Elämä on matka: Elämänkulun käsitteellistäminen karjalaisessa rituaalirunoudessa

Authors

• Eila Stepanova

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.79181

Abstract

In Karelian ritual poetry, birth, death and major transitions to a new life situation are all described through images and motifs of travelling, of making a journey. During major rites of passage, Karelians mainly used two types of oral ritual poetry, laments and incantations. Interestingly, laments were used only during the separation stage of the ritual whereas incantations were used during the incorporation stage. Whereas today the ‘life as a journey’ metaphor tends to be understood as beginning with birth and ending with death, the Karelian model presents life as beginning in the otherworld and the journey into life is conceived in quite literal terms. The transitions of each stage of life, birth, marriage, giving birth, military conscription and death were all conceived in terms of movements between worlds, between the seen world of the living and unseen otherworlds beyond. Death concluded the cycle that had begun with a journey into the world of the living by finally returning to the family, becoming an ancestor. On the journey of life, Karelians were travelling constantly on the threshold of the seen and unseen worlds, making contact with the otherworld at each turning point of the journey. The otherworld was immanent, ever present.