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« 2022. # 6 (168)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2022. № 6 (168), 1247—1254

UDK 930.2:[271/.272-565:398.332.416](=1:477:438-192.2)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2022.06.1247

RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION AS A FORM OF ETHNIC INTERCOMMUNICATION AT THE UKRAINIAN-POLISH BORDER

CHMELYK Roman

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4052-029X
  • Doctor of Historical Sciences, senior researcher,
  • Director, Lviv Historical Museum,
  • 6, Rynok Sq., 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: rchmelyk@gmail.com

Abstract. Ukrainian-Polish border as a place of everyday interethnic communication is a rich field for ethnological research, especially such scientific problem as the role of religiousness in the shaping of local identities.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the practices of celebration of such religious holidays as Christmas and Easter by Ukrainians (Greek Catholic, Orthodox) and Poles (Roman Catholic) as factors of interethnic discourse and traditional forms of coexistence in communities.

The source base of this publication is comprised of rich source material collected during ethnological expeditions in the Ukrainian-Polish border in 2006—2013.

Territorial scope of this research encompasses borderline areas of Lviv and Volyn Oblasts of Ukraine, as well as Subcarpathian and Lublin Voivodeships of the Republic of Poland.

Field survey material collected on the Ukrainian-Polish borderlands fully covers the object and subject of this research.

Methodological principles of systematic analysis and structural-contextological approach to analyzing filed material made it possible to substantiate the premise of common traditions of religious celebration being the result of functioning of a new kind of frontier: an open-end dynamic environment.

Shared celebration of religious holidays and respect for traditions of neighbors from other religious denomination became the result of continuous experience of interethnic communications conveyed through intermarriage, neighborly amicability, and long-term professional relationships.

Keywords: border, Ukrainians, Poles, religious celebration, interethnic communication.

Received 13.04.2022

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