Music and Time Annotation << Back Calendar Rites of the Russian Villages of the Volga Delta O.A. Ivanova The article highlights historical information about the settlement of the Astrakhan region. The main type of economic activity is determined, since it is one of the factors of cohesion of the bearers of traditional culture. A set of key ritual complexes is also established among the Russian population of the Volga delta. Note examples of samples that form the calendar cycle of the Russian population of the Volga delta are given. The purpose of this article was to prove that in the territories of the secondary zone of settlement of the Eastern Slavs, the ritual component and the song repertoire in particular are dying out. Firstly, ritual genres are replaced by more modern ones, secondly, part of the repertoire is completely lost, and thirdly, the song repertoire has gone out of its active form of existence and has begun to be performed as a concert repertoire of village choirs. Attention is focused on the fact that round dance songs in the Russian villages of the Volga delta can have a calendar timing and carry a ritual function, since there is no ritual song repertoire as such in this territory. Keywords: ethnic groups, Volga delta, tradition, calendar rites, congratulatory tour of the yards, «driving an arrow». DOI: 10.25791/music.10.2023.1252 Pp. 03-10.