Marzanna

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Marzanna, Murava, Moréna or Morena is a Slavic goddess. Her exact function is unclear. She is most often believed to be a Goddess of harvest and witchcraft. In some medieval Christian sources such as the Mater Verborum she is compared to Hecate. Her relationship to Mara, Goddess of death, is unclear; some sources equate the two. In late medieval Czech sources she becomes a Goddess of winter as well as death. Her name is based on the Slavic root mor, used in words such as "confusion", "peril", "nightmare" and "death".

Marzanna's rites are believed to survive into Christian times as Maslenitsa, a six- or seven-day feast celebrated in early March. During the first five or six days of Maslenitsa, flat blini are served that are believed to symbolize the Sun. On the last day, straw effigies are made, symbolizing the winter, and burned and sometimes drowned.

Modern mannequin of Marzanna, Poland

The Burning of Morena is a traditional folk festivals still surviving in Slovakia. The Drowning of Marzanna is a traditional folk fest in some parts of Poland. The two festivals are to symbolically welcome the spring and bury the winter. The ritual involves burning of a straw mannequin representing Morena. Although nowadays it has no more religious meaning there are apparent Pagan roots of this fest, which makes the tradition attractive for Slavic Pagan reconstructionist movements.

[edit] Sources

Marjorie Yovino-Young. Pagan Ritual and Myth in Russian Magic Tales: A Study of Patterns. Edwin Mellen Press, 1993
D.A. Gavrilov, A.E. Nagovitzhyn. Slavic Gods. Paganism. Tradition (Боги славян. Язычество. Традиция.) Moscow, 2002
Skvortzov, Konstantin. Mater Verborum, XIIIth century Czech manuscript, with comments. Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences, 1853.