Here is a list of Polish, mostly pre-Christian, festivals of the annual cycle that survived in some form till recent times. As I discover more interesting things, I will try to continue adding to this article.
The Rites of Spring
Gromadki, Śmigus Dyngus, Kogutek, Gaik
The calendar began with a feast and a custom of ancestor remembrance. People burned candles and left food for their ancestors on the grave sites – the so-called gromadki. This typically happened on the Christian Maundy Thursday (before Easter) and was, perhaps, a type of dziady commemoration – remembering the dead celebration (more on that below in the rites of winter). Since this was also “Fat Thursday” and hence a day of doughnuts, there seems to have been plenty of foodstuffs to share with dead souls.
The Monday after Easter is typically the Śmigus-Dyngus Monday. On it men and women would go around and try to surprise each other by spraying the others with water. Younger folks would perform another ritual with young men and boys going around with a stylized rooster (kogutek) and young women going around with branches bound together to represent a young forest (gaik). The dyngus were the trinkets obtained by these spring carolers from the houses that they stopped at to sing and then ask for “payment” for the performance.
Although some have connected dyngus with payment (German: Dingen > things), a much more likely etymology, especially given the context of spring rites, spring rains and the rebirth of the world is the Prussian word dangus which means “sky.” This would also explain the suffix (-s) which is common in Baltic languages.
The kogutek, also celebrated on the second day of Easter, involved a rooster, typically stylized out of a pumpkin or made out of batter with attached feathers and a comb made from red cloth. The rooster was attached to a small wooden plank that sported wheels and served as a cart to have the rooster travel around the village. The procession started at a wealthier farmer’s house from whom a present was obtained and then went house to house while singing, playing pipes and obtaining gifts (the dyngus) from the residents. Eventually the whole troop found its way to the local tavern and then the things obtained were parceled out among all the gathered with everyone concluding the day’s events with a drinking party. The kogutek would then be stored with one of the partygoers till the next year.
The gaik involved young women and kids being led by one lady, again going house to house. The leader would carry a “forest” of greenery, plants, branches, adorned with many colored ribbons as well as, sometimes, with shining baubles. At each house this troupe would sing and, in return, also get small presents. The gaik was also occasionally referred to as maik (reffering to May).
Zielone Świątki
Zielone Świątki simply means the “Green Holidays.” These were associated with all kinds of games. In parts of Kujawy (on the Bachorza channel or at Lubień Kujawski), till about the beginning of the 19th century, the villagers played a game called the “King of Shepherds” – essentially a race (the “track” marked with wooden sticks) to bring one’s cattle herd to a previously agreed place the fastest. Both men and women partake and apparently both royal titles – king and queen – were available for the taking (for an annual period). Afterwards, all manner of simple gifts were given and the completed race turned into a party. In other parts of the country a similar “king” game was played involving horse races.
Later, on the first of May people would go out for walks – on the so-called majówka.
In Warsaw, the citizenry would head to Golendzin across the river where, so the tale goes, one lady from Old Town, chosen at random would be wed. The ferries would be adorned with birch branches and all manner of ribbons. The local mayor would collect the dowry for the bride from the party goers.
It seems that in the days of Jan Casimir, when the Swedes occupied Praga (in 1655) – on the East bank of the Vistula – the citizens unwilling to cross the river, conducted their majowka instead at Bielany, north of Warsaw. In other tellings, the relocation from Golendzin to Bielany was occasioned by the construction of the Camaldolese monk monastery at Bielany about 1630 – whether the monks invited the partygoers or the partygoers showed up of their own is another matter. (In fact, a similar event was sponsored by the Camaldolese of another Bielany near Cracow and may have been sponsored by other such monasteries elsewhere). In any event, the weddings continued, sporadically, even as late as 1766 (during the reign of Stanisuav Augustus) but over time the majowka became more of an all day nature outing for the citizenry.
Whenever the kings Augustus II or Augustus III were in town, they would join the partygoers at Bielany where the ladies, particularly of the lower classes, would wear all kinds of colorful clothes and the coachmen would arrive with green-adorned carts.
In fact, even more generally, wagon and carriage drivers would place greenery on their carts and on their horses. During this month of May, even as late as the reign of Sigismund Augustus, married women would gather at a meadow and hold hands dancing and singing, praising spring.
On the Eve of the Green Holidays (the Pentecost, Whitsun, Whitsunday or Pfingsten in Germany) which was the Sunday (fifty days after Easter, for example May 12th), the partying and playing began.
During those days all the houses (and churches) would be “mayed” that is covered in green leaves and the townspeople would play zielone. Later, the custom included covering the floors in the house (as well as in churches!) with sweet flag leaves (tatarak). The house lobby/foyer (sień) would be covered with birch branches. Various green herbs would also be placed on ceilings, on the windows and on pictures (especially on pictures of Holy Mary).
This was also the season of cake making (babki and placki).
At nights during those May days, there would begin the so-called sobótki. Fires would be lit on top of the hillocks and men and women would jump over them all the while dancing, singing and laughing.
Around 1405, the preacher and professor of Cracow University, Lucas of Great Kozmin also mentions dances with swords:
“I recall that in youth I read in a certain chronicle that there were in Poland Gods and from those days to our times such rites come that young women dance with swords, as if in offering to the pagan Gods, and not to [the] God, as well as [dances of] young men with swords and sticks, which they then hit about…”
These games would continue throughout May and June until Saint John the Baptist’s day. And, in fact, Lucas’ description may relate specifically to Saint John’s Day. On the night before, that is the Vigil (Wigilia) of Saint John, people celebrated the Sobótka. This ancient rite involved fires, wreaths placed on river water (often with a candle) and bylica which was put over house roofs. So let’s go to that.
Sobótka
The longest night of the year – so-called “Saint John’s” Eve – was also an occasion to perform ancient rites. Those typically involved making wreaths and garlands for the ladies followed by late night gatherings and the setting of fires usually in the fields (going ku-pole) or on hilltops. Next came the dancing around these fires. Young women lead those gatherings and young men joined later. They would then couple up and dance around the fires and, often, jump through them – sometimes together. (Incidentally, sobótka is only indirectly related to the “Sabbath” (though perhaps more to the “witches’ sabbaths.” Rather its direct etymology seems to be connected with certain West Anatolian festivities).
In some places, like Kujawy, all the village huts would be decorated with łopian (burdock) leaves (of the Asteraceae family – Kletten in German).
The wreaths would typically be made of bylica (artemisia or mugwort) though other plants were utilized as well, including piołun (common wormwood also a type of artemisia), dziurawiec (Saint John’s wort), leszczyna branches (hazel), mięta (mint), ruta (ruta or rue), biedrzeniec (pimpinella) or czarny bez (black elderberry) were seen as having beneficial powers on this day. Of course, the most coveted was the fern flower – a mythical flower much like the four-leafed clover. Women would take venture naked into the woods, most often with their male companions, in search of this flower. As I understand it, few had found the flower though some had had an altogether good time nevertheless.
In a related custom, the wreaths (wianki – pronounced “vyankee“) would often end up being placed on the surface of local rivers and sent gently floating with the current. Frequently, they would also carry an attached candle so that they remained visible from afar. While women would float the wreaths on water, young men would light small fires on the river banks. These custom continued even into the 18th and 19th centuries when inhabitants in Warsaw would gather on the banks of the Vistula to send their wreaths on the way to the sea while cheering them on from the local bridges. Local potentates would also give out small gifts to the public on the occasion and the common people would exchange presents amongst themselves. The last Polish king – Stanisuav Poniatowski – was recorded attending these events. Sometimes the plants were forgotten and other means were used to float a fire; for example, in Pomerania, local inhabitants would place small barrels full of tar on the water surface and set them on fire, watching them head out to the Baltic.
Such gatherings were known in Poland as sobótki (diminutive for “sabbaths”) or palinoce (pronounced “palinotze“) aka palinocki (pronounced “palinotzki“) (that is “burning nights”). The rituals are alluded too already in the 11th century by Thietmar who describes Mount Ślęża in Silesia. That same mountain would be referred to as sobótka in the 13th century. The clergy typically bemoaned such pre-Christian relicts and forbade them as I have described previously:
“Prohibit too the nightly dances that take place during days of the sabbath (sobótki or kupalnocki in the summer) and on the days of the Saints John the Baptist and Saints Peter and Paul, for there are fornications and adultery and incest committed in those times.” (Bishop Andrzej Łaskarz Statutes from the 1420s)
& here:
“populi multitudo sexus utriusque assolet de consuetudine confluere, ubi tubarum, timpanorum. fistularum, aliorumque musicorum generum exercicia adhibentur, chorearum ceterorumque jocorum plausus exercentur…” (Royal Decree of Casimir IV from 1468)
& here:
“For this reason these pagan [maidens] dedicated this herb to her and when the day [of Diana/Artemis] was celebrated some hung it up around houses while others girded it on: and this was done on the twenty fourth day of the moon [month] June, on our day of Saint John: and so they [the ladies] lit fires in the night, danced, praying and honoring the devil. [And] this pagan custom they [women] refuse to forsake to this day, for so they make offerings of this herb hanging it and girding it on. And they honour holidays of this devil [i.e., Diana/Artemis] by making sabaths [sobótki], burning fires, kindling fires with planks [sticks], so that there should be the right devilish holiness: there they sing devilish songs, obscene/filthy while dancing.” (Marcin of Urzędów, circa 1500 – 1573.:
It is curious that these festivities were so much like the festivities conducted around Rome in honor of the Deity Pales (the so-called parillia). Palić, of course, means “to burn” in Polish. For more on these customs, see here.
Dożynki
(Okrężne or Wieńcowe or Święto Plonów)
First, let us note that there were some harvest festivals that were done during the overall harvest but after the conclusion of harvesting particular type of grain. Specifically, after the collection of żyto (English secale or German Roggen) or pszenica (wheat or Weizen), you had the game of pępkowe. This involved catching the slowest female harvester and forcing her to cut the last stalk – the pęp or, in the diminutive, pępek. This pęp is made part of a bouquet consisting of it and a variety of field flowers collected and is carried by the “tardy” farmer girl to the manor house for which she is rewarded by the local lord along with the accompanying “crew.” Curiously, the pępek is also the name for the navel and the cutting appears to imitate the cutting of the umbilical cord as in a birthing ceremony.
Dożynki these days refers to the Polish harvest festival. Specifically, the word refers to the cutting (dożynać derived from żąć, that is ścinać, kosić, all of which refer to cutting) of the (final) harvest.
Technically, the meaning of the word may have changed over the years and in different parts of Poland. Thus, some think that the cutting that dożynki referred to originally was the cutting of the ozimina, that is of winter wheat, that is of a biennial crop, during the late fall. Technically, this was a separate – and later (in September/October) – activity from the earlier harvest of the current – annual – crop (in August/September). That is, after the actual harvest of the annual crop, the winter crop would be sown and prepped for the winter via the dożynanie and would be harvested next year (though, typically, earlier than the annual crop). As part of the dożynki of ozimina, a garland or wreath (wieniec) would be brought back to the village for the landlord.
If this is true then the earlier activity of the fall harvest was instead called okrężne, the act of going “around” the krąg that is around the fields and checking for any remaining crop. It was that name that came to mean the festivities associated with the harvest, including the ultimate feast/party.
However, because the fall harvest and the associated okrężne of the annual crop would come within a month or so of the dożynki of the biennial crop, the latter name – which could be associated just as easily with the cutting of the harvest as of the ozimina – ultimately displaced okrężne as the name given to the festivities and rituals associated with the fall harvest.
(In some places in Poland, the old name of okrężne now refers to the actual feast part of the dożynki, the latter, originally, unrelated term having subsumed the former. Also, in some places dożynki are called obrzynki and, elsewhere, more appropriately for dożynki, wieniec or wieńcowe (for example in Kujawy), names referring to wreaths that would be created as part of the dożynki of ozimina. Apparently, in Opole Silesia the harvest fest is called żniwniok. Finally, another common name is simply Święto Plonów or the Holiday of the Harvest).
In any event, here we are discussing the earlier-occuring harvest festival. This took place in August or in early September.
After clearing all the harvest from the fields by doing a final walkthrough “around” the fields and cutting the final kłos (the so-called “ear” or spike of the stem of a cereal plant), the villagers would make a garland/wreath entirely from the harvest cereal stalks and then head back to the village to celebrate. Sometimes the local lord’s kids would be part of the party coming from the fields. In some parts of the country this party also “captured” the landlord’s field officials – such as the field administrator and the lower-ranked tallyman (karbowy). These would then serve as “hostages.”
The group would then make its way through the fields to the house of the local lord (the dziedzic). They would find the gates closed but… after showing him the harvest wreath, they would be let in. (Compare this to the “gatekeeping” ceremony at the Temple of Svantovit at Arkona). If “hostages” had been taken, the landlord would now buy the “freedom” of his employees. Then the feast would begin.
The first drink would be taken by that local lord and the village leader, the highest ranking kmieć (that is farmer peasant), the so-called sołtys. After the feast the lord would dance with the village leader’s wife and the lady, the lord’s wife, lest you think this a one way street, would dance with the village leader (the sołtys). In other words, this particular feast’s economics brought all classes together.
Takci bywało, panie, pijaliśmy z sobą,
Ani gardził pan kmiotka swojego osobą;
Dziś wszystko już inaczej, wszystko spoważniało,
Jak to mówią, postawy dosyć, wątku mało.
Music, dancing and various games were part of the festival but the highlight, of course, was the actual feast.
Much preparation would go into ensuring a variety of drinks and foods were available for that party. Piwo (beer) was brewed along with miód (mead that is miód pitny which translates into “drinking honey” as opposed to regular honey) as well as other concoctions such as krupnik which, in this case, did not mean a soup but rather combination of vodka and mead. Cattle would be slaughtered for the beef. Among the soups, a popular type was, of course, barszcz (borscht). Bigos, the Polish stew combo of chopped meat (often beef) and cabbage (sauerkraut). Another course were the zrazy which were are thin slices of meat rolled around various stuffing components (mushrooms, vegetables, eggs, bacon, potatoes). For those grain-inclined, there was also kasza (kasha), typically made from gryka (buckwheat).
Interestingly, already Jan Długosz (15th century) mentions similar harvest celebrations in Lithuania as well. There, he says, the parties took place in the holy sacred groves to which the people would bring the harvest (presumably in thanks to the Gods) in the fall. They would also make offerings from oxen, calves and rams and would party for three days, eating (the food offerings!), dancing and playing a variety of games. It is not clear whether these were Lithuanian customs or the customs of those people who the Lithuanians captured from neighboring regions (such as Mazovia) and brought East as prisoners (typically to harvest and colonize the vast forest lands that covered most of Lithuania and Belarus).
The Rites of Winter
Dziady
Dziady – the day of remembrance for the dead be they direct “ancestors” or simply passed away relatives and friends – are perhaps the most remembered Suavic holiday. This is certainly largely due to Mickiewicz’s play of the same name which served to etch this particular practice into Polish memory. It is widely believed that the Christian All-Saints Day or All-Souls’ Day (zaduszki) replaced the ancient Polish pagan traditions. While this may be the case, the matter is rather more complicated than just that.
As a starting matter, ancient Suavs actually had several days devoted to the Dead at various times of the year. In Belarus, dziady were held at least three times: right before the end of zapusty (for that see below) at the beginning of the calendar year; during the week before the Green Holidays; and one or two weeks before All-Saints Day. In Poland, as discussed above, there were gromadki on Thursday before Easter. And, at the Christmas meal, a place is left at the table (complete with a plate and cutlery) for a “wanderer” though this may originally have been intended for souls of ancestors. This would suggest that such ancestor and dead remembrance customs were part of a number of Polish rites which, in and of themselves, had nothing to do with ancestors or the dead. Thus, perhaps a more accurate statement regarding the timing of these rites is that anytime there was a party, people would do the decent thing and also take a moment away from the festivities to recall their dead relatives. Perhaps this was out of a desire to secure the favor of the dead in the upcoming undertaking, or to placate them so that they would at least not interfere with such undertaking or simply out of a human need to remember.
Further, to the extent we look for Suavic origins of the Christian holy days from the beginning of November, that is of the All-Souls or All-Saints Day, we should look rather to an earlier calendar time for associated traditions. It was in Belarus that the Christianity failed to stamp out various ancient practices associated with ancestor remembrance. And as mentioned above, in Belarus, a dziady holiday fell around the middle of October (though this may perhaps be a result of the Eastern calendar being used). What was it like? The practices (mentioned by Tyszkiewicz as quoted by Józef Gołąbek in Dziady Białoruskie) included: at night calling upon the shadows of the dead in what we would today describe as a séance): tossing crumbs for the shadows of those dead – not necessarily ancestors though all relations – who died in the given dwelling; the leaving of food and drink outside on the exterior window sill so as to provide food for traveling souls; finally, visiting the graves and delivering the food and drink to those dead who did not decide to come to the house.
In some parts of eastern Poland similar practices persisted though they had been mostly stamped out. Specifically, in the Ruthenian Podlasie (around Bielsk Podlaski), we have evidence of the dziady on the first of October. This suggests that the feast itself could also be connected with the harvest feasts. In any event, the whole feast would begin with the placing of a candle called gromnica in the main “honorary” corner of the house called pokut (hence pokuta – penance? or is it simply from pokąt meaning “corner”). (Incidentally, a gromnica was also the type of candle placed in the hand of the deceased, supposedly to help light the way for such departed. Further, as noted above, a gromnica, was also used prior to spring arriving to ward of thunder strikes). The dishes would be richly prepared as much as for Chrismas save that they were mainly meat dishes (not fish, as for Christmas). Further, the feast would begin with a drink and some of it would be spilled under the table for the dead souls. Likewise, morsels of food from each dish would be thrown under the table for the same purpose.
Interestingly, another festival similar to dziady was still alive in the 19th century in Bretagne (see the remarks of Józef Henryk Kallenbach on the work of Anatole Le Braz regarding the practices in Spézet, Bretagne). Whether the similarities are due to Celtic or Venetic influence is, of course, another interesting question.
Gwiazdka & Jasełka
The winter festival of Gwiazdka was the same as Kolęda. Gwiazda means “star”. However, long forgot, it also meant a “tree.” Around this time people would walk around the village with a “star” and sing, what we would today call, carols. These carols to this day are known as kolędy. Although koledy is generally derived from the Latin calends, this may simply be because the Latin word was recorded first. Lęda in Polish means simply an untilled field and is cognate with “land.” From this name we have also the tribal name of the Lendians (Lędzianie also, possibly, cognate with Leugii/Lugii). Among the Eastern Suavs going out to hold festivities in the untilled field (kolyada) in the winter seems similar to going out to hold festivities in the tilled fields (kupala) in the summer (with “ku” meaning towards or, alternatively, koło meaning “around”).
All this involved two further characters: the gwiazdor as well the Toruń or Turoń. The gwiazdor was the bringer of presents (a forerunner to Santa Claus) and he was represented symbolically by the gwiazda – the star that was carried around. Behind that star there would sometimes “hide” the Turoń. This was a person typically dressed as an animal of uncertain pedigree – a quasi horse, bull and goat (etymologically connected with the tur or auroch, a similar “bull” figure reappears during the Easter season as Tracz or traczyk). When the party arrived at a house, wishing happy festivities, the Turon previously “hidden” by the gwiazdor would jump out and act out all kinds of craziness.
At this time, ancient Poles celebrated jasełka from the Polish jasło meaning a “manger” or “feeder”. A manger (which comes from the French “manger” meaning “to eat”) corresponds to the Polish jasło which refers to eating presumably in the context of winter feasting connected with the gwiazdka (the word jasełko reappears at Easter where it refers to a small typically wooden bowl with offerings). It seems somewhat suspicious however that the name is also possibly cognate with Jasion – the Polish Primary Deity associated with the Sun and Moon. In general, however, the feats days appear to coincide with the start of “eating” through the winter supplies gathered at harvest time. Once the days began to be longer and the “Tree” began to grow back, the villagers felt freer to dig into the garnered provisions in expectation of Spring. (The Church appears to have transmuted this holiday into the celebration of the birth of Jesus who, curiously, was alleged to have been born at an animal feeder, that is a “manger” or trough (German Raufe, Krippe = crib). The fact that a manger looks like a baby crib may have had something to do with the association of these two concepts. The Christian version added young men walking around the village with a “szopka” which is a crèche.)
In the house, the tree was not used but jemioła (mistletoe) would frequently be hung from the ceiling. In other instances this would be the tip of a fir, spruce or pine. This was called podłaźniczka or podłaźnik (which with the pod- meaning “under” seems to refer to the ceiling somehow, though łaźnia means hot baths so who knows) or, in the Christian nomenclature sad rajski (Garden of Eden) or simply, jutka or wiecha or gaj (like gaik). Alternatively, it was called boże drzewko – God’s tree – of course the plant used had to be evergreen or at least then green. The ash tree, that is jesion – is, of course, deciduous and, thus, had to be reborn to be green again.
These winter festivals started after the winter solstice (around Christmas or, really, the Roman Feast of Sol Invictus) and continued for the next two weeks or so.
Zapusty
After that the winter merrymaking continued for the next month under the name zapusty (starting with the Christian Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings Day and basically corresponding to the carnival). In fact, although certain aspects of the winter holidays are associated with their beginning – such as the gwiazdor and the jasełka, in general it is fair to say that the festivities rolled right into the new year and the partying continued throughout this entire period.
Among the wealthier classes of Polish society, a popular entertainment was the kulig – sleigh ride through the snow covered country between various manors. Often multiple sleighs would take part along with accompanying horses of servants. The travelers would don on various outrageous costume and would drive manor to manor picking up further participants. One manor would be selected as the final destination and a messenger would be sent ahead to inform the inhabitants of the impending arrival of the party. The host would arrive at the gates, where the lights were out and all was pitch dark as the locals would act as if they were not expecting anyone’s arrival. One of the party would knock on the doors, be let in and after some time “arguing” and negotiating with the manor dwellers, the lights would go on as a signal that the party was welcomed in at which point they would all stream in. These kuligs would often last several days and sometimes made multiple way stations.
Towards the end of the of the “zapusty” period (especially on Tuesday “zapustny“), final days of partying took place – the so-called ostatki. The custom of dressing up and walking around the village also also made its come back at this time. Specifically, young men went around dressed up as bears, horses, goats or storks and went around the village usually in the afternoon. This typically involved having the animal head attached to a stick along with sheets covering the young actor hiding under the same. The “animal” – much like the afore-mentioned Turoń – would then jump, poke and the like. Its mouth was movable with the jaw controlled by a piece of rope that the actor or his colleagues would operate to imitate speech. They would stop by a house and then the various animals would act up and sing. Sometimes this was referred to as a koza that is a “goat.” The whole group would then end up in a tavern in the evening where they would collect money to pay for the local violin player. This donation was called podkoziołek. In exchange the player “sells” various young ladies to the paying men. Conversely, those women who have not been sold pay him for an unspoken for man. All of this is done with jesting, cheering, jeering and singing and the group ends up dancing. In other places, the actual zapust would be personified with men walking around wearing conical paper hats with colorful ribbons. Occasionally, they called themselves bachuski (as if referring to Bacchus).
The name zapusty is somewhat mysterious. It may refer to the preparation for the great fasting of the Lent (that is post). Or it may refer to something like zaloty, that is courtships – the “preliminaries” of the Rites of Summer. Thus, for example, it was common to attach klocki that is “blocks” – in actuality consisting of sticks, bones or chicken feet – to those who did not get married during these festivities. Another alternative, and perhaps more likely, is to the eating of the winter supples – zapasy or, perhaps even more likely, to the emptying of cellars and granaries (“pusty” means empty). Presumably, it is not related to winter neglect (zapuszczone) of the fields or of the person’s appearance.
Gromnica/Marzanna
The last well-known winter rites consisted in the preparation for the arrival of spring and the official throwing out of winter.
The gromnica was the candle used in the ritual protection of the house against the desired but potentially dangerous arrival of spring storms (or, likely, of the Sky God – Jasion). It was meant to protect against thunder (grom) and specifically the effects of that thunder such as, of course, fires. The candle would be used to ward off thunder by making crosses on the main beam of the house. This was apparently absorbed into the Christian feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Tempe which in Poland was called Matki Boskiej Gromnicznej, that is the the Mother of God of Gromnica or, if you will, of thunder perhaps. When spring storms came, the same candles would be brought out to ward off the house being struck with thunder (keeping in mind that these houses almost universally had thatched roofs at that time).
With the defensive preparations for spring out of the way, you could move on to getting rid of winter. This was done by dressing up and taking out of the village the puppet of Marzanna. Typically, this puppet would be made of straw, dressed up and then officially transported out of the village to a nearby body of water into which it would be thrown. This has been interpreted as a ritual drowning of “winter/death” personified but matters are not so simple. Długosz identified Marzanna with Ceres and it appears that he was onto something. It is noteworthy that where no body of water was readily available, the villagers would sometimes burn the puppet. In this regard, as noted before, marznąć means “to freeze” and zamarzać means to freeze over. Interesting connotations may be seen in other “earthly” words such as the East Slavic mir (world), morze/mare (sea) or zmora (nightmare also perhaps connected to the “mare” horse). Thus, the puppet appears to be nothing more as the frozen Earth personified and the act of unfreezing Mother Earth is done by melting in running water (“drowning” but not really) or by the use of of fire, that is, burning. The fact that early Suavs used slash-and-burn agriculture (on “the Earth”) also suggests a connotation to the beginning of the agricultural cycle. The role of the Sky God in all of this who tosses bolts that “melt” the Earth (compare the PIE *meldh- with młot or molot (hammer) and miollnir – the “melting tool” of the Sky God with which He unfreezes the Earth, that is is the “Great Melter”).
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