Funeral Rites of Udmurts as Beginning and Ending of the Summer ...

Name: Dr Tatiana MINNIYAKHMETOVAAffiliation: Institute for European Ethnology/Folklore, University of InnsbruckE-mailaddress: minnijah@hotmail.comFuneral Rites of Udmurts as Beginning and Ending of the Summer YearWhile there are several ethnic Udmurt groups, I will only be examining one in this paper. Inthe Udmurt folk calendar, the astronomic year is divided into two parts, which are consideredseparate years – the winter year and the summer year. The winter year is perceived as “closed”and the summer year is “open”.There is an idiomatic expression that illustrates this concept. When the summer year isbeginning, people say “we come out (from winter into summer)”, and when the winter year isbeginning, people say “we come in (from summer into winter)”. It is a common belief, thattransitional periods of seasons and years are full of supernatural spirits, which visit the worldof human beings. Additionally, the dead ancestors and their spirits have a large role in thesebeliefs and transitional periods. The transitional periods from winter into summer and fromsummer into winter are two of the liminal periods in the traditional culture of the Udmurtpeople and funeral rites are held during both the spring and autumn periods.The ideas connected with dead ancestors, and hence the funeral traditions, are preserved in thecultures of many peoples. Here, the spirits of the dead ancestors are equated to sacral(considered sacred) and people believe that life depends upon them. If the ancestors arebenevolent, all will be right and well, but they should be propitiated from time to time.Accordingly, there are regulated special periods in day, week, month and year whenpeoplemake mention of their ancestors. In this paper, I want to examine two periods of theyear, which take place in spring and in autumn, when people commonly celebrate these funeralrites.In the periods under examination, the ancestors’ spirits “visit” their relatives, which creates atense and stressful social situation. To counteract these periods of activity, devotions for thedeceased were invented and turned into traditional organized rituals whose purpose was toshow honour and respect for the deceased ancestors. During one day in this period, people

ake and prepare food and then go to the cemetery to invite their ancestors to come home andcelebrate with their living relatives. Following this celebration, the ancestors are shown backto the cemetery with a warning to not visit the homes of the living relatives until the nextfuneral period.The spring funeral rites are celebrating after the commencement of the summer year, which iscalled “Great Day.” The period of the autumn funeral rites is after the Great Autumn Worship,which is devoted to the end of summer year, and after those is the beginning of the winteryear. An analyse of the funeral rites demonstrates a reflexive display of individual andcommunal identity in a special time when the world “changes its appearance”.