TATAR FOLK CUSTOM ‘FAREWELL TO ICE’: BASE ON THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE EXPEDITIONS

Abstract

The article deals with the calendar rite of the Tatar people “Farewell to Ice”. It reveals the original meaning, the mythological basis of the rite. The main method for collecting information about the custom was the interview method. Authenticity of the material is ensured by massive involvement, plurality of variants. The collected material allows for the reconstruction of the rite “Farewell to Ice”. Rituals based on mythological views, formed based on words, movements and actions with magical powers enter largely into life. The basis of the rites is the belief in the possibility of achieving harmony in life with the help of words and movements formed as a ritual. Rites are performed during the changes in human life associated with some important event or with the season, with the state of the sun, moon, weather in general. The rituals associated with events in a person’s life and with family relationships are known as family, popular family rites. Other ceremonies – calendar ones, are performed during elemental changes when nature and space are especially susceptible.The rite “Farewell to Ice” was a complex aggregate that included songs, magic spells, dances in a ring, games, and magic actions. This rite, which at the time of its origin is an agrarian-magical phenomenon, has recently begun to lose its original function, and today it is basically perceived as a simple entertainment. For example, the Tatars of Tatarstan, on the day when the ice drifting begins, go out just to look at it. Earlier that day all the villagers used to gather. The accordion played on the river-bank, the youth sang, danced, danced in a ring, made a fire on a floating ice floe.