Ритуалът ЮПА и традиционните и съвременни ритуални практики на некръстените чуваши
The Yupa Rite and the Traditional and Modern Ritual Practices of the Non-Christian Chuvash

Summary/Abstract: The article introduces the traditional and modern forms of the memorial rite of the non-christian Chuvash – Yupa, which involves the practices of placing a wooden post on the grave, “sending the soul” to the afterlife, and “joining” the deceased with their previously departed relatives. The work is based on published sources and field materials of the authors, collected throughout the settlements of the unbaptized Chuvash in the Republic of Tatarstan and Samara Region (Oblast) in the period 2003-2021. The research shows that in modern times, among the nonchristianChuvash, with Yupa there is, on the one hand, a stable existence of the key elements of the rite, conditioned by the conservatism of the religious consciousness in relation to the cult of ancestors and related ritual practices. On the other hand, the transformation of the rite is obvious, in the direction of reduction/merging ofthe separate elements, overall simplifying the rite, including novelties among the attributes, changing the meaning and significance of some ritual actions, etc. The changes are due to the reduction in the number of members of the group and the breaking of the traditionally strong social ties that ensure the functionality of the rituals, as well as the influence of Orthodox Christian practices.

• Details
• Contents