SYMBOLISM OF KUTIYA IN THE RITUAL CULTURE OF RUSSIANS

In the article the ritual applications of the traditional Russian dish - kutiya - is analysed. It is considered in the anthropological aspect based on the social, biological, and sacral human necessities. The significance of this dish is also explored. The symbolism of kutiya is connected with the "service" of several cultural themes that form the bases of the traditional ideology. The use of kutiya in ceremonial rites of the annual obedience was supposed to be a gift, with the help of which a human enlisted ancestors' support in those spheres of life, where the result of his activity did not depend on him. Here is an explanation for the ancestors' presence in the festive sacral time,especially during the New Year holiday, when the future world order was modelled. At the same time the application of kutiya also served as means for support of the transtemporal and interspatial structure of the family, including dead and living persons. The unity was reached with the help of the meal during which dead persons were imagined to be its participants. The sign of kutiya associated with the other world appears in the divination. Elements of divinations - threshold, candle and corner - mark the boundary of "their" area, where the human being lives, and of the "alien" one, where dead ancestors live and supernatural omens could come from. The application of kutiya in divinations during Christmas time is determined with the actualisation of communication channels between the world of living beings and the one of dead persons. The presence of kutiya in ceremonial rites of social transition timed to summer holidays is defined by the girl entry into a special age group, which is characterized by her readiness to marriage. The consumed kutiya must give the rite participants the necessary power connected with the life energy. In this case kutiya represented the symbolism of cereals it was made of (cereals represented the concentration of the vital force, the embryo of a new life).