Pot Breaking in the Wedding Ritual of Don Cossacks: Areal Variations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Action

Abstract

The breaking of dishes at weddings is known to all Slavs. It accompanies the most important stages of the ritual and symbolizes the change of the young couple’s social status. This action in the Don wedding tradition reveals a number of meanings, which are united by the symbolism of the ritual transition of the wedding participants, especially the bride, as well as the newlywed and their mothers. Often “pot beating” is part of the whole micro rites, including various manipulations with dishes and its fragments. Sweeping up the shards of broken crockery is the most stable element of the ritual, which can be combined with other components and performed as an independent action. In the memory of old residents of Don villages and farms for a long time there were actions (breaking a pot on the belly of the mothers-in-law, putting a chicken or a rooster into it, throwing crock-pots into the fire and jumping over it), behind which there are archaic folk beliefs related to the conclusion of marriage. However, the general orientation of breaking dishes in the Don tradition changes in the direction of increasing entertainment and competition.