Залишки вікової ініціації у східнороманського населення Буковини

Abstract

ln the present article an effort is made to discern the traces of the age initiation among the Eastem Ro­manian population of Bukovina on the basis of the field investigations. The main attention is paid to the issue of ritual of the girls' transition: "bringing out to dance" («scoaterea lа joc» ), "bringing out to hora" («scoaterea lа hora») and guys' transition: "treating а gift" («dau ocile», «dau jumatatea» ). lnitiative rites existed in Bukovina until the recent time (60-80s of the 201h century), in some of the villages their elements have been preserved until present. Based on the results of the performed source and field ethnographic investigations (the data regarding the performing of the transition ritual were collected from the 11 Romanian speaking villages of Bukovina: Stal'nivtsi, Balkivtsi, Nesvoia, Tarasivtsi, Marshyntsi, Strointsi, Magala in Novoselytsia district; Opryshany (Dubivka) Hlyboka district; Ropcha Storozhynets district; Ostrytsia Hertsy district; the southem part of Mi­rosleveshty- nowadays it is Suchava district Romania) we саn assert (in regard to the previous investigations in this sphere) that among the Eastem Romanian population of the examined region besides the initiation rituals among the adult girls, the ritual also included the bоуs. Besides that an effort was made to display the connection between these rituals and the winter camival traditions, to look for the parallels among the peoples in the Carpa­thians-Balkan region. ln the present work an effort was made to examine the calendaг timing of the transition rituals, the place of their perfoпnance, their participants (the methods of their election and functions of "kalfa"), the age of the initiated young people, symbols, meaning of such rituals during the time of choosing the life partner and mar­riage.