The Slavic holiday was bathed by its traditions and history. The tradition of celebrating the day of God Kupala

In Summer 7526 from S.M.Z.H. according to Kolyada Dar, Month of Forty Years of Receiving the Gifts of Nature (Kheilet), 7th day - Day of God Kupala ( according to the modern calendar, Kupala Night fell this time on the evening-night from July 8 to July 9, 2018 ). This is the day of Purification of Spirit, Soul and Teles. Day of Joy, Light, Renewal of Life.
This holiday is inextricably linked with another event of antiquity. Namely, in ancient times, God Perun freed his sisters in the Caucasus and sent them to purify themselves in the waters of the Sacred Iriy (Irtysh) and in the Sour Cream Clean Lake (Zaisan Island). This event is also narrated in the 5th ball of Songs of the Gamayun Bird. God Kupala - God, who gives a person the opportunity to perform all kinds of Ablutions and conducts the Rites of Purification of the Teles, Soul and Spirit, from various ailments and diseases. Those. God Perun sent them there, and God Kupala helped them cleanse themselves, and all this happened on the 7th Heillet. This holiday is connected with this, the summer solstice has nothing to do with it ...

Kupala is a cheerful and beautiful God, dressed in light white robes decorated with flowers. On the head of God Kupala there is a wreath of beautiful flowers. Kupala was revered as the God of the warm time of Summer, wild flowers and field fruits.
Many Slavic-Aryan Clans engaged in field cultivation revered God Kupala along with the Goddess Makosh and the Goddess Tara, as well as the Gods - Perun and Veles.
Before the start of the harvest and the harvest of field fruits, in honor of God Kupala, a holiday was celebrated at which bloodless sacrifices were made to God Kupala, as well as to all the Ancient Gods and Ancestors.

At the same time, Orthodox Old Believers-ry-Ynglings from various Communities slander their innermost desire or request for deliverance from ailments, diseases, all sorts of failures, various problems, etc. on a candle or firelight. This rite can be explained as follows.

A burning candle or firelight illuminates the request or desire of the Community, the water of the river remembers them and, evaporating, rises to Heaven, conveying to the Gods all the requests and desires of the Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings.

At the holiday, each of the Orthodox Old Believers-Ing-lings must undergo a complete purification in order to fully cleansed begin to collect field fruits and begin the field harvest. The complete cleansing of the Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings consists of three parts:

First Cleansing (Purification of the Body). Everyone present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala must wash his body in sacred waters (rivers, lakes, ponds, etc.) to wash away fatigue and dirt.

The second cleansing (Cleansing of the Soul). In order for those present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala to be able to purify their Soul, they light large bonfires, and everyone who wants to jump over these bonfires, because Fire burns all negativity and purifies the aura and Soul of a person.

Third Purification (Purification of the Spirit). Each Community Old Believer present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupa-la, as well as those who wish, can purify and strengthen their Spirit. To do this, a Fiery Circle is created from the burning coals of a large fire, along which the Old Believers-Ynglings from various Tribal, Slavic and Aryan Communities walk barefoot. Those wishing, who for the first time decided to walk on the coals in order to purify and strengthen their Spirit, the Community Leaders lead by the hand through the Fiery Circle.
.
At the festival in honor of God Kupala, there is a purification by all the Elements, that is, a combination of all the Elements (water, fire, air, earth) to restore all the bodies of Man. The Slavs have 9 subtle bodies, which is why our Ancestors recommended jumping over a fire 9 times in order to burn all subtle entities in the aura, purify the physical body 9 times in water, and walk 9 times over hot coals.
.
This holiday is inextricably linked with another event of antiquity. In ancient times, God Perun freed his sisters from captivity in the Caucasus and sent them to purify themselves in the waters of the Sacred Iriy (Irtysh) and in the Sour Cream Clean Lake (Zaisan Island). This event is also narrated in the fifth ball of Songs of the Gamayun Bird.

Due to the fact that Kupala is the Patron God of the Heavenly Hall of the Horse in the Svarog Circle, on this day it is customary to bathe horses, braid colorful ribbons into their manes and decorate them with wildflowers.

Kupala, our Bose! Glorious and Trislaven eternally Budi! We glorify you all-natively, we call on our land! Grant us all cleansing, for our Bozekh in Orthodoxy! Grant our births a plentiful harvest in the fields of suffering, and full bins in our mansions. Now and ever and from Circle to Circle! Taco be, taco be, taco be!

Hymn to God Kupala:

On the holy Day of God Kupala
from big to small
Gather, clean up
In the holy river In the holy fire
Gather up, clean up
Hail to Bose our Perun,
Glorious Bird Gamayun,
And all our ancestors,
Lada is our Mother;
Hail to the Wise God-Svarog,
Yes, Asgard is the Holy Chamber.
And Heavenly Vyry,
Holy is the current Iriy.
Father Fire, Mother Water,
Always cleanse us
From the impure - Pure Power.
In the holy river, in the holy fire,
From the impure - I clean with the Force.
Dawn Perunov Color,
And grant us many years.
Cleanse Kupala us
In holy water
In the Holy Land
In Holy Fire.
Thank God Kupala! (3 times)

I wish all Clans Slavs and Aryans, Rasichs
Light, Joy, Wisdom, Renewal of Life, Purification, Love and Happiness, Prosperity!

Glory to Bose Kupala!
Glory to the Motherland Holy RACE!
Glory to our Gods and Ancestors!
****

Hymn to Fire
I

We shine with the Sword of Perun.
Purifies our souls
Tsar-Fire is our joy.
Flare up the King-Fire,
Kolovrat and Salting.

Chorus
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.
Rise up to Heaven
Illuminate, You, everything around.
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.

II
Purify, You, Spirit and Soul,
Illuminate the seas and land
Warm - our mansions,
Tsar-Fire is our joy.
Burn clearly the King-Fire,
Kolovrat and Salting.

Chorus
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.
Rise up to Heaven
Illuminate, You, everything around.
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.

III
From the time of the Ynglings - Ancestors
We feed you with a dry branch,
To shine - our glory,
Tsar-Fire is our joy.
Burn clearly the King-Fire,
Kolovrat and Salting.

Chorus
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.
Rise up to Heaven
Illuminate everything around you.
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.

IV
The blue of heaven is so starry, lunar,
We shine with the Sword of Perun.
Purifies our souls
Tsar-Fire is our joy.
Burn clearly the King-Fire,
Kolovrat and Salting.

Chorus
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.
Rise up to Heaven
Illuminate everything around you.
Burn, burn bright
To not go out.

The holiday of God Kupala was inherent not only to the Russian people. In Lithuania it is known as Lado, in Poland - as Sobotki, in Ukraine - Kupalo or Kupailo. From the Carpathians to the north of Russia, on the night of July 6-7 (or June 23-24 according to the old style), everyone celebrated this mystical, mysterious, but at the same time wild and cheerful holiday - Kupala.

The shift in celebration numbers occurred when, after the revolution in Russia (by Lunacharsky and Lenin), the (modern) Gregorian calendar was adopted. Therefore, due to the lag of the Julian calendar, from the now accepted Gregorian, the holiday in our time is celebrated from July 6 to 7.
On this holiday, the Judeo-Christians, in order to turn the Slavs away from their native To cultures imposed the celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist / Baptist / (to disguise John they changed it into Ivan). Before the revolution, it was celebrated exactly on June 24 (according to the Julian calendar), and in modern times it is celebrated, due to a shift in the calendars on July 7 (according to the Gregorian calendar), and not on the day of the summer solstice, as some (illiterate) figures try to confuse us from modern culture. In confirmation of the fact that this is exactly the case, and not otherwise, we will cite the works of our famous ethnographers M. Zabylin and I. Sakharov, published in Russia even before the revolution, when these celebrations took place with our own eyes. So.

M. Zabylin “Russian people. Holidays, customs and rituals in Russia”, 1880 edition:

"Christmas Day St. John the Baptist, celebrated on June 24 (this is according to the old Julian Calendar, but according to the new one, which was adopted after the Gregorian revolution on July 7), is one of the most solemn holidays not only in the Slavic world, but in almost all of Europe. It falls near (meaning close, and not on the solstice itself) the summer solstice. This holiday is popularly known as Ivan Kupala.…..

On the eve of this holiday, young people of both sexes bathe in the rivers until the sun sets; then, at dusk, a fire is laid out on pastures, in glades, in gardens, and in pairs, holding hand in hand, they jump over the fire. If during the jumping hands do not part, this means that this couple, that is, a guy and a girl, will copulate in marriage ...

... On the eve of the day of St. John the Baptist (or Ivan Kupala), the day of Dew (most likely the Goddess Rosi) was celebrated in Lithuania. It began on the eve of June 24 (that is, June 23, according to the old style) ...

On Ivanovo night, according to popular opinion, a fern, a fern (paproe), which is known throughout the Bialystok region in Volyn, blooms for the lucky ones ... ..

..The next day (June 24 old style and July 7 modern style)) was called "holy", then herbs were collected for healing cattle, also for enchantment and magic, which was also done in Russia. Mythologists notice that the holiday among the Slavs, called Kupala, connects life with prayer to rivers and springs. Probably, the Lithuanians, who sanctified their flowing and stagnant waters, made sacrifices to them on this day, throwing herbs into the water. ….

... The origin of the word "Kupala" has, according to some, a different meaning: some, as we said, come from the verb to bathe, from the word bathing, since from this time spring swimming begins in open waters, or from the kupa, which Kupala represents with the Bathhouse, from a pile (in Polish "kipa") of kindling brushwood, from digging roots and fruits; finally, in the Slavic Kupala, a similarity is noticeable with Indian Kupala penitent. In any case, due to the lack of information, it can be assumed that "Kupala" comes from the word "bathing", which is related to the word "Baptist" (that's how Christians connected it with John the Baptist) ... ..

... The beginning of customs based on nature itself and the fundamental ideas of mankind opens in ancient times, where water and fire were revered as the beginning of the world, the main elements and purifying symbols. From this belief, one must think, the Kupala fires and ablutions, all the beliefs, rituals and customs that are observed in this festival of the elements, got their start ....

… Among the Volokhovs (Moldovans) and Italians this holiday is known under the name of Sabotki (writes Martin, a writer of the 16th century)… Orier also writes about it in his journey in 1835….

... Jan Kakhanovsky in the books published by him in 1639. “Songs of the Holy Sobotsky” says: “when the sun warms the rivers, and the nightingale no longer sings, the subotka (Kupala candle), as it was of old, was lit in the black forest. So mothers told us, they themselves also took (lighted the fire) from others, so that on the day of John, Saturday always burned» …

Gizel says this in his Synopsis printed in Kyiv in 1679: “The fifth idol of Kupalo (see not Ivan Kupalo, but simply God Kupalo), his God of the fruits of the earth be to me and to him the charm of demonic obscuration of thanksgiving and sacrifice at the beginning of the reaping offerings ... and about him to the village in some Russian countries, the memory is still kept most of all on the eve of the Nativity of John the Baptist ... ”etc.

I.P.SAKHAROV “STORIES OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE COLLECTED BY I.P.SAKHAROV. PEOPLE'S DIARY HOLIDAYS AND CUSTOMS»
Edition A.S.SUVORIN 1835:

Month of June
The word June is non-Russian; it came to our fathers from Byzantium. The indigenous, Slavic names of this month were different. Our ancestors called it: tongue, Poles: worm, Czechs and Slovaks: worm .... In the old Russian life, the month of June was the fourth. When the year began to be counted from September, it was the tenth; and since 1700 (when Peter the first introduced the Julian calendar) it has been the sixth year in a row.

Our villagers call bathing suit a special herb known under the name: cat's nap (tgollius europaeus). Others refer this name to the buttercup (ranunculus). This herb is credited with various healing actions. On Vaga and in the Vologda province, bathing herbs are collected in the morning, when it is still in the dew, and stored in flasks for treatment. In the villages, adults make wreaths from this grass and bathe them in baths. Children weave wreaths, caps, hats from it and put them on their heads during games.

In Russia, from ancient times, it was customary to take a steam bath on this day, sometimes in the morning in baths, and in the afternoon to swim in rivers or ponds. The villagers of the Ryazan province call this day: fierce roots. Clever old people, washing in the bath, steamed with fierce roots in the hope of rejuvenating. In the steppe villages, instead of straw, they threw stinging nettles into the oven and steamed on it. All this was done to heal diseases. Upon leaving the bath, they sat down at the table for breakfast, where the votive porridge became in advance. Sick old women and sick people were taken to the bathhouse on stinging nettles and soared with healing herbs. Bathing in the rivers began at noon and continued until evening. In Pereslavl-Zalessky, they swam in Lake Kleshchina with songs and games. There, while some were swimming, others were singing songs on the shore. In Zaraysk, they went out to swim in the Sturgeon River, to the white well. Here, between bathing, games and feasts took place. In Tula, children used to bathe in a pond, at the Ivanovsky Monastery. Elderly old women went out with their children to wash themselves at the students (springs). Here they are, washing the children, throwing copper money at students, old shirts were either presented to the poor brethren, or burned in the forest.

Kupalnitskaya votive porridge was sent with different ceremonies. The settlers of the Nerekhotsky district left this business to the red maidens. There they gathered to one of their girlfriends in the evening: they pounded barley in a mortar. The crushing of barley is accompanied by songs and merry games. Early in the morning they cooked porridge from this barley, which was eaten at noon, with butter. After an afternoon snack, the advanced machine was taken out of the shed from the cart to the street. Some of them sat on the axle, others, grabbing the shafts, drove them around the village with songs, then drove out to the field, where, when the evening dew appeared, they washed themselves for health. In the steppe villages, votive porridge was cooked by elderly women. From different families, groats were taken down, left for this rite from the first destruction. Honorary old men and old women called for this porridge after bath washing. In the villages of the Tula province in the old days, worldly porridge was also known. Wealthy families cooked this porridge for the poor brethren. The crippled, homeless people were invited to the bath in advance and afterward were treated to worldly porridge. Many families considered this work as a necessary duty in life. Diligent and compassionate people themselves sewed this porridge into the homes of the poor sick and through prison institutions to the convicts. All this was done according to a promise, in memory of any deliverance from troubles or illnesses ....

June 24 (this is according to the old style, and July 7 according to the new style) Kupala Day. - Rites.

The folk festival celebrated in Russia on Ivanovo night is known throughout the Slavic world. The distinctive rituals of this festival are: lit bonfires, songs, games, jumping over fire and nettle bushes, bathing at night in the dew, and during the day in rivers, dancing around the marina tree and immersing it in water, burying herbs, beliefs about the flight of witches (knowing mothers ) on Bald Mountain. Kupala and Kupala fires are more known in Great Russia, Little Russia and Belarus. …..
... The Russian Ivanovo festival is known among Czechs, Serbs, Moravians, Carpatho-Russians, Bulgarians and Poles. There Ivanovo night is known as Sobotok. The most majestic celebration of this day is performed by the Slavs in Silesia and the Czechs. There, the fires of Ivanovo are burning in the Carpathian Mountains, the Sudetes and Kornoposha over an area of ​​several hundred versts. Gul people gird themselves with bandages of flowers, put wreaths of herbs on their heads, make round dances, sing songs, old people extract living fire from trees. After jumping over the fires of fires, they bathe in the dew. The Poles, according to Kochanowski's description, celebrated this day in the black forest in Sendomierz Voivodeship. In the Kupala song they sing there that this festival was passed on to them by their mothers:
Takto matki nam rodalu,
Same takze z drugich mialu
Ze na dzien Swietego Iana
Zawzdu Sobotka palana.
Golembovsky says that the Polish settlers, girded with Chernobyl, jump around the fires all night long……. Orier, who traveled through Poland in 1635, says that fires were lit in the squares, near forests and in various environs, flowers and herbs were carried into houses. Ivanovo fire was then called by them: kresz. The Polish writer Martin testifies to the participation of the Poles of the 16th century in this celebration: “from the evening of Ivan's Day, women lit fires, danced around them, sang songs, paying honor and prayers to the demon. bonfires are lit with fire obtained by rubbing wood against wood."

Serbs think that Ivan's day is so great that for him the sun stops three times in the sky. At Vuk Stefanovich we find Serbian Ivanovo songs: "Ivansko flower, Petrovsko" and so on. The Lithuanian-Russians call the Ivanovo festival the holiday of Rosa (rather the Goddess Rosi). In the evening, on the eve of Ivanovo night, they gather in a chosen place, set up huts in the clearing, make fires, sing songs, dance with torches and jump over the fire. Early in the morning they go to the forest for dew.

They call the morning gathering a herd, and the dance a korkodon. In the morning, herbs were collected for healing and charm. Lithuanian-Russians also believe in the color of ferns…….

0 Pskov rites says hegumen Pamphil in his message to the Pskov governor: "when the great holiday comes Christmas Day, firemen, men and women of the enchantress, go out through the meadows, and through the swamps, and into the deserts, and into the oak forests, looking for mortal poisons and the wind-womb, from the herbal potion for the destruction of man and cattle; right there, and wild roots are digging for the sake of their husbands. All this is done by the action of the devil on the day of the Forerunners with satanic judgments. When the most will come holiday Christmas Forerunner, then on that holy night, not all the city will be disturbed, and in the villages they will go berserk in tambourines, and in sonnels, and with the buzzing of strings and all sorts of unsimilar satanic games, splashing and dancing, but for wives and girls and heads nodding and their mouths are hostile to cry, all nasty demonic songs, and the ridge of their wobbling and their feet jumping and trampling; what happened in the cities and in the villages.

At the Stoglavy Cathedral they said: against the feast of the Nativity of the great John the Baptist, and in the night on the feast itself, and all day until night, men and women and children in houses and on the streets walking and on the waters of mockery create all sorts of games, and all sorts of buffoonery, and satanic songs and dances, harps and many other kinds and stingy formations. And when the night passes by, then they go to the grove with a great cry, like demons are washed with dew. "In the decree of 1721, on April 17, it says:" besides, they seem to remember vile idols, in them there was a certain idol of Kupalo, to him on Great Day they sacrificed this bathing; which is seen at length in the Chronicler of Kiev.

0 Little Russian rites of Ivanovo night, Gisel, in his Synopsis wrote in his own way: "the fifth idol of Kupalo, his god of the fruits of the earth to be in the air, and to him the charm of demonic obscuration of thanksgiving and sacrifice at the beginning of the reaping offering. The same Kupalo god, the true demon, and hitherto, in some Russian countries, the memory still lingers; especially on the eve of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, having gathered in the evening, young men of the male, female and female sexes weave crowns for themselves from a certain potion, and put it on their heads and gird themselves with them. Fire is also laid on that demonic play, and around it, rubbing hands unholy, they walk and jump, and they sing songs, often repeating the bad Kupala and jumping through the fire, they sacrifice themselves to the same demon Kupala. "a certain fire having kindled a prediction according to some ancient custom. " Such is the news that has been preserved in our written monuments ...

.... On the evening of June 23 (this is according to the old style), the peasants go out into the field in clean white shirts, make fires from brushwood; others bring tar baklags with them. The old people sit in a circle and begin to make fire through friction from two old, dry trees. Around them all stand in deep silence. As soon as the fire appeared, everything came to life, sang and rejoiced. Fires and bonfires are lit. Young people sing and dance, old people sit in circles, talk about antiquity and drink wine with joy. It often happened to see how old mothers burned shirts taken from sick children over this fire, with full confidence that illnesses would stop from this rite. Our people think jumping over fire takes the charm away. In bathing in the morning dew, they believe the cleansing of the body and getting rid of diseases. I did not happen to hear other beliefs. ……
In the Little Russian villages, Ivanovo fires are combined with special rites that the Great Russian people do not have. Here we see: a nettle bush, a doll, feasting near a marina tree; here we hear songs with the name Kupalo. In the Kharkov province, the villagers gather at a designated place and jump over a nettle bush. In the old days, jumping happened through a lit straw with Kupala songs. Others cut down the marin tree, decorate it with a wreath of flowers, and take it to a distant place. Here, under a tree, they planted a doll, decorated with various ornaments. A table with vodka and snacks was placed near the tree.

The young, clutching their hands, walked around the tree and sang songs. At the end of the games, they removed a tree with songs and carried it to the river. During this train they drink vodka and eat snacks. When they came to the river, everyone began to swim. The marina tree was sunk in the river. In other places, the doll was made no more than three-quarters of an arshin, decorated with a flower wreath and jumped over the fire with it. ….

In some places, when they brought a tree and a doll to the river, they first took off their wreaths, which they either directly threw into the water or put on the doll. Others secretly took wreaths with them and hung them in the hallway to protect them from troubles and misfortunes. ….
Burying herbs on Ivanov's day is done by Great Russians and Little Russians.

The belief about the color of the fern or kochedyzhnik, blooming with a fiery color on Ivanovo night, is common among the people. 3nakharki are looking for gap-grass, terlich and archilin. 0 of the latter they say that "it grows by a large river, it must be plucked through a gold or silver hryvnia, and whoever wears it on himself will not be afraid of either the devil, or a heretic, or an evil person." The people gather their herbs: bathing suit, bear's ear, rich man ....

Tikhvin and Ladoga residents bring brooms with Ivan da Marya grass to the heated bathhouse and steam them to their health. Healing oil is found in ant bumps. In gardens, under the root of Chernobyl, they look for earthen coal, which heals black sickness and epilepsy. ...

These are the news that have been preserved in our written monuments about the date of the celebration of the Day of God Kupala. Therefore, whoever has a mind, do not believe the current remakes, but count the day of the celebration of Kupala yourself, transferring the terms of the old calendar to the new one, or do it even easier - ask when the feast of John the Baptist is celebrated according to the new calendar ...

Congratulations to all on the upcoming day of God Kupala!!!

"Timed to coincide with the day of the summer solstice (solstice).

Solstice is the point in time in the Earth's annual rotation around the Sun when the shortest day or shortest night is observed. There are two solstices in a year - winter and summer. GOD KUPALA (Kupalo) - God, who gives a person the opportunity to perform all kinds of Ablutions and conducts the Rites of Purification of the Teles, Soul and Spirit from various ailments and diseases. God guides to a joyful and happy life.

Kupala is a cheerful and beautiful God, dressed in light white robes decorated with flowers. On the head of God Kupala there is a wreath of beautiful flowers. Kupala was revered as the God of the warm time of Summer, wild flowers and wild fruits.

Many Slavs engaged in field cultivation revered God Kupala on a par with the Goddess Makosh, as well as the Gods - Perun and Veles. Before the start of the harvest and the harvest of field fruits, in honor of God Kupala, a holiday was celebrated at which bloodless sacrifices were made to God Kupala, as well as to all the Ancient Gods and Ancestors.

On the holiday, the Slavs throw their trebes into the fire of the Sacred Swastika Altar so that everything sacrificed appears on the festive tables of the Gods and Ancestors.

After bringing bloodless sacrifices, candles and flames are lit from live fire, which are fixed on wreaths and rafts and sent along the rivers.

At the same time, they slander their innermost desire or request for deliverance from ailments, illnesses, all sorts of failures, various problems, etc. on a candle or firelighter. This rite can be explained as follows.

A burning candle or firelight illuminates a request or desire, the water of the river remembers them and, evaporating, rises to Heaven, bringing all requests and desires to the Gods.

At the feast, everyone must undergo a complete purification in order to fully cleansed begin to collect the fruits of the field and begin the field harvest. A complete cleansing consists of three parts:

First Purification (Purification of the Body)
Everyone present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala must wash his body in the waters (rivers, lakes, ponds) to wash away fatigue and dirt.

Second Purification (Purification of the Soul)
In order for those present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala to be able to purify their Soul, they light large bonfires, and everyone who wants to jump over these bonfires, because Fire burns all negativity and purifies the aura and Soul of a person.

Third Purification (Purification of the Spirit)
Everyone present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala, as well as those who wish, can purify and strengthen their Spirit. To do this, a Fiery Circle is created from the burning coals of a large fire, along which they walk barefoot. Those who wish, who for the first time decided to walk on the coals in order to purify and strengthen their Spirit, are led through the Fiery Circle by the hand.

Due to the fact that Kupala is the Patron God of the Heavenly Hall of the Horse in the Svarog Circle, on this day it is customary to bathe horses, braid colorful ribbons into their manes and decorate them with wildflowers.

Fruitful deity of summer. “Kupalo, as I think, was the god of abundance, as with the Hellenes Ceres, who is insane for the abundance of thanksgiving at that time, when the harvest is imminent.” They sacrificed to him before the collection of bread, on June 23, on the day of St. Agrippina, which was popularly nicknamed the Swimsuit. Young people decorated themselves with wreaths, laid out a fire, danced around it and sang Kupala. The games went on all night. In some places, on June 23, bathhouses were heated, grass bathing suit (buttercup) was laid in them, and then they swam in the river.

The summer solstice, when the Sun has the greatest northern declination, occurs on average on June 21-22, this day is considered the beginning of summer - the Sun enters the sign of Cancer. Immediately comes the solstice, which lasts 3 days.

Among the Slavs, the holiday of the summer Solstice was dedicated to the pagan god Kupalo, who, after the baptism of Russia, became known as Ivan Kupala - in honor of John the Baptist. The ritual part is dedicated to the birthday of John the Baptist - June 24, according to the old style. With the transition to a new style, the date of birth of John the Baptist has shifted to July 7th. On the very Nativity of John the Baptist, weaving wreaths, they hung them on the roofs of houses and on stables in order to remove evil spirits from the dwelling.
In this regard, the holiday lost its astronomical correspondence to the solstice. This beautiful pagan holiday is being revived in Ukraine and Belarus.

This holiday symbolizes the eternal triumph of light over darkness and is considered the day of reverence for the Sun. To help the Sun on the night of Kupala, they burn huge bonfires and jump over them. This night is called differently: the night of bonfires, the night of the ferns, the night of lovers, etc.

In order for the house to have peace and prosperity, to protect it from evil forces on this day, it is necessary to hang a branch of birch over the threshold - a charm until the next summer Solstice. This day symbolizes the highest point, the maximum peak, rise, rise, ecstasy, both in nature and in human life.

The holiday embodies fertility, abundance, glory, triumph, generosity, fullness of life, happiness. Cheerfulness and joy reign in this shortest of earthly nights. From a mystical point of view, this holiday combines all four elements at once - fire, water, earth, air. Therefore, the Spirits of these elements rejoice and have fun together with people.

In ancient times, people celebrated this night in order to gain their strength and energy through the rituals and rites of worship of the Elements. For example, it was believed that the earth gives a solid foundation in life, self-confidence, fertility. However, the main essence of this holiday is that people learn to enjoy life, love it, enjoy it. It helps to open the heart and feel happiness. On this holiday, it is customary to go to nature, closer to the water. Until dawn, bonfires blaze, laughter is heard, cheerful songs ring. Ritual bathing, wreaths of flowers, dancing around the fire - all this is the summer Solstice.

This day is filled with rituals related to water, fire and herbs.

The Midsummer Festival is a classic time for magic of all kinds. Healing, love and protection magic is especially appropriate for this day.

Many family and marriage motifs are woven into the customs of the summer solstice. On the night of June 21, a lot of guessing was done. Both girls and boys guessed, often using various flowers and plants for this purpose (most often St. John's wort), sometimes some objects. On this night, the lovers gave each other an oath of allegiance, the violation of which was considered a crime.

A characteristic sign of Kupala is the numerous customs and legends associated with the plant world. Herbs and flowers collected on this day are placed under the dew, dried and preserved, considering such herbs to be more healing. They fumigate the sick with them, fight evil spirits, they are thrown into a flooded oven during a thunderstorm to protect the house from a lightning strike, they are also used to kindle love or to “dry out”.

The fern became the main hero of the plant world, with which legends about treasures were everywhere associated. With a fern flower that opens for just a few moments at Kupala midnight, you can see all the treasures, no matter how deep they are in the ground.

On the night before Kupala, the girls lower wreaths with lighted splinter or candles on the river waves, weave wreaths from Ivan da Marya, burdock, virgin grass and a bear's ear. If the wreath sinks immediately, it means that the betrothed has fallen out of love and cannot marry him. Whoever's wreath floats the longest will be the happiest of all, and whoever's splinter burns longer, she will live a long, long life! On the Kupala night, the trees move from place to place and talk to each other through the rustle of leaves; animals and even herbs talk among themselves, which are filled with a special, miraculous power that night.

Water
Swimming at Kupala is a nationwide custom, but in some areas the peasants considered such bathing dangerous, since on this day the birthday man is a water man himself, who cannot stand it when people climb into his kingdom, and takes revenge on them by drowning any careless. On this holiday, according to popular beliefs, water can be friends with fire, and their union is considered a natural force.

Fire
The main feature of the Kupala night is the cleansing bonfires. They danced around them, jumped over them: whoever jumps more successfully and higher will be happier. In some places, livestock was driven through the Kupala fire to protect it from pestilence.

In Kupala bonfires, mothers burned shirts taken from sick children so that diseases would burn along with this linen. Young people and children, having jumped over the fires, arranged noisy fun games and races.

Be sure to play in the burners. According to the beliefs of the peasants, on the Kupala, the shortest night, you can’t sleep, because all kinds of Spirits enter our world and become especially active - werewolves, mermaids, snakes, brownies, mermen, goblin. witches and sorcerers use it.

Slavic Holiday Kupala (Kupailo, Kupalo) - the day of the summer solstice. The longest day and shortest night of the year. This is one of the four main holidays of the ancient Slavs, timed to coincide with the positions of the Sun (, Kupala,). The last day of the Rusal Week or Mermaids. Kupala is one of the oldest holidays that has preserved many of the traditions and customs of our ancestors to this day, for example: seeing off Yarila, who is replaced by the God of the summer sun Kupala, collecting healing herbs, searching for a fern flower, etc. Kupala is also a great holiday, which is now replaced by the church on the birthday of John the Baptist.

Let's try to unbiasedly figure out what kind of day this is, bearing the name of Kupala, which was revered and celebrated by the ancestors of the Rus strictly at the same time of the year, long before our times, the main customs and traditions of which, which are in the Soul and now (precisely according to Soul, and not according to some canons), have come down to us from time immemorial.

What day is Kupala celebrated?

The very date of the celebration is not accidental and is associated with an astronomical event, like many other celebrated days, which may indicate the advanced knowledge of the ancestors of the Rus in astronomy. Kupala Day is an astronomical event called the summer solstice. Now it is absolutely known that the trajectory of our planet around the Yarila-Sun is far from a perfect circle. During one revolution of our planet around the Yarila-Sun, the distance between them changes from the minimum close to the maximum remote, which is repeated from year to year and from century to century. On the day of the summer solstice, our planet occupies the most distant position from the Yarila-Sun, and in our hemisphere at this time there is the longest day and the shortest night of the year - the triumph of light over darkness. This astronomical event does not depend on any religions, beliefs, political views and, in general, people. The sun shines the same for everyone, and this event occurs at the same time from year to year, regardless of any calendars and their styles, and it cannot be canceled or rescheduled to please anyone, but it is quite possible to change concepts.

In 2019, the Slavic Feast of Kupala falls on June 21

Thus, the day of the summer solstice, according to the widely used calendar today, falls on June 19-25.

Where did the names of the holiday Kupala, Kupailo, Kupalo or Ivan-Kupala come from?

We figured out the date, now let's try to understand what meaning was put into the name of the Kupala Day holiday. If in the case of the date everything is clear, the conditions there are determined by an astronomical event, then the name will have to be left open, since we do not currently have reliable information, and the Ancestors' Legacy, passed from mouth to mouth, has come down to us very distorted. There are many versions of the origin of this name, but not all of them are accepted by the Soul quite unambiguously, which can be perceived as true. At the end of the article is a legend dedicated to the origin of the name of the festival of the summer solstice. Take courage and, after reading it, make your own opinion whether your Soul accepts such an interpretation, whether it is a version close to reality, and do not blindly follow any beliefs.

Today, the holiday is better known as Ivan Kupala or Ivan's Day, named after the Christian Saint John the Baptist. Ivan Kupala, unlike the real Feast of Kupail or Kupala, is not timed to coincide with the solstice, but is celebrated on the date of the birth of John the Baptist on July 7th. Celebrating Kupala on July 7 according to pagan traditions with bonfires, wreaths, searching for ferns does not make any sense, since the solstice has long been left behind. In fact, this holiday does not belong at all to John the Baptist or some incomprehensible Ivan Kupala, but to the pagan God Kupala (Kupailo).

Once this holiday was celebrated not only in Russia, but throughout Europe. Hills, fields, meadows, valleys were covered with the lights of Kupala bonfires. In our time, of course, this is no longer the case, but many people, pagan communities continue to support the tradition, and anyone can visit the Kupala Festival, as it really is. It is believed that at the dawn of the Kupala day, the sun rejoices, shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow, dances and bathes. The day of the solstice itself is always hot, this is explained by the fact that the sun on its last day fries the earth with all its might, but, defeated, leaves for the winter. At Kupala, the sun reaches its climax, fries with incredible force, and according to tradition, people should ask him to moderate his ardor.

Folk rituals and traditions for the Kupala Festival

To this day, the summer solstice is widely celebrated in different parts of our planet, and in many places on its true astronomical date. This holiday is common among peoples whose roots are closely connected with the roots of the Rus. Having different names for different nationalities, its essence is the same: all rituals are associated with fire, which usually acts in two forms - earthly and heavenly (the Sun), and water.

The celebration of Kupala Day was preceded by the Mermaid Week. These days are dedicated to the Goddesses of rivers, lakes and reservoirs. During the Mermaid Week, they did not swim without special need, so as not to disturb the water deities preparing for the summer festival, and from that day they began to swim in the rivers every day. It was customary to guard the meeting of the month with the sun on the night of the solstice, they did not go to bed and watched the Sun play. Kupala night is the time when the magical power of fire, water, earth, plants reaches its highest strength, and the water in rivers and lakes acquires special life-giving and cleansing properties. The belief about the color of the fern, blooming with a fiery color on the Kupala night, is in all Slavic peoples, in search of which the most courageous went.

The idea of ​​the holiday is cleansing, affecting the three bodies of human essence - a three-dimensional shell, soul and spirit. Fundamental natural elements - water and fire - are used as cleansing elements. That is why the famous bathing fires are always bred on the banks of rivers.

The celebration begins with a round dance. The round dance is built from three circles of people holding hands and moving in different directions. The outer circle is made up of people of mature and old age, the middle circle is young and full of strength guys and girls, and the smallest circle, which is closest to the fire, is made up of small children .

During the celebration, our Ancestors jumped over the fires, and then, with a run, plunged into the arms of the river. The important point is that it should be exactly a river with moving water, when you can draw an analogy with the river of time, during which everything is once washed away, changes are constantly taking place. And if water purifies the body, then fire purifies the Soul.

It is believed that the bonfires lit on the Kupala Festival have a unique, cleansing power. On the bathing night, these bonfires, according to the beliefs of our Ancestors, burned in three worlds at once - in Reveal, Navi and Rule. Therefore, any fire on this night is a conductor, powerful and irresistible. Conductor of human and divine, dark and light, earthly and heavenly.

Walking on coals is the next part of the holiday. This is a moment of purification or, rather, even hardening of the spirit. Through heat, a powerful thermal energy flow and small painful sparks, false thoughts, unfair aspirations, demons and larvae, pushing him to a dark path, leave a person.

Also, the Slavic Holiday Day of Kupala includes weaving wreaths and firelights. As for wreaths, in tradition, wreaths are woven by girls for guys. Of course, if we are talking about an established couple, then the girl weaves a wreath for her man or husband, another option is simply unacceptable. In all other cases, single girls give their wreaths to those guys who cause them the most sympathy. Wreaths are woven from field herbs and flowers. Ognevitsy are small "boats", most often made of wooden planks. A candle is placed in the center of such a boat, and a “fence” is made around the grass and leaves so that the wind does not accidentally extinguish the flame. Fireboxes with lit candles are launched into the river. If a person does not have a pair, he can start the firelighter on his own, but more often this moment is not individual. After all, a harmonious state is achieved only in the unity of opposites, therefore, ideally, the flame should be launched by a couple - the bride and groom or husband and wife. At that moment, when a guy and a girl put a fire on the water, they make wishes.

One of the biggest misconceptions about the Feast of Kupala, which Christians gave us, is that during the festival, fornication and all sorts of outrages are happening. Our Slavic ancestors were the purest, both spiritually and materially.

Preachers and missionaries who came to our country from afar saw an incomprehensible festivity with fun, games, dances. It seemed to them that it was simply disgusting, and instead of sitting on their knees and begging for eternal forgiveness, people rejoice in life.

The fact is that on Kupala, as a holiday of the maximum sun, when the unusually powerful magical forces of heaven and earth are activated, it was considered a good sign to conceive a child. According to legend, those conceived on the day of the sun on Kupala absorbed all its energy and became either the best warriors or wise women. It was also considered unlikely that a child conceived on Kupala would have supernatural powers.

The baptists probably witnessed how on a holiday, when the forces of nature were at their peak, many young people, secluded in quiet groves and meadows, tried to conceive new offspring. As a result, in order to try to take one of the most significant holidays from the Slavs, a post was imposed on him (Petrov post). In pre-Christian times, of course, there was no fasting, and the festivities were not a holiday of the stomach and spirit before a long abstinence, but the celebration of the Day of the Sun of Kupala and the end of the Mermaid Week.

The legend of how the Kupala Festival appeared

How the twins Kupala and Kostroma were born to the Goddess of Bathing

In the meantime, in the kingdom of Rule, everything continued to move in its turn. Everything moved in its turn in our earthly kingdom of Reveal. In the Iry garden, the fire god Semargl was going to go again to protect the world from dark forces. He sharpened his fiery sword, turned into a winged dog and rushed across the night sky to disperse the Chernobog great-grandchildren.

That night turned out to be difficult - time was the reason for this. The time of the summer solstice has come, the time of the holiday of many dark forces, when the sun turns to the winter. Khors is still shining brightly, full of strength, but Veles's hands are already on the great Svarog wheel, on the great wheel of time.

Very soon the sun will wane - little by little, by the minute, and then, as it is now, it will not shine: then the cold Moraine will become the mistress of the forest-fields. Even Khorsa will be covered with cold: on the day of the autumn equinox, when day and night are equal, he will extinguish his life-giving rays.

That is why the dark forces rejoice, but as yet they cannot defeat the sun. These days, Khors shines with all its might, and Dazhbog brings a bright light to the whole earth, but at night Semargl protects the world - he taught people to kindle fires, and now on the nights of the summer solstice they burn like eyes of light, dispersing away the darkness of the night. And the earth then, like a mirror, reflects the starry sky.

At this time, the wonderful Bathing Room-Night, an assistant of fertile forces, shines with such amazing beauty that the fire god Semargl finally decided - he approached, flew up to the Bathing Room and spoke of his ardent love. He told how he longs for her in heaven. And then the Beautiful Goddess answered Semargl's love, and their love was hotter than a flame and more tender than the night air.

And, as it was appointed by fate, woven as it was by the wise Makosh, as it was tied to Nedoley with Share, twins were born to Semargl with the Bathing Suit - two, a boy and a girl.

The boy was given the name Kupala, he was bright and white, his eyes, like water, were transparent and gentle. The girl's name was Kostroma, and she was bright as fire, with a warm soul and heart. Brother and sister were inseparable, they ran together through the fields and meadows and marveled at the earthly world, and the fields, and meadows, and groves. Together they marveled at the beasts of the earth and watched the flight of heavenly birds.

Kupala and Kostroma were equal in their beauty and skills, only the difference was that Kostroma loved to look at the fire, she had fun, jumping over the fire, and Kupala loved lake water more, loved river waves and swam every day.

Once Kostroma said to Kupala:

Light-winged birds told me yesterday that far, far away, by the Smorodina River, magical songs, world wonderful birds sing. Let's go with you tomorrow morning to that cherished place to hear unprecedented songs.

Kupala immediately agreed to this, he also liked bird singing.

They didn’t say anything to their father and mother, and in the morning they went to the Smorodina River, to the huge World Oak, where the Alkonost bird sat on the right and sang about life and joy, and on the left Sirin sat with a sweet voice and sang songs about the kingdom of the dead.

And Kupala listened to the sad songs of the bird Sirin, which flowed like a murmuring stream. Kupala forgot about everything in the world, closed his eyes, and then the Sirin bird took him to the dark, dead kingdom, and hid it there for years to come. And Kostroma listened to Alkonost the bird, as if flashes of bright flame were her charming songs. Kostroma did not notice how brother Kupala disappeared, and when she looked around, no one was already around. She began to call her dear brother, but Kupala did not respond to her, he was in a dark, distant side under the wing of the Sirin bird.

Since then, many years have passed, and more than once white, fierce blizzards covered a pure field of snow with snow, and more than once then lush grasses sprouted through the winter's malice. Many times since then, the red sun has passed its annual cycle. Troubles often gave way to joy.

Since then, Kostroma has grown up, become a girl - a written beauty. Grooms to Kostroma often wooed, even Veles, the wisest God, often looked at her, but none of them was loved by Kostroma.

There is none of them to match me, - she often said to mother, - among them for me there is no equal. I'm a girl, born of the Gods, not immortal, but beautiful. Who can compare with me in skills? I will not go for God for everyone! Hairy old men are no match for me. Hairy and married...

And Night Bathing Suit sighed in response. "Quiet!" - she said to her daughter. Fear, they say, troubles, they say, your beauty is equal to pride, no matter how angry the Gods are. But the lively mother Kostroma did not listen, she kept laughing, braiding her red curls into a braid. Together with other girls, she wove wreaths, but one day the wind-driven Stribog suddenly plucked a wreath from her head. He blew harder, threw it into the water, and the wreath floated downstream. And then the proud Kostroma wished to find a wreath of a groom equal to her. Let a wreath float, looking for a betrothed, so that he is exactly like her in everything!

And June, the month of the earth, was ending on earth, and July, the month of lime, was replacing it. And the day of the solstice was getting closer: until sunset, the sun shines for a long time, brighter than bright, and then a short night comes - a strange, bad time.

At this time, the world freezes in anticipation: something will be ahead, how will everything work out? Water spirits and mermaids, subjects of the mistress of Makosh, a week before the solstice loudly celebrate their wild holiday. Mavkas, vodynitsy, rags and other aquatic women put wreaths on their heads from water lilies, and then they get out of lakes and rivers and let's have fun along the banks. Unbelted, in white shirts, Slavic mermaids frolic, sing, laugh, sway in the trees, or even just sit on the grass and comb their long hair.

Slavic mermaids never had tails, but they have frisky legs, and therefore they like to dance round dances, but not salting, from left to right, towards the Rule, as live guys and girls do in honor of the Horse round, and salting, against the arrow sentry, from right to left, from world to world Navi.

Water is an amazing element, it gives life to the whole world, but water can also destroy. Through the rivers and lakes there is a path to the kingdom of the underworld, and therefore many spirits of the waters obey, except for Makosh, Veles the wise, especially those that came from the dead, from the drowned. Water spirits, moist, can help the crop grow, or they can flood everything in the bud, and if a person offended them with something or met them at an unkind hour, they will tickle them to death and drag them to their underwater world.

More than others, rags love to tickle all the people they meet, and in order to protect themselves from them in Rusalia, the holiday of all mermaids, people alone in coastal forests and flood meadows tried not to appear, and if they walked, they took garlic and wormwood with them - scare away the rags.

Patchwork from the wormwood used to run away, but the Mavkas did not care. They are not even afraid to step over the circle, over the protective iron chain! The main thing is not to anger the Mavoks, to laugh them off, the living have all hope for this. They will ask for a comb to comb their hair - give it, otherwise it will be worse. True, then the comb will have to be thrown away, otherwise you will go bald yourself, but if you don’t give it, you are greedy - the mavki will be tortured to death.

In appearance, they are such beauties that the world has never seen before: a sweet face, slender legs - everything is like that of the living. Only the beauty of the Mavok is not alive, it is dead. From the back you can see the unbeatable heart, lungs, turned green without air, and the insides soaked in the water. The beauty of their face was rewarded for their unrequited love on earth. After all, drowned women usually become mavkas, ugly, offended by life, that they rushed into the water from unhappy love.

The most vicious among the mermaids are lobsters, they like to hide in the coastal reeds. Older than the lobasta of young Mawks, smarter, stronger, more experienced. Undead they crawl out of the water, their faces are terrible, old women. Whom the lobasts attack, death will be a deliverance.

And Vodyanoy is in charge of all the mermaids - on the days of the summer solstice he does feel like a birthday boy. He is the master of the waters, he grazes his herds of fish in silence at the bottom of rivers and lakes - carps, catfish, bream - like a shepherd of cows in the field. He himself is entangled in mud, with a big belly, with a tail. Instead of hands - goose paws, bug-eyed, like a fish, with a rich beard and green mustache. All the girls are watery, transparent, obey him strictly. Only his daughters, the water maidens, play pranks on the sly from their father: they confuse fishing gear and invite the fishermen under the water with sweet songs.

During the day, Vodyanoy sleeps in the silence of deep pools or under a water mill, and at night he commands the drowned. In fact, Vodyanoy is a kind grandfather, but if he gets angry, gets excited, he can break the nets, flood the houses, or even completely destroy the dam. Most of all, he loves to indulge out of boredom - he will drag some gaping boy from the shore to the bottom and leave him to live to entertain him in the underwater silence.

And the most cheerful and nimble mermen live in springs with clean spring water - “rattling springs” that arose on earth from the lightning strikes of the Perunovs.

At such an unkind time, when Light and Darkness are measuring their strength, a wreath fell into the water of Kostroma and swam to look for her betrothed - beauty and skills like her. Exactly the same. On the waves swayed a wreath of blue, like water, flowers and red flowers, like fire.

What good fellow will catch him, to be the groom of Kostroma. Only a wreath is not given to anyone, it floats along the river, along the river, to unexplored lands.

Mermaids follow him along the water, mavkas with waterworts whisper softly. Like, it would be necessary for our Water Master to talk about that wreath, and even Bishop Veles himself should have known about the girl’s wreath. But in vain the water maidens are worried, Veles the lord has long found out about everything. For a girlish whim, for pride, for words offensive to the Gods, he decided to punish the maiden Kostroma.

By order of the underground Veles, in the gloomy kingdom, the Sirin bird released Kupapa from under its wing, put Kupapa in a boat and sent it to swim along the river-lake. He was carried out of the underworld by water, carried along the rivers to his native side, and then, with an unprecedented current, he was dragged up the Volga River - straight towards his fate.

While Kupala was with the Sirin bird, he grew up, matured, became a fine fellow, a handsome hand-written - with blue eyes, like two lakes, and blond, boiled hair.

Kupala began to look around, standing in a boat, and suddenly he saw a girlish wreath floating towards him, sparkling on the water with bright colors - blue and blue, yellow and scarlet. “It can be seen that the clever beauty was weaving that wreath,” Kupala thinks, “and let it run along the river in order to find her betrothed as soon as possible. If the girl is as beautiful as these flowers, I would like to marry her immediately!

Kupala bent down, picked up a wreath - those flowers smelled of an unearthly smell, they smelled of a forest, a fire and mermaids. And water lilies, and spicy herbs.

At the same moment, the boat carried Kupap right to the one that threw the wonderful wreath. Here Kupala floats, floats in a boat, looks and recognizes his native places - those fields and meadows, groves and forests where he and Kostroma ran together. And then Kupala looks, the girl stands on the shore, looks at him joyfully with all her eyes.

Right to that girl, his boat carried him out, went to the bank of Kupala, holding a wreath in his hands.

Is this your wreath, dear beauty?

Mine, - Kostroma answered quietly.

So they stood, looking at each other. And they fell in love with each other without memory, fell in love as soon as they saw each other. They were matched to each other, like fire and water, which cannot be without each other, but which cannot be together forever ...

Kupala and Kostroma did not recognize each other - to know that Veles was a secret idea. On the same night, without asking anyone about anything, Kupala and Kostroma got married, and the water bears were witnesses to that wedding of an unprecedented wedding. They had fun, rejoicing in the happiness of the young, and bathed with them together with Kupala and Kostroma, and then on the shore they jumped over a bright fire.

Only in the morning did the Bathing Lady find out that a great misfortune had happened to her beloved children. After all, it is impossible for twins, a brother and sister, to love each other in a conjugal way! So the Svarogov Law tells people, so the human law commands.

Bathing suit came to the children with tears, told them the bitter truth. And, as soon as the truth was revealed, in a terrible moment that their happiness ended. Now there was no more place for them on earth. They could not live in marriage, but they could not live separately either.

Out of grief, Kupala jumped into the burning fire and disappeared, as if he had never existed, and Kostroma rushed into the forest lake, and the blue-green waters closed over her head. Joyful Kostroma has become a mavka.

And the Night Bather has since become even blacker and has been dropping her bitter tears-dew on the grass since then in the morning. He doesn’t want to see anyone else, even Semargl doesn’t let his beloved on the threshold anymore. Since then, one has been walking around the world Night-Kupapnitsa, everything is yearning, sad and sad.

The Gods of Iria were also saddened, Veles's revenge was cruel. Yes, and Veles himself spun, he did not feel joy from revenge. But it is no longer possible to correct what has been done, not to reverse the Svarogov circle. And then the cunning Veles decided with his wisdom to breathe life into past suffering: he decided to turn the twins into a flower, so much so that they were inseparable forever. So that they are born again, grow together, so that they intertwine in a single flower. So that both shine in a single flower in blue and yellow-orange.

And by the will of Veles, a wondrous miracle happened in the forest clearing: yellow-blue flowers grew, flowers are bright and mysterious. “Kupala-da-mavka” - people began to call them. And since then, in the meadows and in the forests, those flowers have grown with a red flame, blue water. To this day, they grow in the forests.

You, of course, saw them, dear girls and boys, they are called Ivan da Marya now - according to Orthodox customs. But the flowers are the same, the flowers are ancient, born by Veles - in memory of the twins. And people began to revere Kupapa himself as the God of summer, wild flowers and forest fruits, the God of purification and redemption.

You, of course, have heard about the night on Kupapa - a magical, incomprehensible night on the day of the summer solstice. She is still not forgotten. Since the misfortune happened to the twins, since they died and were reborn in a flower, our distant ancestors began to celebrate the holiday in honor of Kupap and the immortal Gods of Iri - a holiday of life and death, dying and rebirth. Since then, people and Gods began to celebrate the holiday of the sun, water and fire. Since then, this night of the summer solstice has become known among the Slavs as Kupala.

Strange things happen on Kupalskaya night! Even the trees move from place to place, rustle their leaves, talk among themselves. Animals, birds and even herbs talk to each other that night, and forest flowers are filled with unprecedented power - miraculous, magical power. On this night, people gather cherished herbs, which help in divination, and heal, and become love spells, and protect from misfortunes and troubles.

Only on this night of timelessness, a fern flower blooms in the forests, a plant dedicated to the thunderer Perun - “Perun's Colors”. The witches told our ancestors that, if you go to the forest that night, take a white tablecloth, canvas and a knife with you. With a knife or a burnt torch, draw a circle around the fern bush, spread a tablecloth and sit in a circle, not taking your eyes off the fern bush. Like, various monsters and spirits, subjects of Morena, will terrify and sleep on you, and if you get scared, step out of the circle, tear you apart at the same moment.

Exactly at midnight, a flower bud will appear on the fern, burst with a bang, and an unusually bright, fiery red flower will open. It is necessary to tear it as soon as possible, before another invisible hand grabs the flower. Evil spirits will scream with a terrible voice, the earth will shake, thunder will rumble, and lightning will flash, the wind will rustle, and a terrible roar will be heard, enveloping you with flame and a suffocating smell. But if you are lucky and you take possession of the flower, cover yourself with a tablecloth and run to the village without looking back. If you look back, the flower will disappear, and if not, if you endure all the trials, then the flower will open the past, present and future for you, teach you to look for treasures, introduce you to the secrets of the Gods, teach people to guess and understand the language of birds, animals and plants.

However, people also said that it’s all fiction, an illusion of unclean forces that want to destroy people, that in fact the fern never blooms in the forest, which means there’s nothing to go after it ...

On Kupapa, young men and women poured water over each other with mud mixed, and then they bathed together and sang songs to wash away everything unclean from the soul and body, they arranged baths. In the morning they collected life-giving dew and washed themselves with that dew in order to be healthy. The Slavs believed that at this time the heavens were able to open up for a short moment, and then every wish would come true.

On this night, the sun, after sunset, also bathes in the waters to bring fertility to the earth, and therefore, in honor of the mighty sun - in honor of the round Horse, and the bright Dazhbog, and the ardent Yarila - the wheels tied with straw were lit on Kupala night, an ancient solar symbol, with a dot - hub in the center and beams-knitting needles. And then they started up these burning wheels from the hills, so that they rolled, scattering fire, to the river to the very water. Until now, in some villages, the Kupala holiday is celebrated this way.

They also played burners - a fun game in honor of the sun with songs and catch-ups. It is from the burners that modern tags originated, which you still play with pleasure, dear girls and boys.

Views: 4 947

Kupala- a cheerful and beautiful God, dressed in light white robes, decorated with flowers. On the head of God Kupala there is a wreath of beautiful flowers. Kupala was revered as the God of the warm time of Summer, wild flowers and wild fruits.

Many Slavs engaged in field cultivation revered God Kupala on a par with the Goddess Macoshu, as well as the Gods - Perun and Veles. Before the start of the harvest and the harvest of field fruits, in honor of God Kupala, a holiday was celebrated at which bloodless sacrifices were made to God Kupala, as well as to all the Ancient Gods and Ancestors.

Before the start of the harvest and the harvest of field fruits, in honor of God Kupala, a holiday was celebrated at which bloodless sacrifices were made to God Kupala, as well as to all the Ancient Gods and Ancestors.

On the holiday, the Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings throw their bloodless sacrifices and trebs into the fire of the Sacred Swastika Altar so that everything sacrificed appears on the festive tables of the Gods and Ancestors.

After bringing bloodless sacrifices from the living fire of the Sacred Swastika Altar, the Community members light candles and fires, which they fix on wreaths and rafts and send them along the rivers.

At the same time, Orthodox Old Believers from various Communities slander their innermost desire or request for deliverance from ailments, diseases, all sorts of failures, various problems, etc. on a candle or firelight. This rite can be explained as follows.

A burning candle or firelight illuminates the request or desire of the Community, the water of the river remembers them and, evaporating, rises to Heaven, conveying to the Gods all the requests and desires of the Orthodox Old Believers.

At the feast, each of the Orthodox Old Believers must undergo a complete purification in order to fully cleansed begin to collect field fruits and begin the field harvest. The complete cleansing of the Orthodox Old Believers consists of three parts:

First Purification (Purification of the Body)

Everyone present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala must wash his body in sacred waters (rivers, lakes, ponds, etc.) to wash away fatigue and dirt.

Second Purification (Purification of the Soul)

In order for those present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala to be able to purify their Soul, they light large bonfires, and everyone who wants to jump over these bonfires, because Fire burns all negativity and purifies the aura and Soul of a person.

Third Purification (Purification of the Spirit)

Each Community Old Believer present at the celebration on the Day of God Kupala, as well as those who wish, can purify and strengthen their Spirit. To do this, a Fiery Circle is created from the burning coals of a large fire, along which the Old Believers-Ynglings from various Tribal, Slavic and Aryan Communities walk barefoot. Those wishing, who for the first time decided to walk on the coals in order to purify and strengthen their Spirit, the Community members lead by the hand through the Fiery Circle.

This holiday is inextricably linked with another event of antiquity. In ancient times, God Perun freed his sisters from captivity in the Caucasus and sent them to purify themselves in the waters of the Sacred Iriy (Irtysh) and in the Sour Cream Clean Lake (Zaisan Island). This event is also narrated in the fifth ball of Songs of the Gamayun Bird.

Due to the fact that Kupala is the Patron God of the Heavenly Hall of the Horse in the Svarog Circle, on this day it is customary to bathe horses, braid colorful ribbons into their manes and decorate them with wildflowers.

And there disaster struck. The bird Sirin took Kupala to the Dark Kingdom. Many years passed, and now Kostroma (sister) walked along the river bank and wove a wreath. The wind tore off the wreath from the head and carried it into the water, where Kupala picked it up, sailing past in a boat. Kupala and Kostroma fell in love and got married without knowing that they were brother and sister, and when they found out they decided to drown themselves. Kostorma became a mermaid or mavka. But the gods decided to take pity on the brother and sister and turned them into a flower that we now know as Ivan da Marya.
They celebrated the holiday of Kupala (the holiday of the summer solstice on the night of June 23-24). Presumably, on this day, the Slavs celebrated the holiday of the solar deity. The Kupala holiday was also associated with the veneration of fire. It was believed that the connection of fire and water personified the dependence of fertility on the bright sun and good watering.

Kupalo - the Summer God, according to the Gustinsky Chronicle: "The fifth (idol) Kupalo, as I think, was the god of abundance, like Ellin Ceres, he is insane for o6mie thanksgiving, he brought it at that time, when the harvest is imminent." In "On idols Vladimirovs" - "the god of the fruits of the earth".
It has received an unusual distribution among the Eastern Slavs, on the night of Ivan Kupala there is a combination of fire and water (with the obligatory appearance of life-giving steam and boiling water) and miracles are happening: , on the evening of the Nativity of John the Baptist, even before the harvest and beyond ... ", - reports the Gustin Chronicle. - “In the evenings, simple children, of both sexes, gather and weave crowns for themselves from a poisonous potion, or koreya, and girdling the former, they kindle a fire, but in some cases they put a green branch, and running around by the hand they turn around this fire, singing their own songs, calling Kupala; then they will skip ahead of this fire, offering this sacrifice to this demon. "
In addition to the section, some songs of the festival are given. K.M. Galkovsky cites teachings against paganism, containing the names of Kupala, Kolyada, Lelya and Lado already in the 18th century, the description of the holiday is almost identical, which indicates the stability of the folk tradition.
In the message of the hegumen of the Pskov Eleazarov Monastery Panfil to the Pskov prince Dmitry Vladimirovich of Rostov (according to the Pskov Chronicles, 1505), it is said that on the eve of the birth of John the Baptist, "enchantresses" - men and women in meadows, swamps, forests, fields are allegedly looking for -something mortal herbs "for the destruction of man and cattle", "immediately they dig divia roots for the indulgence of their husbands: and they do all this by the action of the devil on the day of the Forerunners with the sentences of Sotanin." And on the very feast of the Forerunners, coinciding with the summer solstice, actually with Kupala, “on that holy night, not all the city will be stirred up, and in the villages the tambourine will be enraged, and in snot, and with the buzzing of the strings, and all sorts of incomparable Sotonian games, splashing and splashing, but for wives and virgins and heads with nodding, and their mouth is hostile cry, all the filthy demonic songs, and their wobbling with a crepe, and jumping and trampling at their feet; the same is a great fall for a man and a youth, the same is for a woman’s and girl’s staggering fornication for them, there is also defilement for wives and virgins corrupted. be quick in cities and villages in that year - Soton flaunts the idol celebration, the joy and joy of Sotonin, there is jubilation in it ... as if in reproach and dishonor to the Nativity of the Forerunner and in laughter and in the basket of his days, not prophesying the truth, as if existing idolatry, this demonic feast is celebrated "... "Sitsebo for every summer, as an idol, the service custom of the soton calls for the one, as the sacrifice of the bringer of all filth and lawlessness, the bogomeric offering; as the day of the birth of the Forerunner of the great is celebrated, but with our ancient custom."
In East Slavic mythology, Kupala is the main character in the center of ritual actions and performances of the summer solstice holiday, which was celebrated on the night of June 23-24, according to the old style. The name of Kupala remained only in the names of the national holiday "Ivan Kupala" and the ritual attribute - a decorated tree or stuffed animal. An indication that Kupala is a deity is contained only in rather late written sources. So, in the Gustyn Chronicle (XVII century), celebrations in honor of Kupala are described with condemnation:
"To this Kupala<...>the memory is performed on the eve of the Nativity of John the Baptist<...>in a chinese way: in the evening, a simple child, of both sexes, gathers, and weaves crowns for themselves from a poisonous potion, or root, and girded with the past, they oppress the fire, but in some places they put a green branch, and, moving by the hand, they turn around this fire, singing their own songs<...>then through this fire they jump<...>Kupalo, his god of the fruits of the earth be mnyakhu, and to him the charm of demonic obscured thanksgiving and sacrifice, at the beginning of the harvest, he bathed the same god, or more true than the demon, and until now the memory is kept in the Russian countries, especially in the eve of the Nativity of John the Baptist<...>through the fire, jumping over themselves to the same demon, Kupala is sacrificed<...>And when the night passes by, then they go to the river with a great cry<...>washed with water." The condemnation of the Kupala rites themselves is also contained in earlier Slavic manuscripts: for example, in the “Synodika” of the Bulgarian Tsar Boril (XIII century), in the denunciations of the hegumen of the Pskov Eleazar Monastery Pamfil (1505). In particular, hegumen Pamphil wrote:
“When the feast comes, on that holy night, not all the city will be stirred up, and in the villages they will go mad, in tambourines and snot and buzzing strings, splashing and dancing; but to wives and girls, and heads nodding, and their mouths are hostile to screaming, all bad songs, and their backbone is wobbling, and their feet are jumping and trampling; there is a great fall, male, female and girlish whispering, fornication to them, and defilement to wives of men, and corruption to virgins.
Linguistic researchers elevate the name Kupala to the Indo-European root kir- with the meaning "boil, boil, longingly desire." Words with this root are known to many peoples, including those neighboring the Eastern Slavs. So, in the Lithuanian language there is a verb kire, meaning "to seethe, foam", and in the Latvian kyre - "to smoke, smoke". The name of the Slavic seasonal character Kupala is also related to the name of the Roman god of love Cupid, which is derived from the Latin verb eirYu, - ere - “to desire, thirst”, which goes back to the same Indo-European root. The meaning of this root, associated with the concept of fire, is contained in the Polissian words "kupalo" (bonfire) and "kup" ets "" (smolder, burn badly), and the Simbirsk local words "kupalnitsa" and "kupalenka" (fire in the field, fire overnight). Thus, initially the name Kupala is associated with the idea of ​​fire. This is indirectly confirmed by the presence in the East Slavic languages ​​of the same root names of various plants, the signs of which correlate with fire. In some local traditions, the Russians called wild flowers “bath”, “kupavka”: burning ranunculus, that is, burning, like fire; carnation and ivan-da-marya, approaching fire on the basis of color - pink (red) and blue-yellow. “Kupenya”, or “kupeny”, in Pskov, Kursk, Tula berniya was called lily of the valley, the berries of which - orange-red, like fire - were used as a blush. “Kupalnitsa” and “vitriol” were popularly called the fern - a plant that occupies an important place in the beliefs related specifically to the holiday of Ivan Kupala: according to traditional ideas, the fern blooms only once a year and has a special flower - golden color with a fiery red tint .
In connection with the idea of ​​fire in relation to the holiday of Ivan Kupala, one cannot fail to notice that it fell on the day of the summer solstice, that is, at the turn of two periods of the solar annual cycle, which underlies the ancient agricultural calendar. This was the time of the highest activity of the sun, which then, as the people said, "turned to winter" and gradually began to "fade away", which made the day shorter and the night longer. It was in connection with these ideas that the ancient Slavs on this day honored the sun, perceived as a life-giving heavenly fire, watching its appearance at dawn and kindling bonfires.
Along with the veneration of the sun and the natural element of fire, the archaic ritual and mythological complex of the Kupala holiday included numerous actions associated with the opposite element of water. Therefore, the name of Kupala eventually began to correlate with the verb “to swim” close to him in sound. This perception of the name of the mythological seasonal character was also facilitated by the layering on the pagan Kupala ritual of the Christian celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist, whose image was unambiguously associated with water. According to the Gospel, John, proclaiming the appearance of the Savior and the approach of the Kingdom of God, called on people to repent of their sins; the repentant underwent a rite of purification in the waters of the Jordan River, which was called "water baptism" or "full immersion." The significance of the Kupala festivities in the popular mind was rethought over time and began to be perceived as ritual bathing. The influence of the pagan basis of the holiday was reflected in the fact that in the Russian tradition John the Baptist is better known as Ivan Kupala, that is, in fact, the Christian saint received the nickname of a pagan deity.