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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 2 (188), 365—375

UDK 398.332.416(477.86/.87)(045)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

  • Received: 12.03.2026
  • Accepted: 17.03.2026
  • Published: ??.??.2026

RITUAL WASHING OF CHRISTMAS BREAD AND SHEAF IN BOYKIVSHCHYNA

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 
  • 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 Christmas bread and sheaf 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 archaic customs of ritual washing of the Christmas bread and sheaf, which existed among the Boykos during the Christmas and Epiphany holidays. The ceremonial time, places and the performers of magic actions (host, hostess, children, unmarried girls) are set. The local differences, interpretations, beliefs, custom instructions are characterized. Local names of ritual bread and sheaf are revealed. The shape, decoration, weight of the Christmas bread are also worth attention. Beliefs in their magical properties, as well as water and other objects are considered. Examples of contact and verbal magic (sayings, prayers). The actional and attributive level, semantics and local features of existence, peculiar motivations of the studied magic customs are revealed. The analysis shows that the considered ritual phenomenon had a productive, protective, cleansing and marital functions.

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, bread, sheaf, water, washing.

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