The Age-Old Cossack Feast of the Protecting Veil: A Contemporary Interpretation of a Traditional Calendar Date
The Age-Old Cossack Feast of the Protecting Veil: A Contemporary Interpretation of a Traditional Calendar Date

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses the history and content of the modern Cossack celebration of the Feast of the Protecting Veil (Rus. Pokrov) of the Mother of God. The members of the Cossack movement call it the main Cossack national holiday. The article discusses the reasons and historical basis for such a characterisation of the celebration, and systematises its components that have emerged during different historical stages, using a wide variety of sources: ethnographic research articles, periodicals, Internet blogs and forums, as well as unpublished archive materials. The contemporary Cossack festival of the Protecting Veil combines the traits of the Host holidays and civil funerals, and pursues primarily etiquette objectives: particularly the confirmation of the succession of the status upwards from the prerevolutionary Cossacks to the modern ones, updating cultural values in a new environment. To achieve these goals, the organisers use universal components that have no time constraint and actively appeal to different layers of historical memory.

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