Визуальные проекции почитания сорока Севастийских мучеников в праздничной обрядности русской традиционной культуры

D. E. Krapchunov

D. E. Krapchunov Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7804-9945

Keywords: traditional culture, visualization, Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, ‘Soroki’ feast, ritual cookies, semantics of birds, Christian symbols

Abstract

The preconceived idea in scientific and social spheres of the pagan (pre-Christian) origin of the rites and customs of the Russian traditional culture comes under criticism on the basis of the analysis of the Remembrance Day for the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste rites, and the comparison of the rites with the iconography and the Church Fathers’ texts dedicated to these saints. The early emergence of the Forty Martyrs veneration and worship in Rus gives grounds to believe that the traditions of the celebration of March 22 that are recorded by ethnographers and associated in folk culture with the feat and the glorification of the Martyrs of Sebaste, were formed simultaneously with the Christianization of Rus and the formation of the Russian holiday calendar during the process of consolidation of the separate East Slavic tribes into the united Russian ethnos. Numerous local and regional traditions of the ‘Soroki’ feast (baking 40 bread products, mainly in the form of birds, ‘larks’, and activities with them) reflect the Christian veneration of the Holy Martyrs of Sebaste in Rus.

Author Biography

D. E. Krapchunov, Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/vistheo-2021-1-60-84

Daniil Krapchunov
Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Russia
daniil.krapchunov@novsu.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7804-9945

Abstract
The preconceived idea in scientific and social spheres of the pagan (pre-Christian) origin of the rites and customs of the Russian traditional culture comes under criticism on the basis of the analysis of the Remembrance Day for the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste rites, and the comparison of the rites with the iconography and the Church Fathers’ texts dedicated to these saints. The early emergence of the Forty Martyrs veneration and worship in Rus gives grounds to believe that the traditions of the celebration of March 22 that are recorded by ethnographers and associated in folk culture with the feat and the glorification of the Martyrs of Sebaste, were formed simultaneously with the Christianization of Rus and the formation of the Russian holiday calendar during the process of consolidation of the separate East Slavic tribes into the united Russian ethnos. Numerous local and regional traditions of the ‘Soroki’ feast (baking 40 bread products, mainly in the form of birds, ‘larks’, and activities with them) reflect the Christian veneration of the Holy Martyrs of Sebaste in Rus.

Keywords: traditional culture, visualization, Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, ‘Soroki’ feast, ritual cookies, semantics of birds, Christian symbols

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About author

Daniil E. Krapchunov
Cand. Sci. (Philosophy), Acting Director of Institute of Humanities.
Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Russia.
E-mail: daniil.krapchunov@novsu.ru

For citation:
Krapchunov D. E. Visual Projections of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste Veneration in the Festive Rites of Russian Traditional Culture. Journal of Visual Theology. 2021. 1 (4). P. 60–84.
https://doi.org/10.34680/vistheo-2021-1-60-84