The Russian lamentation tradition enjoys constant interest from representatives of various scientific schools. At the same time, their main attention is directed to the study of wedding lamentations of individual regions of Russia. The mournful traditions of the Penza region are rather modestly reflected in publications, and humorous lamentations and related rituals and games have not been studied at all to date. In this regard, the subject of our study is humorous lamentations in the context of the ritual or game situation that generates them. The study is based on expeditionary (field) materials from different areas of the Penza region, which made it possible to identify a system of calendar farewells-“funerals” of various characters. In addition, elements of funeral rites are so significant for the local Penza tradition that they are also found in a traditional wedding. Lamentations sounding in various situations exhibit different properties at different levels of organization. Thus, the texts of humorous lamentations represent a free improvisation concerning the appearance of the character, his health and containing an imitation of physiological crying. The tunes of the humorous laments are close to funeral laments in their modal and pitch organization: a stable modal structure based on a major third despite unstable pitch is a defining feature of the genre. In addition, a group form of humorous laments has been recorded for the first time, which corrects the established idea of the Penza lament tradition.
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