НАНАШКИ У ВЕСІЛЬНІЙ ОБРЯДОВОСТІ МИКОЛАЇВЩИНИ (КІНЕЦЬ 1970-х рр.)

Abstract

Ukrainian wedding as a series of ritual actions connected with certain social and legal customs required a number of specific actors to perform. Almost all the guests were participants in the ceremonies, but there were those who played the main role in the wedding event and without whom the wedding would lose its significance. The example of the regional features of the Mykolaiv Oblast in the wedding rituals of Ukrainians are the ritual characters «nanashko» and «nanashka». The issue discussed in this work is an actual direction of ethnological science, as this topic is little studied in the specialized literature. Today, there is practically no source base and publications on this topic. Based on the authors’ field research, the article examines the peculiarities of ritual characters in the wedding ceremony of Mykolaiv Oblast in the late 1970s. The result of the study was the identification of regional and local features of wedding ceremonies in this region. The article analyzes the role and functions of the ritual characters «nanashko» and «nanashka». The authors highlight the local features of the participation of ritual characters, their ritual actions and duties in three cycles of wedding rituals – pre-wedding, wedding and post-wedding. During the whole wedding, Nanashka performed one of the main missions – leading the ceremony. Their participation in an important family event such as a wedding symbolized the approval of marriage at the public level. Accordingly, endowed with these powers, they were morally responsible for following the wedding script. It was concluded that nanashky not only played an important role in wedding ceremonies, but also accompanied the newlyweds throughout their lives and remained very important people for the couple.