Vesna

Vesna is either the personification of spring or goddess of spring (many scholars believe that

she is not goddess). “Vesna” or variation of this name are terms for the spring in many Slavic

languages. If the spring is called in a different way Vesna is still used as a poetic name for the

season.

The name Vesna comes from a Sanskrit word “vas” that means solar, illuminated and shiny.

These attributes are in relation with the period of her rule - end of the winter and beginning of
light, shine, fertile time of the year. If we think about the spring as a person, a goddess or

mythical creature, we can say that Vesna is “born” after the “death” of the winter goddess

Morana. Burning the Morana’s effigy marked the end of the winter and beginning of the spring

season. People were happy and they were celebrating, welcoming Vesna. With changes in

nature, Vesna was bringing joy into the hearts of the Slavs. No more fear of the dead from

hunger, diseases, cold.. animals were no more endangered, and the plants can freely grow after

the cover of the snow has melted. Associated with the beautiful season of rebirth and renewed

life Vesna was one of the most positive words for Slavs. No wonder that the name Vesna was

gladly given to the daughters. Even today there are a lot of Vesnas in the former Yugoslavian

area.

Vesna is also connected with youth and like Devana, represents the virgin form of the Great

goddess. Mokosh and Živa (Siva, Zywia) are obviously the Mother form, while Morana and baba
Yaga are the Crone. The German equivalent to Vesna is Ostara/Eostre. Seems like both Ostara

and Vesna are celestial Goddesses, not connected with water and earth as most of the

goddesses are. They could be activating principles, a role that is usually reserved for male

deities as we will see when analyzing the Slavic calendar. But some Goddesses such as

Perunitsa and Brigid have celestial or fiery nature and more active roles in natural processes.

Vesna is the bringer of light, she distributes solar energy to the earth and people…

Since we will pay closer attention to spring celebrations in the other text, let's just mention that

Vesna is connected with birds as heralds of spring. The bird is '`vesnik” or herald which sounds

similar to Goddess’/Sping’s name. On the pysanki eggs, goddesses figures are often

accompanied with the birds.They are goddesses of life,nature, reproduction. Else, on the spring

equinox housewives were making bird-like cookies - zhavoronki, karakushi, buns in the shape of

larks…

In the nineteenth century, Russian peasants celebrated the return of spring on March 1 by going

out to the fields, carrying a clay figure of a lark on a pivot which had been decorated with flow.

There, they would swing their “larks” imitating the birds in flight while singing special songs
called “zaklichki” ("callouts"), inviting spring to return, as “there is no more bread left to eat”. In

Belarus people stil hang paperbirds around the house and yard because they believe that the

birds carry the spring on their wings. They make buns in the shape of larks and give to each

other.

The Spring equinox

To reconstruct how the Spring equinox was celebrated we have to study current holidays that

were once pagan celebrations. Some of them are Mladenci (Newlyweds), Grandma March,

Maslenitsa, Wet Monday… The most famous holiday is Easter which in the many Slavic

languages is called the Great day or the Great Night.

Traditions performed on the holidays that mark the beginning of spring have many things in

common. First of all they celebrate the “death of the winter” and rebirth of Nature. In Poland,

Czech Republic and Slovakia people still send off the winter symbolized but the effigy called

Marzanna. At the end of the March they throw the doll made of straw into the water, sometimes

burning it before it. The whole ritual consists of making the doll from the basic cross-shape, the

procession and “the drowning”. The procession is sometimes adorned with singing or reciting

old verses, such as “Marzanna, Marzanna, swim across the seas. Let flowers bloom, and fields

turn green”.

Similar rituals are performed in Russia during the celebration of Maslenitsa. The festival is

organized before the beginning of the Great lent. It is called the Butter Lady, because it's the last

time that butter and other dairy products can be used before lent. The female straw-effigy or the
textile doll is burned and people are dancing around it. They sing the following verse “Gori, gori

yasno chtoby ne pogaslo” (Burn, burn bright, so that it doesn’t go out)

Maslenitsa

“Immersion of Marzanna”
By drowning or burning the winter people were symbolically getting rid of colds, diseases,

possible death of the people and cattle… They were also trying to get rid of spiritual negative

energy which was, according to the beliefs of our ancestors, strongly connected with the

physical. They were so close, that we cannot divide which is which (for example, diseases were

perceived as evil spirits, the poverty and unluck was considered to be the work of demons

zlydnyi, that were attached to somebody… ). This is the reason why the rituals of cleansing

were performed. One of them was rocking. Although rocking looks like a game it used to have a

different character. It aims to rid us of evil spirits that are attached to our bodies and clothes by

shaking them off.

The spring cleansing of the house and yard was also both physical and spiritual work. Rituals

like whipping and drenching in water seem like cleansing but they are actually performed for

health and fertility sake. Getting drenched in ice cold water in the Western Slavic countries is

meant to symbolize youth and make women healthy for spring. Sometimes it’s replaced by
throwing buckets of cold water at girls. Whipping is similar practice, fun for the boys and not so

much fun for the girls :). Boys get willow branches, braid them together into whips and decorate

them with ribbons to whip girls with for luck and fertility.

Wet Monday in Poland

The Easter whip

Willow is one of the Slavic magical trees, and also the symbol of the spring. This is the first tree

that grows green in spring and it even has its own holiday - a day when the pussy willows

appear (Vrbopuc, Vrbica, Vrbena nedela) . All the Slavic peoples carry pussy willows on Palm

Sunday instead of palm branches. They use the willow twigs for some kind of blessing, slightly

hitting each other, or the cattle with it .In Serbia children and adults whip each other with willow

twigs on Newlyweds day, Lazarus Saturday and Tsveti; at the same time it is said: "Grow like a

willow". They also do it on the other, non-spring holidays such as the Annunciation. Lambs are

whipped with bushes, "for the health of the cattle ''. Willow twigs are apotropaic, and as such

they are hung on doors and windows.In Belarus willow twigs were placed on the window to ward

off the lightning during a thunderstorm . When someone fell ill, the patient was smoked with

willow, and wounds were sprinkled with crushed twigs.

Seems like the willow also symbolizes the transition from one period to another, not only from

winter to spring but also from death to life or from childhood to adulthood. We see it in the

Ukrainian ritual of “crossing the willow’s board” which is also performed in the spring.
 The willow board

As it was written, the celebration of the rebirth of life was one of the characteristics of the spring

festivals. The most famous symbol of the new life was, of course, the egg - sometimes a symbol

of the universe itself. There are a lot of various myths including stories of the Goddess bearing

an egg from which the Universe was made (Finnish,Orphic, Egyptian…). Slavs also had it, for

example, this myth was preserved in Slovenia: the God sends a rooster to earth, who lays an

egg from which seven rivers are poured. Mostly the bird plays a central role in a majority of

myths-it helps the god to create the Earth and the heavens.. This is one of the reasons why the

birds are presented with the Tree of life on the embroidery, wood paintings and wood-carvings…

Many Slavic ethnic groups, including the Bulgarians, paint the eggs for Easter. Croats call it

pisanica, Czechs kraslice, Poles pisanka, Sorbs pisanici, Serbs писаница, Slovaks

kraslica, Slovenes pisanica or pirh, Bulgarians писано яйце, Ukrainians pysanka. Many of
the names derive from the Slavic root pisa which relates to painting (and cognate with Latin

pictura), Czech and Slovak names derive from kresliť (to draw) or krášliť (to decorate). In Slavic

tradition, the egg is written, not drawn or painted. Romanians, a non-Slavic ethnic group, also

practice it (ouă încondeiate).

The cult of the egg has probably the same origin as the cult of the bird. This was the cult of

pre-Indo European cultures, who worshiped the bird goddess.

Late Bronze age Bird Goddess

When it’s about the ritual dish, the food made of milky products was dominant… so much, that

in Serbia the week before the spring equinox was called the " White Week ". This costume has

Christian character since it occurs before the Great lent, but it could also have some older,
pre-Christian origin. Bird-shape buns and cakes were also popular, as well as the pancakes

among Eastern Slavs (Maslenitsa).On this day they made them 40 in number, in honor of the 40

martyrs that are also called " newlyweds " by the Orthodox church in Serbia, and they are round

in shape, while in Bulgaria they're made in the shape of men.

Zhavoronki

These newlyweds will not be tasted in the house until the first of them is divided for the soul of

the dead. After it is divided, then those who are there, in the house, are eaten, as well as those

who are exchanged. Speaking about Newlyweds, let’s also mention that the Spring equinox was

the most popular day for weddings. Masked carnival parades organized around the equinox

also often represented the wedding party. Sometimes in these weddings, along with the bride,

represented by a man in women's dresses, there is a brother-in-law, and sometimes masked

boys are called grandparents, while the one in women's dresses is a grandfather's grandmother.
Let’s not forget that the equinox is a marriage in the cosmic level reflected in equal duration of

the day and night. These are the reasons I marked this holiday as the Wedding in our calendar.