E-mail: tgvladykina@mail.ru, Tel.: +7 (3412) 68-78-44
34, T. Baramzina str., Izhevsk, 426067, Russian Federation
DSc in Philology, Professor, Udmurt Federal Research Center, Uralic Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Udmurt folklore contains rich material on the symbolism of drinks and food. The Udmurt language and ritual traditions have preserved archaic ideas of the magic connection between festival culture and ritual drinks/food (“yuondyr” means both time for a drink and time for a feast). It is significant that the names of holidays that mark important calendar periods in winter (“Vozho-dyr” — winter Yule) and summer solstice (“Invozho” — summer Yule) contain names of an alcohol drink (“sur” — beer): “Tolsur” means winter beer or winter festival; “Kuarsur” means leaf beer or summer festival. The component “beer,” also meaning “festival,” which under the influence of the Old Believers was substituted for another alcoholic drink (“braga”), is also preserved in the name of autumn youth gatherings in the North of Udmurtia (“nyl-braga” — maiden braga or maiden holiday). Here also the term “shyd sion” (the eating of soup) has been recorded as meaning both ritual feast and a component of the entire ritual complex.
The symbolism of drinks and food and the idea of the holiday as a sacred phenomenon is most clearly shown in the guest songs that are performed during house-to-house visits by relatives. These are sung to a popular ritual melody and are a way to express the feelings of the ritual’s participants: piety to the gods and gratitude and love for relatives. In ritual guest songs, standard images from incantation-prayers (“kuris’kon”) echo with the symbolism of drinks and food.
The most ancient stratum of images derive from a simple set of terms denoting drink and food (“sion-yuon” and “shyd-nyan” — food-drink and soup-bread) and not only correlates with satisfying of physiological human needs (thirst and hunger), but also symbolizes spiritual well-being. Over time these terms have been enriched with various shades of meaning having to do with “treating” with food and drink and suggest “joy,” “enjoyment,” “festival,” “feast,” and “fellowship” — with the gods, with the near and dear, or with consanguineous relatives (cf. the Russian “bread-salt”).
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