And There He Found His Rod Blooming Blossoms… About the Boundlessness of a Motif

The image of a dry branch which has miraculously blossomed is widely known in the Eurasian culture and it has a significance of indicating the future and usually is a sign of being chosen. We can meet this motif in many places such as Aaron´s rod in the Old Testament of the Bible, the sign of Joseph chosen by Mary, and also in the text folklore stories of the New Age (e.g. the origin explaining legend of the Přemyslid Dynasty, or the blooming crop of King Matthias indicating that he is chosen etc.). The custom of matrimonial divination known among the peoples of Central Europe, based on a ritual of putting a dry cherry branch into water on Katalin´s Name Day (25 November), and if it would produce flowers by Christmas, the young girl practicing the ritual was going to get married the next year, formally undoubtedly belongs to the same imagery. Only further in-depth researches can give an answer to the question that, apart from the formal similarity, what specific connection there is between the biblical story, the later text folklore and the rituals of matrimonial divination documented even later. The present study is intended to only raise a question coming up after the initial stage of some data collection.

József Liszka   39

And There He Found His Rod Blooming Blossoms… About the Boundlessness a Motif           398.3

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Keywords: Comparative folkloristics, text folklore, mythology, flourishing dry branch.