Papročiai ir laiko dimensijos

LTŠiame darbe žvelgiame į papročius kaip į sudėtinę Lietuvos kaimo kultūros dalį, kurią saisto laikas. Pateikiame teorinių prielaidų apie laiko suvokimą Lietuvoje XX a. pr. ir kaip tai atsiskleidė papročiuose. Laiko ir papročių sąsajos gali būti nagrinėjamos keliose plotmėse: 1) tyrinėjant paprotinių veiksmų genezę bei semantiką, kai jų ištakų negalime apibrėžti istoriniu laiku, tačiau įmanoma nusakyti tų veiksmų kiekį ir turinį, sąsajas su visuomenės sąmone ir jų pokyčių seką amžinybėje, 2) registruojant ir analizuojant paprotinius veiksmus vienoje ar keliose konkrečiose laiko atkarpose, nepaisant jų trukmės, 3) nustatant etnokultūrines laiko reikšmes žmonių bendruomenėms, bendrijoms ir asmenims, atsižvelgiant į jų lytį bei amžių. Šios kryptys yra sąlyginės. Dažniausiai viename darbe aprėpiamos bent dvi iš jų. [p. 42].

ENIn this work the author reviews customs and traditions as an inseparable part of rural culture of Lithuania connected by time and presents some theoretical presumptions about the perception of time. The author also draws attention to the fact that each custom or tradition practised at a certain time is recognised only by certain members of the community and becomes their temporal property usually depending on their age periods, which are infancy, childhood, youth, conjugality, old age, and death. Each period has its standards of behaviour, duties, freedoms and prohibitions determined by the community in respect of astronomic, anthropologic or phenological (or some other) calendar’s holy time dimensions. In the time of holidays individual ritual performances are part of the sacral culture which even in a micro environment is not monolithic in respect of both its creators and users. Thus, in wedding traditions one can observe a different time dimension sequence of introducing men and women into a new community. The suggested short time dimension, which is an interpretation of the holy time perception in rural Lithuania of the first half of the 20th century, is an alternative to Mircia Eliade’s statements about mythological time perception. Customs and traditions of the holy time dimensions contained elements of the ritual performances that had developed in pre-Christian anthropologic, astronomic and phenological time measurement periods.These customs and traditions being a very important imaginary support of man’s life and economic activity, a means of socialising and, finally, a form of psychological relaxation have been observed up to the middle of the 20th century. They are part of calendar holidays that have more or less been observed up to the end of the present research period. Each holy time dimension has its specific rituals performed in the village (household, farmstead, settlement and farming lands), in the neighbouring village (settlement and farming fields) and holy space (church, cemetery). In the first half of the 20th century a link between the holy time and the Lord’s work and rest cycle was based on the biblical story about the creation of the world in six days. Some specific meaning was attributed to other holidays, and there was a requirement to observe strict norms of behaviour with a lot of rituals, the consequences of which were aimed at future. Thus, we may presume that in the 20th century in Lithuania the holy time dimensions could not have been perceived like some sort of chaos or disorderly fury of ghosts. On the contrary, it was a strictly regulated period of time, a holy period of man’s communication with the metaphysical world, which made him believe that obeying Lord’s orders will bring him welfare and that he will be punished for all his wrong doings.