Hors

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For the town in Armenia, see Hors, Armenia.

Hurs or Hors (from a Scythian Khursun^{[citation needed]}) is the Slavic god of the winter sun. The only authentic ancient sources to mention it are the Russian Primary Chronicle and the Tale of Igor's Campaign. Hors represents the old sun which, in Slavic mythology, becomes smaller as the days become shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, and dies on Korochun, the winter solstice. It is said to be defeated by the dark and evil powers of Chernobog. On December 23rd Hors is resurrected and becomes the new sun, Koleda.

Because of his transformation, Slavs worshipped Hors as the god of healing, survival, and the triumph of health over illness. He was purportedly seen as the master of herbs, a medicine-man and a man of knowledge. Gods with similar roles in other mythology systems include: Esculap (Hellenic), Asclaepius (Roman), Apis (Egyptian), and Baldur (Scandinavian).

At the winter solstice, in honour of the god Hors, Slavs danced a ritual chain-dance which was called the horo. Traditional chain-dancing in Bulgaria is still called horo. In Russia and Ukraine, it is known as khorovod.

In contrast, if one looks at Polish sources, Hors (spelled Chors and pronounced "hors") is considered to be the god of the moon rather than the sun.

In Serbian "`oro" meaning rounded dancing formation, in reformed Serbian after 19th century is known as "kolo". This dance is performed in the field on happy occasions.