The article examines modern memorial practices of the Orthodox Chuvash: memorial ceremonies after a person’s death, general annual commemoration of ancestors, sacrifice, organization of a memorial meal, gifting the ritual participants, arrangement of cemeteries and graves, innovations. While analyzing the material, the author characterizes the interrelation of traditional elements and innovations, which arose, inter alia, under the influence of modern information technologies, in the process of functioning and forming new cult practices associated with the commemoration of ancestors. The research is based on the author's field materials collected in different areas of the Chuvash residence in the Ural-Volga region. The study showed that in modern memorial practices of the Orthodox Chuvash, elements of traditional (Chuvash) memorial rituals are partially preserved, which are especially noticeable in the rituals of people in confessional-mixed (Orthodox-pagan) villages. However, at their core, memorial practices are Christian in nature and are focused on calendar dates, actional and attributive aspects of Orthodox memorial culture. Under the influence of urbanization, increasing role of the ROC in Russian society, as well as globalization processes, they are being transformed: the dates of certain rituals are shifted, innovations are introduced into attributes, memorial practices are increasingly integrated into a modern information and communication space.
Key words: Orthodox Chuvash, memorial practices, memorial rituals and ceremonies, innovations
DOI: 10.22250/20728662_2023_2_89
About the author
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Ekaterina A. Iagafova – Doсtor of History, Professor, Head of the Chair of Philosophy, History and the Theory of World Culture, Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education; 59 Gorkogo str., Samara, 443099, Russia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |