[podcast's transcript] When the Sun Was a God
Sława everyone! Sława Bogom, and welcome in the 23rd episode of Searching for the Slavic Soul.
Before I forget: my name is Magda Lewandowska and I am your forgetful presenter of Searching for the Slavic Soul, which is a podcast by Witia. And, also, I keep meaning to mention it, but I forget that too… What I wanted to say is that this podcast is available on, I think, all podcast platforms, including YouTube. So, wherever you’re listening to today, you can go somewhere else and listen to my Polish accent somewhere else too. So that is all the stuff I keep forgetting and now to the stuff I want to talk about. Which is rituals and celebrations, like holy days in Slavic Native Faith.
The reason I will be talking about this today, is because Slavic Faith is becoming more and more popular in not Slavic countries, among people who did not grow up in the Slavic culture, and don't have much of understanding of how Slavic Native Faith, so to speak, works. When we were starting the Witia project in, I think 2015 or something like that, it kind of seemed obvious to us that only Slavic people will be interested in following Slavic Native Faith and, to be perfectly honest, I did not think that talking about holidays or calendar of rituals would be necessary or even needed. But as the time went on, I kind of started to realize that things that might be obvious to a person brought up in Slavic culture, they actually, might not be necessarily obvious to followers of Slavic Native Faith in, let's say, USA or Canada. So, I decided to continue with the Rodnovery 101 series and address the basics, for example, today, the basic regular celebrations or holidays in Slavic Native Faith. So, without further ado, let's go!
Recurring celebrations or holidays in Slavic Native Faith are of two types: type 1 are the celebrations related to the yearly cycle of the nature and sun and the other type are the celebrations related to the recurring events in life of the followers of Slavic Native Faith. So, the first type of celebrations would be for example Kupała or Szczodre Gody, and the second type would be the so-called initiation rituals, like all sorts of rituals performed to celebrate the birth of a person, which is in a way initiation into being alive. Or zapleciny/postrzyżyny, so, the rituals, the initiation rituals performed on young person to officially enter this person into the community. Also, it would be rituals related to getting married or to dying as well. Because, what might not be so obvious to some of you…
And if it's obvious, please, don't think I'm, patronizing you or pretending to be super smart, because I'm not. I'm kind of slowly becoming more and more aware that many of modern Slavic pagans really don't know what they don't know, so I am barely I'm trying to cover as much of the basic stuff that, I assume everyone knows, but it might not be that obvious. So, yeah, I'm trying to cover as much of the basic stuff as I only can think of.
From what I can see many of modern Slavic pagans don't realize that dying is not really an end to life in the framework of Slavic Pagan life philosophy. Being alive is not the only state in which a Slavic Pagan can exist. In Slavic Pagan way of looking at the concept of existing, dying is barely a different way of being. So, the funeral rites are also a sort of initiation ritual. It's symbolizing and allowing a person, a member of a family and community to pass to a different plane of being, to Navia, from where one continues to be a member of our own family and community and continues having the same responsibilities towards the family and community. I mean not the same… When you are a dead Slavic Pagan you still have to do your best to support your family or community and that's the main responsibility. The only thing that changes is the ways in which you can do it. When you’re dead, obviously, you cannot provide for your family in a material way like through getting food on the table or ensuring a roof over their heads, but you've got other ways to contribute. For example, you can use your supernatural connections to ensure fertility of the land or to get some benevolent demons to support your family or community. And, doing all of that is still in your best interest when you're dead, because if your family is doing well, they will have plenty of time energy, food and drinks to entertain you and feed you during the times of Dziady, so the Slavic rituals of venerations of the ancestors. Anyway, funeral rights are considered an initiation ritual too, but I'm not going to talk about initiation rituals today. I want to focus on the type 1 celebration, so all the celebrations related to the regular changes in the nature the yearly cycle and, in the case of today's episode, of the Sun.
Summer solstice
The main four of these celebrations are, no surprise here, the celebrations of the solstices and equinoxes. Pretty much every variant of Slavic tradition, so the East and West and South Slavic traditions, they have either the same or similar ways of celebrating these. The summer solstice is the best example here. Pretty much all over the Slavdom, on or around the summer solstice, bonfires are started, people dance around them, and wreaths are woven from flowers and herbs. Skinny dipping in rivers or lakes on the night of the summer solstice is also very popular in Slavic traditions, though I'm not sure if it's a pan-Slavic tradition or just a common or widespread one.
So, basically we've got bonfires, we've got dancing around bonfires, we've got jumping over bonfires and sometimes dancing with fires, with a torch lit from a bonfire, and that is, for example, done in Serbia. We've got wreaths, which are either thrown in the water, often as a type of fortune telling, or wreaths can be put on their heads or horns of cattle in order to protect these animals from diseases or malevolent demons. As far as the symbolism or meaning of the Slavic summer solstice traditions, it's actually hard to say something for sure. The main reason why it's hard to say something for sure is because of the influences of Christianity that resulted in the original Pagan traditions being mixed up or even moved around to either get rid of them or to incorporate them into the Christian holidays. So, for example, in the case of Kupała… Sorry, my Western paganism is coming out here, because, Kupała is the modern name of the Slavic Pagan celebrations around the summer solstice. Actually, Kupała is more of an Eastern Slavic name that was incorporated into the nomenclature of modern Rodnovery as a whole. And the “more of an” qualifier I use here on purpose because the origin of the word Kupała it's not entirely clear. I mean there is an agreement among scholars researching Slavic Pagan culture that the name comes from proto-Slavic *kopa which meant a heap or a mound, in an accumulation of elements in one place. From this noun, the Proto-Slavic *kopa we have Polish words like for example “skupić” which means to gather round or, more figuratively to concentrate or focus, like your attention on something.
Digression…
So, anyway, there is an agreement that this is where the name Kupała came from. But as far as I know, it's not clear whether this is actually the original name of the pre-Christian Pagan celebrations of summer solstice or it's a name that was made up by Christians to try to accommodate the Pagan Slavic traditions. Because one thing that we know is that Christians tried to do that, so, for example, because skinny dipping was part of the original Pagan tradition, Christians tried to tie it with christening and invented a holy day of John the Baptist who, obviously, because he was the Baptist, he christened people by submerging them into water. So Christian missionaries came up with the idea of the Pagan tradition of skinny dipping being the reconstruction of the christening and started calling this holiday Kupała, claiming it's from “kąpać” which is a Polish word but it's similar in Russian and other Slavic languages. Which means, basically, to swim or to take a bath. By the way, this is how the idea of a made-up Slavic God Kupała developed, but this is a different story, and for the sake of staying focused, which I'm determined to do today, I'm not going to go there.
So, I was talking about…
I was talking about Christian influences on Slavic Pagan celebrations of summer solstice. Christian missionaries, or, actually, not only missionaries, priests as well as, what we would call today, activists, so just people obsessed with an idea and dedicating their whole life to it. And in the case I am discussing here, the idea was to eradicate the original Slavic paganism which was very deeply rooted system of beliefs among early medieval Slavs. So, eradicating it was not an easy thing to do. Obviously, the Christian concept of suffering and self-deprivation, it was totally foreign to Slavic pagans so it could not really be easily imposed on them. And this is why the Christian activists had to come up with various strategies to wiggle in, so to speak, into the Pagan stuff and then step by step either get rid of the Pagan tradition or make it Christian.
Superimposing Christian meaning on the originally Pagan traditions was one of such strategies. Another one was making the Pagan tradition fit in better into the Christian one, which in case of celebration of summer solstice, was done by attempting to move this celebration to a more appropriate, from a Christian point of view, of course, to more appropriate time of the year. Which in this case would be moving the joyful and, let's call it, celebrating life traditions closer to the pretty much only one joyful Christian holidays so to Easter, and following it, Pentecost.
The Christian Pentecost is a period of 50 days after Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is believed to be the day when Jesus Christ resurrected… Or was resurrected? Actually, I’m not sure how it's seen from a point of view of Christian theology. And, to be honest, I can't believe I actually know what Pentecost is, so, as far as Christian theology goes, it I'm better than expected anyway.
Pentecost is a very joyful time for Christians and in Medieval ages Christians were trying to push some of the joyful Slavic tradition of Kupała to the period of the Pentecost. That kind of confused a lot of things as far as summer solstice go, because some of the elements of the celebration of summer solstice are seen around the time of the Christian Pentecost. And that's confusing because it is pretty much impossible to say what's the real deal and what's the knock off, the made-up stuff.
This is why after yet another lengthy introduction, I can finally explain why I will not be talking in strict detail here about what to do and how exactly celebrate the Slavic holidays as a modern Rodnover. Because it is impossible to say what are the original elements and what is either moved or superimposed by the Christians. So, I will not be giving you any step-by-step instructions. I will be talking about elements that are typical for a particular celebration and each and every one of you will have to find out on your own how to put these elements together and whether to incorporate some extra stuff, for example, from a more local tradition or not.
Summer solstice - continued
So, with summer solstice which is in modern times typically called Kupała, you want to celebrate it on or around the day of summer solstice. You want to have a bonfire, you want to dance around this bonfire, perhaps dance while holding torches lit from this bonfire, and if you're feeling particularly brave, you might also want to jump over the bonfire. Individually or in couples to bring good luck and prosperity for yourself or your relationship.
Structure of Slavic Pagan celebration (forgotten before)
And I've just realized I forgot the basic stuff… Sorry for that… So, the basic stuff which is the kind of structure of the celebration. Which was reconstructed very neatly and basing on very solid evidence so, with the ever present in this podcast disclaimer warning you that it's a reconstruction, I am quite confident in telling you how every Slavic Pagan celebration should really be structured.
1. purification
The first step in any celebration should be what nowadays might be called cleansing, which is kind of a ritual form of washing or cleaning up in a preparation to the ritual. If you are lucky enough, as I am, to be a member of Rodnovery group with an actual żerca, so a Slavic Pagan priest, you don't have to worry about this part that much, because pretty much every żerca would use smoke from herbs such as sage but, not only, juniper or rosemary or wormwood can also be used, as well as other herbs. So, it's all used to symbolically cleanse every participant of a ritual before the ritual starts. Also, typically the żerca will also remind all the participants what the ritual is about, where it come from and what's its purpose. That of course if it's the if the ritual is led by żerca.
If you're the only Rodnover to participate in a Rodnovery ritual, you will have to clean yourself up. I mean, I consider it a good practice to come to any ritual, led by żerca or not, in clean clothes. Actually, I have special clothes, historical dresses, and stuff, which I wear only during the rituals. Which not all Rodnovers have, and it's optional, you don't have to wear historical clothes when participating in a in a ritual. But if you can, take a shower which is what I do. I also always do my best to take time to get myself into the mindset of the of the ritual. So, for example I will remind myself what is this particular ritual, for how it developed and what's the, what's the purpose. And that's regardless of whether there is going to be a żerca or not. But, having clean clothes and either literally - so by taking a shower, or symbolically - so by smudging, cleaning yourself up is the first element of the Slavic Pagan ritual.
Also, I'm sorry I forgot to mention, if you have any offering or sacrifices you want to give in the ritual, you also want to clean or cleanse, I'm really not sure what's the right word here… Purify? Clean or cleanse to purify them. Either literally or symbolically or both, but if the ritual is led by żerca, the żerca will do it, so you don't have to worry about it.
2. Invocations and prayers
After the purifying part of the ritual, then come the invocations and the prayers. And, again, if you participate in a ritual led by żerca, the żerca will do this part. So, the żerca will call upon all the appropriate Gods. You will likely have to participate in the shouting “Sława!” or “Sława Bogom!”, which means glory to the Gods, or in shouting out the name of the God, upon which the żerca is calling. Which Gods are called upon depends on the ritual and also on the particular tradition followed by the żerca, or the group you are a member of.
If you are the only Rodnover during the ritual, you really have two options: Either you figure out or decide which Gods you want to worship during this particular ritual, or, which is what I do, if I have to perform a ritual by myself, I just call upon Gods without using their names. So, for example, I would call upon the Gods of the sky or the Gods of the land or the Gods of Slavs. I feel in this way I don't mess up the uncertain parts of the tradition so the names and domains of Gods which are, as you are hopefully aware, in the most part unknown, while preserving the core of the tradition, which is the worship of the forces of nature and the beliefs of my Pagan ancestors.
As to prayers which come after invocations to each God, in my experience the prayers are mostly focused on thanking the Gods for their gifts and Their blessings. There is a place for individual prayers which can be said out loud or in silence. I've seen these prayers mostly done over the sacrifices which are later offered to God so, the żerca would go around all the people gathered in circle around the holy fire and the people would put their hands over a particular sacrifice, so, like a bread or a kołacz.
Kołacz is a sweet bread made traditionally for pretty much all Slavic rituals, including weddings. Kołacz is round shape and often decorated. It can look very pretty, and it's supposed to be festive food, it's not like made just because. There's always an occasion for which kołacz is made.
(digression) Holy Fire
Also, I forgot the holy fire I mentioned. The fire around which all the participants of any Slavic ritual…
Actually, not any Slavic ritual… Traditionally rituals which are performed for Mokosh only, so for example Mokoszowe, so a day of Mokosh, which is celebrated in August. If it's celebrated because not all branches of Rodnovery have this celebration in in their calendar. So, if Mokoszowe is celebrated, there is no fire during this celebration, but all the sacrifices are given directly to the ground. So, the żerca digs a hole in the ground and all the sacrifices go into the hole. But other than that, other than Mokoszowe, every other Slavic Pagan ritual takes place around fire.
The holy fire is started by either żerca or by a person designated by the żerca. It is started before the ritual. Any kind of smoke-based purification rituals like smudging, they are done using the holy fire as the source of ignition. So all the smudging equipment is ignited from the holy fire. Holy fire it's not like the usual bonfire, even though it looks like one. You're really not supposed to be using holy fire to make food you, cannot really put rubbish into it, and you're not supposed to put it out after the ritual is finished. You have to wait for it, wait for the holy fire to go out on its own. Which is one of the reasons why Pagan rituals typically take some time, because we have to wait around for the holy fire to go out.
3. offerings/Sacrifices
What I was talking about? Invocations and prayers. Invocations and prayers are the second part of every ritual. After they are finished, then the offerings are made. So, basically, you call upon Gods first, you'll say thank you to Them for the blessings and for fulfilling your prayers. You might also pray that Gods continue to bless you, your family and community. And after that, you give the Gods the offerings or the sacrifices you brought for Them.
If the ritual is led by a żerca, the żerca will do that for you. Most of the time the sacrifices are thrown into the holy fire and allowed to burn fully, but as I said before, during certain celebrations, like when offerings are made exclusively to Mokosh, these offerings are put in the ground and then covered up with soil so they get to Mokosh in this way.
4. Feast
After the sacrifices are given to the Gods, then the feast begins. And I cannot stress it enough, the feast is an integral part of the ritual. You cannot skip it. You can't be on a diet or something. You have to feast, you have to sit down, you have to eat, you have to drink, you are supposed to indulge and eat up all the food brought to the ritual. So, you are supposed to have good time. You're supposed to dance and sing and eat and drink and really go for it. And if you don't do that, that is being disrespectful to the Gods and, well, the tradition.
In the rituals I participate in my group typically, everyone brings something to eat and drink. We agree in advance how much roughly food we will need, and whether it would have to be like vegan or vegetarian or just like regular food. In the past when I wasn't participating in a group ritual, when I performed rituals myself, I would do the first three parts of the ritual myself or with my daughter, for example, and then the feasting would be done with a few of my friends.
Basically, I would like go to the forest on my own or with my daughter, I will start a small fire, do the invocations and the prayers, and do the sacrifice. The purification I will do before, typically, at home before I go to the forest. So purification at home, then the invocations and prayers and then sacrificing in the forest. I would wait around for the holy fire to go out, so for like a single person ritual, the holy fire would have to be pretty small, so it can go out faster. And after the holy fire goes out, I would either go back home and have a feast there… Which is, actually, what's often done even with large groups of Rodnovers during rituals in the winter. Because sitting for hours in the forest in December or January, especially in Poland, it's really not fun. So, people would go back home or to a pub and have a feast there.
Obviously, I don't know how your situation looks. I mean, Slavic Native Faith is growing in popularity, but is still a very niche religion, so I guess, there would be significant number of solitary practitioners, who, obviously, will have to find some company for the feasting. Because, as I said, the feast is just compulsory. You cannot have a Slavic Pagan ritual without a feast. And, I don't know, in in some cases it might not be easy to find willing participants for the feast. But, in my experience, people would happily participate in an event where there is food and drinks, and we are supposed to have a good time.
I tend to be honest about the purpose of the feast when I invite someone who I know is not a Rodnover. I would be clear that, the event is a part of a Pagan celebration, and that I invite this particular person to help me to celebrate an element of my cultural heritage. So far nobody had any problem with that, so, I don't know if you live in an area where there are only and exclusively 100% orthodox followers of a monotheistic religion, who, obviously, would see a pagan celebration as a blasphemy and a sin, then you might have a problem. But, again, in my experience, if you try, you can pretty much always find at least a couple of people who are perfectly happy to help you out and participate in a Pagan feast. So, even if you are the only Rodnovery in the whole entire area, do try to find not pagan people to participate in the feast. Because a feast cannot just be done alone, it's just not doable.
5. Fortune telling
So, the last part of the ritual is any ritual is fortune telling it's not always done because in the fervor of the feast and having a good time sometimes people just forget, but the end of the feast is the best time to kind of get some fortune telling done.
I've seen all sorts done during the rituals I participated in. I saw reading runes obviously, Norse runes, not Slavic runes, because Slavic runes don't exist. Of which I talked about in the episode number 18 and I'm not even going to go there today, because, you know me and fakelore.
So, yeah I've seen… I've done it myself as well, telling future from splashes of wax which, is actually quite well known Slavic divination technique. In Poland it's called lanie wosku which translates into pouring of wax. a candle is melted in a pot and then the wax is poured on the water and the shape of the wax will tell you the future.
There are all sorts of Slavic divination techniques and if I talked about all of them here, we would be stuck here until I, don't know, tomorrow, so, I won’t. If you're interested in it just Google something that is called Andrzejki, which is roughly speaking a Polish festival of fortune telling. And you will find all sorts of divination techniques there.
I'm talking far too much today and we haven't even started on the calendar of rituals, so… I'm trying to… I'm going to try and speed up a little bit…
Summer solstice - continued
The summer solstice nowadays most commonly called Kupała but if you’re following South Slavic tradition you might have a different name for it. From what I've been told by the amazing Душанъ Божикь from Lug Velesa, which is a YouTube channel you might want to subscribe to. So, from what I was told by Душанъ, in South Slavic tradition the names of the celebration of summer solstice are related to John the Baptist which is obviously a remnant of christianization of the Pagan tradition. The names are Ивањдан, Ivandan or Ivanje. And there's also more Slavic name Kres.
Regardless of the kind of particular Slavic tradition summer solstice has bonfires, jumping over bonfires, dancing with fires, swimming in open water, often skinny dipping, as well as wreaths made from flowers and herbs. It's agreed widely that the celebration of summer solstice is a celebration of life, fertility, love, romantic relationship and there is a strong element of future telling, of which I talked about in the episode number 6 of Searching for the Slavic Soul.
One of the less acknowledged in modern times reasons for summer solstice to be the celebration of fertility is the fact that, given the historical information about life in early Medieval times, it is very likely that around this time women, biological women with functioning ovaries and uterus, they were at most fertile. We've got to remember that pre-Christian Slavic Pagans, they lived in a mixed maritime and continental climate of the north Europe, which is characterized by substantial temperature swings and that's causing frost and draught. Also, with limited food production because there was no machines or modern fertilizers and everything had to be done by humans mostly, with a little help from oxen or horses. So, food was not as easily accessible as it is nowadays, and food shortages were actually very common. It is estimated that back in those days every few years there was some form of a natural disaster like a drought or flood or particularly harsh winter, and that would cause significant mortality, which, with the wars and epidemics ongoing as well, that was the main limiting factor in the growth of human population, not only on the lands of Slavs but for, the whole humanity of the pre-industrial times. So, you know if on a given year the winter was particularly harsh or the harvest was particularly bad the year before, there were severe food shortages through the winter. And if there is not enough food, as you might or might not know, fertile woman will stop ovulating and will become temporarily infertile. The ovulation, the fertility will come back when the food intake increases, like for example, throughout the spring. So, it is quite possible that at least in some years a woman in reproductive age would only get their fertility back around the time of summer solstice.
As far as Gods to which invocations and praying is done during the celebration of the summer solstice, is mostly the Gods related to the sun, fire, water and fertility. So, you have Svarog, Daźbog, Mokosh, Rodzanice and Rod. But to be perfectly honest, I've participated in celebration where pretty much all the known Slavic Gods were addressed, including Veles and Marzanna, which, quite frankly I wasn't sure what to think of, but these were the celebrations led by a żerca, so, I guess I just went with it.
Winter Solstice
For winter solstice, which is also celebrated in the whole Slavdom… Polish name of this celebration is most frequently Szczodre Gody, which translates roughly to abundant or generous celebration. But more pan-Slavic name is Коляда, Koliada, Kolęda, Kolenda or versions of it. The Koliada name refers to a tradition of kolędowanie, which is a Polish name, but there is an equivalent of this name in pretty much every single Slavic language. So, kolędowanie it's when children and young people they walk around the neighborhood they are dressed up as various… We can call it demonic creatures, and they are singing songs, they are dancing, often they perform short plays and generally, they are having a good time. Traditionally kolędowanie is believed to be giving good luck and good fortune to the households, as well as chasing away malevolent spirits that could be lurking in the dark. Obviously, the households who did not receive the Koliada performers, they would have bad luck.
The characters that the Koliada performers are dressed up as, they have clear pagan roots. I mean… they are, because of christianization, angels and devils and often the three kings, the ones that according to Bible brought gifts to Jesus Christ when he was born. Because, obviously Koliada as the celebration of the winter solstice, was incorporated into Christian tradition of Christmas. But, apart of the angel and the devil and the kings, there is pretty much always a character called Turoń, in Polish is called Turoń, but there is a character like that pretty much everywhere, in every single Slavic tradition. Turoń is a name related to tur which is a Polish name for auroch. It's like an extinct species of wild cattle. Because of the presence of Turoń or other cattle resembling character with horns, it is agreed that the primary God worshiped during the winter solstice was Veles, or equivalent. So, like the underground, chthonic God. So, typically during the invocation and prayer part of the ritual Veles would be called upon because of that.
There is also a very strong element of ancestral veneration during the celebration of the winter solstice in Slavic tradition. There's pretty much always a big family dinner with at least one place left empty. Nowadays it said that the place is left for a guest, but pretty much every scholar and practitioner of Slavic tradition agrees that originally the place was left for the ancestors who were invited for the dinner. There is also a lot of straw and hay elements incorporated into the decoration and costumes made for Koliada. Which is another indicator of the ancestral veneration and connecting to the world of the dead or to Navia. As you hopefully you all know, straw or hay are dry stalks and leaves of cereal plants like wheat or rye. And if you look at it, it looks dead, but it has seeds in it, so it's kind of alive at the same time. So, because of that it's pretty much agreed by all cultural anthropologists, that straw and hay is an element symbolizing the connection between the world of the living and the word of the dead.
A typical element of Koliada or Szczodre Gody celebration will be something that is called Dziad or Diduch, which, by the way, is another indication of the ancestral veneration aspect of the winter, of the celebrations of winter solstice. Because Dziad is pretty much a pan-Slavic name for an ancestor or an old person. So, so the Dziad for Szczodre Gody is made most commonly from the first bundle of harvested wheat or rye, and it's kept at home. It's decorated and it's present in the room during the festive dinner and then it's kept through the whole winter. And depending on the tradition, it's either burned in the spring or is used to sow the fields in the spring.
If you are a single practitioner, winter solstice might be a difficult one for you to celebrate mostly because of the element of Koliada, so the singing and dancing and, performing. I mean if you're not shy, you can just go out and sing or dance on the streets, but not everyone is confident enough to do that. I'd say, if you have access to some woodland area, you can absolutely go out in the forest at night – obviously making sure it's safe first! – to make some noises to at least try and chase away some malevolent spirits. Then you could have a short ritual addressing Veles and your ancestors, and after that have a family dinner. Family like either you biological or spiritual family dinner, with at least one place left empty for your ancestors.
Another aspect of winter solstice celebration is, I think, the aspect related to much harsher reality in which our medieval ancestors had to live. Around Koliada time all the harvest will be collected, all the food will be preserved for winter and our ancestors, celebrating the winter solstice, they would pretty much know whether they have had enough food to make it through the winter or not. And if they didn't have enough food, the Koliada dinner was a very difficult one. Because they would sit around the table knowing that some of them won't make it to the spring. Literally knowing that some of them would starve to death. And that must have been… I don't even know what adjective to use… Hard? Tough? Totally unimaginable for us, the modern people who get PTSD after seeing a dead body, let alone spending time in a company, of well let's call it what it was: dead person walking and celebrating with us at the table.
Digression…
I have to admit I do think a lot about the state of mind and experiences of the medieval people. I try to imagine how life looked in the times of my medieval ancestors and that, I think, allows me to get an extra insight into the celebration I am participating in. Extra layer of appreciation of the strength and resolve of my ancestors. But also, an extra layer of being grateful for what I have thanks to the sacrifice of my ancestors. Because everything that we have nowadays, all the luxuries, efficient food production or central heating or plumbing or, medical care. It's all been achieved by the generations of people who lived before our times, and I am forever grateful for that.
Spring Equinox
So, yeah that's the solstices, so now let's talk very quickly about the equinoxes. The spring equinox, the one of two equinoxes, is I think most famous and actually still alive tradition. Because up to this very day in, for example, Poland every spring an effigy of Marzanna is made, paraded around the fields, then burned and thrown into a body of water. Which most often is a river, but a small puddle can also be used as well.
There is a lot of different opinions about the symbolism of the Marzanna's burning and drowning. Some are of an opinion that it's actually killing of a Goddess, performed to end the winter. Some think it's a remnant of human sacrifices made to Slavic Gods. I personally am in favor of a theory that the burning and drowning of Marzanna’s effigy is a form of funeral rites performed on a representation of the body of the Goddess of winter. But, again, it's just my opinion. There is not and there will most likely never be any solid evidence to tell for sure, which of these interpretations is correct if any.
The burning and drowning of Marzanna's effigy is the most known ritual celebrating the spring equinox, but is by no means a pan-Slavic ritual. I mean, it's likely it was a pan-Slavic ritual, but because of christianization the timing of the burning changes. So, for example, in eastern Slavic tradition an effigy of, as it's called Lady Maslenitsa it's burned during the last week before the Great Lent. Which, depending on the timing of Easter, starts either in February or in the early March so the whole thing is taking place well before the spring equinox.
One tradition that is often mentioned as a part of celebration of the spring equinox is walking with a copse, so with a branch or a whole little tree, decorated with ribbons and other ornaments. As far as I understand, this is considered to be a separate ritual performed in May and known to me as Gaik or Maik. As far as I understand, due to christianization it was fused with the spring equinox celebration. However, saying that, if your local tradition is to have the walking of the copse joined with, or done instead of burning of Marzanna’s effigy, I'd say to stick to your local tradition. Because, at the end of the day, there is very little that we can say for sure about the original Pagan rituals, so if you have one that your family and ancestors have been doing for like generations, just do that and ignore the scholars.
The one aspect of the celebration of the spring equinox is the spring cleaning. Let's call it this way. A spring-cleaning element of it. So, as I said before, cleaning, cleansing, or purifying, or however you call it, is the first step of a Slavic Pagan ritual. But in the spring, it seems to be taken to the next level. Because not only the participants of the ritual, not only the sacrifices or offerings have to be purified, but also the whole households need cleaning before this ritual. For example, the effigy of Marzanna that is burned in the ritual, is traditionally made from old clothes. So, clothes, that you will normally throw away during spring cleaning. There is also an element of chasing away or throwing away any malevolent demons from the household, which is done during the spring cleaning. So, if you talk to a żerca they will often use brooms made from fresh willow twigs to do the symbolic cleaning.
If you are a solitary practitioner and you want to celebrate the spring equinox, I'd say a few days or weeks before the ritual start with spring cleaning and identify items of clothing you want to use to make the effigy of Marzanna. On the day of the celebration get a few willow twigs and symbolically sweep around your house telling all the malevolent spirits to get out. And then take your Marzanna effigy to a place where you can burn it, and whatever did not burn, just put it in a body of water, which doesn't have to be a river, it can as well be just a puddle. You want to do your invocation and prayers before you burn the effigy and for feast and entertainment during the feast, make sure you decorate some eggs. Because, of which I forgot to mention, pisanki so decorated eggs are also a part of celebration of the coming of spring in Slavic tradition.
Future-telling wise it's a particularly good time to pay attention to birds, particularly migrating birds, which behavior or songs were commonly considered omens in the Slavic tradition. I might actually one day do an episode about it because it's a super interesting topic, the fortune telling, but because it's an interesting one it'll be also a lot to talk about so I'm just going to shut up now. Because I am already talking longer than I planned.
Sorry for that… I know the length of the episodes is a problem for some of you, so I try to keep it concise but clearly, it doesn't always work… But, back to the topic.
Autumn Equinox
The other equinox is the autumn equinox. It is the last ritual I wanted to talk about today. It's obviously in autumn, in the fall, when traditionally Harvest is celebrated. The autumn equinox is kind of a no-brainer, really, it's all about harvest. For our ancestors it was the literal harvest being collected from the fields at this time of the year. For modern Rodnovers it's more often about the metaphorical harvest, so all the things that we get as a direct result of our efforts. However, in the group I am a member of we do try to bring along some literal harvest too. This year for example we did very, very well. We had homegrown carrots, radishes, tomatoes, apples, and I think peas or beans, I'm not sure which one it was. And of course, because the autumn equinox is about harvest, it might be a good idea to plan for it well in advance. For example, I start planting my stuff on balcony in March or April, with a view of having some harvest for the autumn.But the figurative harvest is very important too, and if there is anything you achieved by hard work and effort, the autumn equinox celebration is the time when you want to thank Gods for that. Thank Them for any help They gave you to to achieve the success, you've achieved.
A big and I mean, a really big ass kołacz is the staple of the Plony, so, the harvest celebration. It's such an important part because it's one of the very few elements of Slavic tradition and Slavic religious tradition that is actually mentioned in the written historical sources, where the celebration of harvest in the temple of Svetovit in Arkona is described in a lot of details. In Arkona the kołacz was supposed to be as big as a grown-up human. And, in some mainstream like Christian not Pagan celebrations of harvest, there are big kołacz’s like that, but I have not heard of a kołacz made by Rodnovers for an actual Pagan celebration… A kołacz a human could try and hide behind it. But, saying that, we do try. The kołacz made for harvest is always an extra good one, extra special one. It’s made with super fine ingredients, it's decorated beautifully and Rodnovers really put effort in it. And so should you if you are a solitary practitioner. You should try and make a super extra special kołacz.
Another thing that you should also try to get is mead for drinking during harvest celebration. Mead, an alcoholic drink made from honey, might not be easy to come by in some countries or regions, but, it can be done. So, really do try to get at least one bottle for the celebration of the autumn equinox, because as kołacz, drinking mead dining harvest celebration is mentioned in chronicles, so that's an important one.
As far as invocations and prayers, you most certainly want to address Gods related to abundance, fertility and giving life, but which one you will call upon, really depends on the nature of your harvest, as well as the tradition you're following. Because if you harvest is mostly of artistic nature, particularly related to storytelling or poetry, you actually want to call upon Veles, who is commonly interpreted as the ruler of the domain of the Arts and secret knowledge. And if you want to go like Western Slavic exclusively, your best bet is Svetovit, of which we know for sure that he was involved in the celebration of harvest among Polabian Slavs. So, who you will address your invocations and prayers to in the time of harvest, it's up to you.
That's pretty much all I wanted to say today. I do apologize for struggling to stay on topic. I keep trying, but it's just, the bloody digressions are like weeds... I do hope all of these, including the digressions, will be helpful in planning your practice of Slavic Native Faith. And if not helpful, at least hopefully, it'll be somehow, somewhat informative. I mean the four celebrations described… just described above, are not the only one celebrated by modern Rodnovers, but they are the most basic and universal ones, so, as far as I'm concerned, if you manage to incorporate these four rituals in your practice, it's just all good.
Next time I am planning to talk about the recurring yearly celebrations that are not related to the solar cycle. So, hopefully, if I haven't bore you today, I won't bore you then.
As always, do get in touch if you have anything positive, negative or anything else to say to us. And for now, take care and…
Sława!
Bibliography:
K. Moszyński “Kultura Duchowa Słowian”
A. Szyjewski „Religia Słowian”
“Agrarian Change and Crisis in Europe, 1200–1500” Edited by H. Kitsikopoulos
An altar prepared by Gontyna UK for 2022 Plony (Harvest) celebration