It is believed that Santa Claus and Snegurochka are relatively young, as they appeared only in the 19th century. This is only partially true, since it concerns literary characters invented by writers. In the mythology of the Slavs, Frost, Ded Treskun, Snegurochka and Snowflake appeared in time immemorial. We will try to trace their history from the very beginning.
Ded Moroz first appears in the fairy tale "Moroz Ivanovich" by Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky, written in 1840. The Snow Maiden is a little younger, because the fairy tale by Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl “The Snow Maiden Girl” was published in 1861. Both authors were great connoisseurs and connoisseurs of Slavic fairy tales, so it is not difficult to guess what inspired them in their work.
Well forgotten perfume
Almost all the tales that grandmothers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have told their grandchildren for centuries are based on more ancient and serious sources - myths. In ancient times, our ancestors worshiped many spirits that surrounded a person all around - in the forest, in the field, on the river and lake, in the yard and even at home.
Communicated with each of the spirits on a certain day of the year, arranging a celebration with various rituals. The priest organized dances and chants dedicated to the deity and everyone believed that the spirit entered the body of a cult minister. Often such holidays were accompanied by the acting out of scenes with the participation of people disguised as spirits. They could clearly show the struggle between spring and winter or light with darkness.
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Today we treat such events with humor, but earlier everything was very serious. Our ancestors were sure that if the ceremony did not take place, the spring could be delayed and because of this the harvest would not have time to ripen and hunger would begin. The scenarios of these performances, which talked about the struggle between good spirits and evil ones and their interaction with people, are the very myths that have come down to us in the form of fairy tales.
With the development of civilization, myths played an ever less significant role in the life of people, because with each century, people more and more relied on their strength and knowledge. Myths formed the basis of science, as they contained information accumulated by generations about weather changes, the movement of luminaries and other phenomena around a person.
You can also confidently say that mythology has played a huge role in the development of art. Carving idols, making ceremonial jewelry and garments, staging cult dances and songs - all of this has turned into visual arts, theater and literature.
Over the centuries, stories about spirits, heroes and their world have acquired many details and turned into fairy tales, which writers and poets happily exploit in their creations. But, in spite of everything, traces of mythology are clearly visible in many modern fairy tales.
Daughter of Frost or Baba Yaga?
The secret of Santa Claus lies in his very name. Today the word "pestilence" means a deadly epidemic. But in ancient times its meaning was different - Latin mors, Italian morte, Spanish muerte, French mort and, most importantly, the ancient Indo-European mertis, meant the same as pestilence, namely: death.
It turns out that Santa Claus was the spirit of winter and death - Blight. It is quite logical to assume that the patronymic of his daughter will sound like Morovna. In Slavic mythology, there is a character with a similar patronymic - Marya Morevna! The very bride of Ivan Tsarevich and the sorceress who managed to confine Koshchei the Immortal himself in chains.
But in some fairy tales Marya Morevna is also a friend of Baba Yaga, and sometimes even her own daughter. How did it happen that the fairytale beauty got involved with the ugly, evil old woman from the forest? Historians claim that, among other powerful spirits, the ancient Slavs also revered Mora or Morena, who was considered the goddess of winter and death.
Morena is often mentioned on birch bark in Novgorod letters. One of them was written by the hand of a man who wants to reason with the prince and make him refuse too generous gifts to guests, on the eve of winter. "Morena, give reason to our prince, remind your winter anger," he writes, referring to the mistress of the winter bad weather.
It can be assumed that Morevna is not a middle name at all, but a slightly distorted name of an ancient deity. In Polish and Bulgarian folklore, this character has survived to this day. The Bulgarians call this spirit Mara-Lishanka and believe that at the beginning of winter he appears as a young maiden, but by the end of her it grows old and becomes an ugly evil witch. Maybe in this transition lies the connection between the beautiful Marya Morevna and Baba Yaga?
More recently, Bulgarians and Poles, in honor of the end of winter, made a Morena doll out of straw or rags and burned it. Immediately remember the death of the fabulous Snow Maiden, who died while jumping over the fire.
From all this it follows that on New Year's Eve, not some abstract literary heroes from the tales of Odoevsky and Dal, tied by Stalin's decree to the holiday in 1937, come to us, but the ancient spirits of winter - Mor and Morena, whom we call Grandfather in the new fashion Frost and Snow Maiden. For thousands of years, nothing has changed, we just forgot a little the meaning of certain rituals and distorted the names of the deities.