Stishova N. Calendar Rites of the Autumnal Cycle in Traditional CeremonialCulture of the Ukrainians (XX - the beginning of XXI century)

The paper analyzes the degree of the problem elaboration in Ukrainian and foreign historiography as well as the state of literary sources on the issue. It offers the boundaries of the autumnal cycle (beginning from the feast day of "Semen" till the feast day of"Naum"), that coincide with the beginning of the Liturgical year of the church calendar. The author makes an attemptto perform an interregional comparison and systematization of calendar traditions and ceremonies typical of the culture of different ethnic regions of Ukraine. The studyproves the existence of a natural link among heterogeneous phenomena of the traditional culture in their rites'architectonics:Wake (forefeast- the feast proper-afterfeast with the system of guest ceremonies), memorial honoring (a combination of a number of rites with a ritual meal), the Virgin cycle, ritual acts of Christmas fasting (ceremonial games and entertainment, marriage and fate fortunetelling), all of them having anextensive calendar ceremonial folklore. The paper also traces transformations of traditional ceremonial phenomena considering a combination of factors in the diachronic cultural development as well as revealslocal specificitiesof the ritual traditions.