The Lemko Wedding Song (Ukrainian, Polish, Slovak): Peculiarity and Usage

Abstract

The article analyzes Lemko’s wedding and post-wedding songs in comparison with Polish and Slovak ones. As an integral part of all-Ukrainian ceremonial song fund, Lemky wedding song ritualism is distinguished by some specificity due to Polish and Slovak close proximity. Naturally, Lemko song specificity are best revealed when compared with the similar song traditions of the Western Slavs. The similarity of certain elements is better traced in the wedding song ritualism of the East Slovakian, Ukrainians and Slovaks sons, as compared to the Lemky-Polish neighbourhood. While preserving a lot of archaic forms and elements, the Lemko version of the Ukrainian wedding is characterized by some differences, which reflect Lemko’s continuous ethnocultural contacts with neighbouring nations. The wedding song repertory of the three neighbouring nations has been found to impressively reflect its origin from the Proto-Slavic marriage ritualism, based on the monogamous marriage, husbandry lifestyle, close worldview (similar meaning of fire, water, bread, Eden tree, sun-worship, etc.), as well as on the similarity of ritual acts (garlanding, blessing, roundabout the table and dough trough, breaking wedding loaf, etc.). All mentioned above together with the similar dramatization of the wedding ceremony make ethnonational versions of traditional family ritualism – a so-called “Carpathian cycle”. The Lemko wedding song content has been found to preserve archaic motives and images of relict Ukrainian repertory with its typical ample song/choral expression of the content of wedding rituals, young couple’s and their families’ moral and mental state, varied poetic symbolism and stylistics. Long-term endosmosis of cultural, economic, and sociopolitical contacts between neighbouring ethnoses has conditioned the interchange of the elements of wedding song and ritual dramatization with marked Lemko dominant regarding Slovakian wedding song repertory, as well as with regard to the repertory of Polish Gorals, long-standing song strata in particular.