The Awakening of the Earth – Spring Equinox & Slavic Practice
March & spring equinox in Ukrainian folk practice, some thoughts on spring customs in Eastern Europe under cut here.
Until the end of the Middle Ages, Rus marked the beginning of the year in spring. Slavs welcomed the return of warmth and life to nature and considered it a start of a new cycle. This is the point 0 from which your fortune and fate is measured for another year.
In Ukraine, there is a ritual of stepping on a corydalis flower and saying, “as I am stomping on corydalis (a saying meaning “to be alive”) this year, may I do so a year from now”.
Although we can feel it some time before, an obvious turning point is the spring equinox. Current Slavic Pagan communities reconstruct the festival in various ways. Commonly accepted is the holiday of Komoyidytsia/Komoyeditsa, originally dedicated to the awakening of bears from sleep. Some choose to place the departure of the goddess Morana on this date.
The Ukrainian folk understanding of this time is expressed in the celebration of Annunciation on the 25th of March. This is a day dedicated to the earth, the soil. It is believed that she awakens, and so do all her many children. Small animals, snakes return to the surface on this day. It is mandatory to allow the earth to rest: it is strictly forbidden to do any work on it on this holiday. Generally, any labour was considered taboo (“on this day a bird does not make her nest and a maiden does not make her braid“). After that, “every breath becomes blessed” and work can start. People would also bless bread to use later in charms for health and fertility of the field.
The common themes of the equinox is the awakening of the earth, the respect paid to her as a sovereign collaborator, and natural blessings for the year ahead: health, beauty, and fecundity.
In that way, the equinox centers Maty Syra Zemlia, Makosha, and Veles, the master of animals.
In my hearth practice, a particular interest falls on the return of snakes to the land, as these animals are associated with earth in folk understanding, and are linked to the most ancient expressions of the Earth Mother.
This is the last moment of stillness before the labours of our hands and minds are demanded of us again.
