Antoaneta OLTEANU, OFRANDE RITUALE LA POPOARELE BALCANICE

Anuarul Muzeului Etnografic al Moldovei – X / 2010

ABSTRACT

The paper describes different kinds of ritual offerings in the Romanian folklore, in comparison to the Balkan folk traditions (mainly Bulgarian ones). Thus, the offerings are made generally to beings from the world beyond, the patron demons of diseases (The Plague, The Cholera, the demon of the Smallpox) and the souls of the dead. The offerings are presented in their temporal and spatial occurrences, with a stress on their representative sequences (specific elements, sequences, performers). An important place is given to archaic elements rarely found nowadays in the funeral practices.