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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2023. № 3 (171), 511—524

UDK 392.51+393.95(477)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/nz2023.03.511

WEDDING RITUAL TREE AMONG UKRAINIANS: FUNCTIONS AND MYTHOLOGICAL MEANING

SILETSKYI Roman

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1451-5908
  • doctor of Sciences in History, professor,
  • Department of Ethnology,
  • Ivan Franko National of Lviv,
  • 1, Universytetska Street,79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: r.sileckyj@gmail.com

Abstract. The article is devoted to the traditional wedding ceremony of Ukrainians, which preserves many archaic features and has numerous local features.

The object of attention is the ceremonial wedding tree («giltse», «wiltse», «kositsya», etc.), as one of the most stable and important attributes of the marriage ritual of Ukrainians and other European (primarily Slavic) peoples.Despite the interest of ethnologists (ethnologists, folklorists) in the traditional wedding rituals of the Ukrainian people, as evidenced by numerous publications, the ritual wedding tree, in particular its ritual functions and semantics, remains unexplored. It is this circumstance that actualizes the chosen topic of the article. In the proposed attention of the reader of the publication, a complex of ritual actions, beliefs, ritual regulations related to the manufacture and use of twigs in the wedding ceremony is considered.In the proposed attention of the reader of the publication, a complex of ritual actions, beliefs, ritual regulations related to the manufacture and use of twigs in the wedding ceremony is considered.

The purpose of the study is to clarify the function of the ceremonial wedding tree in the traditional marriage ritual of Ukrainians and its semantics — the mythological content of the said ceremonial attribute.

The object of study is the traditional wedding ceremony of Ukrainians.

The subject of the study is the ritual functions of the wedding branch as an attribute of the wedding ceremony, the clarification of the philosophical foundations of the origin of the ritual tree.

The territorial boundaries of the study cover the entire settlement area of ​​the Ukrainian ethnic group (Volyn, Polissia, Middle Dnipro region, Slobozhan region, Pokuttia, Carpathians, Steppe Ukraine) with the involvement of comparative material from Slavic and non-Slavic peoples of Europe.

The chronological framework of the study is mainly limited to the 19th — the beginning of the 21st centuries, which is determined by the state of the source base.At the same time, the conclusions go far beyond the specified chronology.

Research methods — the principle of historicism, historical-comparative method, typological, complex and retrospective analysis, historical reconstruction were used to achieve the goal.

Keywords: ethnology, Ukrainians, wedding rites, funeral rites, memorial signs, beliefs, memorial customs.

Received 26.04.2023

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