Working Group on The Ritual Year
Ritual Year Seasonal Webinar
Our series, organized with the technical support of the Estonian Literary Museum and the Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies (Tartu) continued with online meetings:
The Ritual Year Seasonal Webinar #17 - Winter 2026 (part 1 & 2), 19 February and 2 March 2026
The first 2026 online meetings were dedicated to Shrovetide traditions (Shrove Tuesday and related customs) in various European countries and regions: Guillem Castañar Rubio talked about traditions in Catalonia, Eva Toulouze in France, Arūnas Vaicekauskas in Lithuania and Georgiana Vlahbei, in the last part, in Southern and Western parts of Romania. Mare Kõiva and Irina Stahl moderated the meetings. Georgiana Vlahbei created her own poster.
The Ritual Year Seasonal Webinar #18 - Spring 2026, 27 April 2026
Continuing our mini-series dedicated to the ritual year on various continents, our third online meeting of the year, focused on research carried out in South America. The meeting, entitled Ritual and festive environmental relationality in Ibero-American mountain regions, welcomed Ana Correa, Paula Gabriela Nunez, Letizia Bindi, Tobias Boos and Daniela Salvucci, who presented their latest research on South American festivals. The meeting was moderated by Tobias Boos. Poster by Georgiana Vlahbei.
The recordings of the Ritual Year Seasonal Webinar series are available on our working group’s page: https://www.siefhome.org/wg/ry/seasonal_webinars.shtml
Irina Stahl
Ritual Year Publication: City Rituals 13, 1 (2024)
Divided into two volumes, City Rituals reunites thirty of the studies presented during the 13th conference of The Ritual Year Working Group (SIEF), held from the 7th to the 9th of November 2018, in Bucharest, Romania, where it was hosted by the Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy.
The first volume of City Rituals addresses ritual practices and public events (such as seasonal festivals and traditions, national holidays and commemorations, and religious feasts) that structure and animate the life of urban residents in all the corners of the world, from the United States, to the various countries in Europe, and the Philippines. Drawing on one, or more examples, the authors highlight their connection with local traditions and history, describe their evolution over time, and draw attention to more recent trends, due to globalization. The cases brought forward show the resilience of city rituals, their two-folded ability to be factors of stability as well as factors of change, to ground communities, while at the same time bringing the flexibility needed to push them forward. Despite the inherent controversies around the introduction of new practices, the city rituals described in this volume are factors of cohesion and unity that bring people together, in the joy of shared experiences. The editor for this issue is Irina Stahl.
The volume is available online at:
https://www.folklore.ee/ritual_year/RY/issue/view/RY13
https://www.siefhome.org/wg/ry/library.shtml
We are currently in the process of transforming our proceedings into a periodical publication and have started the process of indexing it in Scopus and other international databases.
Other Conferences organized by our members
The international conference Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe – History, Religion, and Culture VI. Magic, Holiness and Mountains took place at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum (BAS) in Sofia, Bulgaria between 3-5 October 2025. The event was dedicated to the memory of our beloved colleague and friend Ekaterina Anastasova, member of the Ritual Year WG and founding member of the Balkan and Baltic Society, having worked and connected scholars from these two regions for more than 30 years. A memorial panel in her honor, presented her work in the field and these regions by colleagues she had long term collaboration with. The conference included 13 panels, dedicated to sacred practices and spaces, protection of animals and species, beliefs and magic in the folklore and contemporary culture, Buddhism and shamanism, representation of the sacred, etc., exploring the intersection of the sacred, magical and mountains, intertwined in various cultures around the world. Sixty scholars from Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, USA, UK, France, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Hungary and Spain entered into scientific discussion a rich and diverse empirical data and innovative theoretical insights, on the basis of their explorations of great variety of topics and communities from the Balkans and Baltics to Central Asia (Himalayas, Altay and Karakorum). Our enlarged community is already awaiting the next edition of Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe – History, Religion, and Culture VII to be held in Vilnius in 2027
The participants during the commemoration of Ekaterina Anastasova, at Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum (BAS) in Sofia, 3 October 2025.
The participants to the conference, together with local a folk-dancers and folk-music interpreters, at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum (BAS) in Sofia, 4 October 2025.
The conference participants during the post-conference excursion, at the Rozhen monastery in the Pirin Mountains, Southwestern Bulgaria, 5 October 2025
Svetoslava Toncheva
