E-mail: elvpopova@yandex.ru
Tel.: +7 (462) 68-89-11
4, Lomonosov str., Izhevsk, 426004, Russian Federation
PhD (History), senior researcher, History department, Udmurt Institute of History, Language and
Literature, Uralic Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Butter has a high ritual status in Besermyan folk culture, it is regarded as a delicacy and symbolizes prosperity and well-being. It belongs to ritual meals along with bread and porridge. Butter can be observed as main dish in the rituals of the spring-summer circle, of marriage as well as maternity and baptism customs. Drawn butter was the basic food for offerings during annual prayers at family-clan sanctuaries. Butter with bread was offered to the deities and spirits of the house and surrounding nature. Special attitude to butter is maintained in contemporary meal. Presence of butter on the table is a symbol for prosperity, high quality and abundance of food as well as stability of the peasant household. Butter and drawn butter are used either as selfcontained food or together with bread, honey, in porridges, milk soups and flour jelly. Traditional technology of home production of butter is maintained. Traditional methods of butter production and its degustation are included in programs of ethnic and agricultural tourism. Butter is attributed with symbolic qualities like “golden”, “yellow”, “tasty”, “soft”, it represents the lightness of life and fate. The designations “butter path”, “road like butter” represent good fortune on the road and a speedy return home. The symbolic quality of butter was transferred to given items, especially to the harvest, to the fate and the appearance of a person. Butter is mentioned in the names of meals and rituals. Many parallels in semantics and the use of butter are found in the culture of other peoples in this region, which have a similar type of household and in parts similar traditional world views and mythology.
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