1. Lelya (Lelya, Lyulya, Leela)
On May 5 (grass), according to the old style on April 22, the Slavs celebrated the day of Lelya, otherwise - Lelnik, or Krasnaya Gorka. To this day, it is believed that marriages concluded on Krasnaya Gorka are always happy and for life. Why is that? Yes, because this is Lelin's day, and Lelia is with us …
Lelya is the sister of Mary and Zhiva. One of the three daughters born to Lada after she ate the sacred pike caught in the sour cream lake.
Lelya.
Lelya is the embodiment of girlish purity and innocence, a spirit that protects all young women who have reached the age at which they became brides. This is not a Goddess, not an idol and not an idol, as is now mistakenly believed. Ignorance of the foundations of the Slavic worldview, ignorance and arrogance gave rise to a persistent myth that our ancestors were "idolaters".
It seemed to people with limited thinking, unable to understand and comprehend concepts that were inaccessible to their consciousness, that the Slavs had, in their opinion, primitive ideas about the structure of the world. In fact, everything is exactly the opposite. This is unreasonable to them, they had to explain what Lelya is in the form of images available for their understanding. In about the same way now they explain to schoolchildren what an electric current is. It is impossible to touch, smell and see it. But it is easy to imagine in the form of some "bugs" running along the wires.
For the unreasonable, they also visualized the image of Lelia as a beautiful young blonde girl with blue eyes. How else to explain what is the energy of awakening the instinct of motherhood in a girl? In nature, this energy is clearly manifested during the transition from the early gray spring to the phase of the first greenery. This is not yet the time when nature is ready to bear fruit, but this is the very moment when all the signs of readiness for awakening and growth appear, for subsequent conception.
That is why the image of Lelia, in contrast to the images of Zhiva, Mary and Lada, is considered exclusively in relation to nature. Like early spring, which is no longer winter, but spring that has not yet bloomed all the greenery, Lelya is no longer a girl, but still not a woman. But she carries the power of the Family, and therefore is considered one of the women in labor, along with Lada and Makosh. She is a conductor of the most powerful and creative energy of the Family, the energy of love, which is the force without which the continuation of the family is impossible.
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In the cultures of many peoples, a moose cow was given a similar role. It is no coincidence that in the Russian tradition the image of Leli was depicted as a moose cow. Another symbol of Lelya is a birch.
The ritual side of the celebration of Lelnik is very curious. In fact, this is a game in which one of the girls was chosen by lot, who became the mistress and organizer of all the games for the entire duration of the celebration. The games were held on the most elevated place, which was located close to housing, this is called Krasnaya Gorka. There they set up benches covered with embroidered towels, and laid out cheese, cottage cheese, bread, butter, sour cream, jugs of milk, and … Painted eggs (!!!). Eggs - Easter eggs, painted and unpainted, with painted images of animals, mainly moose and deer. This is where the roots of the tradition of dyeing eggs for Easter burrow.
The meals were eaten by young people not as is customary now, sitting at the table, but during games. Everyone who wanted to take a break would come to the benches and treat themselves to whatever the eye could find. And after that, he again joined the general game. Very similar to a buffet, isn't it?
There is another curious coincidence. In Sanskrit there is a noun "lila" or "leela", and translated into Russian it means "game". Of course, this may be an accidental coincidence, but most likely it was Lelnik, the merrymaking on the red hill, became the personification of the very concept of "game" among the Indians.
In some Western cultures, echoes of the celebration of Lelnik have survived. The Greeks called Lelya Persephone. And the Italians called Krasnaya Gorka Primavere. It sounds like a hint for the Italians themselves, they say, learn Russian, and maybe you will understand that primavere is not the “first green”, but “the first faith”. Those. the first culture common to all peoples of Eurasia.
2. Yarilo (Yarila, Yarovit, Jaromir)
Yarilo is the son of Dodola and Veles, the middle of the incarnations of the Sun, older than Dazhdbog and younger than the ruler of the winter Sun - Khorsa. This is a frantic, indomitable spirit of the birth of everything new, the male hypostasis of spring. It is no coincidence that Yarilin's day was celebrated after Lely's day, on May 6 (travenia), on April 23, according to the old style. And it is no coincidence that, in accordance with Slavic myths, Yarilo became Lelia's first lover. True, this love did not become mutual. Yarilo confessed to Lele that he was not able to love her alone, because he was in love with her sisters Maru and Zhivu. Anyway, he loves all women, both human and immortal. And Lelya later became the wife of Finist, born by Semargl.
Yarilo is the embodiment of wild spring. He suffered in the arms of the mistress of the fierce cold and death of Mara, broke free, and went into a rage, reviving the dead, restoring the destroyed, creating a new life. He, like Lelya, is endowed with the gift of the Rod himself, is able to create a new life.
Originally, the word rage had a different meaning than it is now. Rage is a concept filled with an extremely positive meaning, and was associated only with spring, rebirth, and the emergence of new life. That is why cereals planted in spring are called "spring", and the wheat field was called "yaritsa" earlier.
No matter how paradoxical it may seem at first glance, the energy of the water flow is also under the jurisdiction of Yarila. But this is only at first glance. In fact, everything is very easily explained by the melting of snow and water flows that rush into the lowlands and erode the soil. Such ravines are still called yars.
Indomitable, violent, loving Yarilo is known in Western cultures as Eros. Some culturologists believe that Cupid and Apollo are also gods, the prototype of which can be considered Yarilu.
It is noteworthy that the five-pointed red star was considered the symbol of Yarila. Surely the authors of the Soviet symbols were well aware of this.
Yarila's rune - oud:
Ud.
Udom, originally called the male genital organ. That is why in the word “pleasure” the root is “ud”.
There were no festivities on Yarilin's day in the conventional sense. The ceremony was extremely simple. Early in the morning, for the first time since winter, shepherds drove their cattle out to pasture. In front of the gates, on the pasture, an embroidered towel was spread, with the symbols of Veles - the patron saint of cattle breeding, and Yarila - the inseminator of the Earth, so that the cattle remember the way to the house. Before the pasture, colored eggs were broken on the heads of the leaders - bulls, goats and rams, and given to the shepherd so that he could have breakfast on the pasture.
The shepherd drove the herd to graze, and took them home immediately after the dew dried on the grass. They said that it was the "Yarilino seed" with which he fertilized Mother Earth. It was believed that on this day Yarilo "unlocked" the land, ie. deprived her of her virginity, and conceived the next harvest.
From Yarilin's day they began to plow the land. The farmers said that the lazy plow also leaves for Yarila. Spring weddings began on the same day.
But they did not forget about May 6 and Dazhdbog.
3. Dazhbog (Dazhbog, Dab, Radegast, Radigosh)
Dazhdbog is the youngest of three brothers, the summer incarnation of Ra. The youngest, but the most powerful. He took over the reins of government from the hands of Yarila on the day of the summer solstice, who took them from Khorsa on the day of the vernal equinox.
Dazhbog. Author Maxim Presnyakov.
This is the spirit of fertility and maturation. Unlike the boy Khorsa and the eternal seeker of love adventures Yarila, Dazhdbog is a husband and a warrior. It is he who is called the Ipatiev Chronicle and the Word about Igor's regiment, the progenitor of all Russians.
He is the patron saint of all cultivators, but he is also a great warrior. Dazhdbog was described as a horseman, in golden armor, with a shield and a spear in his hand. Doesn't it remind anyone? Hint: - on the same day, May 6, Christians celebrate the Day of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious. Coincidence? I don’t think so! The image of a rider striking a serpent with a spear is much older than Christianity itself, not to mention Saint George. It is found during excavations of Scythian burial mounds.
And if you know that Dazhdbog was one of the participants in the First Battle of Good and Evil, then we can confidently say that the horse spearman is precisely Dazhdbog, and not George. It was he who brought victory, defeating Chernozmey (Chernobog) in the final battle, and forced him to withdraw to the Navier kingdom. Therefore, the victorious, although Semargl, Svarog and Stribog helped him.
And the sunny color of his golden armor was reflected on the banner of Great Tartary, where a griffin was depicted on a golden field. The personal banner of the Great Khan depicted an owl on a gold background. Later, the Russian Empire took over this banner, only a two-headed eagle was depicted instead of a griffin.
Dazhdbog's wife was Lelia's sister, Zhiva, with whom they revived life on Earth after the great flood. In order for people to populate the devastated lands faster, they gave birth to a son Arius, who became the progenitor of all living people with white skin and light eyes.
The Slavs remembered Dazhdbog on Yarilin day, that's why:
The fact is that initially it was Mara, the eldest of Lada's three daughters, who "laid eyes" on Dazhdbog, and wanted to become his wife. But Dazhdbog refused, and chose to Live. And it happened, supposedly on this very day, from which people were very happy. And there are also legends that it was on this day that Dazhdbog brought from the Caucasus mountains a herd of cows stolen by Veles in Iria in order to give them to mortal men. So, on one day, the celebration of two incarnations of the Sun - Yarila and Dazhdbog - came together.
Author: kadykchanskiy
