FEAST OF SACRIFICE
FEAST OF SACRIFICE is a religious ritual to appease and thank deities, ancestors, different host-spirits, etc. It exists in all religions.
F.s. is connected with pagan beliefs (see Animism, Totemism). There are bloody [e.g. human (showed in “Ural-batyr” epic or animal) and bloodless sacrifices (food, objects etc.) They can be made by a group of people or individually.
According to Turkic (including Bashkir) traditions, a white horse was to be offered up as a sacrifice to the Sun during sunset; a black one was for eclipse; a horse washed in milk or kumys was for the Sky, a buried ram’s head, sacrifice of blood, a vessel with a milk drink, etc. for the Earth. There is a F.s to the Sun and Tengri God (see Tengrianism). It took place on the top of a mountain, a great amount of people participated it and there was meat of the sacrificed animal to eat. Prayers and benevolences were performed during Raven’s porrige, Cuckoo’s tea, etc. As Islam was spreading, F.S. was performed during the Muslim holidays, funeral ceremonies and commemorations, weddings, giving-a-name rite and other significant events. Udmurts prayed with their families and clan groups in the sanctuaries called kualas, mostly they made bloodless sacrifices (porridge, coins, handkerchiefs and towels). They prayed in the day before there was a great prayer or sacrificial event for the whole community. People prayed with the whole village and made animal sacrifices in June during the rye harvest before the summer solstice. For a week the whole neighborhood prayed and people from other villages that usually had the same origin could participate in it. The cycle of F.s. ended with general praying; Udmurt representatives from Ufimskaya and Permskaya regions participated in it. People also made outside village prayers in December before the winter solstice and general winter prayers for a week. The tradition to conduct summer and winter prayers is preserved among Udmurts from RB.
Chuvashes made a sacrifice during F.s. to the Supreme God Tura and other deities. It was one of significant calendar rituals of the summer cycle after the summer commemorations of the dead ancestors, the ceremony of calling the rain and the holiday to honor “the Earth pregnancy”; It was on Thursday (see Great day). According to the modern calendar it took place in late June or early July before the haymaking and agricultural labor connected with the rise of steam were begun (see Petrov day). The ritual was divided into village (tenants of one village annually participated in it) and inter-village (tenants of several villages participated in it every 9 years). Like other people groups, Chuvashes bought large animals with shared money, and other food was brought by the villagers. The list of sacrificial animals was made and approved at a village meeting, sometimes people asked for advice from a local healer who read fortunes and then told them what kind of cattle, amount or color, to get. The ritual was held in the Eastern part of the village right on a spot near a ravine or a forest next to water. Nowadays the ritual is held in Yultimirovka village, Bakalinskiy district, RB.
Maris also gathered for the collective prayers in the sacred groves. Mordovian prayers were held by the elders, the collective prayers were headed by a chosen authoritative old man and woman to pray to Soltan and Azarava.
Slavic people used to worship pagan Gods and make bloody sacrifices-claims for the major gods (Perun, Yarilo, etc.) and bloodless sacrifices to Lada, Mokosh – host-spirits.
As the traditional religions were spreading, F.s. became calendar and symbolic (people buried eggshells, tied colored ribbons to the trees, dropped the coins, shells, beads into the river etc.)
I.G. Petrov, R.R. Sadikov, R.A. Sultangareyeva
