Original scientific paper
APOTROPEIC CEREMONIES, HABITS AND PROCESSIONS IN CROATIAN TRADITIONAL CULTURE
Marko Dragić
Abstract
The author presents and interprets old apotropeic ceremonies and songs which are known amongst the Croatian people. He apotropeic generally intertwines the old mythic and the Christian world. Some of the apotropeic Croatian ceremonies are autochthonous while some are the inheritance of archaic ceremonies and beliefs. Croatian apotropeic ceremonies are complementary to the ceremonies of other Slavic people. The chosen ceremonies were most frequently performed during the period of Christian feast days and their purpose was to chase away demonic forces and to prevent illness on time. They evince the beliefs and the superstitions of the Croatian people and their symbols are variegated. The motifs of the songs which accompanied apotropeic ceremonies were diversified and varied from mythic, lovelyrics to oral-rhetorical forms. There is a wealth of ethnological, anthropological, oral-literary and linguistic material in the preserved apotropeic songs.
Keywords
apotropeic ceremonies; Croats, habits; processions; the chasing away of demonic forces
Hrčak ID:
19244
URI
Publication date:
11.1.2008.
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