Oleksandr Vasianovych

Candidate of Historical Sciences (PhD), Deputy Director for Research, State Scientific Center for Protection of Cultural Heritage from Technological Disasters, Kyiv, Ukraine.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9360-6447

E-mail: guru_v@ukr.net

Keywords:

water, cemetery, folk meteorology, unclean dead, meteorological magic, drought, Ukrainian Polissia.

Abstract

The article examines the village cemetery as a sacred place in the beliefs of the Ukrainians of Polissia. Attention was drawn to the causes of the drought, in particular, when suicide victims (hangmen, drowning) were buried in the cemetery. The locations of possible burials of suicides to prevent bad weather were identified: intersection, forest, place of suicide, etc. Based on the field materials collected at the beginning of the 21st century, meteorological magical actions performed on the graves of suicides are considered: destruction of graves, pulling out crosses, watering graves with water, etc. Most of such magical actions, although they have acquired a Christianized color, contain the pagan beliefs of the Ukrainian Polish people.

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