E-mail: koval-fuchylo@ukr.net
Tel.: +38 044 278 34 54;
Grushevskoho st. 4, 01001 Kyiv, Ukraine;
PhD (Philology), senior researcher, Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology National Academy of Sciences Ukraine
In the article we analyze the functioning features of Ukrainian funeral lamentations in “Chernigivshchyna” (the district of Chehnigiv). Reasons of origin of this genre are considered in the context of ceremony, comprehension of tradition by its transmitters. The features of functioning of lamentation are analyzed depending on a funeral situation.
Material for this article consists of the author’s field recordings in 2010. The investigated region is particularly interesting because of high development and the preservation of laments in oral functioning. The importance degree of the lamentations in the funeral rite context is determined with funeral situation: laments are performed more intensively when loss is heavier for relatives.
In order of understanding the lamentations significance in ritual context, we have considered their existence in unusual situations, such as funeral rites without priest or funeral rites without relatives. In the first case lamentations were replaced with reading of the Gospel audibly during the way to the cemetery. This indicates that mourning was perceived not only as an expression of particular emotional state, but has possessed high sacred status, it has been possible to replace a church burial ceremony with mourning.
The article analyzes the lamentations existing in the context of binary opposition loud — quiet. There is a certain gradation of emotional performance power and, accordingly, the lamentations effect on the audience — as more compassionate and tragic the performance turns to be, the deeper it affects upon present participants.
The motivation for the lamentations is the mental needs to weep out the grief of loved one loss. In addition to feelings of regret, there are magical motivations that explain the need and even the obligatoriness of performance of laments. The most unexpected was the ability to have a so-called “tacit spoon”: if someone will wail even a little and will keep the bygone’s spoon, it will help the household. Another lamentations magical motivation is the idea that the deceased deserves wailing over him/her.
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