The Holidays in Ivan Shmelev's Description: Mythopoeics of Childhood and the Ontology of Festivity Ivan Sergeyevich Shmelev's (1873–1950) approach to the theme of the Holidays in his late, émigré works ("The Lord's Summer," 1927–1948; individual stories) is not just a nostalgic depiction of pre-revolutionary life, but a complex artistic-theological reconstruction of a holistic world order. The Holidays in Shmelev's work are not a stage in the calendar, but a time itself that has become a sacred space, where the profound connection between life, faith, nature, and the national soul is revealed through childhood perception. 1. Chronotope of the Holidays: Time as Festivity and Eternity. Shmelev creates a sense of stretched, meaningful time. The Holidays for the boy Vanya are not just the days between Christmas and Epiphany, but "holidays-holidays," a special state of the world: Cyclicity and rhythm: Time moves not linearly, but in a circle of sacred events — from the silence and expectation of the vigil to the festive "scary nights" and the purifying Baptism. Each day has its liturgical and everyday code. Sacralization of everyday life: During the Holidays, all life becomes a ritual. Even the most ordinary actions — feeding livestock, cleaning the house, preparing food — are filled with symbolic meaning. "The world stood still in anticipation of the Miracle, and everything in it became a sign of this Miracle." Blurring of boundaries: As in folk tradition, the Holidays in Shmelev's work are a time when boundaries are blurred: between the world of the living and the dead (memories, prayers), between social classes (the poor and carolers come to the house), and between the earthly and the heavenly (the sky "opens up," the stars "speak"). 2. Semantics of Festivals: From Christmas to Epiphany. Shmelev carefully describes the internal logic of each stage of the Holidays, showing them as a single liturgical year in miniature: Christmas: The climax of family, warm, "domestic" ... Read more