The Ritual-Mythological Semantics of the Azerbaijan Khidir Nabi Holiday

Abstract

After Novruz holiday the most important holiday according to the ritual-mythological bases and ethno-cultural semantics of Azerbaijani folk holidays is Khidir Nabi holiday. In fact, the holidays of Novruz and Khidir Nabi are not separated from each other as part of the national calendar: these holidays belong to the different stages of the folk calendar and are united according to the ethno-cultural essence and concept. They are the components of the unified mythical system of thinking of people about time, as independent holidays, which do not replace each other and are not alternative. However, it should be noted that Novruz is more widespread due to the ethno-cultural geography than the holiday Khidir Nabi. The main purpose of the research is to investigate the ritual-mythological semantics of the Azerbaijani Khidir Nabi holiday. The research presented in this paper is mainly based on the historical-comparative and ritual-mythological approach methods.

Keywords

• holiday
• Khidir Nabi
• Khidir Ilyas
• ritual
• myth
• semantics