Litha
Today at 6:28AM [CDT] is the Summer Solstice, technically considered the “first day of Summer”, but the mid Summer by much of Europe.
Many Wiccans celebrate the day as Litha, while computer programmers honor their predecessors, the druids, who build the first solid-state computing devices, the megaliths, like Stonehenge.
The Slavs celebrate St. John’s Night, Иван Купала [Ivan Kupala], the battle between the White god [Белобог – Belobog] and the Black god [Чёрнобог – Chyornobog] for control of the Sun. The Black god always wins and the night begins to expand.
The sound track to the battle is Иванова Ночь на Лысой Горе [Night on Bald Mountain ] by Модест Петрович Мусоргский [Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky], which everyone should play very loudly.
Archæoastronomy tracks all of the important solar events, another of the many things I learned from Andante.
6 comments
Don’t you know Berezovsky’s hands must have ached after this piano rendition of Night on Bald Mountain!
And everyone should be aware that Wicca is a 20th-century creation, and that the name was standardized only in about 1960. “Things are seldom what they seem….”
Litha is actually the Celtic version of the solstice, while Kupala is the Slavic holiday that was highjacked by Christianity and called the feast day of John the Baptist.
We are a little short of traditional Celts around here, but there are a few brave people who identify as Wiccans. Hell, even though there are fair number of Russians in the area now, I seriously doubt if they know much about the old “mythology”.
I would really like to see something that connects witches with Kupala. The Vedma of the Slavic tradition was a wise woman. Baba Yaga is often cited as a Russian “witch”, but that’s not really the role she fulfills, since, unlike the European version of “witch”, Baba Yaga rewards virtue and punishes sins. Of course, a chicken-legged hut is pretty witchy, but Granny Yaga is only one who is ever mentioned in the tales, so it would be had to hold a big party of one on a mountatin.
Birches are flexible, so Berezovsky should be fine [Berez is birch].
I dine at the hut of Baba Yega [sic] from time to time, and it’s charming and quaint-looking, but I believe the only chicken legs are in the pans in the kitchen. Recommended if you pass through Houston. Go on a sunny but mild day and sit facing (or in) the back yard; the view is as pleasant as the meal.
I assume it is not in a swamp with a fence topped with skulls around it 😉
In many ways she is the Slavic version of Granny Weatherwax.
Well, Bryan, one can reasonably argue that all of Houston is a swamp…
I’ve often wondered why this extremely pleasant establishment was named after a Slavic legend of a witch, but no one, including the current owner, has been able to tell me. The web site begins its About page with the sentence, “Our cozy cafe, named after a Slavic witch, has been a favorite in the Montrose area since 1975.” And it has. But there are no cutesy witch-related names, or Slavic names for that matter, on the menu. Very ordinary dishes… “veggie Reuben sandwich” … turn into something extraordinary there. Their veggie meatloaf reminds me so much of Mom’s real meatloaf I wonder why I ever ate real meat (mostly because Mom seldom cooked vegetarian fare). There’s a parking lot, but expect it to be full, and to have to park a block away on a side street… unless you have a handicapped hang-tag or plates.
Now I miss the food, and the Montrose, in which I grew up…
It sounds like it started as a Russian Deli which morphed into a cafe, and then added vegen. It makes sense for a port city.
As it changed hands, people would forget the reason for the name, but keep it for its “good will” value and local identity.
Baba Yaga is definitely tied to swamps, and would come to mind for a Slav.