The family-kin holidays and rites of the Chuvash and the Udmurts

Purpose. The article is devoted to the complex study of the family-kin holidays and rites of the Chuvash and the Udmurts, namely celebrating Great days - măn kun and bydzym nunal, çimĕk and semik ( semyk ), chukleme and vil'. Family, kin and community have always played a decisive role in the preservation and reproduction of traditional culture. Family-kin customs and requirements are particularly important for the Chuvash and the Udmurts peasants and make the basis of their life. The rural community included families rather than individuals, and, thus, the family was the main structural component of the community. The rural community being an important institute of socialization in the traditional society, it was the key factor for keeping traditions. Results. The family-kin rites and holidays are some of the structural elements of ethnic culture which affect functioning of the whole communal system. A major role in this process was assigned to the rural community because it influenced the formation and inheritance of the ancestors' good traditions, performed the functions of the social memory and regulated the behavior of people in repeating situations. Due to the existing communal traditions, peoples of the Volga-Kama region continue to keep their family-kin rites and celebrate traditional holidays. They retain strong family ties and pass their century-old experience from generation to generation. According to the results of the investigation, there are many similar features in the ritual complex of the Chuvash and the Udmurts. These rites are a form of preserving kin relations, historical memory and identity. On the one hand, the Chuvash and the Udmurts commemorated their ancestors in prayers, asking them for help in difficult situations and offering them sacrifices. On the other hand, community members feared of the dead, tried to protect themselves from the dead's presence by performing special rites. Many of the difficulties in people's lives and illnesses of the members of their families and kin were referred to the ancestors who impose such hardship on the living people because of their disrespectful attitude towards the dead or insulting their memory. Conclusion. In this investigation we made the first attempt to explore communal traditions in the Volga-Kama region on the family-kin level using the example of the two nations, the Chuvash and the Udmurts. The role of the community in carrying out family-kin rites and traditional holidays was performed through worshipping family-kin shrines-patrons and dead ancestors. We observed strong kin bonds of the Chuvash and the Udmurts, which plays a big role in their life. Compared to the other peoples of the Volga-Kama region, the Chuvash and the Udmurts communities were less exposed to the destructive effects of the commodity-money relations. Even during the liquidation of the rural community, when collective and state farms appeared and the economic foundation of the rural community was destroyed, the established traditions did not turn into the thing of the past and continued to exist.