It’s Jarilo’s Day!(well supposedly)Jarilo, our beautiful god of of spring and fertility,

It’s Jarilo’s Day!(well supposedly)Jarilo, our beautiful god of of spring and fertility,whose worshiping has survived in the form of celebrations of christian St. George. Up until the 19. century in Russia, Belarus and Serbia great festivals dedicated to Jarilo were held, in which a doll or a person dressed as a young man in white robes, rode on a horse carrying wheat, while people sang songs about Jarilo’s return from a distant land. Similar festivities under the name Green Jurij were held in Croatia and Slovenia. In Serbia and Bosnia there are still parties held in forests and fields on the morning of St. George’s day. These parties are also remains of pagan festivities which had an erotic feel to them - basically you were supposed to go a bit wild. There were also ritual bathings in rivers and lakes, jumping over fires and decorating your body with willow leaves and stinging nettle. Animal associated with Jarilo is lamb and this was typically the day that marked the beginning of “lamb eating season”. Lamb was supposed to be slaugthered and eaten as a part of sacrifice to the god. It’s recorded that in eastern Serbia in 20th century on St. George’s day, while killing the lamb the head of the household would use the lamb’s blood to bless every person in the family by making a mark of blood on their forehead. This is similar to the tradition that was done on on Perun’s day when all soldiers were supposed to be marked with the blood of a killed animal, either bull or a rooster, which leads us to Jarilo’s warrior aspect Jarovit. Jarilo is my favorite god, because I consider him the patron god of my family -- source link

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