,,Лекуване на едномесеци" в обичаите при погребение у българи и сърби
Healing of children bom in the same month in the funerary rites of Bulgarians and Serbians

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyses a specific regional phenomenon in the funerary rites of the Southern Slavs, namely the healing of a child born in the same month with another child who had died, practised by Bulgarians and Serbians. This phenomenon is based on beliefs common to both nations, according to which people born in the same month have a common fate and all principal moments in their lifecycles coincide in time. The principal aim of the healing, i. e. the dividing of the destinies of the people born in the same month and the preservation of the life of the survivor, is achieved through concrete actions containing the main stages of the rites of passage (separation-passage-affiliation). All of them, depending on the composition of the rites and rituals performed, are divided into three basic types which are in addition ethnically determined. The first type of healing, consisting in the sharing or exchange of objects symbolizing the fate of the people born in the same month, is also known outside the system of funerary rites of both Bulgarians and Serbians. The second type — the symbolic "burial" of the surviving individual — is known predominantly to the Bulgarians, whereas the third type involving the breaking of the bond between the people born in the same month on the principle of contact and separation at the level of the action, is known mainly to the Serbians. A specific feature of the types of healing examined is that they are combined with the creation of artificial kinship which completes the change in the status of the individual healed: he continues to live in the same social environment, but he occupies another position in it, not the position shared previously with the deceased. Bearing in mind that the beliefs about people born in the same month and the practices for their healing have no parallels not only among the Southern Slavs but also among the remaining Slav peoples, the genetic roots of this phenomenon should be sought in all probability within the Balkan area.

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