Relationship of formulas of calendar-ritual and marriage semantics in spring and wedding cycles songs

Abstract

The relevance of the study is determined by the need to review the basics of the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people in the direction of self-understanding and self-identification. Restoration of historical layers of meanings of rituals and the corresponding songs allows to recreate ways of formation of the nation as a whole.
 The purpose of this study is to identify and interpret in the song plot “bawdry of a girl” a number of formulas that are used to reveal the subtext of the events being spoken.
 The methodology. The article analyzes and systematizes the use of stable formulas within the song plot “bawdry of a girl” and related to him. The application of the selected formulas in the historical aspect to the older examples of song creativity is traced: carols, Christmas carols, spring songs and bathing songs. The research was conducted for the basics of this plot as a reflection of the cult of water and the sun.
 The results. The formulas of the plot “bawdry of a girl” (or “girl-spring”) are highlighted: “Three”, treats with drinks, meeting guests, traveling in three stages, a braid, burning a tree, drowning a girl, the promise of a better life, a girl’s conversation during the burning (drowning), a girl-Galya, a guy-Cossack. It is proved that this plot is connected with the movement of the sun, because according to the worldview of the ancient inhabitants of Ukraine, the sun was born somewhere along the Don, and behind the Danube — “died”. It has been determined that standing under a burning pine tree is similar to meeting dawn, and moving towards the Danube moving towards the Danube (from the Don to home) or immersion in the Danube means a ritual death when a girl’s transitions to marriage. An interpretation of the song “The Cossacks rode” was created: a girl with a boyfriend-groom and suitors after a ritual treat went on a ritual journey for a wedding initiation in the woods, where she met the dawn under a pine tree and the groom confirmed it.
 The scientific topicality of this study is the use of systematic formula analysis to establish the basics of folk song, which allowed to reformulate the plot of “bawdry of a girl” as a “girl-spring” and separate the later layers from the original plot.
 The practical results of this study are the systematization of formulas found in the tragic songs of the spring-wedding cycle within the plot of the “bawdry of a girl”. The paper shows that each of the considered formulas is found in carols, Christmas carols, spring songs and Kupala songs, which allows to combine with them the content of the plot under consideration. Analysis of the formulas used in the plot allows you to see in it the elements of the cults of the sun and water.