Kategorie semantyczne "tekstu" bułgarskiego obrzędu łazarskiego : kod akcjonalny

Abstract

The article is an attempt to answer the question about the position that the semantic category of activities occupies in the peculiar culture „text”, which is a rite. The issue is discussed based on an example of a Bulgarian rite of the spring cycle — lazaruwane. It belongs to the so-called rites de passages — rites that in a symbolic way express changes which occur in the life of an individual as well as in nature (the participants of lazaruwane are young unmarried women, who thanks to their participation in the rite become included in a new social group, which is accompanied by the transition from winter to spring). The semantic analysis of the elements of lazaruwane action code shows clearly that within the rite an activity has practically no symbolic motivation of its own. A proper interpretation of the meaning of ritual activities is possible when we take into consideration not only the very sense of the rites but also all other sign elements present within it: the performer, addressee, object, instrument, time and space. Depending on the domination of one of these components, the symbolism of activities may acquire different accents: personal (a girls’ dance accompanying songs — wishes during the realisation of the marginal phase), objective (ritual meal in the phase of inclusion), temporal (staying overnight in the house of one of the girls during the preparations for the rite realisation in the inclusion phase), or spatial (activities undertaken in placed related to water in the marginal phase).