За християнизацията на фолклора и фолклоризацията на християнството (По примера на полските коледни народни песни)
Christianizing Folklore and “Folklorizing” Christianity (On the Example of the Polish Folk Christmas Carols)

Summary/Abstract: The Polish custom of kolędovanie (group carolling) reconciles elements of traditional folk culture and Christianity. The folk tradition supplies (i) the event frame of the ritual (visiting people’s homes, saying wishes, singing, collecting gifts, entertainment shared by both boys and girls); (ii) its ritual-magic function and social function (boys courting girls and, in recent decades, girls courting boys); as well as (iii) some of the textual formulae. Christianity contributes (i) the interpretation of the ritual as the good news about the birth of Jesus and (ii) the majority of texts, which have found their way to the carolling repertoire as Church Christmas hymns. Thus, Christianization of the folk tradition is coupled with “folklorization” of the Christian message, the two co-occurring processes yielding a characteristic type of “folk – Christian” culture and the distinctive genre of the Polish Christian folk Christmas carol. Examples of the latter are Zaświeciła śliczna gwiazda na niebie (A beautiful star lit up in the sky), Stoi tu lipeczka (A linden stands here), Najświętsza Panienka po świecie chodzila (Virgin Mary walked on earth), Z tamtei strony dwora (On the other side of the manor house), etc. Peculiarities of the Polish folk Christmas carol include: (a) the central role attributed to the figure of a mother and her child (Virgin Mary and Jesus); (b) realism of details, typical of religious apocrypha; (c) symbolic construals of the motifs of a tree, stone, water, etc.; (d) a display of the miraculous as a sign of God’s constant presence in the world; (e) assimilation of the Gospel to the Polish reality; (f) a conversational nature of texts, which are treated as responses in a ritual dialogue. The poetics of the folk Christmas carol is based on the affirmation of the world and man, communion with life, and the joy resulting from encounters with God or other people.

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