lamus-dworski:Burning and drowning of Marzanna is an ancient custom surviving in Poland despite cent

lamus-dworski:Burning and drowning of Marzanna is an ancient custom surviving in Poland despite centuries of Christianity. Performed around 21st of March (first day of spring / spring equinox, the original date) or on the 4th Sunday of the Lents before Easter, it symbolizes the departure of winter and summoning of the spring. Nowadays the custom is still very popular among e.g. children (many kindergartens and primary schools would organize such events around the end of March) but also among various reenactment groups, folk/ethnography organizations and the modern Rodzimowiercy (Slavic native faith).The event requires preparation of a ritual effigy symbolizing the Slavic goddess Marzanna / Morena, that was the personification of winter - the death or sleep state of the Mother Earth during wintertime. As an effigy, she was also gaining other meanings connected to the states of passing away (general death or sickness and other unfortunate events, usually connected to the tough and grim wintertime) and thus was meant to be burnt in order to prepare the earth for the spring “ressurection”.Such effigy should be made out of straw shaped into a human form (usually on two crossed sticks or branches). Often an old chochoł was used for that purpose, which was a straw covering prepared for the wintertime for the delicate bushes or trees (click here to read about chochoł’s mythological meaning). Such effigy is usually “dressed” in clothes or decorated with plants, often receiving details like a braid, korale necklace, wianek (wreath) or a headscarf.Effigy of Marzanna is held up in a procession (usually to a riverside), being burnt and thrown to the river. Regardless of the place of burning (some locations wouldn’t have any river nearby), it was important to throw all the parts and ashes remaining after Marzanna to a river, seen as the cleaning force, in order to purify the ground before spring. The procession is sometimes still adorned with singing or reciting old verses, such as “Marzanna, Marzanna, swim across the seas. Let flowers bloom, and fields turn green”.Originally, there was meant to be only one effigy of Marzanna prepared by a local group of people, but nowadays we can witness many colorful processions (mainly those of children) walking with several effigies adorned with bright scraps of paper. There are also many competitions for the best or biggest effigy of Marzanna organized.Other known names of Marzanna in Poland: Morena / Morana / Śmiercicha / Śmiertka / Śmierztka. There’s also a male equivalent, popular in some parts of Silesia region, called Marzaniok. The names are derived from the words: old-Polish mor / mór (plague or sickness), mara / mora / zmora (evil spirit, nightmare - click here to read about zmora as mythological creature) or śmierć (death).On the pictures:Procession with Marzanna under the Wawel Castle, Kraków © Adam Wojnar [source].Effigies of Marzanna prepared by kids in Grzybowo [source].Colorful procession with Marzanna effigies in Szymbark [source].Preparing the effigy of Marzanna by members of “Wytędze” medieval reenactment group [source].Marzanna in Warsaw, fot. Agencja Gazeta [source].Burning of Marzanna by the members of “Wytędze” [source].Burning of the effigies in Myślęcinek, fot. Agencja Gazeta [source].Marzanna before being thrown to the river, Jeziorzany, fot. Dorota Awiorko-Klimek [source].Huge Marzanna being thrown to the river, Chorzów [source].[my general list of sources / book recommendations - in Polish] -- source link
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