Contribuții la cercetarea ceremonialului nașterii în Țara Lăpușului
Contributions to the birth ceremony in the land of Lăpuș

Summary/Abstract: Focused on our field research, the present study is about the research of birth customs in several localities of Ţara Lăpuşului, an ethnographic area of particular interest, due to the archaicity and conservatism that are specific to it. In the first part, I dealt with the prenatal period, in which we emphasized the rites related to the desire of newly founded families to bring children into the world, as well as the relief of the birth performed during the wedding ceremony. We then dealt with pregnancy, with the rites intended to ensure the smooth progress of the pregnancy, as well as the prohibitions that the pregnant woman must respect. In the second part of the study, we dealt with the birth itself, which begins with rites to ease the birth performed by the midwife. We gave due space to the first bite, but also to the rites performed after the birth, with openness towards the function of integration and ensuring a beneficial destiny for the newborn. We analysed the ritual prescriptions related to the first swaddling, as well as the rites related to the period of care of the baby by the midwife. We reserved a large space for baptism, the basic ceremonial sequence in the birth ceremony, in which we emphasized the repertoire of rites, especially those of great antiquity – baptism in the sun, moon, stars and tree. We have not omitted the predeterministic beliefs that have the bearish form of manifestation. We dealt with Christian baptism, the baptismal table, the response to the gifts, as well as a ceremonial sequence of great importance – the ritual washing of the midwife’s hands by the granddaughter. We gave space to the period of praise, characterized by prophylactic and apotropaic rites. The study ends with the care of the newborn, characterized by rites related to rocking, making, washing and drying the child’s diapers, but also apotropaic. We focused on the treatment of some common diseases in children: the bad cry, the bad disease, the pitcher, the goiter. We reserved space for a rite meant to prevent the death of children in the family, which is the ritual sale of the child through the window. We did not omit the traditions related to ensuring the physical beauty of the newborn, the beliefs related to the child’s behaviour and the change of teeth. Finally, we made considerations about the function of birth customs in the Land of Lăpuş.

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