Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe. Histories, Religions, and Cultures II Sofia 2018 Editors: Ekaterina Anastasova, Svetoslava Toncheva Language editor: Svetoslava Toncheva Proof-readers, publication managers: Ekaterina Anastasova, Svetoslava Toncheva Editorial Board Prof. PhDr. Zuzana , CSc., University of Constantine the Philosopher, Nitra, Slovakia Robert Fletcher, PhD, Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University, Netherlands Dr. Phil. Solveiga Krumina-Konkova, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, University of Latvia, Riga Prof. Vesselin Popov, PhD, School of History, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK/Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, BAS, Bulgaria Assoc. prof. - , Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other ways, without the prior permission of the copyright holder. © Editors: Ekaterina Anastasova, Svetoslava Toncheva. © All contributors, 2018. © Cover: Lina Gergova, 2009/2018 © Paradigma Publishing House, 2018. ISBN 978-954-326-372-1 Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe. Histories, Religions, and Cultures II Contents Introduction...............................................................................................................................4 Ekaterina Anastasova (Bulgaria). Chapter I..................................................................................................................................10 History, Memory and Identity (Latvia). The Interpretation of Latvian History in the School Textbooks and Interviews Ieva Garda-Rozenberga, Kaspars Zellis (Latvia). Remembering Genocide: Extermination of Roma during the Second World War in Latvia Evgenia Troeva (Bulgaria). National Genealogy and Festivalisation of the Past Olga Brusylovska (Ukraine). Post-communist Identities and Their Transformations: The Cases of Poland and Romania Chapter II ...........................................................................................................................66 Religion, Beliefs and Sacred Places Victor Shnirelman (Russia). Russia in front of the “End of Time”: The Russian Orthodox Public Fears and the Church Attitude SvetoslavaToncheva (Bulgaria). The Vision of Bulgaria’s Future during Social Crisis in Mantic Discourse Matthias Bickert (Germany). Re-sanctification of Space in Albania – The Case of Sunni Islam Mare Kõiva, Andres Kuperjanov, Liisa Vesik (Estonia). Sacred Places – Destinations of Travel and Pilgrimage in Bulgaria (Lithuania). The Cult of Saints in the Popular Religion of Lithuania (Latvia). Discovering Communality in the Field of Religious Experiences Chapter III..........................................................................................................................163 Ritual Year and Everyday Life (Lithuania). The Urban Ritual Year: Religion, Ethnicity, and Ideology Petko Hristov, Elena Petrova (Bulgaria – Ukraine). The Role of the Festival Calendar in the Identity Construction of the Diaspora. (The Case of the Bulgarians in Odessa and the Ukrainians in Sofia) (Lithuania). Modern Holidays in Lithuania. Researching Observance of Professional Holidays Chapter IV ..........................................................................................................................206 2 Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe. Histories, Religions, and Cultures II Migration and Identity (Re-) Construction (Germany – Latvia). The Variability of Migration Systems, or: from Transnationalism to Transregionalism? Experiences from Latvia and Albania Alberto Alonso-Ponga García, María Jesús Pena Castro (Spain). Identity in Construction. Identity Definitions in the Integration Process of the Bulgarian Community in Castile and Leon, Spain (Lithuania). Historical Reconstruction Groups in Lithuania: Searching Identity in the Post-Socialist Society Mariyanka Borisova (Bulgaria). Bulgarian Female Migration to EU – Characteristics and Tendencies Chapter V ............................................................................................................................251 Culture, Tradition, and Post-modern Transformation Marju Kõivupuu, Aliis Kiiker (Estonia). Constructing a Tradition – Cremation in Estonia - (Lithuania). Leisure Culture in Lithuania: an Ethnological Investigation Reet Hiiemäe (Estonia). “What Is This Mystical Bogeyman or Ghost Called?” Sharing Nightmare Experiences on Internet Forums Anete Karlsone (Latvia). Preservation of Traditional Crafts Skills in the Cultural Environment of Modern Latvia (Romania). The Toponymic Heritage of Bucharest (Streets named after Famous Bulgarians) Valeria B. Kolosova (Russia). “Bear” Plants in Bulgarian Dialects Summary.............................................................................................................................335 List of Authors....................................................................................................................336 3 Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe. Histories, Religions, and Cultures II The Urban Ritual Year: Religion, Ethnicity, and Ideology Abstract This paper examines the urban ritual year, where it is possible to look the most clearly at the religious, ethnic, and ideological features and the changes in them over the course of time, focusing on four periods: Imperial Russia, independent Lithuania (1918-1940), the Soviet and German Nacional Socialist occupations (1940-1990), and the restored Lithuanian Republic. Greater attention is directed towards the contemporary situation in an attempt to compare the situation of Lithuania with those of the neighbouring states. The conclusion can be drawn that even in contemporary society, to a certain degree, we live in accordance with the religious calendar. Injected into it are secular state holidays that form the official ritual year, which has a national character and has close ties to ideology. The ritual year structure does not depend greatly on the religion predominant in the country. As was shown by a comparative investigation of several Eastern European countries, history and tradition have a greater impact on the character of the ritual year than the religious environment does. Key words: city, ritual year, religion, ethnicity, ideology Lithuanian ethnologists have focused considerable attention on the analysis of traditional seasonal festivals, which has revealed the situation in the mostly mono-ethnic and mono-religious agricultural society. However, the ritual year structure in a poly-ethnic and poly- religious city, where agrarian time has almost no meaning and where festivals are connected with ideological motifs, has still been little investigated in Lithuania, but the regular discussions about the non-work days in the calendar have made such an investigation relevant. Laurent Sébastien Fournier has raised a question ‘concerning the abilities of social actors to understand and to perform their own history and identity through the cycle of the ritual year’ (Fournier, 2008, 66-71). The present author thinks that the investigation of urban culture is an important contribution to the discussion of this problem. However, the opinion that the ritual year is also connected with religious identity cannot be rejected. As Catherine Bell has mentioned, ‘many religious traditions define their whole calendar year through a series of rites that express the most basic beliefs of the community. The traditional Christian calendar is particularly elaborate in its annual chronicle of the birth, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Additional feast and other holy days have traditionally created an ongoing round of rites in which the rhythms of the year are formed by religious devotions and responsibilities seasonal festivals were frequently intertwined in the 1920s with historical and political events, which were especially important at that time. In the first decade of the Lithuanian Republic’s 164 Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe. Histories, Religions, and Cultures II existence, the publication of the 16 February 1918 Act of Independence in the country’s official newspapers (especially Lietuva) made it available to the public almost every Christmas. The state’s birth was frequently identified with Christ’s birth. For example, the annual Christmas greeting began with appropriate number of years since independence, e.g., “Christ has been born for an eighth time in independent Lithuania” . In analysing the ritual year of many European countries, it is possible to state that the majority of the festivals in contemporary society are connected with the Christian calendar. No work is done over Christmas in any European country1 or over Easter in the majority of them. Even time is calculated according to the calendar approved by Pope Gregory XIII in 15822. But, alongside the days commemorating events in the lives of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints, secular events important to the state have also become non-work days in contemporary society. These are marked especially solemnly in the city, where there is no need to coordinate festive life with agricultural work, and the official non-work days are clearly specified in the state’s decrees and laws. The relationship between festivals and religion is also oted, the Lithuanian words for “celebrate” ( ) and holy (šventas) have to same root, thus celebrations