Object realities as genre indicators of ritual texts in the Volga region (samolena/pozlashchena boroda and svinye nozhki)

This article is focused on one of the important components of the "text concept" notion, which is an ethnic component. The authors focus their attention on Russian and Finno-Ugric ritual texts of the Volga region. The winter calendar ritual poetry of these peoples is represented by a series of door-to-door songs. Within the scope of the Christmas cycle (December, 24 - January, 6 by the Old Style), they were usually performed at night before Christmas (Christmas door-to-door rites) and in the so-called Vasily's evening (Vasil'ev vecher) (New Year homestead-to-homestead rites). These songs may be referred to by various terms depending on the geographical region: Russians call them koliadkas (Christmas carols) and tausens, while the Mordvins name these songs keliadnyi and tavunsiai, respectively. Researchers cannot clearly differentiate these two types of songs from each other. And still, the boundary between them can be drawn on the basis of certain object realities used in the ritual practices of the peoples of the Volga region during the aforementioned calendar period. The authors of the article pay attention to the two images often used in koliadkas (keliadnyi) and tausens (tavunsiai): the "gilded beard" (pozlashchena boroda) and "pig's knuckles" (svinye nozhki). According to them, these images can be correlated with the food code of the door-to-door rites in Christmas and the new year. The "gilded beard" is a pig head cooked in a special way and decorated with birch branches and red threads. The Mordvins served it for Christmas. As for "pig's knuckles", a dish of them - the galantine - has become the main ritual New Year food. The analysis of the text of the ritual songs shows clearly that the image of Kolyada is often characterized by the presence of the "beard" (golden/gilded/silk/tarred). The texts of tausen songs contain the mentions of the ritual food in the form of "pig's nuckles" (crumpets, flatbread / pig's knuckles / were sitting in the oven / and looking at us). Of the two types of Russian text - koliadkas containing the mentions of the "beard" and tausen containing the mentions of "pig's knuckles" - the latter is the most popular in the Volga region. The most wide-spread type of these songs is treat requests. They demonstrate text-creation connected simultaneously with the archaic mythology and the ritual mythological practices. The above-mentioned formula ("crumpets, flatbread / pig's knuckles") is characterized by the striking stability (the name of the ritual food + the description of its cooking). It reveals strictly determined semantic and formal motives and stylistic cliches from the plot continuum of the calendar ritual folklore. The authors come to a conclusion that the above-mentioned phenomena (golden/tarred beard and pig's knuckles) mark the texts' belonging to one of the types of door-to-door rites (Christmas or New Year) differentiating from each other both in the meaning and in the character of the verbal formulae included into their influence area.