Kanun – Beer Festival in the Vym Region
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-1-115-124
This article based on an analysis of field data, examines the practices of home-brewing and organizing beer festivals timed to coincide with church calendar dates. The relevance of this topic stems from interest in public holidays as a means of uniting rural communities. The research focuses on the social function of homebrewing in the context of celebrating Kanun, a beer festival in the Vym region. The article draws on ethnographic materials collected in 2003 under T. Chudova's program among the Vym Komi, an ethnographic group of the Komi (Zyryans). The informants were women born between 1910 and 1920. In addition, the narrator's husband actively participated in one interview, demonstrating his knowledge of the beer festival's organization. Oral histories provide reliable, first-hand information about home-brewing practices, revealing archaic features such as a consistent set of utensils, the use of heated stones in brewing, and top-fermentation as the most ancient fermentation method. They also highlight the traditions of beer festivals, timed to coincide with church calendar dates (St. George's Day, St. Paraskeva's Friday, St. Peter's Day, St. Elijah's Day, the Second Savior's Day, or the Transfiguration of the Lord), which were held in the square near the church or chapel. A recurring theme in field records is that kanuns (eve-festivals) were once held, but the traditions commemorating them have faded from historical memory. The practice of mutual guest-hosting formed a network of villages united by familial, kinship, and economic ties. The social function of the ritual drink, prepared in excess, is linked to the cohesion of the rural community. The tradition of celebrating the Kanun was also characteristic of the Russian North, which does not seem accidental, since Russians and Komi live in adjacent territories, have long-standing economic and cultural contacts, and are adherents of Orthodoxy.
Keywords: Vym Komi, home-brewed beer, beer brewing technology, festive culture, eve
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Issue: 1, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 1
Rubric: ANTHROPOLOGY
Pages: 115 — 124
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