Myths and mythologemes of the linguistic culture: spirits day – birthday of the earth

Abstract

The article considers the mythologeme “earth” in the Russian linguistic culture. The purpose of the article is to describe a special holiday of the earth associated with the cult of ancestors. This holiday is known as the Spirits Day. It has another name – the birthday of the earth. On this day, the Mother Earth is honored. The objectives of the article are: 1) define the characteristics of a holiday; 2) describe symbols of Russian linguistic culture associated with this holiday; 3) restore the motive of the forgotten myth of the mother-earth; 4) identify the signs of the mythologeme “earth” preserved in the language consciousness of the Russians. The relevance of the study is to verify the data of Russian culture in the collected language material, to determine the continuity of the earth symbols in linguistic culture during the change of religions. The scientific novelty of the work is that we discuss the mythologeme “earth” as the aspect of linguistic culture. There are no works in linguistics devoted to the study of the mythologeme “earth”, considering it from the cognitive and linguoculturological positions. The material of the study is collected from dictionaries, fiction and the Russian National Corpus (www.ruscorpo-ra.ru). The methods used in the study are descriptive, interpretive, conceptual. According to the study, the symbol of the Mother Earth is firmly fixed in Russian linguistic culture. Christianity that replaced paganism, failed to eradicate this symbol because in Russian language consciousness the mother is the highest shrine that cannot be overthrown. Russia itself is associated with mother, as well as the land it stands on. Mythologeme “earth” indicates the existence of a cult of ancestors. As the analysis of the language data shows, this cult is related to the myth of hierogamy (‘holy marriage’) – the sacred marriage between the sky-sun and the earth. According to one version, Perun was considered to be the spouse of the Earth. Everything on earth is the offspring of this divine couple. The day of this sacred marriage – Spirits Day – was celebrated the day after Trinity. Before the adoption of Christianity, the trinity had a different conception for Slavic people. It included three important hypostases of the world – the sun, the sky and the earth. Spirits Day is a celebration of the revival of nature. Its characteristics were warmth (sun, heat), rain (manifestation of the fertilizing power of heaven-Perun) and the earth itself, blossoming and ready for a new birth cycle.