CODES OF SLAV CULTURES
journal of slavic folkloristics and ethno-lingvistics

No. 1

PLANTS 

Apple fruit in Serbian calendar rhymes symbolizes love and premarital relations. Different actions with apple were established: playing (throwing), giving, taking, dividing, shooting, all illustrated by 19th and 20th century examples (Antoniyevich, Bovan, Vasiljevich, Grbich, Debeljkovich, Djordjevich, Zlatanovich, Yastrebov, Karadzhich, Milichevich, Milosavljevich). Similarity of apple fruit in non ritual love songs, ritual calendar songs and wedding songs is noted. Ritual acts with apple in weddings are described, also. Some other fruits can replace the apple (sour cherry, orange). Comparing Serbian and Russian folk songs (Efimenko, Bolonieva, Melinikova, Kolpakova, Kirieievski) brings us to the conclusion that the apple tree is more frequent in Russian texts as a rendezvous venue. Russian examples testify about the parallelism: apple - girl. In conclusion, more frequent presence of apple fruit in Serbian ritual spring rhymes than in Russian tradition is noted.

Web designed by Megabit