E-mail: svetlananiz@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (8212) 20-17-02
26, Kommunisticheskaya str., Syktyvkar, Komi Republic, 167982, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Research Associate, Folklore Sector, Institute of Language, Literature and History, Federal Research Center, Komi Scientific Center, Uralic Division, Russian Academy of Sciences
The work was carried out within the framework of the planned research topic (registration No. 121051400044-2).
This article examines Christmastide fortune-tellings, stories about which were recorded in three Russian mining settlements of the Komi Republic (Kazhym, Nyuchpas, and Nyuvchim). The appearance of Russian settlements in the Komi Territory is associated with the organization of a iron foundry in the middle of the eighteenth century and the resettlement of peasants from the northern and central provinces of Russia. The corpus of texts on fortunetelling rituals was recorded mainly by employees of the Folklore Sector of the of the Institute of Language, Literature and History, Federal Research Center, Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the period 2008–2022. The article is a continuation of a series of publications on the calendar rites of Russian mining villages of the republic and completes the review of the winter, Christmastide, period. This article examines the functioning of Christmastide fortune-telling in the tradition, and in particular analyzes girls’ fortune-telling about marriage. It examines the symbolism of objects and natural phenomena involved in these Yuletide rituals in the context of pan-Slavic ideas; similar variants of fortune-telling from neighboring Russian (and wider — Slavic) traditions are suggested. Comparative-typological analysis shows that most variations of fortune-telling rituals recorded in mining traditions have similarities with fortune-telling in the northern and central regions of Russia, which may well indicate workers’ original “mother” traditions, on the one hand, and the adaptability of methods and types of fortune-telling, on the other.
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