Rośliny święcone w bukietach w dniu Matki Boskiej Zielnej w cerkwiach prawosławnych na przedpolu Puszczy Białowieskiej

Abstrakt

Herbal bouquets are blessed all over Poland on Assumption Day (Catholic churches – 15 August, Orthodox churches – 28 August). In 2009, such bouquets were documented using photographs in four Orthodox churches adjacent to Białowieża Forest (northeastern Poland), a region rich in folklore and natural habitats. The blessed bouquets were very poor in species (4.4 species on average) and only 49 species occurred in 66 of the documented bouquets. This is proportionally half the number of species blessed in the Carpathians (southern Poland). This poverty of bouquet composition may be explained by the fact that in Orthodox churches the main herb blessing event takes place on St. John’s Day, in July.