Koduhanedega seotud baškiiri rituaalid: traditsioonid ja uuendused
Customs associated with domestic geese among bashkirs: Traditions and innovations

Summary/Abstract: In the modern life of the Bashkir population of the Republic of Bashkortostan, a large number of various beliefs, customs and rituals related to domestic birds, including geese, have been preserved. Despite the fact that the Bashkirs began to engage in poultry farming relatively late, poultry occupy an important place in their daily and ritual practice. The purpose of the article is to consider the customs associated with geese among the Bashkirs, including the custom of collective handiwork – „kath omahe“ and the rite „kath yuly“ („Goose Road“) in the middle of the 20th – beginning of the 21st century. The article uses general scientific methods: scientific description, analysis and systematization of empirical material, as well as a comparative historical method. In conducting field studies, traditional ethnographic methods were used: in-depth interviews, observation, photographic determination. The article is based on historical and ethnographic studies on the ethnography of the Bashkirs and peoples of the Ural-Volga region, museum collections of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Ethnological Research Institute of the R.G.Kuzeyev Ufa Federal Research Centre (Republic of Bashkortostan) and the National Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan, as well as field materials collected by the author in 2019 and 2023 in the southeastern, western and central regions of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Kuvandyk district of the Orenburg region. The customs („kath omahe“ and „kath yuly“) associated with domestic geese among the Bashkirs were analyzed from the point of view of tradition and innovation, as well as with respect to the problem of the preservation of rites. It was revealed that the rituals of „kath omahe“ and „kath yuly“ and elements of collective help were firmly rooted in the ritual culture of the Bashkirs and have not lost their significance until the present. Currently, they are held in the northwestern, western regions of the Republic of Bashkortostan. According to a long-established custom, neighbors, relatives and unmarried girls are invited. Traditional food is placed on the table: porridge cooked in goose fat, pancakes coated with the same fat, in some areas noodle soup. As before, they distribute „ulyush“. In some areas of the Republic of Belarus, in recent decades, the rite has been held in the form of festivals.

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