Putting money on a plate

[nataliek]

I would say that there is no single answer to this question. But one aspect
of the practice may have something to do with various folk or traditional
practices of not passing money from hand to hand. A couple of examples:

When the father of an infant paid the midwife, he did not hand her money
directly. If he did so, it was believed that he would become impotent.
Instead of handing the money over, the dad placed it in the basin with the
water used for the final ritual bath. (Not the bath where they actually
cleaned up the mess, but the one that came at the end of the sequestering of
mom and child.)

Similarly, you don't pay the priest for the wedding. You put money under the
ritual towel on which the couple stands. This is then collected by the women
who clean the church and given to the priest or the church. In Soviet times,
the money went under the green carpet on which the couple stood and then went
to the zavkluba.

I could keep going with funerals, but I think the pattern is clear.

Natalie Kononenko
Peter and Doris Kule Professor of Ukrainian Ethnography
University of Alberta
Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
441C Arts Building
Edmonton, AB Canada T6G 2E6
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/uvp/
Phone: 780-492-6810

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