The wedding of water and fire

Kupala Night is one of the major folk holidays of the Eastern Slavs that coincides with the Christian feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and the East Slavic feast of Saint John's Eve. In folk tradition, it was revered as the day of the summer solstice and was originally celebrated on the shortest night of the year.

Kupala derives its name from the Slavic word which means bathing. The celebrations are held on the banks of rivers, always near water. They start in the evening and end late at night. The holiday is dedicated to water which was believed to purify soul and body and render beauty, love, youth, health and luck.

On that night some young women put on traditional embroidered clothes and floral wreaths as a part of local folklore. Those wreaths are made of mugwort, rue, camomile, hypericum and other flowering plants. At midnight the main attraction of the holiday is floating wreaths of flowers (often with a lit candle) on the water. Young men jump into the water and try to capture the wreaths made by unmarried girls. When they catch it, they can hope to find a new love and for a girl it’s a sign that soon she can expect to get married.

Another tradition associated with Kupala Night is looking for a fern flower which blooms once a year on that magical night. Going to the forest and finding this flower gives its owner supernatural powers to see the future, talk with animals and birds and find a hidden treasure. As a matter fact, it’s not so simple to find the flower (it can be an adventure), but this mysterious ritual makes the night even more enchanting.

With this holiday there's associated a myth about tragic love between two Gods - Marzanna and Jaryło.

Mokosz - is one of the most important figures in the Slavic mythology - the Mother-Earth goddess, a symbol of fertility and motherhood - dancing among flowers in the morning dew.

Weles, the ruler of the afterlife of Navia, notices her, falls in love and lures her to his underground kingdom. The goddess, interested in the story of untold wealth and an unknown world, follows her new lover. She remains there for some time, enchanted by the discovered land. However, her absence brings darkness, cold and death to the earth. The world is covered with ice and all vegetation is dying. Returning to the surface, Mokosz discovers its cruel neglect. She cries, and where her tears fall, lilies of the valley bloom.

From the union of Mokosz and Weles, a daughter is born, Marzanna, a Goddess with a dual nature, the personification of dying and returning to life, maturing and passing from youth to old age. However, the story continues. Perun, the god of thunder and lightning, competing with Wales, also has a love affair with Mokosz.

Jaryło was born from this union. As a sign of revenge, every year he is kidnapped by Weles to Navia, where he stays throughout the Winter. However, it returns to the surface every Spring. Then he meets Marzanna. Young people fall in love, and their growing feeling fills the entire nature with energy. They get married on the Kupala Night. Then it is only a matter of days before they discover that they are sister and brother. Nature hates breaking the law, so Marzanna sacrifices Jaryło as a sacrifice. From that moment on, the goddess loses the joy of life and sinks into sadness, and with her all nature. Winter is coming.