Przemiany w kulturze ludowej regionu opoczyńskiego na przykładzie okresu Bożego Narodzenia

Abstract

The paper presents the changes in folk culture through the customs, rites and beliefs of Christmas on the basis of the author’s field studies in the Opoczno area and the literature of the subject. Christmas is the time when one observes the merging of the elements of various cultural traditions. This period comprises the customs going back to pre-Christian times, i.e. the Slavonic and Greek-Roman traditions (the cult of the dead, agrarian rituals, passage from the old to the new year). The period of World War II and the time following it caused disappearance of folk culture. The changes taking place in each sphere of life covered also folk culture. A fast process of socio-economic changes of the last century and the progressing urbanization and cosmopolitization of the rural area gave a new picture of the cultural life in villages. The progress of technology made many of the old customs and folk beliefs disappear as their contents did not come up to the „needs of the time” After the war, the new generation was able to broaden their minds and interpersonal relations. A rational way of thinking replaced the primitive, sacral justification of the surrounding world and its phenomena. An unfavourable attitude to the rural area which was to be observed in the mass media together with a biased mass culture introduced there resulted in weakening or disappearance of the traditional folk lifestyle. The economic motif which stimulated people to practise some customs and rites, disappeared. The Church has an important role in maintaining the tradition. Although some burden the Church with responsibility for the disappearance of a number of old customs, rites and beliefs, the actual situation shows a considerable function of the Church in keeping up the traditional folk culture. Assimilation of many of the old customs and rites into the liturgy (after the former were given a Christian interpretation) made them survive up to the present day.