Задушницата в системата на българските обичаи
All Souls’ Day in the System of Bulgarian Folk Rituals

Summary/Abstract: The study draws attention to the calendar parameters of the ritual of all souls’ day among the Bulgarians and its reflection in terminology. The specific features of the Bulgarian all souls’ day have been sought in the process of the historical changes that have taken place in paying tribute to the memory of deceased relatives in communities living in the Bulgarian lands since ancient times. Special attention has been given to the Christian tradition, which has contributed to the preservation of a number of archaic features of the all souls’ day: calendar characteristics, plenty of feasts, the kind of the ritual food and the gifts offered to the deceased. An attempt has been made to associate the days, set aside in the calender for tribute to the deceased and the specificities of the economic activities in the respective moment: in agriculture - with the processes of vegetation of plants, and in stock-breeding – with the multiplication and breeding of farm animals. In this manner, all souls’ day finds its place in the cosmo-biological processes of the general emergence of life.

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