Wedding Ceremony of Prekmurje Slovenes in the General Slavic Background. 1. Ritual Structure

Abstract

The prenuptial arrangement in the relatively simple structure of the Prekmurje wedding ceremony is presented in a reduced, fragmentary form. The betrothal is poorly integrated into the ritual structure, which may indicate its late inclusion in the wedding rite. It gravitates towards matchmaking or to church announcement, sometimes betrothal is completely absent, but, by the same token, it demonstrates the terminological variety of nomination models that give the most different Slavic correspondences. Also, a set of the wedding name options well-known in other Slavic areas is widely presented here. The resemblance – in structure and ritual composition – of the Prekmurje wedding on the neighboring South Slavic tradition is not as evident as on the West Slavic one, especially Slovak. In this small peripheral area, not only a significant number of linguistic Slavic archaisms is concentrated, but also a surprisingly large number of cultural “splinters” from different Slavic regions, sometimes far from Prekmurje, are present.