CUCKOO’S TEA
CUCKOO’S TEA is a Bashkir and Tatar ritual celebration dedicated to spring primroses, awakening of the nature and cult of the cuckoo. It took part during the springsummer period (late April – midJuly), when a cuckoo started to make its sound. Women and girls gathered together and brought foods with them to the hill slope or the riverbank, sometimes to a lawn in front of their house. They drank tea, played ethnic games, performed round dances, “cuckoo” dances, songs, takmaks (see Chastushka). People tried to forecast the future at C.t celebration by different means: they rolled down the hill and if they caught a bunch of grass, the year was supposed to be full of harvest, if they caught a stone – the year was supposed to be dry and hungry; they made wishes while listening to the cuckooing birds. When the meal and games were over, they put the porridge leftovers on the stones, trees, stumps and prayed to nature and birds, wished for all the best and asked for plenty of harvest and a safe life. C.t.’s origin is connected with the archaic preIslamic Bashkir ancient cult of the ability of souls of dead people to become a bird or an animal. It is common for people from the TransUrals, NorthEastern, SouthEastern and Central regions of Bashkortostan as well as for many peoples from the Southern Urals and the Middle Volga region. There is “Cuckoo tea – Kekuk seye” Bashkir republic ethnic festival (2014, 2015, 2017; Nurimanovskiy District).
F.A. Nadrshina, M.N. Suleymanova, R.A. Sultangareyeva