ЗАМЕТКИ О КАРЕЛЬСКОМ НАРОДНОМ ПРАВОСЛАВИИ: ПОКЛОННЫЕ КРЕСТЫ БЕЛОМОРСКОЙ КАРЕЛИИ
NOTES ON KARELIAN FOLK ORTHODOXY: WORSHIP CROSSES OF THE WHITE SEA KARELIA

Summary/Abstract: This article explores one of the manifestations of Karelian folk Orthodoxy – crosses of worship, their topography and functions in the territory inhabited by Karelians in the White Sea Karelia. The choice of the region is determined by the availability of the author’s own materials and information on this topic in the published collections of texts on North Karelia. No special research has been conducted on Karelian crosses of worship, but the purpose of this work is to bring together and review the scattered information and conduct a preliminary analysis of the available materials. The issue of topography (location on the ground) is particularly prominent in the case of the construction of crosses at certain distances from each other at prominent points along water paths. Crosses could be votive (placed according to a promise in a difficult life situation), erected in gratitude for getting rid of an epidemic or epizootic, which, once placed, continued to protect the settlement from outside danger. Crosses stood at places where people died or were placed in memory of some extraordinary event (thus performing an informative function), but also played a communicative role as a place of assembly of a clan or community on a certain calendar holiday, with this tradition possibly going back to pagan times. Crosses in the north could stand on revered places associated with crafts, as well as “replace” or be “combined with” pre-Christian karsikko trees. However, crosses could also be carved on karsikko trees themselves. In any case, initially a worship cross marked a point on the terrain where communication with supranormal forces took place, regardless of whether it was peaceful or hostile to humans.

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