Magic-Ritual Use of Iron Ware on the Christmas Eve (After the Field Materials from Boikivshchyna)

Attention is drawn in the article to the ritual and magical use of iron attributes on Christmas Eve on the territory of Boikivshchyna. The ceremonial time, places and the performers of magic actions are set. Their functional purpose, actional and verbal levels are revealed. Verbal magic is represented by sayings and the threefold repetition of magic words. The local varieties, specific differences and interpretations of the studied phenomena are characterized. Beliefs in the magical (healing, apotropaic, producing) properties of iron and iron ware (like household items: chain, axe, scythe, sickle, saw, lock, key, knife, firewood, etc.) as well as the existence of additional ritual practices to enhance the effect have been found. Examples of the use of iron ware in economic and meteorological magic are given. It is found that in some villages of Boikivshchyna region the researched customs have been preserved till nowadays. Their gradual loss also has been recorded. The source basis of the article includes the handwritten materials of the field research from a number of settlements of Boikivshchyna ethnographic region, stored in the archives of the Institute of Ethnology and M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. They are recorded in the mid- to late 20th – first quarter of the 21th century. The authoress’s expeditionary studies are supplemented by field notes of l. Horoshko, N. Hromova, O. Boriak, H. Droniv, O. Kolomyichuk, A. Kryvenko and others as well as the works of the late 19th – early 20th century. The methodology of the submitted article is based on general scientific methodological principles and the basic requirements those are applied to the works of historical and ethnological direction. In particular, the field observation, typological, comparative-historical, comparative and structural-semantic methods are used.