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Chivarzina A. Farewell to Labor Migrants Rituals in a Balkan Slavic Archaic Zone

Alexandra Chivarzina
Institute for Slavic Studies
Moscow, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000–0002–0365–3723
E-mail: mss-vah@yandex.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. Seasonal labor mobility (pechalbarsvo, gurbetchistvo) has become traditional in many areas of the Balkans and among the Mijaks in particular. With the passing of time, it has created its own folklore. Family stories and legends about heroes and fellow villagers were passed down from generation to generation, as well as songs about the hard life of migrants and the women left without male help in the household. Over the years, 90% of the male population has been leaving villages, and this could not but affect the village economies and the mentality. At the same time, new living conditions required observance of the proven customs and rituals to ensure the well-being, health and safe return of the person leaving to earn money. Typological similarities with many other situations of parting (with the deceased departing for the better world, or with soldiers) made it possible to construct a new ritual complex. On the one hand, this complex appears to be still within the same type of rites of passage. But on the other, it stands out for its characteristic features shaped by its main goal, i.e. ensuring a safe return back to the family. This article considers the parting tradition within the labor migration, focusing on the archaic rituals framing such a relatively new cultural phenomenon as farewell to a migrant worker.

 

KEYWORDS: labor migration, farewell rituals, ethnolinguistics, Slavic archaic zones, Balkan Slavic languages, Macedonia, the Mijaks

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2021-2(12)-186-195
УДК 395(497.17)

 

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