Aukojimo reliktai lietuvių papročiuose

LTDažnas tyrinėtojas, nagrinėdamas XIX-XX a. dvasinę lietuvių kultūrą, neišvengiamai susiduria su aukos atšvaitais. Į aukos reliktus valstiečių papročiuose jau yra atkreipę dėmesį A. Vyšniauskaitė, R. Merkienė, P. Dundulienė, A J. Greimas1. Žymaus rusų baltisto V. Toporovo nuomone, aukojimo problema yra nepaprastai svarbi, norint suprasti ritualą bei atskiras jo apeigas2. Šiame straipsnyje bus kalbama apie tam tikrą aukojimo formą - skystą auką, kai yra aukojama nupilant. Bandysime pasekti sakralinio nupylimo reliktus lietuvių papročiuos remdamiesi rašytiniais šaltiniais ir XIX a. pabaigos - XX a. pradžios Lietuvos kaimo tradicijomis. [p. 128].

ENThe author examines a certain form of sacrifice - liquid or fluid sacrifice (libatio in Latin) by pouring a liquid. Such sacrifice is known in the olden times of the Balts. Pouring off was the most essential thing appealing to God. This form of worshiping gods has been alive in Lithuanian culture for long centuries: the Lithuanians libabunt to the gods, goddesses and spirits. In the 17th century M. Pretorius wrote that all Lithuanian holidays of those times in Prussian Lithuania as well as the most important earthwork would begin by sacrificing beer to Žemyna (the goddes of Earth). That was done with special rituals: 1) pouring the drink out to the ground, 2) its consecration by prayers, 3) drinking, 4) sprinkling all the participants of the holiday with the remains of beer. This ritual is more undestandable if we examine blood sacrifice, on the one hand, and pouring off which survived in the customs of Lithuanian peasants till the 19th- 20th centuries, on the other hand. Written sources of the 14th-17th centuries indicate that in the old Prussian site of Romuva there grew a huge oak and the idols of three gods stood on that oak. The prophet poured out the blood on the oak in the direction of the god whom the sacrifice was made to. When the rituals took place not by the oak but in the barn, the blood was put into a special bowl and poured out on the ground, then the participants were sprinkled with it, and after that the soup was cooked and consumed.The essential peculiarity of the sacrifice is that it embodies the connection between man and god. For the Balts, blood was the synonim of life. Thus they believed that the best way to establish contact with god, the source of life, was to give him blood. Besides, the sacrificed animal at the moment of sacrifice was believed to become holy, that’s why its blood could consecrate and clean the man and to protect him from evil forces. The survivals of sacral pouring can be traced in Lithuanian customs of the 19th-20th centuries. Well-known was the custom to treat souls of dead ancestors at various family celebrations: christening, wedding, funeral. A drink or soup was poured to the ground. During christening or wedding it was poured onto the ceiling. A similar custom is pouring grain on people during various holidays, wishing them success and wealth. Thus, the conclusion can be made that the Lithuanians as corngrowers imagined the good pouring into man’s life like grain pouring into a bin or into the soil, like rain pouring onto the ground, the consequence being plants, blossom and fruits coming from the soil. Evidently, the gods who created the harvest and man’s wealth were imagined as pouring. Thus an important form of sacrifice was pouring blood, drink, soup, grain or dry food. People used to pour everything that was indispensable for supporting their existence and hoped that the god would make up for it.

• Apeiginis palabinimas. Liaudies kultūra 2003, 2, 8-14.
• Libation in Baltic religious practices. Archaeologia Baltica 2011, 15, 105-119.