Mythological Texts and Contexts in the Ritual Dialogues of the Russian Wedding Ceremony (Based on Materials of the 19th – Early 20th Century)
Mythological Texts and Contexts in the Ritual Dialogues of the Russian Wedding Ceremony (Based on Materials of the 19th – Early 20th Century)

Summary/Abstract: The author considers the episode of the Russian wedding ritual “Groomsman opens the closed doors of the bride’s house” and analyses dialogues which are pronounced at this ritual stage. The ritual of opening the closed doors of the bride’s house is accompanied by a large number of riddles and questions with the cosmological motifs of gathering and structuring the Cosmos, texts on Christian mythology and folk mythological beliefs. The use of these dialogues can be explained by the specificity of the wedding situation itself: their utterance was intended to have a productive effect on the common space formation for both clans; the appeal to Christian mythology through saints’ lives and apocryphal literature allows us to evaluate the valuable and cultural qualities of the groom and his entourage. The correct answers to all questions and the fulfilment of the formulated tasks indicate the readiness (mental and physical) of the groom to change his social status. The publications and archival materials recorded in the 19th – early 20th century in different local traditions and regions of Russia, also the texts recorded in some Komi traditions and in the territory of contact residence of the Russian and Komi populations, are analysed in the present article.

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