mudor suan

mudor suan
Ceremony in which the Votyaks or Udmurts (peoples of the Ural Mountains) consecrated a new family or clan shrine when the ancestral home was too small to accommodate all its members and a new site had to be blessed.

The main ceremony consisted of taking ashes from the hearth of the ancestral shrine (kuala) and transferring them to the shrine at the new location, which was then considered a subsidiary of the ancestral kuala.

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▪ religious rite
      ceremony held by the Votyaks, or Udmurts (people of the Ural Mountains), to consecrate a new family or clan shrine (kuala) and a sacred container (voršud) kept on a shelf within the shrine. Mudor itself means “ground,” so that the ceremony in fact was the blessing of a new site taken over by people breaking off from the ancestral lineage when it expanded past a critical point. The main ceremony of the mudor šuan, or mudor “wedding,” consisted of taking ashes from the hearth of the ancestral shrine with some appropriate formula such as “I am taking the lesser and leaving the greater” and transferring them to the shrine in a new location, which would then stand in a subordinate position in relation to the greater ancestral kuala. See also voršud.

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • mudor suan — Ceremonia en la cual los votyaks o udmurts (pueblos de los montes Urales) consagraban el nuevo santuario de una familia o clan cuando la morada ancestral era demasiado pequeña para alojar a todos sus miembros y había que bendecir otro lugar. La… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • voršud — ▪ spirit and receptacle       among the Finno Ugric Udmurt (Votyak) people, a family spirit, literally “luck protector”; the term also designates a birchbark container kept in the family shrine, or kuala, as a receptacle for offerings and… …   Universalium

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