THE TOPICS OF SHCHEDRIVKA-SONGS IN WESTERN PODILLYA AND THEIR MAIN MOTIFS.

• Author: Smoliak, Oleg
• Position: Ukraine

1. Introduction

   One of the most important problems in the social life of Ukrainians today is the revival of spirituality and national consciousness. A special role in these processes should be played by calendar rituals, in particular the songs that accompany them. Songs related primarily to Epiphany rituals have not been studied enough by Ukrainian ethnologists and folklore scholars. These songs have to become the centre of scientific attention because ritual songs are an inexhaustible and healing source of spiritual and material culture of the Ukrainian people, its ethnic mentality.

   Important material in the study of traditional folk carols of Western Podillya (1) is printed and manuscript collections, which date back to the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. This makes it possible to trace the transformation of their development and adaptation to other socio-cultural and political conditions. Among them are the most important collections by P. Chubynskyi 1878; I. Bessaraba 1916; Ya. Holovatskyi 1878 who published traditional Christmas and Epiphany carols first, as well as the articles by M. Nomys 1864; Kh. Yashchurzhynskiy 1898; B. Yatsymirskyi 1914, which describe Epiphany rituals of Ukrainians.

   Publication on Epiphany rituals and songs intensified in the early 20th century. The first thorough research in this series of publications was / "Galician-Russian Folk Melodies" by J. Rozdolskyi and S. Lyudkevych 1906. They published 18 melodies and lyrics of shchedrivka-songs from Galicia, including those from the territory of Western Podillya.

   Volodymyr Hnatiuk's (1914) collection / "Christmas and Epiphany Carols" became a milestone among the publications of a similar kind in Western Podillya. This publication is considered to be the first Christmas and Epiphany carol anthology in Western Podillya that included more than 3000 Christmas and Epiphany carols from the whole Galicia, including Western Podillya.

   Mykhailo Hrushevskyi (1923) paid considerable attention to the study of winter rituals of Ukrainians (including Epiphany), focusing on the role and place of each rite in the winter cycle of holidays. He was the first to classify shchedrivka-songs based on parts of the whole Epiphany rituals. The scholar also drew attention to the leading motifs that construct a plot of shchedrivka-songs and tried to find out their symbolism and image system.

   The famous Ukrainian ethnomusicologist and folklorist F. Kolessa (1938) studied the rituals of Shchedryi Vechir (Generous Evening (2)). In particular, he noted that the most important in Epiphany carols (and in the songs of the winter cycle in general) is the agricultural element. Kolessa pointed to the autochthonous origin of the term shchedrivka, which originated from Shchedryi Vechir (Generous Evening).

   Stepan Kylymnyk (1994), a Ukrainian ethnographer from the diaspora, compiled a five-volume publication / "Ukrainian Year through Folk Customs: A Historical Overview", which was published in the 1950-60s. It played a leading role in the study of Christmas rituals of Ukrainians in general and Epiphany rituals in particular. The first volume of this work is devoted to the history of the formation of Christmas (including Epiphany) rituals. Here the sources of the origin of Epiphany holidays are traced, a detailed description of the ritual of the Generous Evening is provided and a typology of the addressees, to whom the shchedrivkas were dedicated, is created.

   In the 1950-1980s, during the communist regime in Ukraine, the songs of the winter calendar cycle were hardly ever published due to ideological reasons. Only since the mid-1980s the study and publication of Christmas and Epiphany carols by Ukrainians (including those from the Western Podillya region) have intensified. The collection / "Songs of Ternopil region: Calendar-Ritual and Family-Household Lyrics " (Stelmashchuk and Medvedyk 1989) was published which included Christmas and Epiphany carols with melodies and an introductory article. The article provides a general analysis at the level of plot and poetics of the carols. Most of the Christmas songs in this edition represent the Western Podillya area.

   In the collection / "New Joy has Arrived" (Vyspinskyi, Pylypenko and Synenka 1993), published in Ternopil (Western Podillya region) in 1993, the authors of the introductory article drew attention to the elements of 'dual faith' that have survived in the main features of Christmas and Epiphany rituals, like walking with a 'Goat', 'Malanka' and in carolling walks. Melodies and lyrics of Western Podillya carols and Christmas and Epiphany carols are presented in a separate section. It is this kind of observation of the Christmas rites that makes it possible to see the transformation processes that took place under the influence of Christianization.

   Ethnographic research / "Zhabynia Village in Zboriv District" (Western Podillya region) by P. Medvedyk (1996) provides detailed information on observing the celebration of Shchedryi Vechir (Generous Evening). The work describes in detail the tradition of Epiphany carolling in the village of Zhabynia, namely walking with a 'Goat' and 'Malanka'. This work is valuable because it describes in detail the preservation of traditions of Western Podillya villages in the late 20th century and will be very revealing when considering the transformation processes in it.

   Shchedrivka-songs of Western Podillya, in particular of its southern part, are collected in Z. Yaropud's (2000) textbook / "A Swallow has Come". In addition to recordings of Epiphany carols with melodies and lyrics, there is also a theoretical analysis of their themes, the presence in their stories of mythological characters and figurative vocabulary.

   A number of Western Podillya Epiphany carols with melodies and ethnological descriptions of Christmas holidays were published in M. Kryshchuk's (1990) / "Galician Christmas and Epiphany Carols" and P. Shymkiv's (1998) / "Generous Evening", which partially supplemented previous materials and covered the state of Christmas traditions in the late 20th century.

   The article aims to analyze shchedrivka-songs (Epiphany carols/shchedrivkas) of Western Podillya at the level of their thematic groups and motifs that fill their stories taking into account the transformation processes that took place during the 20th--early 21st centuries.

   The methodology of our research relies on the works in ethnology and folklore by Ukrainian and foreign scholars (V. Hnatiuk 1914; F. Kolessa 1938, 1996; M. Hrushevskyi 1923; S. Hrytsa 2007; A. Ivanytskyi 1997, 2004; L. Vinogradova 1982; Z. Mozheiko 1985; R. Genon 2002), who consider ritual songs as part of calendar holidays. We refer to the works of scholars such as R. Genon and A. Ivanitskyi, who developed a methodology for understanding the sacred and profane principles of ritual songs under the influence of external socio-cultural factors and their effects on transformational processes in folklore. Their research is based on the function of the song in the ceremony, the circumstances of its performance and the addressee (to whom the song is intended during the performance).

   The bulk of our research is based on the fieldwork materials collected by professor O. Smoliak in the region of Western Podillya during 1980-2015. We also used lyrics of shchedrivka-songs in the collections / "Christmas and Epiphany Carols" by V. Hnatiuk (1914), / "Songs of Ternopil region. Edition 1" by S. Stelmashchuk and P. Medvedyk 1989, / "Folk Songs from Solomiya Krushelnytska's Village" by P. Medvedyk and O. Smoliak 1993, covering intermediate time periods, starting from the beginning of the 20th and ending with the early 21st century. Materials from these sources make it possible to trace the transformation processes in the texts of Epiphany carols, as well as the priority of their sacred or profane foundations.

   The following research methods have been used to complete certain tasks in the article. The methods include studies of written source, retrospective analysis, historical-typological analysis, culturally-oriented approach, structural-analytical, and comparative analysis. Such a systematic approach in the application of analytical methods will provide a thorough understanding of the theme of Epiphany carols, their division into groups and prove the presence of motifs that determine the essence of the Epiphany holidays in general and the rite of Generous Eve in particular. This will give an opportunity to understand the sacredness of Epiphany stories and ways of their transition to a profane purpose.

2. The history of establishing epiphany holidays and grouping shchedrivka-songs

   The third cycle of winter holidays includes songs that the locals of Western Podillya call shchedrivkas (Epiphany carols). This name dates back to ancient pre-Christian times and comes from the name of Generous Eve, which precedes the feast of the baptism of Water (January 19). The Christian name of this holiday is Epiphany (baptism of Jesus (3)).

   At this point, it is worth explaining the 13-day difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. To do this, it is best to refer to the greatest holiday for all Christians, Christmas, as an example.

   The Orthodox, including Ukrainians, celebrate this holiday on January 7, and the Catholics on December 25. In Galicia in Western Ukraine, which includes the ethnographic region of Western Podillya, there is also the Greek Catholic Church which was formed in 1596 due to certain socio-political circumstances. The Greek Catholics, as well as the Orthodox Ukrainians, celebrate Christmas on January 7.

   On December 25 the Roman Empire traditionally celebrated one of the most important holidays 'Birth of the Sun' when the nights became shorter and the daylight longer (Doble: 5). After the introduction of Christianity people began celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on this day to reduce the influence of the...