttia has specific Ukrainian features. At the same time it conserves the distinctive manifestation.

Keywords: church wedding, wedding, newlyweds, groom, bride, Pokuttia.

Received 19.12.2022

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