RAVEN PORRIDGE
RAVEN PORRIDGE is a Bashkir tradition al holiday dedicated to the meeting of spring. It is connected with the ancient cult of birds – cult of the raven (see Cults) as well as with mythical and ritual ground burials: the birds would peck all the remains of a dead body after the snow would melt (and the burial sheet would decay). Then the meaning of the holiday transformed: the birds were associated with the coming spring, a calendar New Year. People used to conduct propitiatory rituals and feed the spirits of the earth and fire with ritual porridge in order to worship nature. The holiday was celebrated in the springsummer period (late April – mid June). Later it was celebrated when the spring field labor was over. Women, girls and children (boys younger 14 years old) used to gather on a mountain or a hill and bring food there. People from the South of Bashkortostan also used to decorate the bushes with ribbons, handkerchiefs of different colors, silver bracelets, beads, rings. People from the NorthEast of Bashkortostan used to decorate with flowers, bright shawls which sometimes were tied to different birches to connect them. People from the SouthWest of Bashkortostan used to hang dishes with sour milk on trees or put it near the roots. People would also choose a hostess (one of the elderly women) for the holiday and dress her in a hi larious costume, the main details of which were the headdress decorated with tin badges and shells (the base was made of birch bark, a crown and a cavity were made of red cotton tissue) and an original element that was a sort of chest dec oration (it was made of 2 red wraps or parts of red tissue. They were sewed as a breastplate and decorated with tin badges). Traditionally people used to cook porridge with cereals, which sym bolized fertility, sometimes people would cook the bishbarmak meal. Traditional dishes for tea were balesh, baursak, pancakes, gubadiya, hon ey, chakchak, eremsek and others. After the meal people used to hold a ritual to treat the birds: the leftovers of porridge would be laid out on stumps, stones, trees. People would ad dress to nature, birds and ancestors and say their wishes for good; the boys used to climb trees and scream loudly, imitating the croaking of crows and other voices of birds. The celebration included contests: girls and young women were to show their skills, dexterity and strength. Peo ple also used to perform the imitating “Dance of a raven” – round collective dance (see Round dance), perform solo and pair dances, sing songs, chastushkis, play musical instruments, play ethnic games. Usually during the celebra tion 3 times a call (khoren) was heard: it was an invitation for a meal, a signal to offer treats to birds and the end of the celebration. In South-Eastern Bashkortostan R.p. celebrations often included praying and sacrifice. The holi day’s origin is connected with the archaic pre islamic Bashkir beliefs that the souls of dead people can become a bird or an animal. Similar ritual celebrations were common for many peoples from the Southern Ural and Middle Volga region.
A.M. Suleymanova, R.A. Sultangareyeva
