RITUAL AND SONGS IN ŠAJKAŠI'S WEDDINGS

Abstract

According to the informants’ idealized image, the šajkaši's wedding rituals, in very general terms, consist of different phases each being well marked out, each bearing its own, propeties, and each being characterized by specific behaviour and verbal manifestaitons. Although, for some time now, our tehnologists have approached the study of wedding customs in the light of rites of passage, none of them have, so far, paid any significant attention te analysing the verbal complex that is its integral part. This particularily refers to the text of wedding songs, althogh it is clear, first of all, that they are the inseparable part of the ritual, and, further, that the songs can be fully understood only within the wedding ritual context. If that is so, then sengs should help in interpreting the wedding ritual context, and the context itself, on the other hand, should claerify the meaning of songs. In this paper we illustare our point with a number of examples taken from the Šajkaška villages.