Folk and Christian elements in the calendar holidays of the Sedelnikovsky district of the Omsk region

Abstract

The article is devoted to the characteristics of manifestations of folk and Orthodox traditions in the micro-local calendar tradition of the Sedelnikovsky district of the Omsk region. Based on audio recordings from 2009, the authors consider the Christmastide, Lent, Easter, Trinity complexes, calendar-timed memorial days and days of memory of especially revered saints, the ritual of praying for rain during the summer drought. Examples of calendar folklore and Orthodox chants that exist in the folk song environment are given, as well as information about the ethnographic context of the performance of these works, contained in the oral stories of the bearers of the tradition. Based on these materials, a conclusion is formulated about the organic coexistence of elements from different ideological and cultural traditions, folk and Christian, in the calendar system of the Sedelnikovsky district. In some cases, the Christian content of a holiday or ritual is more vivid and obvious (Christmas, Easter, prayers against drought), due to the performance of church hymns on these days or at these moments. On other holidays or memorable dates, a purely folk understanding of the celebrated event prevails (Trinity, Soroki, parental days). In the composition of the actions, objective realities of a particular holiday, the ethnic affiliation of the informants – Belarusians and Russians – is not particularly clearly manifested. In the Christmastide cycle, Christmas has become the festive dominant, when along with the troparion, not only carols are sung, but also shchedrovki. The composition of the main Orthodox hymns is uniform: all performers know the Christmas and Easter troparia, while folk songs of Christmas and Easter are not reproduced by all bearers of the tradition. The musical appearance of Orthodox hymns, existing in the folk tradition, with rare exceptions, is as close as possible to canonical church models.