Christmastide (svyatki) and Halloween: festive folk customs archetypal unity and distinction

This research covers philosophical and historical-cultural analysis of folk holidays inherited by diverse folk cultures: Christmastide (Svyatki) and Halloween; identification of its unique archetypal basis, existential unity and distinction. The author conducted the comparative analysis revealing semantic unity of participants' archetypal actions, archetypal behavior specifics, existence of archetypal images of mentioned folk holidays. The author identified unity and difference of specific festival scenes fulfilling festive performance. There is a unique semantic code behind the variety of festive sacral practices actualized in symbolic expression manifold. One of the main goal of this study is to elicit Halloween celebration plagiarism pattern and the replacement of Svyatki celebration in modern Russia.