lamus-dworski: Śmiguśnioki - remnants of an old-Slavic pagan tradition performed on the Easter Monda
lamus-dworski:Śmiguśnioki - remnants of an old-Slavic pagan tradition performed on the Easter Monday in Dobra, district of Limanowa, southern Poland [source of images].This tradition is directly connected to the ancient Śmigus-Dyngus custom, held on that day [read more about it here]. In this local variety, it’s still accompanied by processions of the so-called “dziady śmigustne” (also spelled: śmiguśne) - men in costumes made of woven straw, who originally were meant to be symbolic representations of ancestors arriving for the rite of the welcoming of spring and the purification after wintertime. By tradition, they were usually covering their faces with masks made of sheepskin or cloth, not to reveal their real identity, and carrying small baskets to keep the offerings. The “dziady śmigustne” were never talking and only murmuring, whistling and hooting, getting small offerings of food or a sip of vodka, performing ritual dances or small pranks and then leaving to the next house. In the modern days, they also go on the streets to stop cars of the locals to get the symbolic gifts, pour the “purifying” water on people or cars and leave the straw under the windscreen wipers (in old-Slavic traditions the straw was seen as a protective magical barrier). -- source link
#poland#slavic#pagan#Śmigusdyngus#ritual#purification