Ethnologica Dalmatica, Vol. 17 , 2009.
Original scientific paper
Guardians of the grave of Christ in folk-ecclesiastic heritage of Croatian people
Marko Dragić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5362-6814
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Splitu
Abstract
In his work the author interprets the Croatian catholic ritual of guarding the grave of Christ during the Holy Week by using a multidisciplinary methodology approach. According to historical data this ritual was brought in Parish of St. Elijah in Metković in 1857. by Ante Gluščević from Loretto, Italy. The first written mention of the the guardians in Vodice goes back to 1912. the guardians of Vidonj were founded in 1932. by Joko Jurišin and Joko Ilić – Joktur. No one knows exactly when the tradition started in Vareš, but we know that on Holy Friday 1928. the ceremony was organized. The ritual of guarding the grave of Christ is built on the basis of the liturgy and celebrating the Christian faith. The communist authorities did everything in its power to ban that ritual. In some places communist authorities succeeded in doing so, but in other places they vainly insisted to exterminate that folk-ecclesiastic custom. Customs and names as well as the clothes and footwear of the keepers differ from place to place, but they all share a common aim – to present the resurrection of Christ. Nowadays, in The Republic of Croatia there are twenty seven associations of the keepers of the grave of Christ. After seventy years that tradition has been revitalized in Knin, and similar actions towards reviving it are being taken in Lovas near Vukovar. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the keepers exist only in Vareš. Since this custom is not scientific literature processed, in this work are the mostly contemporary original field recordings of author and his students.
Keywords
Bible; liturgy; ritual of guarding the grave of Christ; the resurrection of Christ; religious and national identity of the Croatian people; communist prohibition
Hrčak ID:
107623
URI
Publication date:
12.9.2009.
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