Johanessen Bryce L.

Carpio
Grade 7-3: B3

Slavic Traditions
1. The Slavic holiday calendar began on 21st December, with a symbolic victory of light over
darkness (the Winter Solstice).
2. The Święto Godowe (Nuptial Holidays), also known as Zimowy Staniasłońc would end on 6th
January, and it would pass by filled with song.
3. Other customs with pagan roots include the drowning of the Marzanna doll, decorating eggs,
śmigus dyngus and even spring cleaning.
4. The rebirth of the forces of nature had to be celebrated with a bang and so Jare Święto was set
up on 21st March. There were numerous ways of celebrating this day. Some dressed a straw
doll in white clothes, and adorned its head with a crown made with branches of hawthorn. The
Marzanna doll was carried around the village in this apparel, accompanied by the sound of
rattles, to be finally burned down or drowned, thus saying goodbye to death and disease..
5. Others would decorate eggs as a symbol of the rebirth of life. A pattern would be drawn on the
shell with melted wax, with brown or red colouring obtained by dipping the egg in a dish with
onion peel or ochre. This custom takes its roots from Persia (which would confirm one of the
theories on the descendance of Slavs), where people were cured with eggs and spells were
exorcised by moving them across the body.
6. Kupała Day was the longest of the year, Kupała Night the shortest – it was one ceaseless
passage of joy, song, leaping, and rites.
The celebrations started on the day preceding the Summer Solstice (June 20th) and lasted for
four days. It was first and foremost a celebration of fire and water. Huge fires were lit on
hilltops using only two pieces of wood – which was thought to strengthen the participants of
the rite and ensure the fertility of the fields as well as animals. There was dancing and singing
around the fires, while leaping across them was meant to ensure purification and protect against
bad energy.
It was believed that the second of these elements also possessed healing powers at this time.
The three-month period of refraining from bathing (the ban concerned dipping the body in
rivers, lakes and streams during the day) was officially ended and the ritual washing during
Kupała Night cast away disease and evil spells. Girls used to make wreaths from flowers and
herbs, which they then cast into the river. If the ones fished out by boys found their original
owner, the two would become a couple.
According to legend, ferns only blossomed on Kupała Night. Someone lucky enough to
find one would become rich, and was also thought to become capable of becoming invisible
in case of danger. Camomile and flowers were also used to tell fortunes, and even dill stalks
(maidens would mark them with coloured thread and given them the names of their favourite
boys – the stalk that grew the tallest overnight would be proof of the most passion).
7. After death, souls were thought to travel into the land of eternal happiness – Nawia. They
would return to the world of the living a few times during the year, however, and they had to
be properly received. Rituals connected to the forefathers – the Dziady – took place in
accordance with the principal that spirits could do favours for the living – such as teaching
them moral lessons – and the living can could favours for the dead – the custom of offering
food and drinks. Fires were lit on cemeteries and special grumadki (pieces of wood) were
 placed at crossroads in order to point the way back towards heaven. Tribute was paid through
tournaments, song, and dance.
8. The biggest holiday in a family’s life was the birth of a baby. But a new Slavic soul would
have been just as eagerly awaited by demons. For this reason, red ribbons were tied up by the
cradle in order to cast off bad spells and sharp tools were placed under the bed or at the
threshold. Thorns or prickly plants were stuffed around window panes along with salt of garlic
and a fire was left burning in the room all day long. And in order to trick evil spirits, sometimes
it was even pretended that the baby had died.
9. When a young man finished his 12th year (some sources indicate the 7th or 10th year), his hair
was cut for the very first time. This symbolic passage from child to adult was performed by
the father, who from that moment took on the responsibility for raising his son (he would
have previously been solely under the mother’s care, while the daughter remained with the
mother until marriage). It was during this ritual that the boy received his proper name as the
one granted at birth was to serve the function of protecting him against evil spirits
– the strzyi – and phantoms. From the postrzyżyny onwards, the father would officially
consider a boy to be his son. The ceremony was accompanied by song and a feast for the entire
family. Most likely as late as the 18th century, this rite still symbolised subjecting oneself to
the will and authority of the person who cut the hair.
10. The couple was meant to be specially protected on their wedding night, so an axe was placed
under the newly-weds' bed. It was also meant to ensure that a boy would be conceived, because
only a masculine progenitor was a sign of the wife’s acceptance by the household spirits, and
thus also by the family of the husband.
11. If someone has two or three daughters, they become the basis of his wealth, and if they are
sons, then he grows poor.
12. Slavic wives were very much attached to their husbands, and written testimonies of
scarifications they inflicted upon themselves after a husband’s death bear witness to this bride.
13. During burial , the bodies of Slavs were usually carried out through windows, and a sharp axe
was placed on the threshold in order for the dead soul not to return. The dead were dressed in
festive clothing, with jewellery and at times even weapons, and then they were wrapped in
white canvas. After prayers, the body was placed on a stake, because only the cleansing power
of fire would allow for a crossing to the land of Nawia.
14. Making cemeteries by the river or lake provided extra protection – water was thought to
constitute a natural barrier for the souls that could trouble the living.
15. Slavs believed in a certain kind of reincarnation. They imagined the world as a cosmic tree, at
the heart of which there laid a magical land where birds found refuge in the winter. Wyraj – a
heavenly, or bird-like one, or an underground or snake one – was located just above Nawia.
There were tales of a garden beyond an iron gate guarded by the Golden Rooster or Rarog, the
fiery bird. Souls who went to the land of paradise would return to the earth and into women’s
wombs – with the aid of storks and nightjars in the spring, and crows in the winter. So, the
theory that children are brought by the stork is not without reason!