Spring Solstice - Blog Posts
Digital Offering to Lord Hades and Lady Persephone
Happy Spring Solstice! ^^
Dozhinki, the harvest of Jarilo
Between Slavics, they celebrated the harvest of Autumn, which, in ancient times, were dedicated to Jarilo, God of Vegetation, who in Autumn descends in the Underworld.
During this festival the last sheaf of August was decorated with ribbons, symbols, berries and flowers. Besides of the sheaf, they prepared large garlands with bundles of wheat, that will be used during the parade; everything will end with dances, chants, banquets and binge drinkings.
Anciently, the festival was dedicate to the beauty Jarilo, a young God, blinde like wheat and eternally shoeless because where he walked, the earth would regenerate.
The whole mythology which recalls to him is the description of seasonal cycle. Jarilo, son of the God of Thunder Perun, was born the last night of February (anciently was New Year's Eve) and the same day had been kidnapped from the God of Underworld Veles and grew up as his son. During Spring, Jarilo went back to the surface, coming back to life generating vegetation.
During Summer he marries his twin Morana, Goddess of Nature and Death, but in Autumn he is ceremonially killed. Later also Morana dies for the lack of Jarilo, but they both rebirth during Summer Solstice.