THE "EXTINGUISHING BARN FIRE" RITUAL AS THE WEDDING FINAL STAGE IN THE LOCAL GROUPS OF THE SLAVIC POPULATION IN PRITOMIE
A. A. Rubleva
a:2:{s:4:"TYPE";s:4:"TEXT";s:4:"TEXT";s:115:"Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS, 17, Acad. Lavrentiev аve., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation";}
Keywords: Pritomie, XX century second half, traditional rural wedding, “extinguishing barn (ovin) fire” ritual, intercultural interaction, Siberian immigrants and old-timers
Abstract
A wedding ceremony of “extinguishing barn fire” completing the wedding celebration was recorded during the ethnographic expedition of 2018-2019 in Pritomie (Mariinsk, Chebulin and Tyazhin districts). The article objective is to describe this rite that existed in the second half of the XX century and was characterized by great variability. The main research source are stories of villagers about the wedding traditions of the second half of the XX century. The author uses techniques of interviewing, photo, audio and video recording of field materials, as well as a descriptive method. One of the variants of the “extinguishing barn (ovin) fire” ritual (“ovin” could contain hay, straw, etc.) involves a married couple and wedding guests jumping over the fire. Sometimes the ritual included checking the household skills of a newlywed: she was sweeping up litter. In addition, the “ovin” could be set on fire in a cart and carried around the village. The ritual of “extinguishing barn (ovin) fire” was played out in many cases as a comic bath where the newlyweds and wedding guests were “taking a steam bath”. Sometimes, the guests who extinguished the “barn” (ovin) fire smeared soot on their faces from the fire. The process of smearing could turn into mummers’ walking around the village. This ritual was not typical only of Pritomie. It was common for the Middle Povolzhie, Ter’, Rostov Regions, etc. The variants of “extinguishing barn (ovin) fire” ritual described in the publications do not contain any mention of the combined actions recorded such as smearing faces with soot, walking mummers, and a comic bath. The collected ethnographic material does not make it possible to trace belonging of each variant of the “ extinguishing barn (ovin) fire” ritual to a specific ethnocultural group. On the author’s view, the reason for such variability of the ceremony in Pritomie could be the population’s ethnocultural diversity (old-timers of Siberia - chaldons, yasaks, Russian immigrants, Ukrainian and Belarusian immigrants), whose wedding traditions were complementary as a result of mixed marriages.
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