Magic holiday - the day of Ivan Kupala

Mysterious and mystical, the day of Ivan Kupalarooted in ancient times. Few people know about him today. Researchers believe that the midsummer feast, typical of most pagan beliefs in Europe (analogous to which is the day of Ivan Kupala), is one of the oldest religious cults on Earth.

This cult is based on the eternal confrontation andthe attraction of two opposite beginnings, not having the opportunity to unite into one, but not existing without each other. Thus, heaven and earth, fire and water, man and woman, are indivisible and incompatible. This love, this attraction of opposites and underlie an ancient holiday.

The ancients revered Kupala - a kind and generous god who patronized fertility of the earth and childbirth, giving refreshing rains, making love confusion in the most chaste hearts.

Изначально этот день, как и многие другие Holidays of the ancient Slavs, had a cosmic significance. Midsummer night was celebrated on June 25, during the summer solstice. This night was the shortest in the year and was considered special.

The ancient Slavs believed that in the Kupala nightthe line between the explicit (real) and navy (mystical) worlds becomes thinner, and all the dark gods and spirits could penetrate into the human world. On this night, medicinal herbs acquired tremendous healing power, drunken wines were drunk more than usual, but the most important thing was blooming magical adonis - a fern flower, revealing secrets, giving wisdom and leading to the unearthly treasures of the one who can get it. The search for this flower was given special attention during the celebration.

But the main event of the Kupala night is the wedding.In the role of the newlyweds are Lelia and Yarilo, young lovers, who are not destined to be together, because they are each other's brother and sister. The girls chose a low birch or willow and dressed her up as a “bride”, decorating with colorful ribbons, while the guys at that time were making straw “groom”. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by traditional re-singing and dancing, and the wedding itself was also taking place.

Believing in the power of fire and water after sunsetthe ancient Slavs jumped over the cleansing Kupala fire, and at dawn they washed themselves with dew and swam in the rivers. It was believed that the clothes in which a person jumped over the fire and bathed become guarded and acquire the ability to protect their wearer from the evil eye and ailments. Another water related part of the celebration is the launching of wreaths in water. According to these wreaths floating in the dark, unmarried girls wondered about their fate.

Information on possible specific dishes of thisholiday, unfortunately, not preserved. But one can confidently assume that, according to the Slavic hospitable tradition, the food was plentiful and generous. And on that day they began to drink surya - the ritual Slavic drink, which was prepared from honey and herbs, and then insisted for several months in sheep's waterskins buried in the ground.

С приходом христианства на Русь, как и многие other pagan traditions, this holiday was forbidden, but not forgotten. For many centuries, young people gathered in the meadows near water bodies, sang songs and burned fires, praising the good god Kupala and asking him about the harvest and the offspring.

However, along with the ancient gods, in RussiaOrthodox saints were also revered. And Kupala night, like other holidays, soon acquired church traits. And Kupala himself received the name of Ivan - in honor of the Orthodox Saint John the Baptist. And so the name of the holiday appeared, widespread today - the day of Ivan Kupala. However, its original date was postponed to July 7th. This is connected not only with the imposition of pagan and Orthodox cults on each other, but also with the transition of Russia to the Julian calendar.

The night before Ivan Kupala, as in antiquity,considered magic. It is at this time that miracles happen. Like many centuries ago, today's youth meets the day of Ivan Kupala, welcoming a warm summer with cheerful songs about love, prosperity and a rich harvest, and lovers, wanting to preserve their feelings forever, jump over the Kupala bonfires, as their distant ancestors did.