GARDEN AND FRUIT TREES IN THE BALTIC WORLDVIEW

Abstract

The aim of the article is to explore the expression of garden and fruit trees growing therein in the Baltic worldview on the basis of the data from the 16th–17th centuries. written sources, such as folklore texts of various genres, calendar customs and family holiday traditions, as well as through the customs, folklore and beliefs of the neighbouring Slavic peoples. The first reliable data on individual fruit trees or gardens were recorded in written monuments only in early 16th century. By the end of the 16th century, gardens had been already present not only in monasteries, but also in manors and parsonages. The time of cultivation of gardens more or less coincides with the mention of deities patronizing gardens (Kirnis, Mother of Gardens, Bibcziu Bobelis) in written monuments. Even though fruit trees were still very rare in the homesteads of the poor in the middle of the 19th century, many different beliefs, magical acts, prohibitions, which aimed to ensure that the planted fruit trees grow well and have a harvest, were recorded late 19th – early 20th centuries. Gardens and individual fruit trees became important symbols of calendar and family holidays as well as folklore texts that were used to express the ideas of fertility, marriage, birth, and death. Some of the beliefs and magical acts related to garden trees were probably borrowed, from other countries (Greeks, Romans, Slavs) at various times, while part of the symbolic meanings comes from the archetypal tree concept common to all Baltic peoples.