Etudes balkaniques is a quarterly peer-review journal, which has been publishing research since 1964. Research papers related to the Balkan countries in French, English, German, Russian and Italian have appeared in it, thus making them available to a wide scientific community across borders.
THE MIRACULOUS PATHWAY OF INDIVIDUATION
Etudes balkaniques (Sofia) 2022 N 1
Albena Georgieva
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Bulgaria
Abstract: Individual growth and maturing, in the terminology of depth psychology called individuation, is a central problem of ancient mythology and art. It can be traced in the folklore genres of the fairy tale and the heroic epos, and in the omnipresent symbol of the tree – axis mundi. Personal socialisation and acquiring maturity, as it will be outlined in this text, is also the central theme of the so-called miraculous healings at sacred places, in narratives about recovering eyesight and hearing or the ability to freely move and walk, and especially as overcoming childlessness. Individual growth, acquiring strength and knowledge, passing through various thresholds and probations is the way of developing in life successfully and normally, it is the way of fulfilling the traditional community’s expectations and ideal.
Keywords: individuation, psychological growth, miraculous healing, socialization
FOLKLORE PROJECTIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FEAST
Albena Georgieva
Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies
(Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Abstract: In the ecclesiastical Christian calendar, Holy Trinity or Holy Ghost is a moveable feast and is celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost, in May or June. In the folk calendar, this holiday marks the beginning of the so-called Whitsuntide or Midsummer Week (in Bulgarian Rusalska nedelya). It is believed to be the period of wood nymphs’ special activity – during the week those supernatural creatures, who personify vegetation and greenery in the fields and the woods, provide the fertility of crops and vineyards. The analysis focuses on those notions and the respective practices, outlining that to a great degree Whitsuntide corresponds to the Dirty or Pagan days in the winter – the period between Christmas and Epiphany. As this is one of the most important periods in the agricultural calendar, it is bound with people’s efforts to ensure fertility and water balance in their inhabited territory by offering sacrifices and propitiating the supernatural powers who are owners and hosts of vegetation and water resources.
Keywords: Whitsuntide, Wood Nymphs, Kurban, Water Source, Water Host
