За етнокултурното единство на родилната обредност у българите
On the ethnic and cultural unity of rites connected with childbirth among the Bulgarian population

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the traditional rites connected with childbirth among the Bulgarians in the region of the former districts of Razgrad and Silistra. On the basis of concrete collected empirical material, the author has made a comparative analysis of rites connected with childbirth among the various ethnographic and confessional groups forming the composition of the population of these two districts. The comparative analysis covers the rites connected with pregnancy, childbirth and the 40-day subsequent period. The analysis has revealed a number of common elements and even entire ethnographic ritual structures among the Bulgarian population of the region, irrespective of its ethnographic and religious characteristics. The common features are manifested in the profound meaning of the rites, in the ways of their concrete realization (ritual acts and their mechanism), in the use of ritual objects, and in the names (or at least in the way in which these names were derived). Bearing in mind the relation of the demonstrated common elements and structures to ethnographically principal moments in the rites connected with childbirth, the author has proved that they belong to the most ancient and pagan layer of folk culture, i. e. to that layer which is with the strongest ethnic charge and is most resistant. It should be noted that the discussed common elements and structures in the childbirth rites are known throughout the entire Bulgarian ethnic territory. All this implies that they were formed on an ethnic Bulgarian basis even before the adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria. The revealed ethnic and cultural unity of the traditional rites connected with childbirth in the region may help in the solving of more general problems, e. g. concerning the Islamization of a part of the Bulgarian population during the centuries of Ottoman domination, as well as the entire historical development of the Bulgarian people.

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