Wedding Sodai: genesis and symbolism
ENThe object of this study is the Lithuanian and neighbouring nations'wedding symbols (wedding sodas, rózga weselna, devja krasota, etc.), their customs, beliefs, and folklore, which help to reveal the symbolism of the wedding straw garden (sodas) and its equivalents in neighboring nations. Based on ethnographic and folklore sources of Lithuanian and neighbouring Slavic and other peoples (Russian, Belarusian, Polish, Ukrainian, Finnish, Swedish), as well as on various ancient sources, this article aims to reveal the origins of the wedding straw garden, to trace the changes of its form and symbolic meanings from antiquity to the present day. The objectives of this study are: 1) drawing on ethnographic sources, to identify the most characteristic forms of the wedding sodas in Lithuania at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries; 2) to compare the oldest Lithuanian wedding sodai with their counterparts among the neighboring Slavic countries 3) to discuss the symbolism of wedding straw gardens and their counterparts among neighboring nations by drawing on ethnographic and folkloric sources, as well as on myths of antiquity. The methods used in this study are historical comparative and interpretative. [p. 27].
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