The article examines the problem of distinguishing between traditional and “one-off” texts, a distinction that has gained relevance due to the expansion of folklore studies’ scope to include texts featuring spontaneous speech. The research focuses on mythological narratives, which occupy an intermediate position between these two types. The aim of the study is to identify the linguistic mechanisms of narrativization that facilitate the transition from an unstructured utterance to a regulated, coherent text. Primary attention is paid to grammatical markers, especially deictic elements, which function differently in the dialogic mode of speech and in the narrative mode. In a personal testimonial (memorate), orientation stems from the speaker’s position (I – here – now), characteristic of a canonical speech situation. Narrativization, however, involves constructing the text’s chronotope independently of the immediate speech context: the speaker’s deictic markers are eliminated, forming an autonomous “textual world” with conditional characters and time. This grammatical shift, occurring through repeated retelling and a change in the text’s status to “someone else’s”, forms the basis of folklorization, enabling subsequent traditional control over the text’s form.

The article is devoted to children’s macabre rhymes (sadistic rhymes) published on social media from October to December 2020. The author raises the following questions: why did a genre whose active oral tradition belongs to the past (the 1970–2000s) become reactualized during the pandemic? Who composed and disseminated these coronavirus rhymes, what ideas did they convey, and what function did these texts serve? How did the new sociocultural context and the new information environment influence the characteristics of the sadistic rhyme genre? The author examines the black humor of sadistic rhymes in light of the concepts of A. Dundes, B. Ellis, and E. Oring. Classic sadistic rhymes and coronavirus rhymes are analyzed in the context of thematically and functionally similar black jokes in Anglo-American folklore. The literature on dark humor describes several of its varieties: sick jokes, gallows humor, and disaster jokes – these may appear in texts in varying proportions, shaping the distinctive humor of particular folklore genres. An analysis of the material shows that, despite superficial similarities and the borrowing of formulas from classic sadistic rhymes, the coronavirus texts have lost key genre markers and transformed into jokes of a different type – with a different subject, target of ridicule, and function.

The article examines the specific features of nostalgic narratives about the 1990s, based on 45 in-depth interviews conducted by the author with Moscow residents from different generations. In contrast to the dominant media discourse that dichotomizes the decade into “turbulent” versus “sacred” nineties, oral history reveals a complex and ambivalent picture in which positive and negative aspects of the era are inextricably intertwined. The analysis demonstrates that nostalgia for the 1990s is primarily linked not to mass culture or everyday material life – as is common in online nostalgic communities – but rather to personal experiences of youth, feelings of freedom, novelty, and expanded life opportunities. Notably, the most vivid nostalgic recollections come from respondents born in the 1960–1970s, whereas older generations tend to offer more critical assessments of the period. This allows the author to conclude that nostalgia for the 1990s in oral narratives constitutes a form of reflective nostalgia (according to S. Boym), which is oriented not toward idealizing the past but rather toward reflecting on the uniqueness of lived experience within the context of one’s life trajectory. Thus, this nostalgia is primarily biographically grounded and shaped less by the era’s broad historical characteristics than by personal experience.

The article discusses the perception of the “evil eye” phenomenon by students living in the Russian cities. The sample of respondents is explained by the problematization of the study. The “evil eye” as a magical ability has been studied in detail on folklore and ethnographic materials related to the traditional culture of rural societies. It seems important to the authors to identify the existence of ideas about the evil eye and related rituals in the urban environment. The surveyed students represent a category of informants living outside the rural environment, they convey ideas about the negative magical effects, gleaned from the media and family communication. The main purpose of the work is to identify the knowledge of informants about rituals and deterrents that protect against the evil eye. Ritual practices are considered by the authors as a communicative model consisting of subject, chromatic, action, and verbal codes. The conclusions made mainly on the basis of quantitative data supplemented by extended comments of informants. The authors of the article proceed from semiotic and communicative approaches to ritual culture.

The article explores apotropaic practices in contemporary urban culture, focusing on two of the most widespread gestures: spitting over the left shoulder and knocking on wood. The study examines the historical and cultural foundations of these rituals, their semantic functions within Slavic folk tradition, and their transformations in urban everyday life. In traditional contexts, such practices served as explicit magical means of averting the evil eye, illness, or misfortune, whereas in modern settings they are preserved primarily as automatic or ironic actions. Special attention is given to the process of symbolic reduction, whereby material gestures are replaced with verbal formulas (“tfu-tfu-tfu”, “knock on wood”), while retaining their protective function. The analysis of empirical data highlights the ambivalence of contemporary perception: on the level of rational consciousness, these rituals are regarded as “superstition” or “joking behavior”, yet on the level of embodied practice they continue to be performed as culturally meaningful and socially transmitted actions.

The article examines ritualized practices aimed at recovering lost items in contemporary Russian society. The study is based on a corpus of messages from internet forums and social media (2008–2025), as well as data from an online survey conducted in the summer of 2025. The paper identifies the communicative models underlying these practices and analyzes the range of their modalities drawing on speech act theory (J. Austin, J. Searle). The material allows for the identification of several types of such techniques: communication with the domovoi and the devil, prayers addressed to saints, playful rituals involving characters from internetlore (Vovan, Marinochka, San Sanych), as well as the practice of symbolically entrusting an item to N.P. Kokhanova. These practices differ not only in terms of speech act type and modality, but also in the ways their efficacy is recognized: they are legitimized through intrafamily communication, religious and folkloric tradition, or receive collective validation in online environments. Reliance on different forms of recognition accounts for the diversity of these practices, their coexistence, and the possibility that a single individual may employ several of them simultaneously.

This article analyses the mythological beliefs associated with mirrors in contemporary Russian society. The analysis is based on the results of a survey conducted via Google Forms between October 2024 and February 2026. It illustrates the evolution of mythological beliefs about mirrors during the transition from rural to urban traditions. The adaptation of prohibitions and prescriptions to the transformation of funeral traditions is noted, whereby the dead are no longer kept in the house prior to the ceremony, so the need to cover mirrors now depends on the timing of the funeral rather than the presence of the deceased in the home. For the analysis, respondents were divided into age groups ranging from 12 to 70 years; a correlation is demonstrated between the informant’s age and their knowledge of, and application in daily life of, mythological beliefs and prohibitions associated with mirrors. This part of the research focuses on the taboo of looking into a mirror during a funeral and looking into a broken mirror. Interpretations of taboos and omens associated with mirrors during funerals and with broken mirrors are classified. The classification groups are based on the various meanings of the mirror in culture, of which there are two main ones: doubling and the barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead.

The article analyzes the oral epic “Song of Gao-huang” in the context of the She people’s cultural uniqueness. These people live in southern and southeastern China and have shaped their distinct identity around a mountainous lifestyle largely independent from central authorities. The study pays special attention to the methods and contexts of performing this sacred epic text.
A comparison of various text versions reveals the core myth at its heart: a modified version of the ancient Panhu myth. To grasp the innovations that She folklore brought to this ancient myth, the author traces the evolution of the ancestor’s image – from a totemic ancestor to the culture hero Long-qi. The analysis shows that this image underwent significant influence from Han Chinese culture and Daoist mythology, losing some of its original traits as a result. While documenting such cultural borrowings from neighbouring peoples, the song also normalizes endogamy, calls for isolationism toward the Han, and urges all She clans to unite along lineage lines.
The epic Song vividly appears in the She people’s key traditions, historical narratives, and religious imagery. This helps its members clearly distinguish “us” from “them”. At the same time, it illustrates strategies of adaptation and preservation of uniqueness amid powerful assimilative pressures.

The article examines the history of astronomical knowledge development among Mongolian peoples, from initial observations of celestial bodies’ movements to institutionalized research during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) at Khan Khubilai’s court (1260–1294), the late Ming dynasty (1601–1644), and the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). The study draws on Chinese astronomical and astrological works – “Chongzhen Calendar” (崇禎曆書), “Calendrical Treatise Based on the New Western Methods” (西洋新法曆書), “Simplified Calendrical Treatise” (簡要曆書), the Dunhuang astronomical atlas (S. 3326), and as well as Mongolian “Chinese Astronomical Sutra” (Kitad-in ǰiruqai-yin sudur) and Tibetan “Great Chinese Calendar” (rgya rtsis chen mo) xylographs. The key research method is historical-linguistic analysis of astronomical constellation names on the maps from the Mongolian and Tibetan xylographs, along with depictions of the sky in the Mongolian xylograph “Chinese Astronomical Sutra” (Kitadin ǰiruqai-yin sudur). It is established that the Mongolian xylograph derives from the “Calendrical Treatise Based on the New Western Methods” (西洋新法曆書), compiled by Jesuit Adam Schall von Bell at the Manchu emperor’s court. The Mongolian Northern Hemisphere map in this xylograph also reflects features of Chinese astronomy, evident in constellation nomenclature and arrangement.