Building rituals of gagauz people from Chok Maidan gagauz village (Republic of Moldova)

Abstract

In the article „Building rituals of Gagauz people from Chok-Maidan village (Republic of Moldova)” on the ritual materials and mythological representations, collected by the author from this village, is made an attempt to reconstruct the Gagauz building rituals, to reveal their semantics and to show the role of dwelling in the system of Gagauz’ world perception. A characteristic feature of the building rituals of the Chok-Maidan village is the variety of types of sacrifice. Here, each stage of construction is marked by a certain type of sacrifice: when marking the corners of the future house, bread and salt are served, when laying the foundation, coins are walled up in all four corners, a rooster is slaughtered at the alleged threshold, live chickens are gifted at the four corners of the house before the roof is erected, and with the installation of rafters on a wooden cross and a green branch (cherry / walnut) they tie a towel and a shirt for the master, and the rest of the participants in the ceremony are given pieces of ritual bread with salt.