The Ritual Feast among the Don Cossacks: From the Everyday to the Sacred

Abstract

The article explores the channels through which food is transferred from the realm of the everyday to the realm of the ritual. I examine folk vocabularies and terminologies used in designating various types of feasts and ritual meals in the culture of the Don Cossacks. The principal features that characterize the ritual meal are: the positioning at the juncture of temporal and spatial boundaries; strict regulation; interaction between the living and the dead in the partaking of the meal; and archaic manner of preparing and consuming food. Some of the features particular to the feasts and ritual meals in the Don area may be seen as stemming from the military status of the Cossack community.