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« 2026. № 5 (191)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 5 (191), 1477—1484

UDK 398.332.416:642.732.24(477.8)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

  • Received: 05.09.2026
  • Accepted: 10.09.2026
  • Published: ??.??.2026

THE MAGICAL ASPECT OF RITUAL ACTIONS WITH SPOONS IN THE CHRISTMAS EVE TRADITION OF THE BOYKOS

SEREBRYAKOVA Olena

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1039-2920
  • Candidate of Historical Sciences (= Ph.D. in history).
  • Senior researcher of the department of Modern Ethnology
  • of the Ethnology Institute
  • of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: o-sereb@ukr.net

Abstract. The aim of the article is to highlight the layer of customary and ritual, worldview phenomena associated with use of spoons on the territory of Boyko’s region. The information obtained during field research on the territory of Boykivshchyna region is introduced into scientific circulation, systematized and analyzed.

The object of the research is the conventional worldview and customary-ritual culture of the residents of Boykivshchyna region; the subject is the magical and ritual use of spoons, which existed among the Boykos during the Christmas Eve.

The ceremonial time, places and the performers of magic-ritual actions (children, host, hostess, unmarried girls and boys) are set. The local differences, customary rules, ritual taboos, and more are described. Attention was drawn to the practice of performing additional rituals to bring the livestock together. Information was uncovered regarding the «material» used to tie together spoons after Christmas Eve dinner. Examples of imitative and verbal magic are presented. The actional and attributive level, semantics, specific interpretations of the studied magic and ritual customs, the magical properties of ritual objects, local variations and the current state of these phenomena. The analysis shows that the magical and ritual actions examined serve a protective purpose.

The basis of the article are the materials of the field research, local history essays, works of the second half of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. The methodology of this research is based on general scientific methodological principles and the basic requirements that apply to the works of historical and ethnological direction.

Keywords: Boykivshchyna, spoons, hay, straw, tying, sheaf, table.

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