SEND-OFF TO THE ARMY IN UKRAINIAN TRADITIONS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY (based on fieldwork)

Abstract

The ritualism connected with a conscript’s send-off to the Army in Ukraine of the second half of the 20th century is reconstructed and analysed in the arti cle based on the author’s fieldwork notes made in Kharkiv region, Zakarpattya and Prykarpattya as well as on sources published by other researchers dealing with Zaporizhya region and Boryspilshchina (Kyiv region).
It is highlighted that this send-off is a special case of a long-way dispatch (of chumaks [people who dealt in salt trade], wage earner artisans, pilgrims, students, etc), that is why all “road” rites had to be performed during a send off to the Army
Thus in general the work is devoted to specific ritual actions during a send-off to the Army. In some villages in Prykarpattya an icon and a rushnyk (embroi dered towel) were fixed above the door for the conscript to pass under them. Passing under some holy object as a sign of God’s blessing has been known for a long time in many peoples since archaic times. In Kharkiv and the Car pathian regions the conscript was sometimes told to leave the house walking backwards, which contained a magic imitative moment: the person leaves the house as if imitating coming into, i.e. returning.
The author gives a detailed analysis of the tradition to decorate the conscript with embroidered towels (rushnyks) and shawls or a ribbon, as well as in some regions — with an artificial flower which most often was a devotion gift from his beloved, a symbolic promise to wait for the fellow’s return from the Army. The feast was also semantically rich; in villages its scope equalled a wedding, with which a lot of parallels are drawn in the aspect of ritualism. As well as during a wedding even now it is common to put a couple of tied with a ribbon bottles aside to drink them at the first anniversary of married life, the same way during a send-off a bottle of wine or horilka is taken away to drink it with the fellow after his return from the Army. Thus in this case it is imitative magic which aim is to keep the future warrior safe and sound.
Under the war conditions studying send-off the Army traditions in Ukraine not only is of historical interest but also has practical and existential sense.