Holidays of the Slavs - Madder Day (Kikimora Day)

The emergence of new significant and memorable dates should not lead to the oblivion of the festivities that our ancestors celebrated This is important not only for the connection between generations, which should not be broken for the sake of our future, but also because our ancestors were closer to nature and noticed subtleties that are not accessible to a modern city dweller The last honoring of the evil Navya Gods, which took place before the arrival of spring, is the Day of Mary Madder, who, according to the beliefs of the ancient Slavs, was the Great Goddess of Winter and Death With the onset of spring, the Slavs began to visit the graves of their relatives They brought treats and drinks The Slavs called the spirits of the dead navias They believed that on the night before Navya Day, abandoned graves, where restless souls lay, came to life, and the dead put on human disguises to celebrate the spring holidays The last holiday of the unclean Navi gods fell on March 1 and was called Madder Day Mara (Marena) was the wife of Koshchei, as well as the sister of Zhiva and Lelya The people also called her the one-eyed Kikimora In myths she is spoken of as the goddess Veda Mara had a power opposite to the Life-giving solar Yari and represented the triumph of “Dead Water” She saw through everyone, with the help of her golden eyes she noticed the native quality of a person She tried to develop this quality And if a person had not a light, but a black gift, then the goddess took him to her and made him her servant Such a person became a criminal Her sister is Alive, strengthening the human threads of Fate and Life, and Marena watched over their end By cutting the thread of Life, she gave the deceased hope for reincarnation According to ancient legends, her possessions lie beyond the black river Smorodina, which separates Yav (the world of the living) and Nav (the world of the dead), and the Kalinov Bridge leads across that river, connecting our world and the world of the dead The bridge is guarded by the Serpent with three heads In Slavic fairy tales, heroes often fought with this monster The people honored Marena as a guide of human souls to another world After all, it would have been very difficult to cross the river without her The annual veneration of Mary Marena, representing evil forces, on March 1, marked the end of the “dead” winter and the onset of spring, as well as the onset of agricultural work According to the ideas of the ancient Slavic tribes, this Goddess was the legal wife of Koshchei the Immortal and the sister of Zhiva and Lelya, who were the Goddesses of Life and Love, respectively, as well as the daughter of the Great Goddess Lada and the sister of the All-Powerful Supreme Gods Our ancestors believed that Mara-Marena lived in the swamp and imagined her as Kikimora One-Eyed To demonstrate their courage and lack of fear in front of one of the most fearsome deities, on this day desperate daredevils went to the swamp and stewed firebrands that they took from home in unfrozen wormwood Conducting seasonal rituals on the day of Marya Marena, which were dedicated to the “dying” and “resurrection” of natural forces, our ancestors sought to “help” Yarila defeat the evil mistress After all, it is Yarila who fights Winter If he is defeated in the fall, then returning on March 1, he hooks Marena on a pitchfork and “kills” winter However, the Slavic pagan tribes, recognizing Madder’s main role in the onset of winter, did not consider her an unconditionally evil deity As our ancestors imagined, Madder not only ruled over nature, but also directly intervened in human life Hating spiritual stench and two-faced people, Marena sought to remove such a person from society in order to preserve the pure space of life To do this, she sent her servants to the “bad” person - a flock of troubles and a flock of vices - who took on the form, and, according to other beliefs, inhabited people who were also deceitful and striving to deceive Although Marena was not the goddess of death, rituals of dying and resurrection of nature were associated with her name The mistress of winter and frost, on March 1 she retreats, allowing the Zoren-bearing Yarilo to pass Among the Western Slavs, on this day, a straw effigy of Madder was drowned, torn or burned to attract a rich harvest At the same time they said: “Yarilo took winter (Madder) on a pitchfork” Like other ancient Slavic days, many folk signs are associated with Madder Day Most of them were supposed to predict changes in the weather, on which the future harvest and, accordingly, the standard of living of the Slavic tribe depended Here are some of them: If there is a snowstorm on March 1, then the entire next week will be snowstorm, and if the Sun “looks out” at noon, then spring will be early and fleeting If there is a lot of snow in the fields, this portends a large harvest of grain crops If frames and windows fogged up during frost, this foreshadowed long-term and sustainable warming If the “snow plants” (frost) on the glass tended upward, then this promised a continuation of frost, but if the shoots and branches of these “plants” sank down or bent, then this indicated the approach of a thaw