Professional paper
Life-customs in Baranja (birth - wedding - death) summary
Jelka Vince-Pallua
; Etnološki zavod, Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Croatia
Abstract
Birth-Wedding-Death is the cardinal trefoil considered in this contribution dealing with "life customs" in Baranja. Each of them is a rite of passage in its substance - birth as a passage from non-being to being and death from being to non-being in a mere physical sense. If conceived metaphysically death is again a passage to a new life, the most common attitude that we can discern in observing actual customs in Baranja connected with various beliefs, grave goods and necessities for the dead. The aim of this contribution is to show what people do, believe and how they behave on the occasion of these three fundamental life events in some chosen localities in Baranja. The sources from the two archive collections (from Zavod za etnologiju and Odsjek za etnologiju at the University of Zagreb) are a precious confirmation of the persistency and tenacity of traditions of the Croats in Baranja who, just through this wealth of customs and persistence of traditions, have kept their identity against other influences. Even if both sources are written in the so called ethnological present they do not relate to the same period (the first being gathered prior to the second) but they often correspond even in details. There is an unusual wealth and a wide variety of "life customs" with ethnographic characteristics from oldslavic to those under the influence of migrations throughout centuries and direct Hungarian influence. Not only variety of customs but also variety of colouristic expression is a hall-mark of Baranja. Let us hope that, when the refugees return home, we will be able to see both of them again.
Keywords
Baranja; life-cycle customs; birth; wedding; death
Hrčak ID:
75755
URI
Publication date:
8.3.1993.
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