Метафоричне відображення уявлень українців про реінкарнацію, пекло та подорож душі в потойбіччя в бувальщинах, повір'ях, магічних ритуалах.

Abstract

In the beliefs of the Ukrainians of Transcarpathia, the soul is imagined to be tied to the body by invisible threads but capable of independent actions and taking on different forms, appearing as a shadow. Several ideas about the path of the soul to the world of the dead, a meeting with the personified days of the week, or St. Peter, who executes judgment on it, metaphorically reflect the rituals of transition associated with difficult trials. Legends artistically model various scenarios of the soul’s life after death: reincarnation within the family, entering purgatory or hell and serving punishment in the body of an animal. In some customs, the deceased’s soul is kept at the border of the worlds by unfinished things or moral transgressions. In other texts, communication with the deceased portends death to the living, whose soul is already on the edge and able to see and hear what others cannot. The idea of the Ukrainians of Transcarpathia about the life of the soul after death became the basis of magical rituals, some of which were supposed to help the soul of the deceased to get to the afterlife, and others were supposed to protect the living from the influence of the dead and the energy of death associated with him.