HOLIDAY CELEBRATION OF THE POPULATION OF GORNA REKA RELATED TO FOLK RELIGION

Abstract

The author analysis religion as an important non-verbal ethnic symbol, as well as folk celebrations in the ethnographic area of Gorna Reka. The formal affiliation to a concrete faith (Orthodox Christianity versus Islam) in Gorna Reka is a potential non-verbal symbol of ethnic separation, through which in contemporary conditions the ethnic affiliation is defined. In this case only the formal religious belonging has a status of a defining ethnic symbol, in the concrete case for the definition of the ethnic identity of the Macedonians, i.e. Albanians in the area. In the context of folk religion of all Gorna Reka inhabitants, there are mutual holidays, beliefs and ritual praxis, which in most part are related to the economy, and refer to the sheep herding cults, the beginning of spring/summer and people's health, rituals for gaining rain, belief in the protective power of certain objects - apotropeons, etc.