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Paper short abstract

At dawn on Saint George’s Day in the Carpathian Basin, women’s rites for animal protection sacralized agrarian space. Through phenomenology and East-Central European ethnography, this study links embodied ritual ecologies to contemporary reflections on human–nature relations.

Paper long abstract

This paper investigates the ritual practices associated with Saint George’s Day in the Carpathian Basin (Hungary), focusing on how women’s embodied actions transformed agrarian landscapes into sacred spaces. Historically, women crossed dew-laden meadows barefoot, collecting moisture believed to protect livestock, crops, and households. These acts—ranging from fumigating stables with herbs to decorating thresholds with greenery—constituted a dense network of apotropaic and fertility rituals that marked the onset of the pastoral year across East-Central Europe.

Drawing on ethnographic sources and phenomenological frameworks (Eliade, Kohák, Abram), the study emphasizes how gendered bodily movements mediated relations among humans, animals, plants, and elemental forces. Through the sensory and performative dimensions of these rituals, ordinary meadows and domestic spaces were transformed into morally and cosmologically charged landscapes, reflecting cyclical temporality, ecological knowledge, and communal memory. The female body, moving at liminal hours, acted as an intermediary, weaving together material and symbolic networks that reinforced social cohesion and environmental attunement.

The paper further argues that Saint George’s Day rituals reveal a cosmology in which nature was experienced as animate, morally significant, and inseparable from cultural practice, challenging modern dichotomies between humans and the environment. Revisiting these ritual ecologies amid climate crisis and disconnection from the land offers insights into alternative modes of dwelling that integrate embodiment, place, and the more-than-human world. Such perspectives underscore the potential of traditional ritual knowledge to inform contemporary ecological and ethical practices, highlighting the enduring relevance of ritualized engagement with landscapes as sites of protection, renewal, and seasonal transition.