Ethnic heritage as the basis of musical cultural practices of Ossetian football fans

The aim of the study is to identify the features of Ossetian football fans’ song and dance performances based on elements of traditional culture. The materials were the author’s personal observations of the activities of the leaders of football fans, the results of research by Russian culturologists and sociologists on the Ossetian folk culture and the fan movement. The research methodology is based mainly on the structural-functional approach. The activities of the group of Ossetian football fans, Fallag farsy bal, who use elements of folk art in their practices, have been studied. The elements of traditional culture used by modern Ossetian football fans (disguised masks, national musical elements, ritual and labor folk songs, reoriented to football themes) are analyzed. The use of masks at a football match is a kind of ritual aimed at getting the support of higher powers for the sake of the victory of their team. The author studies a version of the song adapted to the football theme, which accompanied the folk ritual dance Chepena; provides authentic traditional texts and a modified modern version created by the fans of the Ossetian club Alania; considers the interpretation of the ritual congratulatory song “Soi” composed by Ossetian football fans; indicates the presence of the Ossetian folk labor song “Khosdzæuttyzaræg” (song of mowers) among the performed folklore works; draws an analogy between the leader, who directs the actions of the fans at the match, and the manager (“radgæs”), who gave instructions to participants during the performance of traditional Ossetian dances; notes the semantic connection of the image of the manager with the cult of Tutyr, the patron saint of wolves in the Ossetian tradition. The author has established that Ossetian football fans managed to bring elements of folk art into the Russian fan culture. Among the features of the song and dance practices of Ossetian football fans, the author points out: (1) the use of the potential of traditional culture in fan practices, (2) the sacralization of actions in support of the team taken by the fans in the stands during the match, (3) the synthesis of the usual format of fan activity and the simultaneous use of traditional choral singing and elements of the national costume. The author believes that the use of songs, dances, music and chants based on works of folk culture as a means of expressing fan identity is an organic development of folk art among urban youth, becoming a new form of urban folklore.