Kupala

Polish Noc Świętojańska or Sobótka Russian, Belarusian Купала may mean the traditional fest or the god. Kupała and Купала have the same 'letter to letter' sense and pronunciation is just written in different alphabets.

Feast

Ivan Kupala Day (John the bather day) is the feast day of John the Baptist in some Central and East European countries, held near the summer solstice.

For some neo-pagans Kupała, also known as Sobótka is the fest celebrated upon the Summer solstice in June. They believe that it was a sacred holy day honoring the two most important elements of Fire and Water. The tradition is to burn fires at end of the day; take bath in open waters at sunset, singing and dancing around 'pal' till midnight. At midnight under the pretcest of searching for flower of Fern unmarried run into forest. Ladies with flowers diadem on head (Polish: wianek), symbol of unmarried state run first signing, next are followed by single men. 'If you find flower of Fern' the wishes of life may be fulfilled, however nobody found it so far but they lived happily together... The lucky man return with, flower ring on his head to now engaged lady.

Jan Kochanowski, a Polish poet who happened to participate in the festivities, gives a description of the night in his Pieśń o Sobótce, Jan Kochanowski, Quote: :Gdy słońce Raka zagrzewa, :A słowik więcej nie śpiewa, :Sobótkę, jako czas niesie, :Zapalono w Czarnym Lesie url:[1]</ref>

The younger girls all, dressed in white, float her flowers (with candles) on the rivers, the sign, somebody may discover and come next year to her to exchange the dray flowers for flourishing wianek of her.

The pal en:pole all dances around is a symbol of tree of life and kupala older ką pala or now "ku palu" mean to pole, in the direction of pole. The taking bath in water is kąpele . The way of signing whithot acompaniament is a kapella. The tradition of Kupala may have old IE origin. Kochanowski relation of the folk song highlight it few times:

Tak to matki nam podały, | Our mothers gave it to us

Samy także z drugich miały | They also from their mothers inherited it

A teraz ten wieczór sławny

Święćmy jako zwyczaj dawny

In other verses is described the pra old character of this fest. And the tradition especially watering the flowers rings continue today the youngest keep best the tradition.

Deity

In his book Deutsche Mythologie (1835), Jacob Grimm noted that Russians used the word "kupala" to describe the bonfires they lit at the summer solstice, and recorded that some people explained the word as the name Kupulo, a harvest god.^[1]

In Slavonic neo-paganism, Kupała is the goddess of herbs, sorcery, sex, and midsummer. She is also the Water Mother, associated with trees, herbs, and flowers. Her celebration falls upon the Summer solstice in June, which is a sacred holy day honoring the two most important elements of Fire and Water.

References

^ Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, trans. James Steven Stallybras, p.624.