Kostyantyn Rakhno

Doctor of Historical Sciences (Dr. habil), Senior Researcher, Leading Researcher of the National Museum of Ukrainian Pottery in Opishne, Poltava, Ukraine

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0973-3919

E-mail: krakhno@ukr.net

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Keywords: roof, sacrifice, sacrificial space, Lusatia, Silesia, Slavs, Czechia

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Abstract

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The article deals with one of the ritual functions of the roof in traditional culture, namely its use for making sacrifices, including the bloody ones. In the religious ideas of many peoples of the world, the roof of the house was symbolically associated with the sky, the upper tier of the universe and was intended for communication with the other world. It was on it that the sacrificial rite naturally unfolded. One of the most vivid examples of such a ceremony among the Western Slavs was the sacrifice of a goat, which took place exactly on the roof. It was characteristic of the Czech Republic, Upper Silesia, and Lusatia, having the character of a theatrical action with elements of wedding rituals and folk law

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