Topic: oorlog rusland 23 juni - Kupala 2

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Kupala - Slavic midsummer celebration
Summer solstice has many names in Slavic lands. In some countries it is known as Kupala night, in others Ivan Kupala day. Christian name Noc Świętojańska (St. John?s Night) is also common. In Warmia and Mazury it is known as palinocka (burning night). In Śląsk (Silesia), where I live we call summer solstice sob?tka, after nearby, sacred mountain Ślęża (to which Sob?tka is currently something of a common pet name).  It is also the center of local Rodnover (Slavic paganism, literally ?Native Faith?) activity. While the shortest night of the year falls on 20-21st June Kupala is in some places celebrated on 24th June to match the winter holiday of Koliada celebrated on 24th December. In some countries people don?t have to go to work on that day!
            Kupalo, god of summer solstice.
 13th century sources confirm the existence of summer solstice celebrations called ?Kupaly? among the people of Rus. 17th century folk stories are already referring to Kupalo as  god of sun, fire and summer, a personification of the solstice holiday. Kupalo is usually viewed as male but in Poland where ?kupała? is a feminine noun the deity is sometimes depicted as female. The winter counterpart of Kupalo is Koliada, personification of winter solstice. Eastern Slavic folk tales often pair Kupalo with Kostroma, a goddess of spring and abundance, depicted in white clothes, with an oak branch in her hand. Kostroma?s name is derived from a word meaning ?bonfire?. In rituals connected with the seasons, solstice and crops Kupalo and Kostroma were often represented by dolls or scarecrows, carried around and sometimes symbolically burned.
Kupalo and Kostroma are said to be twin deities of summer and spring, fire and water, light, sun, happiness, crops and wealth. They are the children of a fire god Simargl and Kupalnitsa, a goddess of night (while Simargl is indeed mentioned in the ?Tale of Bygone Years? as one of the gods worshipped by prince Vladimir and became a popular decorative motif in boyar art, I couldn?t find any non-recent mentions of him being a god of fire, in fact scientists seem to connect him with family and rye; then again my sources are limited and I don?t know the opinion of every etymologist and folklorist out there).
A popular folk myth describes how young Kupalo and Kostroma went into the fields to listen to the song of magical birds: Kupalo listened to Sirin, the bird of sorrow and Kostroma to Alkonost, the bird of joy. But the twins didn?t realize the magical songbirds can be dangerous. By the order of Chernobog Sirin abducted Kupalo and took him to Nav, the Underworld.
Many years later Kupalo managed to finally find his way out of the Nav and he traveled to his home country by boat, up the river Ra. Suddenly he saw strong winds blow a floral wreath off a beautiful girl?s head and into the water. He retrived the wreath and returned it. In Slavic culture the wreath symbolized maidenhood and unmarried status; during certain holidays the girl would place her wreath in the river and the boy who would pick it up waiting down the river?s run was meant by gods to marry her. And so Kupalo and Kostroma fell in love and married. Only after their wedding gods revealed to them that they are actually brother and sister. The twins were so heart-broken they decided to comitt suicide - Kupalo threw himself into the fire and died, while Kostroma tried to drown herself in the river and became a mavka, a restless spirit of a girl who died prematurely.
Gods, feeling guilty about the sad fate of the twins transformed them into a flower with petals of blue and fiery yellow to represent each of the siblings. That flower was at first called Kupalo-da-Mavka but after christianization the name was changed to Ivan-da-Maria.
                     The Goddess Kupala
Kupala, also known as the water mother, is a Slavic goddess associated with water and springs, healing, herbs, purification, and midsummer. She represents both the water and fire elements, particularly the aspects of healing, purification, and transformation. Some additional associations are joy, health, and cleansing.
She is relevant to many regions of Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, Ukraine, and Bohemia.
Kupala is essential to the midsummer eve festival in these regions, known as Noc Kupala (нос купала), or post-Christianity as Ivan-Kupala (Іванa-Купала). This festival is celebrated differently in different places, but there are some common elements:
-jumping over a bonfire for wishes/good luck
-decorating a female effigy representing Kupala and releasing her into the water (preferably a river). This is only done by the women and girls
-decorating oneself with flowers
-sending a candle down the river
-feasting of course!
Legend has it that at midnight on Noc Kupala, the magical plant blooms and whoever finds the flower receives good luck, prosperity, and potentially supernatural power.
Some other plants particularly sacred to her are birch, loosestrife, and flowers. Wildflowers gathered at dawn are an appropriate offering - though do be sure to use sustainable harvest practices and not offer too many! One or two will do.
One way to connect with Kupala is to leave a cloth out overnight to collect dew (especially during the month of June). In the morning, you can wash your face and hands with the dew water to receive Kupala's blessings.
A ritual to ask Kupala's blessing on a new venture, such as the new year, a new relationship/marriage, or lifen transition, is to light a small fire (like a candle, uor loose incense in a cauldron) and step or jump over it, asking Kupala to burn away the old and refresh you for the next phase.
Oblutions with water, especially in a river, are also a good way to connect with her. I like to say a prayer to Kupala in the shower for example.
Traditional celebrations
The most common way for Slavs to celebrate summer solstice was lighting the sacred bonfires, often on tops of mountains and hills. Regional traditions relating to those fires vary: in some places they had to be made of the sacred oak wood in other the bonfire was composed of ash and birch. Most curious way to light the fires uses a large wheel covered in tar and wrapped in hay. It was placed on a birch pole and spinned fast until the friction sparked fire. Then the burning wheel was rolled around lighting bonfires one by one. That?s also how the wheel became one of the symbols strongly associated with midsummer in Slavic countries.
Various herbs, believed to hold magical properties, were burned in the fires to grant the celebrators health and wealth. Burning cattle bones was meant to ensure that the cows and bulls will be reborn in great number. People (especially young men) would also jump over the fires to ward off sickness and grant themselves luck and protection. Sometimes young couples jumped together over the flames while holding a small effigy of Kupalo - if they dropped it into the fire their love would not last.
Kupala was connected with water almost as much as with fire. Girls made herbal wreaths and wore them throughout the celebration. At the end of the night they?d float the wreaths down the river with little torches attached in the middle. Young men in turn would wait down the river and try to capture the wreaths. It was believed that the boy was meant to marry the girl who?s wreath he caught. If the wreath sunk or got stuck in the reeds the girl would never marry. In many regions people believed bathing in rivers, streams and lakes before Kupala to be dangerous. Rusalkas, wodniks and other water demons were particularly active in that time and they could kidnap and drown anyone who got nearby. On midsummer night however, the water was ritually blessed and made safe to bathe in. In some regions people performed water scrying in wells to learn their future.
Another type of love divination associated with Kupala was collecting twelve herbs (as rare as possible) in complete silence and putting them under your pillow to see your future and spouse in your dreams. If one spoke even a word while collecting herbs the spell was broken and the vision would not come.
Women rubbed themsleves with adder?s tongue herb to put on a beauty glamour for the night. It was believed that during Kupala magical fern flower grows in the woods and whoever finds it will be blessed with great riches, strenght and wisdom. Searching for the flower was also a great pretext for men and women to head into the woods alone.
Midsummer poles, deity effigies.
Deity effigies seem to be a common theme in the Kupala. As I already mentioned small figurines or dolls of Kupalo were held by couples jumping over the flames. Bigger effigies of Kupalo and Kostroma are also popular in some regions. Interestingly enough an effigy of Morana (Marzanna, Mara, Marena) usually associated with spring equinox rituals also features in many midsummer celebrations. In Ukraine a pole of maple, birch or willow was set up on a hill and adorned with flowers and ribbons - that pole, called Morana or Mara was the center of festivities and round dances. In some parts of Russia a straw doll of Morena was made and burned at the end of the night, the ash was then sprinkled over the fields to ensure fertility and good harvest. Those traditions seem to point to Morana originally being the deity of agricultural cycles, also connected with fertility, new life, planting and harvest - not just a deadly winter goddess. In later times that doll would be sometimes called other female names such as Marina or Katerina. Sometimes the midsummer pole was decorated with aforementioned wheel or with cow or horse skull (Belarus). At the end of the night that pole was thrown into the river.
How to celebrate?
? make a bonfire
? party with your friends
? prepare a feast (or you know, nice dinner) and invite your family to share it with you
? make offerings to the solar deities you follow and spend some time with them during the day
? search for the fern flower with your partner (or just take a walk in the woods together)
? try fire and water scrying
? at night collect 12 herbs and stick them under your pillow (even you speak out and don?t receive any visions you can still dry the herbs and use them later to give an extra kick to your spells)
? perform a blessing ritual by a nearby body of water and bathe in it for good luck
? make offerings to local nature spirits
? burn herbs for good luck! (you can also try smoke cleansing with herb bundles or DIY herbal incense)
? wear a wreath
Have a blessed sob?tka!
Sources:
?Slavic folklore, didactical guidelines? by Laima Anglickienė
?Mity, podania i wierzenia dawnych Słowian? by Jerzy Strzelczyk
?Religia Słowian? by Andrzej Szyjewski
Kostroma

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