Features of occasional rites and folk beliefs of Belarusian peasant migrants

The article is devoted to the features of occasional rites and folk beliefs of the descendants of Belarusian peasant migrants of the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries who lived in Siberia and the Far East of Russia. The degree of their preservation and transformation has been investigated on the basis of comparing the author's field materials with ethnographic descriptions made in the places of the migrants' departure. The features of the occasional rites and folk beliefs remained unevenly in the memory of the descendants of the Belarusian migrants. Their oral stories most frequently contain the descriptions of pluvial magic and apotropaic actions aimed at protecting estate as well as human and livestock health. In some cases, animistic representations of the surrounding world have been replaced by the elements of Christian rites. In the ethnographic descriptions of the 19th - early 20th centuries, the space of superstitions and occasional rites covers not only the village itself, but natural environment surrounding it (forests, fields, rivers, etc.) as well. Today it has become increasingly limited to the boundaries of private estates. The forms of occasional rites and folk beliefs that have retained its practical value in transforming the way of life of the East Slavic village of Siberia and the Far East over the past century continue to exist.