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Ancient Rituals from Different Cultures

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Don Quixote View Drop Down
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Ancient Rituals from Different Cultures
    Posted: 08-Mar-2012 at 18:37
Post about ancient rituals were or are still practiced in your culture or cultures you are interested in.

Edited by Don Quixote - 08-Mar-2012 at 19:12
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Mar-2012 at 18:46
I'll start with a ritual called "Peperuda" or "Paparuda", which in Bulgarian means "butterfly"; but I heard it also with the name "Dodola"; in Serbia it's called "Dodola", in Romania is known also as "Kaloian"; in Greece it's known as "Tuntule", and in Albania as "Dudule". It is still done in some places in Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine, and has pagan origin. Supposedly it was a Slavic rite /I thought it was Thracian, until I learned that they have it in Ukraine" which was performed in times of drouth, and was believed to bring rain.

 A young girl dressed in skirt made out of vines and sticks and goes dancing  from house to house, in which house the women of the house pour water on her. In Albania and some parts of Greece a young boy/boys is dancing the dance.
File:Paparuda-1905.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paparuda
However, the wiki info that it exists only among the South Slavs is not correct, as it's done in Ukraine also


In the same time all women are singing songs with ritual meaning. Here two taxts of such songs, the first Serbian, the second Dalmatian:
"...

A soul cake, a soul cake, a soul cake,

Please, Good Missus, a soul cake –

 

An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry,

Any good thing to make us all merry –

 

One for Peter, two for Paul,

And three for Him who made us all...."

"...

Grant us, mistress,

An oke of flour, mistress,

A fleecelet of wool, mistress,

A portion of cheese, mistress,

A handful of salt, mistress,

Two or three eggs, mistress,

God be with you, mistress,

For you have bestowed gifts upon us...."

http://www.berengarten.com/site/Dodola-and-Peperuda.html


In some variations of the custom, like the one from the video, a figure of wet clay is made, but not as a whole figure - instead like one from separate peaces - and put in a box like a dead person, after which he is lamented all night. This is very reminding of the Dionycian, and Orphic rites among the ancient Thracians and Greeks, /Dionysus was killed and cut to pieces by the Titans, who ate him; then Zeus burned them to death, and from the ashes made the humans - this is the Orphic myth of creation, that's why humans have in them both profane and divine - the ashes of both earth and divine creatures/ that's why I'm surprised to see it in Ukraine, where, AFAIK,  neither Dionician, nor Orphic cults were spread.

Here is a description form the last cite I quoted from:
"...One of the most extraordinary customs of Servia is that of the Dodola. When a long drought has taken place, a handsome young woman is stripped, and so dressed up with grass, flowers, cabbage and other leaves, that her face is scarcely visible; she then, in company with several girls of twelve to fifteen years of age, goes from house to house singing a song, the burden of which is a wish for rain. It is then the custom of the mistress of the house at which the Dodola is stopped to throw a little water on her. 7..."

Also:
"...
Despite the enormous and fascinating variations to be found in details of the rainmaking rituals throughout the Balkans (and not just from region to region but sometimes from one village to the next), the underlying unity among them seems incontrovertible. Nor were they confined to one religious group: in Kosovo, as elsewhere, they were practised by both Christians and Moslems. The leading rain-maiden has been variously described as being from a poor and humble family, as a pauper, an orphan, a non-privileged person and as the youngest daughter of a widow who never remarried and was past childbearing age. There is general emphasis on her lowliness, modesty and purity; and she always went barefoot, perhaps to emphasise her humility or, rather, humbleness and, more simply, her direct connection with the soil. In this way, it might be said, she was ‘earthed’. ..."

This is a video used in the Serbian variation - Dodole:

"..."Dodole" songs are typical ritual songs used to perform during summer dry seasons. Young girls masked themselves with branches and leaves (as symbol of vegetation exuberance).They used to visit village houses and perform "dodole" ritual (singing "dodole" songs and dancing ritual dance).As respond to a ritual performance, the master of the house would come out from house and throw some water on dancers, which is ancient way of invoking the spirits of rain. "Dodole" ritual originates from pre-Christian times and represents the oldest Slavic tradition.,..."



Edited by Don Quixote - 08-Mar-2012 at 19:11
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Mar-2012 at 19:13
This is a Dodole-song performed in Zagreb - I can understand it quite well, so I'm not sure if it's in dialectic Bulgarian or Serbian:


It says:
Our young girl begs god, dodole, dodole /2/
Rain with small drops to let go, dodole, dodole /2/
Our fields to flood, dodole, dodole, /2/ ooooh, do
And to bear us wheat, dodole, dodole /2/
And corn heads in every house, dodole, dodole /2/
She begged, and she begged, dodle, dodole /3/
And rain with small drop started raining, dodole, dodole /2/
Flooded our fields, dodole, dodole /2/
And it had borne us wheat, dodle, dodole /2/
And corn heads for every house, dodole, dodole /2/
Our young girl begs god, dodole, dodole /2/
God, God, dear God, dodole, dodole /2/
Give us, give us, dear God, dodole, dodole /2/.

This is an enactment of Serbian Dodole, I believe, the song is the same like one I translatedm with this addition - after the third sentence its' added:
To make wet all who turn the field, dodole, dodole
All who turn the field and work with a spade, dodole, dodole:


The recording is very muddy and I cannot hear clearly all the words from it, most lamentably.








Edited by Don Quixote - 08-Mar-2012 at 19:29
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  Quote Don Quixote Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08-Mar-2012 at 19:32
Another enactment of Dodola, I believe in Albania:





This is only a song for Dodola, I'm not sure about the language, /I can't hear it well enough/, presented on a folk-fest in Yarna, Bulgaria:


Macedonian Dodole song:


Dodolica boga moli,
Oj dodole, mili bozhe, daj bozhe daj, sitna rosa.
Da zarosi sitna rosa, da potopi celo polje,
Oj dodole, mili bozhe, daj bozhe daj, sitna rosa.
Celo polje i nasheto,
Oj dodole, mili bozhe, daj bozhe daj, sitna rosa.
Da se rodi berikjeti, berikjeti po poljeto,
Oj dodole, mili bozhe, daj bozhe daj, sitna rosa.
Od dva klasa shinik zhito, od dva grozda vedro vino,
Oj dodole, mili bozhe, daj bozhe daj, sitna rosa.
Dodolica boga moli, boga moli preko polje,
Oj dodole, mili bozhe, daj bozhe daj, sitna rosa.
Dodolica bliznakulja, bliznakulja sirotica,
Oj dodole, mili bozhe, daj bozhe daj, sitna rosa.

Translation - mine:
Dodolica /the girl who dances/ begs God
Oi, dodole, dear God, give us, God, give us rain /rain with small drops/
To moisten, to flood, the field of this village
Our field,
Oi, dodole, dear God, give us, God, give us rain
To bear crop on the field
Oi dodole, dear God, give us, God, give us rain
From two wheat grasses a "shinik" /big measure/ of wheat,
From two grapes a big pot of wine
Oi dodole, dear God, give us, go, give us rain
Dodolica begs God, begs God across the field
Oi, dodole, dear God, give us, God give us rain
Dodolica one-of-two-twins, one-of two-twins, orphan girl -
Oi, dodole, dear God, give us, God, rain.

The line before the last show what kind of girls were selected to be the dancing girls /Dodolica/ - the poorest of the poorest, one of two twins /in the Balkans it was considered a bad luck to have twins, because then you have one more person to feed, a hard thing in societies living on the verge of hunger/ and a orphan - there is no lower place for a girl to be than in this situation.



Edited by Don Quixote - 08-Mar-2012 at 20:24
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  Quote Cyrus Shahmiri Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Mar-2012 at 04:45
Some days later (13 March), Iranians will celebrate the ancient ritual of Charshanbeh Suri, of course it is really on of the most dangerous festivals in the world and every year some people are killed and several other ones are injured, anyway as you read: Iran to crack down on protests during fire festival
 
A woman jumps over a fire during the Chaharshanbe Suri festival in Tehran on 17 March 2009. Photograph: Reuters/Raheb Homavandi
 
On the eve of the last Wednesday of the Persian year (which ends on 21 March), Iranians gather to light bonfires in the streets and jump over the flames shouting: "Zardie man az to, sorkhie to az man" – meaning: "May my sickly pallor be yours and your red glow be mine."

With this phrase, the flames symbolically take away all the unpleasant things that happened in the past year and provide hopes of enlightenment and happiness in the year to come.

Singing, dancing and eating together are also part of this fire festival, known as Chaharshanbe Suri.

Some better pics:
 
 
 
 
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