Easter eggs in the dialect, games, and ritual actions of the Don Cossacks
The author identifies and analyzes ritual and gaming practices in which Easter eggs are used, as well as related cultural terminology in the Don Cossack tradition. The sources of the article are primarily the data from dialectological and ethnolinguistic expeditions of the Southern Federal University and the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1983-2023). The author uses descriptive, comparative, and ethnolinguistic methods to carry out her research, with a special emphasis placed on a detailed description of the subject throughout the territory of the former Don Host Oblast. The article consistently examines the following topics: coloring of eggs, including eggs in the Easter meal; ritual actions with eggs in the cemetery and in the space of the village; types of Easter games and their terminology: breaking eggs, rolling and knocking down one or more eggs with another egg or a ball on a flat or inclined plane; hitting the eggs in the holes, as well as searching for a hidden egg; ritual actions with Easter eggs after the end of the holiday. Conclusions are drawn about the good preservation of ritual and everyday practices using Easter eggs, including the archaic rolling of eggs on graves. The collected linguistic and ethnographic information about Easter games allows the author to trace the linguistic and historical connections of the Don population and residents of other southern Russian regions: Voronezh, Kursk, Ryazan provinces, and the Kuban region, while at the same time providing material for comparing the traditions of the south and north-west of Russia.
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The publication was prepared as part of the implementation of the State Budget of the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, state registration number of the project 122020100347-2.