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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. № 5 (185), 1115—1125

UDK[398.34:398.4]:582.28]:140.8(=1:477.86/.87)”18/20″(091)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

THE TRADITIONS OF MUSHROOM PICKING: HISTORICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC ASPECTS

TSURKAN Mariana

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4267-5157
  • Candidate of Historical Sciences (PhD in History),
  • Researcher at the Ethnology Institute
  • of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv,  Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: m_volowun@ukr.net

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to highlight the traditions of mushroom picking in Boikivshchyna as an integral part of the traditional culture and worldview of inhabitants of Carpathian region. In the article the idea of «mushroom happiness», ritual practices, omens and taboos of mushroom picking are highlighted. The seasonality of mushroom picking, superstitions associated with finding the first mushroom and the symbolism of mushroom picking in the folklore of Boikivshchyna region are analyzed. The main methods of processing and storing mushrooms for the winter period are described. Drying was the traditional method of storing mushrooms for the winter period in Carpathian region.

The process and the significance of mushroom picking as a supplementary household activity which integrated into the calendar cycle, family life and spiritual culture of the highlanders are investigated.

The object of the research is the process of mushroom picking in traditional culture of the highlanders as a component of household life and a bearer of ethnocultural meanings.

The subject of the article is folk beliefs, superstitions, omens, rituals, and verbal markers related to mushroom picking in everyday life of the residents of Boikivshchyna.

The author’s field ethnographic research materials in the villages of Hust and Mukachevo districts, Transcarpathian region in 2025, the ethnographic field studies T. Gontar which are preserved in the archive of the Ethnology Institute of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the scientific research of the nineteenth — twenty centuries are the source base of the article.

The research methodology is based on comparative-historical and descriptive methods, an interpretative approach and principle of scientific objectivity, systematization and the author’s observations.

Keywords: Boikivshchyna, ethnography, mushroom picking, beliefs, worldview, magic.

Received 5.09.2025

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