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• The Lazarki Procession in Inyevo, Radoviš: Ritual and Tradition in North Macedonia

  65-90

  Jose Antonio Lorenzo Tamayo

  Meryem Madili

  Views:

  50

  Lazarus Day is an important springtime tradition among Orthodox Christians in the Balkans. In the Republic of North Macedonia, many villages mark the occasion with a ritual conducted by female performers, the lazarki. Traditionally, the lazarki visit each home in the village to bless family members by singing unique songs. This ethnographic work intends to explore and document the tradition in Inyevo, a lowland and upland community in the Municipality of Radovis. Compared to other villages in Macedonia, the lazarki in Inyevo perform two connected rituals conducted eight days before Palm Sunday. On a Saturday, the lazarki perform the willow picking and willow offering in the monasteries, while the traditional home visitations happen on a Sunday. In exploring and documenting the tradition, fieldwork was conducted between 27 and 28 April 2024. The fieldwork included interviews (i.e., with the performers, a local family, people in the village) and observation of the rituals performed by the lazarki. The Lazarki in Inyevo exemplifies a tradition evoking themes on gender, the contemporary role of women in rituals, and as a form of authentic expression of faith.           

• Review on the Macedonian Wedding Singing

  29-46

  Rodna Velichkovska

  Views:

  13

  The wedding as a rite of passage in Macedonia is a living tradition that preserves numerous and various evidence either on the social relations of the traditional com­munity or the changes of this complex family-customs and ritual cycle. The characteristic of this complex is that it abounds with many ritual-magical actions, the basis of which is the apotropaic character.

  The most significant signs, according to which it is possible to determine the boundaries of the local singing style, include: the constancy of the traditional wedding scenario, the commonality of the wedding repertoire and the types of musical-poetic structures.

  Remains of the former characteristics of social life are deposited in the entire wed­ding complex: the former rights and duties of the woman and her position in the vil­lage community, as well as the old beliefs of magical and religious character.

  The main characters in the wedding ceremony, apart from the bride and the groom, are: the father-in-law, the mother-in-law, the best man, the groomsman, the bride's brother, the brother-in-law and other participants, who are called wedding guests or in-laws. For them, during the entire wedding ritual, songs are sung, related to the entire ritual process and have a precisely determined ritual place and performance time. Their performance is related to four time-space segments of the wedding.

• Utilizing ArchivesSpace for Data Archiving: A Case Study of the Digital Archive for Ethnological and Anthropological Resources at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology

  121-138

  Ines Crvenkovska Risteska

  Ljupcho Risteski

  Views:

  14

  The purpose of this paper is to present and promote the positive experiences of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology in utilizing ArchivesSpace – an open-source web-based database management application that facilitates access, description, and ar­rangement of processed materials, including analog, hybrid, and newly created digital content. These materials are effectively represented through a public user interface and can be used across the domains of library, archival, and museum work. By focusing on the implementation and use of ArchivesSpace within the institute, this study underscores its potential as a sustainable solution for heritage institutions that seek to manage, pre­serve, and present their cultural resources in an efficient and accessible manner. The paper highlights the software’s advantages, such as its open-source nature, adaptability, and capacity to handle various forms of materials, emphasizing its contribution to en­hancing the visibility of cultural heritage and improving its accessibility for diverse audiences. Furthermore, this research reflects on the benefits of using ArchivesSpace in contexts that face financial and infrastructural limitations, illustrating how it can empow­er institutions with limited resources to digitize and preserve their collections while en­suring they remain publicly accessible. The paper concludes by encouraging other institu­tions, especially those in countries with emerging digital preservation strategies, to ex­plore the potential of ArchivesSpace to support their archival and cultural heritage manage­ment needs.