Article

Name: Mordovian calendar-ritual folklore-ethnographic complex of Siberian existence (spring-summer period)

Authors: P. S. Shakhov

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The paper considers the national calendar of the Orthodox Mordva, as a code system that is an organic symbiosis of the Orthodox Christian and pre-Christian agricultural calendar and analyzes it through the prism of ethnic terminology and various ritual parameters (temporal, spatial, personal, actional, attributive, verbal and musical). The spring-summer period in the Siberian Mordovian traditions is represented by Maslenitsa, Forgiveness Sunday, the Great Lent Period, the Memory Day of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Palm Sunday. The central holiday is Easter followed by the Ascension and the Trinity. The folklore-musical code of the Maslenitsa is represented by Russian lyrical songs, as well as Erzya children's and Moksha abusive songs. During the Great Lent Period, singing songs was forbidden except in the Erzya village Borisovo of Altai Krai, where young girls, having climbed on the roofs of houses, sang «lenten» songs with erotic motifs. The Moksha folklore-verbal formulas mark the following festive actions: the appeal of children to the birds, the ritual «awakening» of children for the Forgiveness Sunday and the pre-Easter round of courtyards with a prayer. From Easter till the Trinity, the period of spring and summer round dances began, and during the rounds of houses, the troparion was performed. The Russian round and lyrical songs have become a part of the Easter-Trinity song cycle of the Siberian Mordva. Along with the seeing-off ritual of the Maslenitsa, also being common among Russian people, the calendar-ritualethnographic complex of Siberian Mordva includes the ritual situations of the Easter and the Trinity (Spring) seeing-off that are held a week after the holiday dates. The Seeing off the Spring was accompanied by youth festivities, mummering and burning the horse scarecrow behind the village, with all being marked with a musical code. The author makes the conclusion that many elements of the spring-summer period that were reconstructed demonstrate a high degree of inclusion of calendar rituals in the Siberian Mordovian existence.

Keywords: siberian mordva, folk calendar, field studies, ethnic terminology, code system, folklore-ethnographic complex

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