Christmas and new year practices by the old-timers and south Russian immigrants on the Altai territory in the mid-20th century (based on materials of ethnographic expeditions 2012-2016)

Purpose. The author considers the specificity of ceremonies, festive food, traditions of Christmas carolers visiting homes and singing on Christmas and New Year’s Day, etc. as practiced by the old-timers and the south Russian immigrants living in the Altai Krai. The materials were gathered during field trips aimed at observing the traditions of Yule cycle on the Altai Territory. The author describes specific ways of preparing such festive food as kutya, buns and cakes and other dishes people eat after the fast ends, the associated rituals and their functional purpose. The article analyzes the ritual visits of houses, carol texts, and the texts of greetings and «posevalnaya» songs. Customs and rituals of «novogod’ye» are analyzed in terms of their ethnic specificity as ethno-cultural groups of south-Russian immigrants live along with the old-timers of the Altai in the mid-20th century. The author characterizes less common Christmas rituals spread among Ukrainian immigrants, such as using catch phrases and sayings by children and married women on the eve of the holiday. Special attention is paid to traditional divination as well as the customs of Baptism. The material for this research was gathered during the author’s fieldwork in 2012-2016 on the territory of the Altai region (villages and towns of Mamontovo, Romanovo, Charysh, Shipunovo, Pospeliha, Zav’yalovo, Krutiha district). The article is illustrated with a number of photographs showing the preparation of festive food and some objects used when carolers visit houses. Results. The traditional practices by south-Russian immigrants and the old-timers in Altai included the following activities. People had to clean their house before the festive season, but during Christmas any work was prohibited. It was necessary to prepare a lot of baked and meat dishes for New Year holidays, such as shanezhki, rasstegai, krepli, struzhni, pies, etc., pancakes, dumplings with butter (the latter typical of south-Russian immigrants). One of the important components of the Christmas period in the Ukrainian families was preparing a «poor» and «rich» kutya. Christmas kutya was lighted and served with special ritual actions before the meal. The rituals were performed, as a rule, by children (godchildren) or married women and meant to promote fruitfulness, increase in livestock and poultry. An integral element of Christmas was a godchild visiting his or her godmother and feeding her with kutya, accompanied with exchanging gifts. In the mid-20th century houses were visited by young people, and it was considered lucky if the first person coming in was a man or a boy (spread among south-Russian immigrants). While visiting houses, people sprinkled them with grain, which was fed to chickens in the morning. We collected a variety of greeting songs for the New Year, which are presented in the article. In the mid-20th century, a popular form of rituals was female divination of different kinds, which was performed outside, at home, in the bathhouse, or in the barn. Conclusion. According to the analysis of the components of ritual practices during the Christmas holidays in the south Russian immigrants and old-timers of Altai (Voronezh, Kursk, Ryazan, Penza, Tula, Ukraine, Poltava), we identified a certain similarity of the actions performed during the Christmas period, though with some differences depending on the group. They were aimed at maintaining prosperity in the family, increasing the family and adding stock on the farm. This research is topical due to the contemporary interest of nations to their own ethno-cultural traditions and the so ciety being aware of the importance of traditions as a mechanism of ensuring historical continuity for ethnic groups.