Herus L. Functional, Semantic and Ethical-Aesthetic Values of Ritual Bread of Ukrainians, Their Actualization in the Sociocultural Space of the Beginning of the XXI Century.

For the first time in Ukrainian ethnology, ritual bread was studied as an original phenomenon of traditional Ukrainian culture, which clearly outlines ethnic identity in the context of holidays and events of the calendar and family cycles based on the analysis of scientific works and literary, pictorial, material and oral sources. The relevance of the study of ritual bread is due to globalization processes. They endanger intangible cultural heritage as decisive for the preservation of cultural diversity and ethnic identity factor, in particular, its most vulnerable elements, which include ritual bread, as it depends on the carriers and habitat. Ukrainian ritual bread plays an important role in the socio-cultural life of Ukrainians, as well as in the processes of creating the ethnocultural identity of the nation. It also has an extreme rich resource base. Despite this, Ukrainian ritual bread has not been purposely studied so far. In the context, knowledge about ritual bread will serve as a convincing basis and a significant stimulus that can intensify the promulgation of existing and revival of extinct cultural and artistic heritage and enable the ritual bread full participation in the heritage discourse.