Slavic Native Faith's calendars and holidays

Ringing Cedars' Rodnovers gathering on Kupala holiday, in Ustinka, Belgorod Oblast of Russia, at the kin settlement "Silver Forest" (Серебряный Бор, Serebrany Bor).

By the Roads of the Year, work by Russian Rodnover artist Maxim Sukharev representing the supreme God (Rod) as the four-faced Svetovid ("Worldseer" or "Lord of Power"), that is to say its four spatiotemporal aspects.

In Slavic Native Faith (Rodnovery) there are a number of shared holidays throughout the year, when important ritual activities are set according to shared calendars. Generally speaking, ritual activities may be distinguished into "external" (exoteric) and "internal" (esoteric) relatively to the different communities. External ceremonies are mass gatherings, usually held on important holidays dedicated to the worship of common gods, and involving large numbers of people. Internal ceremonies are those restricted to specific groups, and holding special meaning for such groups; they may comprise private rituals and worship of specific ancestors.^[1]

Calendars of holidays

Ivanits and Rybakov's calendar of holidays

Linda J. Ivanits reconstructs a basic calendar of the celebrations of Slavic gods among East Slavs, based on Boris Rybakov's studies on ancient agricultural calendars, especially a fourth-century one found in the area around Kiev.^[2]

General Russian Rodnover calendar of holidays

According to the Rodnover questions–answers compendium Izvednika (Изведника), almost all Russian Rodnovers rely upon the Gregorian calendar and celebrate the "sunny holidays" (highlighted in yellow in the table herebelow), with the addition of holidays dedicated to Perun, Mokosh and Veles (green herebelow), the Red Hill ancestral holiday (orange herebelow), and five further holidays dedicated to ancestors (including Вешние Деды, "Veshnye Forefathers"; Трояцкие Деды, "Troyatskye Forefathers"; Дмитровские Деды, "Dmitrovskye Forefathers"; and Рождественские Деды, "Rozhdestvenskye Forefathers", etc.). The contemporary Rodnover calendar is structured as follows:^[3]

Ynglist calendar of holidays

Ynglism respects eight holidays throughout the year. They are arranged in a "year's wheel" (кологод, kologod) and they correspond to the eight major deities of nature. Holidays are called "thresholds" (порог, porog) and they mark the beginning of various phases of the year. There are also overarching phases: the phase between the holidays of Koliada and Kupalo is that of the blossoming of males, while the phase between Lelia and Mokosh that of the blossoming of females. The threshold of Perun marks a period of quiescence of forces, while the subsequent Mara is a phase that is unfavourable for both sexes. Each holiday and the period that it begins has appropriate, different ritual actions to be carried out; Ynglists believe that if one behaves incorrectly, his life cycle is disrupted, he becomes unhealthy and quickly grows old.^[4]

Calendars of months

Names of months in local Slavic traditions

In some Slavic languages, such as Russian, the modern names of the months are borrowings from Latin. Otherwise, local traditions and other Slavic languages have preserved Slavic endonyms (endogenous names) for months. Volkhv Aleksey Aleksandrovich Dobroslav has proposed a standardised nomenclature, as reported in the table herebelow. Many Slavic months' names refer to natural phenomena, things and human crafts (for instance, Traven means "Grass"; Bulgarian Sukh means "Dry", etc.).

Ynglist calendar of months

Ynglist "Wheel of the Year". The runes representing the nine months are to be read leftwise starting from the top-left hooked cross of Yngly, representing the beginning of the year.^[5]

Ynglism has a different structure of time distinguishing it from mainstream Rodnovery. According to Ynglist teachings, the structure of the year is itself a phenomenon reflecting the order of the supreme God, his action which is Yngly. Each month's name may also be written as a compound of two Ynglist runes. Ynglists claim that original Slavic months are nine, instead of twelve, and each month comprises forty or forty-one days. The first rune is either Ay (Ай), Bey (Бэй), Gey (Гэй), Day (Дай), E (Э), Vey (Вэй), Xey / Khey (Хей), or Tay (Тай), reflecting basic sounds in Indo-European tongues and representing the character of the given month. The second rune in the names is always the rune Let (Летъ), which means "year" as well as "summer", as months are phases of the year which comes to full maturity in summer. The only exception to this rule is the first month whose name is "Ramhat" (Рамхатъ), a term which refers to the beginning of Ramha's ordering action, Yngly, represented by the swastika-like first rune.^[5]

Name	Runic sign	Meaning	Corresponding Latinate month(s)
Ramhat / Ramkhat Рамхатъ		Represents the principle of divinity; Ramha/Ramkha who creates and approves a new year cycle.[5] Another symbol of this month is a hooked cross, which is the symbol of "Yngly" itself (the fiery action of the supreme God in the universe).[6]	September–October
Aylet Айлетъ		Aylet is the month of new gifts. The rune Ay means prosperity, full baskets. It is the propitious tide for weddings, for beginning building new things, and for harvests.[5]	November
Beylet Бэйлетъ		Beylet is the month of white light and peace, representing the pure radiance of divinity, glory and the rest of the soul.[5]	December
Geylet Гэйлетъ		Geylet is the month of blizzards and fierce and severe cold.[5]	January–February
Daylet Дайлетъ		Daylet is the month of the rebirth of nature; plants and animals awaken and are strengthened.[5]	March
Elet Элетъ		Elet is the month of sowing, this being the foremost meaning of the rune E. It is the sowing not only of seeds in the ground, but also of the word in people; it is therefore the month of naming and renaming of persons, for them to be born again.[5]	April
Veylet Вэйлетъ		Veylet is the month of winds. The rune Vey is an image of flying, and of blowing wind. This month is sacred to Stribog ("Wind God").[5]	May–June
Xeylet Хейлетъ		Xeylet, or spelled "Kheylet", is the month of the receipt of the gifts of nature. The rune Xey is an image of positive force. What was sowed in Elet and grew throughout Veylet, is finally harvested in Xeylet.[5]	July
Taylet Тайлетъ		Taylet is the month of completion of the year, of divine creation, of full summer. The rune Tay means the top, the limit, the end of something (just like the homophonous Chinese grapheme and in words like "Taiga", literally "end of the path").[5]	August

See also

• Slavic Native Faith
• Wheel of the Year

Sources

Citations

References

• Ivanits, Linda J. (1989). Russian Folk Belief. M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 9780765630889. 
• Aitamurto, Kaarina (2016). Paganism, Traditionalism, Nationalism: Narratives of Russian Rodnoverie. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1472460271. 

Slavic religion
Forms	Historical Slavic religion Slavic Native Faith Assianism Ivanovism Native Ukrainian National Faith Peterburgian Vedism Rerikhism Ringing Cedars' Anastasianism Ynglism
Gods	Rod Deities of Slavic religion
Heroes / bogatyrs	Alyosha Popovich Dobrynya Nikitich Đerzelez Alija Ilya Muromets Ivan Kosančić Ivan Tsarevich Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv Lech, Czech, and Rus Libuše Mikula Selyaninovich Mila Gojsalić Milan Toplica Miloš Obilić Nikita the Tanner Popiel Prince Marko Sadko Solovey-Razboynik Svyatogor Vasilisa the Beautiful Vasilisa the Wise Volga Svyatoslavich
Christianization and Islamization	Slavic Christianity Christianization of Moravia (830s) of Bulgaria (860s) of Bohemia (880s) of Poland (960s) of Kievan Russia (980s) of Pomerania (1120s–60s) Bogomilism Slavic Muslims
Related topics	Book of Veles Films based on Slavic mythology Serbian folk astronomy Volkhv