Māra

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In Latvian mythology, Māra is the highest-ranking goddess, a feminine Dievs (God). She may be thought as alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her alternate aspects. Māra may have been also the same goddess as Lopu māte.

She is the patroness of all the feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of all the economic activities ("God made table, Māra - bread"), even money and markets. Being the alternate side of Dievs, she takes a person's body after their death while Dievs is taking the soul. She is the goddess of land, which is called Māras zeme.

In western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity.

The festival Māras was held in her honor every August 15. This was probably already a result of Christian influence and identification of Māra with Mary, whose main festival (Assumption) falls on the same date since antiquity. There is also an opinion, that deity Māra is just relflexion of Christian Mary created by semi-Christian Livonian peasants.

Alternative names: Māre, Mārīte (diminutive), Mārša, Māršava (Western Latvia),

See also # Mara (Hindu goddess) ancient Deity and Mara (folklore goddess).