About vozho, the Spirit of Transition Time and Formation of Holiness among Udmurt and Komi

Abstract

This article concentrates on one very central character in Udmurt mythology. It is a character typical of the transitional time around the solstices, an ambiguous and liminal time, which requires particular caution from the humans to protect themselves from dangerous interference from the world beyond. This character, whose name, vozho, appears in the Udmurt name of these periods, vozhodyr, the time of vozho for the winter solstice and invozho, heaven-vozho for the summer solstice, is also a water spirit. I reflect also on other water spirits and on their peculiarities. This analysis leads me to reflect on the origin and the ramifications of the concept behind vozho with its linguistic correlations, the way it is articulated and how it sheds light on the concept of holy in the Permic languages and for the Permians, Udmurt and Komi. This leads me to reflect on the correlations between liminality and holiness, the liminal places and spaces and their value, and the particular characters in the mummery festivities that characterise this transitional winter time and which are connected both to the spirits of the other world and to the dead ancestors, who are among the main providers of well-being in the Udmurt world.