Folk clothing of Ukrainians of Transcarpathia in the system of traditional magic: functions, symbolism and ritual use

Abstract

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of folk clothing as a component of the magical picture of the world and one of the key elements of the traditional worldview of Ukrainians of Transcarpathia. Clothing is considered not only as an object of material culture, but also as an active carrier of sacred meanings, closely related to corporeality, ideas about a person’s personal power and the possibility of magical influence on the surrounding world. The aim of the study is to identify the magical, healing, apotropaic and funerary functions of clothing, as well as to clarify its role in borderline and crisis situations associated with illness, death, demonic influence and disruption of social and cosmic order. Particular attention is paid to the ideas about clothing as an extension of the human body, its symbolic substitute and mediator between the world of the living and the afterlife.

The methodological basis of the study is a comprehensive analysis of ethnographic, folklore and archival materials collected in various areas of the Transcarpathian region and adjacent ethnocultural zones. The work uses descriptive, comparative and structural-semantic methods and elements of symbolic analysis, which allowed us to trace the relationship between clothing, bodily practices, demonological ideas and folk magic.

The results of the study show that in traditional culture clothing played the role of an active mediator between man and the supernatural world. It was established that ritual nudity, turning clothes inside out, damaging them or using them specifically were forms of purposeful magical action. In harmful magic, in particular in the practices of witches and "knowing" people, clothing acted as a full-fledged substitute for the human body, while in healing rituals it served as a carrier of the disease and a means of eliminating it. In the funerary and pre-mortem context, clothing had a protective and neutralizing function aimed at limiting the dangerous influence of posthumous power. The color symbolism of clothing in spells is analyzed separately, where color marks vital energy, non-existence or the process of restoration and purification.

The study confirms that folk clothing is a multifunctional sacred object, deeply integrated into the system of demonological ideas, ritual practice and traditional worldview. The obtained results expand the understanding of material culture as an active factor in folk magic and outline the prospects for further comparative and interdisciplinary research.