Hare in Folklore and Religious Mystical Views of the Bashkirs

УДК 398(470.57) ББК 82.3(2)=632.2

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the remnants of the cult of the hare among the Bashkirs, which was one of the revered animals in their ancient religious and mystical views. In oral stories, the Bashkir hare is endowed with human qualities — it has feelings, the gift of thinking and speech. In the fairy tale and children's play folklore, traces of the belief of the ancestors of the Bashkirs in the mutual transformation of a person and a hare into each other appear. In the tribal ethnonymy of the Bashkirs, motives have been preserved about the origin of certain groups of people from a hare, totem and totemic ancestor. In oral poetry, customs and rituals of the Bashkir hare acts as a totemic ancestor, patron saint of family and marriage relations, women in labor and children. In the folk calendar and signs of the Bashkir, the hare symbolizes fertility and fertility. In the mythological tradition, the Bashkir hare acts as a benefactor of heroes — it creates favorable conditions for them, brings wealth, and protects their lives. In religious and magical practice, the Bashkir hare appears as a healer of people. The protective functions of a hare are revealed in attributing protective properties to images of a hare and in the practice of sewing hare ears and tails on children's hats, as amulets against evil spirits and the evil eye.

In the oral works of the Bashkirs there are remnants of ancient cosmogonic myths about the participation of a hare — a totemic ancestor in the creation of the earth and keeping it in the Universe.