Parodies of Religious Hymns in Žemaitijan Carnival: Social Interaction and Cultural Expression: Everyday Life, Festivities and Ritual Forms

On costumed processions in Žemaitija on Shrove Tuesday, the ‘beggars’ were and are among the main characters, as attested by the mask’s distribution area, the name ‘Shrovetide beggars’ being given to the whole band of masked people, and the relative abundance of the costumed “beggars”’ songs. This study examines some examples from the repertoire of Shrove Tuesday carnival songs in Žemaitija, parodies of religious hymns and folk songs, which the performers called hymns and which were performed in imitation of sacred singing. The present analysis identifies their features, origins and function at the Shrove Tuesday carnival.

Identity of Three Bulgarian Christian Communities in Sofia

This article focuses on the history and identity of three Bulgarian Christian communities from the second part of 20th c. until today. The article presents the results of ethnographic explorations between 2010 and 2020 carried out on a comparative basis among three Bulgarian Christian denominations in Sofia. The case of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church shows that believers might be desrcibed as ‘believing and belonging, without behaving’ (PRC 2017b). Under the Soviet regime, members of the Bulgarian Catholic Church managed to maintain their religious identity due to their interconfessional links. Their religious identity was strengthened by their witnessing repressed priests, monks and selfless members of the laity. Modern Bulgarian Christians have multiple identities, but prioritize their ethnic identity, followed respectively by their identities as religious in general terms and finally specific confessional identities.

Female Spaces in Ethnically and Religiously Mixed Shrines in the Western Balkans: Cases in Montenegro and Kosovo

This paper discusses female spaces and rituals in two sacred sites in the Albanian-Slavonic borderlands that are shared by Christian and Muslim communities. Based on fieldwork material, the article first gives an overview of the infrastructure, various functions and female interrelations of the ‘Ladies’ Beach’ in the city of Ulcinj, Montenegro, which brings together stable local and spontaneously emerging female communities from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. The second part explores an example of a mixed pilgrimage in the village of Letnica in Kosovo, paying special attention to female ritual practices related to fertility and childbirth as an integral context for the different scenarios in which the shrine is visited. By examining rituals experienced by women, the paper shows that female practices aimed at reproductive well-being play a specific role in inter-group contacts in shared shrines and have an impact on the process of sharing by different ethnic and confessional communities.

The Balkan Concept of the Phenomenon of Odessa Culture

This article explores manifestations of the Balkan concept as a component of the phenomenon of ‘Odessa culture’. The research aims to reveal the concept’s specific components, how they were formed in Odessa’s sociocultural environment and how they are manifested today. These tasks are solved by means of retrospective analysis, one of the key methods of Historical Urban Studies. This form of analysis enables investigation of the issues of city development and functioning in a comprehensive fashion and implies an interdisciplinary approach. The process of populating Odessa and its ethnic composition shaped the ‘Odessa culture’ phenomenon. Its unique nature involves a harmonious blend of various social, ethnic and religious layers. Since Odessa was established as a city, the Balkan peoples have become an integral part of this process. The Balkan component is now cemented in the city’s culture and is strongly reflected in its toponymy and social and cultural practices. The public activities of individuals and cultural communities contribute to the positive image of Balkan ethnicities. For example, the Balkan culinary tradition is an integral component of Odessans’ everyday culture. All the investigated aspects (demographic, toponymic, personal, sociocultural, culinary) enable the process whereby the Balkan concept synthesizes with the ‘Odessa culture’ phenomenon to be revealed. Odessa culture today is unimaginable without its Balkan component.

Estonian Prophets of the Twentieth Century

Compared to famous Estonian prophets of the eighteenth and ninteteenth centuries who have left a deep mark on culture, prophets of the twentieth century have received less attention. This paper accordingly examines four prophets of the twentieth century: Aleksander Toom (Habakkuk II), Aleksei Aav (Seiu, Orthodox), Karl Reits (market place prophet, Protestant) and Priscilla Mändmets (1939-2003, global prophet, Protestant). Three of them belonged to the Brethrens congregation, while the fourth, Aleksei Aav, was Orthdox. The paper explores how upheavals in political and social life, including secularization, influenced these prophets, as well as the events in their lives that led them to become prophets. Among the main features of their activities, such as healing diseases through prayer, in our cases disseminating visions and the word of God, making doomsday predictions and predicting national or international disasters were the most important. The prophets were all literary prophets who prophesise in writing, they used to alternate between oral and written prophecy. An interesting aspect is the visions and their explanation by means of biblical passages, or the use of these passages in daily dialogues with other people.

Contemporary Udmurt Culture. I, II

Many interesting books are born out of international cooperation. Often cooperation agreements between academic institutions are purely formal, their function primarily declarative: we have many good partners abroad, we are connected with so many international institutions. But sometimes this cooperation indeed exists and gives good results. This is the case with the two-volume work being reviewed here: Contemporary Udmurt Culture, published by the University of Tallinn, but relying on work conducted by both the Udmurt Research Institute and the Estonian Literary Museum. Behind the institutional reality, however, there is human agency: the initiators of this book, the editors, are a group of scholars who have long been acquainted through different international events and have had the opportunity to discuss several issues which led to the desire to achieve this work.

The Cross-Cultural Background and Modern Transformations of Religious and Spiritual Symbols of Lithuanian Identity

Traditional symbols and codes are very powerful elements of culture. In modernity they have become connected with the paradigm of intertextuality: being actual because of their modern and contemporary treatment, at the same time they are associated with intracultural communication, the national historical background and ethnic traditionalism, as well as having a lot of intercultural features. Paradoxically serving to define cultural boundaries and uniqueness, they also can testify to historical processes of cultural globalization. The aim of this research is to contextualize the iconicity and contemporary meaning of modern national visual symbols (a rue, a six-petal rosette; a sun with wavy rays) and uncover the main differences and similarities between their ancient historical and folkloric meaning and actual modern interpretations based on art, folk art and art-historical, historical, archaeological and folkloric data. This interdisciplinary approach is based on semiotic (i.e. ethnosemiotic), ethnological interpretation and contextual analysis of the function and meaning of visual symbols as elements of culture. The study clarifies how these ornamental signs of national identity, which are related to cultural heritage, but with intercultural historical origins, come alive and come to be newly interpreted by the social imaginary, influenced by scientific concepts in modern religious, spiritual and cultural life and their representations, and how these signs are prevalent internationally. It also analyses how, as logos in highly symbolic forms relating to mythical paradigms, these visual signs are involved in processes of the auto-communication of culture, its transmission, creation and memory, and how they are related to the boundaries of semiotic space or the semiosphere (Lotman 2005: 210; 2009: 131-142).

National and Confessional Features of Festivals and Holidays: Structure of the Ritual Year in Modern Lithuania and Bulgaria

The article aims to answer the question of whether different confessions and nationalities are an important factor in structuring a nation’s ritual year. People’s attitude towards state holidays (non-work days) is analysed based on research carried out by the author in 2012-2019 in Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania) and the towns and villages of Vilnius County. The study revealed that citizens of both states hold similar of state holidays. More popular are traditional holidays spent mostly with the family than modern holidays, which are often related to the nation’s history and are celebrated with friends. The study also showed that there was little correlation between a holiday being a day off and its popularity. The ethnic and confessional structures of the two states do not constitute significant discrepancies differences with regard to the popularity of traditional and modern holidays.

Masquerade Games in the Pernik Region of Bulgaria: Preserving and Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage

The focus of this text is the masquerade tradition in central-west Bulgaria and activities related to its safeguarding and promotion. The essence of the survakar games in the Pernik Region is described, as well as its significance in traditional culture and its contemporary manifestations. The games with masks in the region are performed on the Surva feast day (14 January; also St. Basil’s Day according to the Julian calendar). The text notes the importance of the custom in the local community’s traditional culture. The main characters in the survakar groups, which are typical of both the past and the present, are presented, as are some new phenomena related to the feast. The tendencies in the context of the dynamics and events of the twentieth century are outlined, thanks to which the masquerade tradition has maintained its vitality until the present day. Some processes that have threatened the vitality of these masquerade games in the past are considered. Various local activities related to the safeguarding of the tradition are presented. The role of the community is important for the transmission of cultural practice to future generations, as is the role of local cultural institutions and organizations in preserving the tradition. Some ways of popularizing the local heritage and the joint work of the main actors engaged in safeguarding the region’s intangible cultural heritage today are emphasized.

Places of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in Vidzeme and Their Symbolic Language

In analysing the symbolic language of Holocaust memorials, the author uses the concept of lieux de mémoire, elaborated by the French historian Pierre Nora. Nora highlights the essential differences, even rupture, between history and memory and the growing importance of lieux de mémoire, places of memory that lie between memory and history. The task of these places is to return the event to the present, reviving it in both the individual memory and the memory of society. Therefore, a memorial can also be considered a lieu de memoire. Moreover, the memorial is a more complicated case with material, symbolic and functional significance, a lieu de mémoire and a historical text with changing relations between them. The paper will briefly describe the basic principles of Holocaust iconography and the history of the development of Holocaust memorials as a new genre of commemorative art. The author will look at the development of this genre in Latvia using the example of memorials dedicated to victims of Nazism in Vidzeme. The monument’s symbolic language and whether it has been influenced by the specific place and events or whether artists have followed a specific iconographic canon will be explained. The examples will also be considered from the point of view of the dialectics between a place of memory and a historical text, mentioned above.