BELARUS-PAGAN FESTIVAL Belarussian women celebrate pagan festival marking end of spring

Record ID: 151156

  • Title: BELARUS-PAGAN FESTIVAL Belarussian women celebrate pagan festival marking end of spring
  • Date: 9th June 2015
  • Summary: ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF WOMEN DANCING IN CIRCLE AROUND BONFIRE AND SINGING
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belarus
  • Country: Belarus
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8POVJ2262X734411B645I8A06
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Belarussian villagers have bid farewell to spring, following a pagan tradition of their ancestors.
    As the sun set over the village of Nezhin on Sunday (June 7), women of all ages flocked to the riverside wearing coloured embroidered dresses and floral headdresses.
    Traditional songs sounded over the river bank, accompanied by the crackle of burning logs, as the villagers danced in circles around bonfires.
    The event itself, 'Rusalye', is a mermaid festival which dates back to pre-Christian times. People believed that in early June mermaids could leave ponds and rivers and visit people's houses.
    They were also believed to bring good harvest of crops or, on the contrary, a disastrous ruin.
    Villagers used special rituals to avoid the anger of these mythical creatures.
    "A belief existed for a long time that mermaids, for instance, would bring about some illnesses, disasters, misfortune to the village. And in order, so to say, to appease this mermaid, people used to get together, dance in circles, throw flowers in water, so that the mermaid would not go to the village, would not spoil crops, would not kill cattle, would not cause different illnesses," Belarus resident Raya, who came to Nezhin to honour the tradition, said.
    The mermaid festival almost disappeared in the Soviet period and came to life only after the fall of the union.
    Participant Irina Iskevich said younger generations needed to see what the lives of their ancestors looked like.
    "You see, the youth forget everything. They have forgotten everything. What do they know? The internet exists now. They sit there and think that they know everything. And they do not know that their grandfathers and grandmothers used to hold celebrations, they know it only from some stories. And if we show it, they will know. They will like it," she said.
    As the celebration went on, women threw their garlands into the river and cooked simple meals on the bonfire.
    "Look, what do we have on the table today? Fried eggs. And what does a cracked egg look like? Like the sun. And as the sun makes us warm, one needs to feed oneself after hard work, to feed oneself with this dish that also gives people some internal energy," Raya said, as the women sat on the ground to eat.
    After eating, the dances continued throughout the night.
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