Calendric Feast Bans and the Punishment for Violating Them in the Bulgarian Traditional Culture

Abstract

The paper offers an interdisciplinary ethnolinguistic and semiotic analysis of the Bulgarian calendric prohibitions and the consequences of violating them. Special attention is paid to linguistic data – the chrononyms which characterize these days as ambivalent, both blessed and malevolent, days which must be observed as work-free and free from other types of activity. Folk etymology of some terms for holidays reveals how language constructs the calendric order and offers an insight into the ritual restrictions of some feasts. The list of bans in an ethnographic context is scrutinized according to which holidays are “dangerous”, who is the subject of the bans, and what punishment will follow for breaking the rules. Holidays for which non-observance is most seriously punished are Christian calendric feasts which often have many pre-Christian elements and occasionally reflect the cult of animals. Many restrictions affect women only, especially those who are pregnant and mothers, as they concern female biological and social functions. Folklore parallels to the theme of the article are investigated and a poetic means of depicting the punishment for the sins is shown. A reverse development of the motif of ‘sin and punishment’ is represented in the songs about Saint Nedelia, who does not punish the sinners but suffers herself because people work on ‘her days’, Sundays. Some of the bans and recommendations relevant for calendric rituals are still evident in Bulgarian society, confirming the continuation of certain features of the archaic worldview. The paper is based on field research data collected by the author during the last three decades and on published and archival materials.