3513660047

3 Termiaology of Ritual Bread 67

Bulgarian names for cakes, similar to the loaves for the ceremony CBeTeu, are linked to spiritual (religious) terminology: Kpi>c mam, jiamypzuR, napaKJiac, ceemeu,, nepKOeuiiK. The names of the same origin for the identicalloavesareknownby the eastem Serbs: Jiumypzuja, nocKyp. Useof these ethnodialectal phenomena in map practice shows the spread of the names of Christmas cakes similar to those ones in ceremony in honour of saint-patron of the household ffom the River Iskur in Bułgaria to the West and North-west towards Serbia where these terms are known in the Nisava, Timok, Resava rivers region, in the outskirts of AleksinaC, in Homole, and also in South Banat, Śrem and some otber regions of Vojvodina. Morę rarely bread of this type appears in Śumadia that is on the left side from Velika Morava River

Besides the traditional for the Serbs term 6OTKanua KOJian among other christmas cakes linked with Christian symbolic on very compact tein tory of eastem and South-eastem Serbia one can come across terms noeo jnui^a (Boży) and KOJiau Boży. By means of these terms the symbolic of the birth of> oung new divinity is reflected. The point is to Serbian beliefs the special cake noeo jnui^a is presented by the birth of a child to prevent him from evil and unlucky life (this meaning is assigned in the especial verb noeumu denoting defence, cover). In Bulganan Christmas rituals amongagreat amount of the loaves 6ozoeau,a stands out, the bread tliat is dedicated to God, regarded by some researchers as ‘ a gift for God ’. Distribution of this term complementary correlates with Christian Bulgarian and Serbian terms mentioned above and covers the territory of northem, middle and eastem Bułgaria. As the map done był. Sedakova shows the term 6 ozoeuu,a doesn’t appear in western and South-westem Bułgaria⁵.

Interesting parallels can be revealed by study of the spread of the Christmas bread with the narne formed from interdialectal stem \ecer-: Serbian eeueprba, eenepibaK, eenepHana, naeeuepa, Macedoman eeuepuuk, Bulgarian eeuepna, eenepniiK, eeuepnima, eeuepHR. The name is connected with its necessary sacrificial use on Christmas Eve whcn the main Christmas rituals and magical procedures are mostly performed. The currency this term covers South-eastem Serbia, the North Macedonian regions, western Bułgaria, the East Rhodope Mountains region, South eastem Thrace and partly the South regions on the East of Bulgana (along the Bulgarian Turkish borderlme)

ln many stations of the territory regarded besides big loaves of bread the Serbs and Bulgars baked multiform smali cakes shaped like variable things in the household to represent the variable activity spheres of all the members of the extended family. The aim of this rite is to assure a prosperous harvest, fertility in cattle etc. Hence the corresponding names closely related to the ritual activities appear. To Serbs in the vicinityofAleksinac the cake nuea that means “field ’is decorated by conditional images of sheaves and ears, the cake Jiueaga that means “meadow” is embellished by the shapes of a shepherd, sheep, lambs on its surface, the cake cmoica (“cattle”) is baked with the signs of all the species of cattle, the cake trawa (“barrel, cask”) has a smali pit in the middle and the tokens of a vine, bunches⁶.

^s I. A. Sedakova, op. cit.

⁶ D. Antonijević, Aleksinaiko Pomoravlje, “Srpski etnogrsfski zbomik”, Belgrad, 1971, voL 83, p. 139-141.