Ignatul – obiceiuri și tradiții cu rădăcini milenare, specifice solstițiului de iarnă. Ritualuri de fertilitate, cosmogonice și de inițiere, în ziua de Ignat
Author(s): Cecilia Monica Dușan / Language(s): Romanian
/ Issue: 11/2020
Keywords: winter solstice; sacrifice; pig alms; fertility rituals; cosmogonic and initiation; The Story of Ignat;
Ignat's Day celebrated on December 20 in traditional Romanian villages, the day before the winter solstice, in the past was dedicated to pigs slaughtering.The slaughter of the Ignatian pig initially had a purely ritual, ceremonial function, a function that has been forgotten over the millennia, of which, however, many specific elements are still preserved today.The ritual of slaughtering the pig of Ignat is specific to the periods of renewal of time, periods in which the deities, who embody the old year, die, in order to be reborn. At ancient peoples, the change of year and seasons required human sacrifices, sacrifices that over the time were replaced by the sacrifice of animals, trees or plants.Also, the slaughter of the pig during the winter solstice, when the sun loses its power, in the past had the role of increasing the low powers of the sun at that time of its minimum presence on the sky.Slaughtering the pig at dawn and roasting it with wheat straw, in the form of a fire whose flame rises high into the sky, certifies this sacrifice on the day of Ignat, preceding the winter solstice, as an offering brought in the past by our ancestors, the one who sustained life on the earth, made the seeds grow and warmed them (photo 1).Many of the bloody sacrifices has its origins in the early days of the world, being an imitation of the divine act that led to the creation of the universe, with all that exists in it. Usually, in order to create the Cosmos, the supreme god kills a giant, a sea monster etc., which he carves. Thus, we can notice an analogy with the slaughter, cutting and chopping of the pig at Ignat, as a reminiscence of these ancient ancestral beliefs (photo 2, 3).And the fertility of the soil and sowings was obtained at the beginning of the world, when a god gave himself prey to the flames, so that from his burned body to grow plants, fruit trees, etc.As can be seen, the slaughter of the Ignatian pig seems to be reminiscent of ancient sacrificial rituals brought to the supreme god for periodic updating of cosmogony, the Sun god to increase its light and heat, or the Mother Earth for fertilizing fields and harvesting rich crops in the next agricultural year.In addition to slaughtering, the day of Ignat is specific to a legend that circulates in Transylvania, with the name of The Story of Ignat. The story was to be told on the eve of Ignat's day, or at the latest on Ignat's day, by the oldest member of the family. The story tells of a struggle between Good and Evil, between God and Satan, thus recalling the moment of Chaos before Creation. But the story includes a series of ten riddles, which children must learn, which highlights the fact that the story includes two myths: a cosmogonic one, specific to the periods of renewal of time, and an initiation myth, specific to the onset of puberty, the whole story and its narration being part of an ancient ritual.From the above, we can conclude that the slaughter of pigs near the winter solstice is not accidental, being a tradition with ancient roots in the history and culture of the Romanian people, once specific to other peoples in the Balkans, and The Story of Ignat, a remnant of oral teachings that novices received in initiation rituals.In other words, the slaughter of the pig before Christmas, still remains one of the acts of tradition specific to the Romanian village, eagerly and enthusiastically awaited by the whole community, already having a special value for tourism with gastronomic values, but also for the numerous fairs that take place in cities at the end of the year
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