О metodach rekonstrukcji modelu obrzędu (Na przykładzie obrzędu sobótkowego)
About methods of reconstruction of a rite’s model (As exemplified by the Midsummer night’s ritual)

Summary/Abstract: The subject of the article concerns the reconstruction of the Midsum¬mer Night’s ritual. The author gives answers to the questions: What is a ritual? How should it be studied? What should be the methodology of description and interpretation of its complicated morphology? Regional variants of the rite are analysed and on the basis of them a model ritual (its invariant) is reconstructed. The article is based on archive materials and accounts collected personally by the author, mostly in Poland, in the years 2009–2014. The period of the most intense activity of the sun, falling on the second half of June, was generally regarded as extraordinary time in the folk tradition. The culmination of ritual activities took place on the night preceding the holiday of the nativity of St John the Baptist, usually celebrated on the 24th of June (also on the 7th of July in the Orthodox tradi¬tion). This time was marked by many ritual practices resulting from the system of traditional beliefs and views on the world. The article discusses the relics of beliefs and ritual behaviour connected with the summer solstice and their most important functions (magical, protective, purificatory, courtship and matrimonial, conveying beliefs, in¬tegrative and ludic). Furthermore, the article presents the main causes of disappearance, degradation and simultaneous modernization of the sum¬mer solstice rites.

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