Object structure

This article contains an overview of various “wedding seasons” and temporal restrictions on holding traditional Armenian wedding ceremonies, both in the traditional culture (end of XIX - beginning of XX cent. ) and in the post Soviet period. Popular and scientific interpretations of such restrictions are discussed. An attempt is made to ascertain reasons for the imposition of such restrictions on weddings, as well as for election of appropriate “wedding seasons” timeframe or marking the most popular days for the festivities. Based on published and field research materials, the article states that in traditional culture the allocation of a wedding season was predetermined by several factors. First, economic expediency dictated election of a period when harvest was already reaped, and enough wine and vodka were available to hold a feast. Second, the season would allow relative freedom from the agricultural labor. Third, the interconnected nature of weddings and calendar holidays created a mechanism of their mutual temporal interdependency. Thus,calendar holidays influenced the fixation of certain periods for certain wedding rituals, while modern wedding seasons both in the city and countryside mostly depend on labor migration timing schedules. Incidentally, the latter somehow tend to coincide with the traditional wedding periods. As opposed to traditional culture, the difference in modern wedding seasons in the city and countryside gradually diminishes, with lesser importance given to the revolving cycles of nature.

Москва-Ереван

Институт языкознания РАН ; Институт археологии и этнографии НАН

Статья

pdf

ru