Common and special in the wedding customs of the descendants of siberian old-timers of Pritomye in the second half of the 20th century (based on field materials of 2018-2021)

In connection with the processes of transformation and active intercultural communications in the second half of the 20th century in Pritomye, the article raises the problem of the relevance of wedding customs as ethno-cultural markers. Based on materials collected in ethnographic expeditions 2018-2021 in the Mariinsky, Chebulinsky, and Tyazhinsky Districts of the Kemerovo Region, wedding customs of the 1950s-1970s period of the rural population of Pritomye who define themselves as descendants of the Siberian old-timers, are analyzed. As a result of the research, general and specific features of wedding traditions are identified. The structure of the wedding scenario, including matchmaking, redemption, and the first wedding day in the groom ’s house and the second wedding day in the bride ’s house, became generally accepted for the old-time weddings in various villages of the Tom region in the second half of the 20th century. Also generally accepted among the descendants of the old-time population customs were the traditions of giving pancakes on the first/second day of the wedding festivities and the tradition of sweeping up the litter by the bride on the second day of the wedding. The custom of “extinguishing ovin” in its various variations, stealing the bride, walking mummers and smearing faces with soot were less widespread. Rare among the old-timer customs were the parents of young people riding on sleds, when the wedding guests were harnessed in the village of Malopeschanka in the Mariinsky District. Such customs as “breeding” of families, cooking of chicken by a young wife on a campfire, walking of young people for water, recorded in the village of Bolshaya Pokrovka in the Tyazhinsky District, turned out to be isolated. Some of the customs recorded by the author are similar to the wedding customs and rituals of the Russian settlers of the Tom region, which suggests that the cause of the differences within the old-timer groups were mutual cultural contacts between the settlers and old-timers. The findings suggest that wedding customs can act as ethno-cultural markers, but necessarily taking into account the factor of intercultural interaction specific to Western Siberia.