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Name: Cultural term “kalach” in the east Slavic wedding ritual

Authors: T. E. Grevtsova

Federal Research Center the Southern Scientific Center of Russian Academy of Sciences, Rostov na Dony, Russian Federation

In the section Study of folklore

Issue 1, 2019Pages 40-53
UDK: 398, 811.161:392.813DOI: 10.17223/18137083/66/3

Abstract: The paper systematises the names designating ring-shaped pastries in the Russian, Belorussian and Ukrainian wedding, defines the meanings of a lexeme kalach in the East Slavic ritual, and presents the semantics of ritual acts with the baked products designated by the cultural term kalach or its synonyms in wedding lexis. In the Eastern Slavic wedding, the actions with kalaches were carried out at different stages of the ritual. In the initial episodes of the wedding cycle, kalach, like other types of ritual bread, was a means of establishing the relations between the parties of the bride and groom and reaching an agreement on marriage. The analysis of circumstances of performing these actions, word meanings of kalach, his derivatives and phrases including it has led the author to a conclusion that, besides the symbolism inherent in bread in a wedding ceremony in general, in East Slavic ritual, pastries of a ring-shaped form are associated with premarital life of young people and the farewell to it significant first of all for the bride. The analysis of the distribution of ritual activities with kalach at different stages of the wedding shows the connection between the wedding traditions of the Western regions of Ukraine and the weddings of the Don and Kuban Cossacks.

Keywords: ethnolinguistics, cultural term, East Slavic wedding, ritual bread, kalach

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