Cud przetrwania – etnograficzne studium tradycji święcenia zwierząt i kultu św. Rocha w Mikstacie [Eng.The miracle of survival – an ethnographic stusy of the tradition of blessing animals in Mikstat.]

Abstract

The subject of the article is the animal blessing ritual that takes place every year in the town of Mikstat in Greater Poland. The once common religious and magical method of protecting cattle against plague is now practiced in only a few places in Poland, but in this tiny city it is currently experiencing a renaissance. In the article I try to answer the question of what makes this archaic custom not only survive, but continue to develop. For this purpose, I combine data collected during my own methodologically diversified field research with available historical, ethnographic and memoir literature sources. In the resulting multi-perspective anthropological analysis, I attempt to identify and conceptualize the factors that contributed to the survival of the custom. It turns out that they create a unique set of events, conditions and circumstances, which include, among others, the spiritual and identity needs of the local community, the specificity of time, the nature of places, mythical and institutional narratives, particular people and their actions. It turns out that the dynamics of rites that follow social and cultural changes complement the traditional core of the custom, but the necessary balancing between religiosity, secularity and folklore is not without its own tensions.