Moysey A. Calendar Rituals of Eastern Romanian Population of Bukovyna in the Context of Ethnic and Cultural Processes of the 2nd half of the 19th - beginning of the 21st Centuries.

In the present thesis peculiarity, structure of people's calendar, complex of calendar beliefs and rituals of Eastern Romanian population of Bukovyna were analyzed in the context of ethnic and cultural processes of the 2nd half of the 19th - beginning of the 21st centuries on the basis of discovered archive and museum materials, conducted field ethnographic research and studied scientific literature. Geographical boundaries of the research comprise territory of Bukovyna - ethnographic area which consists of modern Chernivtsi region Ukraine and Suceava district Romania. In order to specify structure of the people's calendar we present synchronous display of the most important holidays, beliefs and rituals of the annual cycle in the second half of the 19th - first half of the 20th centuries. In the thesis transformation processes which occurred in the following historical periods ("kolkhoz" era, independent period) were studied. In order to investigate development of calendar beliefs and rituals, written sources of the 15th-18th centuries were used in the research. Map-making and classification of information regarding the people's calendar were performed on the basis of data from about 60% of Romanian speaking villages in Bukovyna. Comparative analysis of the main elements of calendar rituals of Eastern Romanian and Ukrainian population of Bukovyna was conducted. We also studied social and ethnic and cultural processes in Bukovyna in the 18th- beginning of the 21st centuries which created the conditions for the development of investigated ethnographic phenomena.