Wedding Ritual Games of Ukrainians (Typology and Semantics)

Author

Kurochkin Oleksandr

a Doctor of History, a professor, a senior research fellow at the Ukrainian Ethnological Centre Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine). ORCID ID: https:orcid.org/0000-0002-3365-7266

Wedding Ritual Games of Ukrainians (Typology and Semantics)

Abstract

The submitted research fills in an essential gap in the study of entertaining and gaming culture of Ukrainians. These problems have been left out of the attention of Ukrainian scientists for a long time under the influence of clerical, ideological and moral censorship.

Collected and analyzed folklore-ethnographic materials give a certain idea about a rich gaming repertoire of the second part of folk wedding, called perezva. Mainly the agrarian nature of Ukrainians’ traditional culture explains the fact, that the principal part of this repertoire is formed by the gaming practices, imitating the production activity of grain-grower (from the land cultivation and harvest gathering to the production of foodstuffs). In the context of archaic consciousness the working processes have been associated closely with the productively-erotic magic, called for the support of happiness and welfare of newly-created family.

The games with brightly expressed erotic symbolism and attributes, accompanied with a shameful folklore and expressive vocabulary, belong to the most ancient layer of the agrarian rites. In the traditional perezva of Ukrainians this group is represented by the games Tovkty Stupu (To Pound the Mortar), Zabyvannia Kilka (Chopa) (Driving down the Stake), Pokazuvaty Mezhu (To Show the Bound) and others. The games Molotyty Zhyto (To Mill the Rye) or Siiaty Zhyto (To Sow the Rye), Kosar (Mower), Koval (Blacksmith), Melnyk (Miller), Tokar (Turner), Molotarka (Thresher), Kombain (Combine) and others belong to the category of imitative performances. In the patriarchal Ukrainian village, where the owners of another profession, than the grain-growers themselves, form an absolute minority, their figures and activities are imparted with definite sacral features, typical for the representatives of strange world.

The way of gaming undressing (nudity), observed by us in the wedding customs, is the antithesis of carnival mummering and masking. Both these gaming practices become traditional ways of people transference into the atmosphere of holiday, where everything is upside-down, not as it is in everyday life.

Historical development of wedding ceremonies, which has lasted for many centuries, takes place in different ways. One of them are the most barbarian and archaic. They disappear and are forgotten after the contradictions with new conditions of life. Another have changed gradually into the folk amateur theatre. Humour, life optimism, dramatic improvisation are considered as the typical features of it.

Keywords

wedding, rite, game, traditional entertainments, erotic folklore, folk humour, holiday leisure.

References

1. BEAUPLAN, Guillaume Le Vasseur de. Wedding Customs of Ukrainians in the First Half of the 17th Century. In: Mariia SHUBRAVSKA (texts, annotations), Oleksandr PRAVDIUK (music material), compilers. Wedding: In Two Books. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1970, book 1, pp. 63–68 [in Ukrainian].
2. VASIUTINSKIY, F. The First Lesson on the New Year against Street Wedding Amusements. Chernigov Diocesan Proceedings. Informal Part, 1883, no. 7 [in Russian].
3. VOVK, Khvedir. Marriage Rite and Ceremonies in Ukraine. In: VOVK, Khvedir. Studies in Ukrainian Ethnography and Anthropology. Prefaced by Yurii IVANCHENKO. Kyiv: Art, 1995, 335 pp., [8] folios of photos: ill. [in Ukrainian].
4. HUIZINGA, Johan. Homo Ludens. Versuch einer Bestimmung des Spielelements der Kultur [Homo Ludens. An Experience of Determination of the Gaming Element of Culture]: A Monograph. Translated from the Dutch by Oleksandr MOKROVOLSKYI. Kyiv: Osnovy, 1994, 250 pp. [in Ukrainian].
5. GNEDICH, Pavel. Materials in Folklore of Poltava Governorate. Romny District. Iss. 1. Ritual Songs. Poltava, 1915 [in Russian].
6. GRINCHENKO, Boris. Ethnographic Materials, Collected in Chernigov and Neighbouring Governorates: In Three Volumes. Vol. 3. Songs. Chernigov: Printing-House of the Governorate Zemstvo, 1899 [in Russian].
7. HRINCHENKO, Borys, compiler. The Dictionary of Ukrainian Language: In Four Volumes. Collected by the editorial staff of the Kyivan Past journal. Kyiv: Printing-House of the AS of Ukrainian SSR, 1958 – 1959. Vol. 1: A–Zh. 1958, 42, [2], 494 pp. [in Ukrainian].
8. HRUSHEVSKYI, Mykhailo. History of Ukrainian Literature: In Six Volumes, Nine Books. Kyiv: Lybid, 1993–1995 (Literary Monuments of Ukraine). Vol. 1. Compiled by Vasyl YAREMENKO; prefaced by Petro KONONENKO; annotated by Lidiia DUNAIEVSKA. 1993, 389, [2] pp. [in Ukrainian].
9. DOLENHA-KHODAKOVSKYI, Zorian. Ukrainian Folk Songs in the Notes of Zorian Dolenha-Khodakovskyi (from the Galicia, Volhynia, Podolia, Over Dnipro Lands and Polissia). Compilation, textological interpretation and comments by Oleksii DEI; attribution of autographs and copies, objects by L. MALASH, Oleksii DEI. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1974, 780, [1] pp. [in Ukrainian].
10. KRYMSKYI, Ahatanhel. Zvenyhorodshchyna. The Homeland of Shevchenko from the Ethnographic and Dialectical View. With Geographic Map and Drawings. Kyiv, 1930 [in Ukrainian].
11. KUROCHKIN, Oleksandr. Ukrainians in the European Family. Customs, Rites, Holidays. Kyiv: The Library of Ukrainian, 2004, 248 pp.: ill. [in Ukrainian].
12. LYTVYNOVA-BARTOSH, Pelaheia. Wedding Rites and Customs in the Village of Zemlianka of Hlukhiv County in Chernihivshchyna. In: Khvedir VOVK, ed. Materials to Ukrainian Ethnology: In Twenty-Two Volumes. Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv, Ethnographic Commission. Lviv: From the ShSS Printing-House, 1899 – 1929. Vol. 3. 1900, pp. 70–173 [in Ukrainian].
13. MEDVEDYK, Petro. The Village of Zhabynia in Zborivshchyna: Wedding. Folk Customs and Rites. Collected, described and compiled by Petro MEDVEDYK. Postface “Collector of Folk Pearls”. Ternopil: Lily, 1996, 222 pp. [in Ukrainian].
14. MOROZOV, Igor. Folk Games. In: Nikita TOLSTOI, ed. Slavic Antiquities: Ethnolinguistic Dictionary: In Five Volumes. Moscow, 1999. Vol. 2. Д–К, pp. 380–386 [in Russian].
15. NECHUI-LEVYTSKYI, Ivan. Mykola Dzheria. In: Ivan NECHUI-LEVYTSKYI. Collected Works:
    In Ten Volumes. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1965. Vol. 3. Prose, 444 pp. [in Ukrainian].
16. NECHUI-LEVYTSKYI, Ivan. Ukrainian Humourists and Wags. In: Ivan NECHUI-LEVYTSKYI. Collected Works: In Ten Volumes. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1966. Vol. 5. Prose. Compiled by Oleksa MYSHANYCH [in Ukrainian].
17. Nizhynshchyna Wedding Rites and Their Changes in the XXth Century, Recorded by Ivan Pavlovskyi in 1926. Traditional Wedding of Ukrainians. Unique Records of the Late XIXth Century – 1920s–1940s.
    Compiled, annotated and prefaced by Valentyna Borysenko. Kyiv: Stylus, 2012, pp. 166–167.
18. PANESH, Emma, Leonid ERMOLOV. On the Issue of Games Classification. In: Georgy SIMAKOV, ed.-in-chief. Folk Games and Toys. RAS Peter the Great MAE (Kunstkamera). Saint-Petersburg: RAS MAE, 2000, pp. 10–27 [in Russian].
19. STARKOV, Valerii. Traditional Gaming Culture of the Population of Ukraine. NAS of Ukraine, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Source Criticism. Kyiv: Mykhailo Hrushevskyi Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Source Criticism, 2009, 400 pp. [in Ukrainian].
20. USPENSKY, Boris. Mythological Aspect of Russian Expressive Phraseology. In: BOGOMOLOV, Nikolai, compiler. Anti-World of Russian Culture. Language. Folklore. Literature. Moscow: Ladomir, 1996 [in Russian].
21. CHUBINSKY, Pavel. Proceedings of Ethnographic-Statistical Expedition to the Western-Russian Land, Equipped by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. South-Western Department. Materials and Studies: In Seven Volumes. Saint-Petersburg, 1872 – 1878. Vol. 4: Rites: Celebration of Child Birth, Christening, Wedding, Funeral. Published under the supervision of Nikolai KOSTOMAROV. Saint-Petersburg: Printing-house of V. Kirshbaum. 1877. 30, 713, 45 pp.: music [in Russian].
22. Wedding in the Village of Boryspil of Pereiaslav District in Poltava Governorate. Noted by Pavlo CHUBYNSKYI. Melodies are put on music by Mykola LYSENKO. 1877. In: Mariia SHUBRAVSKA (texts, annotations), Oleksandr PRAVDIUK (music material), compilers. Wedding: In Two Books. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1970, book 1[in Ukrainian].
23. KOLBERG, Oskar. Pokucie. Part 1. Dzieła Wszystkie [Collected Works]. Vol. 29. Wrocław-Poznań, 1962. Pp. 14, 360, ilustr. [in Polish].