MOTIVES OF BIDDING FAREWELL TO WINTER AND GREETING SPRING IN SHROVETIDE RITES IN BELARUSIAN POLESIE REGION

The motives of bidding farewell to winter and calling for spring in Shrovetide rites in Belarusian Polesie are analyzed using ethnolinguistic methods. Shrovetide is considered as a springtime new year holiday – a rite of passage (as defined by Arnold van Gennep). The bidding farewell to winter and calling for spring are distinguished as phases of passage. The article also uses research results by Albert Baiburin who updates van Gennep's rite phases: the “old world” that existed before the rite is desemiotized; then a new semiosphere is created – a “new world” is gathered together of detached parts; the world created anew is explored and is ritually divided in the end of the rite. The symbolic “old world,” i.e. the old season, in Shrovetide rites is winter, with spring being a new one. Bidding farewell to winter and calling for spring Shrovetide rites in Polesie region are considered in their interrelationship. Such aspects of bidding farewell to winter in Polesie as burning a dummy and rags and demonstrating a specially made doll are analyzed. A focus is made on such specific features of calling for spring during Shrovetide as singing spring songs by the bonfire of the dummy or rags, and (locally, in Žytkavičy and Stolin Districts) calling for spring with a piece of cheese in one's hands.

Shrovetide, bidding farewell to winter, calling for spring, Polesie, the rite of passage, springtime new year

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