Vlachian Christmas in Vienna

Authors

  • Natalia Golant Author

Keywords:

Vlachs, Romanians, Eastern Serbia, Vienna, Christmas

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the celebration of Christmas among the Vlachs from Eastern Serbia, currently living in Vienna, on a permanent or temporary base. The author compares their Christmas practices with the ones celebrated by Vlachs in Eastern Serbia (the Zajecar village community, Zajecar district, and the from the Negotin and Kladovo village communities, Bor district). The paper focuses on particular ceremonial practices, such as the use of the Christmas log (Rom. dial. badnjak) and the Christmas cake with divination objects inside (Rom. dial. banica, cesnica). The text is based on fieldwork materials collected by the author from 2016 to 2018.

Author Biography

  • Natalia Golant

    Natalia Golant is a PhD (Historical Sciences), senior researcher of the Centre for
    European Studies of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography
    (Kunstkamera) of Russian Academy of Sciences (MAE RAS). Her areas of interest
    are: ethnography of the Carpathian-Balkan region, traditional culture of the
    Eastern Latin peoples, calendar rites, mythology beliefs, and ethno-linguistics.

    She graduated from the Faculty of History (Department of Ethnography and
    Anthropology), St. Petersburg State University in 2002. She is currently a member
    of the organising committee of the conference “Jewish Diasporas in Europe and
    Beyond: Fieldwork and Source Studies” (MAE RAS).

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Published

2024-12-31

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2024): THE RITUAL YEAR 13

Section

Articles