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SLAVIC BALKANS TERMINOLOGY

OF RITUAL BREAD

ANNA PLOTNIKOVA

(Moscow)

A common picture of Slavic ritual terminology in the area of the Balkans is under the influence of many facto rs among which it would be distinguished the relief of the territoiy, th dialect (language) variation, borrowings, the fact tliat a great many people speaking the same language belong to different ethnical groups etc. And it is well-established the opinion tliat th boundanes between different Slavic languages don’t coincide with the ethnodialectal di tn ution, and, apart from the language boundanes, ethnic and cultural zones are very oftcn haractensed by the whole coipus of some specific significant features. Investigation of the ritual and traditional kfe of the Slavs on the Balkans reveals a great deal of archaic traces m th ir customs and beliefś (according to the sources from flie 19th century to the 80s in the 20th) From this point of view many characteristic traits of Slavic ritual terminology can be used as signs denoting some considerable ethnocultural areas on the Balkans. Ritual and rekgious terms mostly possess their own inner form comslating both to real components of the te (vve mean time, place of the ritual procedurę and so on) and to the tunction and ymbohc sense of the conresponding ritual objects

The subject of distribution of the ethnocultural and ethnodialectal phenomena in the s aceo the Balkans attracted many scientists interested in different spheres of the ąuestion: M. Gavazzi, Margaret M. Hasluck, P. Kostich, SL Genchev et al. And we’ll discuss the ethnodialectal traits of the Slavs inhabiting mainly Duiaric-Pannonian-Moravian-Śop and Bałkan Rhodopic-Macedoruan regions (here we use the names of regions of traditional cuituce of South-eastem Europę)¹.

In present paper we are dealing witli the names of bread (cakes) used at Christ-mas time. Hus nomenclature especially neatly displays the aim of the whole Christmas ceremony tliat is to assure good luck, nches and prosperity in all the spheres of the household.

The chief bread baked on Christmas Eve (in some regions it is cooked on Christmas Day, or on New Yearis Day, or on New Year’s Eve) by the Bałkan Slavs looks like a circular cake containing a coin or some other things which symbolize riches in the household, harvest in the field, fertility in cattle etc. The Serb an term for this cake cesnica is tied with the ritual dividing up the loafi when every member of the family gets his own part (*ćast-) and finds in it his share, happiness (Russian Ciacne). For example he who received the coin would be rich,

* Papers presented to the VII International Congres of the South-Eastem European Studies (Thessaloniki, 29th August - 4th September 1944).

¹ M. Gavazzi, Vrela i sudbine narodnih tradicija, Zagieb, 1978, p. 184-194.-

Rev. Etudes Sud-Est Europ., XXXIV, 1-2, p.65-67, Bucarest, 1996