Календарные обычаи и обряды народов Восточной Азии

SUMMARY

Calendar Customs and Rituals of the Peoples of East and Central Asia. Ed. by R.Sh. Jarylgasinova and M.V. Kryukov. The book continues a series of studies, carried by the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences, of calendar rituals of Asian peoples which have not yet been studied in a comprehensive manner.

The book describes calendar customs and rituals of the Chinese, the Koreans, the Japanese, the Mongols and the Tibetans. The focus is on festivals of the annual cycle.

At the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries and in the first half of the 20th century, customs and rituals figured prominently in the traditional culture of East Asian peoples. As a source of spiritual and material values, they carried a strong emotional charge integrating the aesthetic views which had taken shape in the bowels of national cultures.

The summary data testify that at the turn of the 19th — 20th centuries these peoples developed a unique system of calendar festivals which reflected their spiritual and material identity. Calendar rituals of the Chinese, the Koreans, the Japanese, the Mongols and the Tibetans are specified by climatic and regional conditions, economic and cultural types, unique historical experiences, chronological categories and calendar history.

There is a strong evidence that by the early 20th century these peoples established national calendar patterns. However, this fact does not rule out the existence of a multitude of local and regional calendar peculiarities even now. The development of nationwide patterns of festivals among the Chinese, the Koreans, the Japanese, the Mongols and the Tibetans in the late 19th and the mid — 20th centuries coincided with critical events in their political, economic and cultural life. It was time when the feudal system was gradually falling apart, capitalist relations grew stronger together with imperialist expansion, national-liberation movements were on the rise and many elements of the traditional culture were reassessed. Under those complicated circumstances, traditional calendar festivals as well as their place in the system of values were increasingly transformed. Towards the mid — 20th century the traditional calendar of festivals became an expression of ethnic peculiarities, a key component of ethnic identity.

Both traditional festivals and their individual elements acquired a unique ethnic flavour.

The material under review makes it possible to solve a number of theoretical questions. The authors analyse functional orientations of rituals and customs according to seasons.

The study of rituals shows that almost all functions had at least two levels. The first one involved the family and the second one was associated with prosperity of the community, village or a large section of people.

Fire worship (purification and assistance in giving a new life), water cult, plants and animals cults, and astral cults dating back to early times deserve special consideration. World and national religions coexist with archaic ideas of coming and going, dying and resurrecting God. These findings prove that there are typologically common features in religious views of all peoples, in particular the Europeans and East Asians.

A special place in the book is reserved for the classification of calendar festivals and historical and cultural contacts between nations of East Asia which contributed to the formation of East Asian cultural region. From the theoretical point of view, of much importance is the problem of correlation between calendar rituals and folk culture. The data given in the book testify that folk cultures of above peoples had a strong influence on various aspects of their spiritual heritage.