Mermaid Rituals of Ethnic Bulgarians and Romanians of Southern Bessarabia
Keywords:
ethnic Bulgarians; ethnic Romanians; Bessarabia; ritual; customAbstract
The article studies the mermaid rituals of ethnic Bulgarians and Romanians of Southern Bessarabia. The main attention is focused on the historical and genetic features of the Bessarabian folk tradition, the most common and at the same time the most typical ritual actions of the Rusalii holiday for the inhabitants of the villages of Southern Bessarabia are analysed.
The analysis of the main elements of the folk rituals of the Bulgarian and Romanian population of Bessarabia allows us to state that the existence of the components of this holiday today in South Bessarabia is characterized by local variability of individual rites both in terms of structural and formal expression and in terms of polyfunctional semantics.
In general, the rituals of Bulgarian and Romanian rusalia contain Slavic and Balkan components layered on a more ancient all-European base.
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