Ivan Kupala Day
Ivan Kupala Day is the day of
summer solstice celebrated in
Russia and
Ukraine on 7 July OS. This is a
pagan fertility rite, which has been accepted into the Orthodox Christian calendar, in which it has been associated with
John the Baptist. It is opposed to the winter solstice holiday, or Korochun.
According to Vasmer, the name of this holiday combines the words "Ivan", the Slavic name of John , and "Kupala", a word derived from the Slavic word for bathing, as it was the first day of the year when the church sanctioned bathing and swimming in rivers and ponds.
Encyclopedia
Ivan Kupala Day is the day of
summer solstice celebrated in
Russia and
Ukraine on 7 July OS. This is a
pagan fertility rite, which has been accepted into the Orthodox Christian calendar, in which it has been associated with
John the Baptist. It is opposed to the winter solstice holiday, or Korochun.
According to Vasmer, the name of this holiday combines the words "Ivan", the Slavic name of John , and "Kupala", a word derived from the Slavic word for bathing, as it was the first day of the year when the church sanctioned bathing and swimming in rivers and ponds.
Up to the present day, the Russian
Midsummer Night is known as one of the most expressive East Slavic folk and pagan holidays. Many rites of this holiday are connected with water, fertility and autopurification. The girls, for example, would float their flower garlands on the water of rivers and tell their fortunes from their movement. Lads and girls would jump over the flames of bonfires.
There is an ancient belief that the Eve of Ivan Kupala is the only time of the year when the
ferns are blooming. Whoever finds a fern-flower would become immensely rich. Hence, on that night village folk would roam through the forests in search of magical herbs. In
Gogol's story
The Eve of Ivan Kupala a young man finds the fabulous fern-flower but is cursed by it. The witches' sabbath on the Eve of Ivan Kupala inspired
Modest Mussorgsky to create his
Night on Bald Mountain, is a tone poem [i] by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky [i], a Russia [i]n composer [i] ...
.
See also
- Midsummer | Kupala | Kupole | Pirogovo | Jani | Saint Jonas' Festival
- Yanka Kupala — the pen-name of this Belarusian author references his birthday on July 7.
External links
