Poly-symbolism of the crop code signs in the calendar Russian ritualism

In this article several kinds of culinary and botanical variety of the code functioned in the frame of ritual space of the Russian national calendar from the point of view of the phenomenon of poly-symbolism (such as kutya, pancakes and "beard") are reviewed. In the national historiography the researches has an opinion about the symbolism of these signs of the code. Therefore the thesis about poly-symbolism of pancakes (or their ability to be a realization of several symbolic senses) becomes a well-known fact. On the one hand, they can be the signs of the solar symbolism depending on the ritual. On the other hand, they could be connected with the ancestor worship. The last researchers' reconstructions testified that in the spring ritual "k teshe na blini" (to go to the mother-in-law for eating pancakes) they became the symbolic embodiment of the settlement of the property relationships. From the point of the poly-symbolism thesis, the phenomenon of the field of senses existence in the historiography, characterized the semantics of the "beard" and kutya, are reviewed. The taken reconstructions allowed to enlarge the field of senses of the pointed signs. From the methodological view, functional and interpretative approaches became significant, andFerdinand de Saussure's synonym and homonym state as well. From the point of the synonym phenomenon, the ritual kutya and pancakes functioning in the frames of commemoration rituals, where the semantics relied to the expression of the only central idea of the commemoration - the gift brining to the dead ancestors - is analyzed. The gift had a creational function, providing a human being with life goods in every important sphere, such as family wealth, prosperity, harvest of the bread, etc. From the homonymy point of view, the kutya symbolism in the rite of winter cycle "to feed the cold" (where the meaning of its usage has a protective sense, which was realized by means of the gift and was caused by the wish to protect winter crops from the cold) is represented. Kutya in summer rituals of the girlhood, on the one hand, served as a sign of social initiation, when girls joined in unions ritually, announcing about their adulthood. On the other hand, by eating kutya, they prepared themselves to the future gender and age status of wife and mother, which was realized by means of eating such well-known symbol of the fertility as a crop included in kutya. Homonymy phenomenon represents the functioning of such kind of botanical crop code as the "beard" in the reaping hook rites. In one cases, the "beard" could be connected with the gift semantics, which resulted in the whole power and quantity of the gotten harvest possessing by the master of fields. In other cases, the "beard" became the magic way to cure diseases. Thereby in different forms of their development, crops are the culture "texts" serving multitude worldview themes. On one hand, the group of signs in the frames of rituals of the single functional nature, becomes the realization of the only sense field. On the other hand, one kind of the sign can differentiate in senses depending on the rituals aims.

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