Ivan Kupala Day: What kind of holiday is it and when will we celebrate it in 2024? HistoryTraditions, rituals, customs Signs What Christian holiday is celebrated on the same day? What mystical plants are associated with Ivan Kupala Day: about ferns and more
Ivan Kupala Day: What is it and when will we celebrate it in 2024?
Ivan Kupala Day is a pagan holiday of the Slavs, symbolizing the beginning of a new natural cycle and connecting two elements: fire and water. This holiday is also called Midsummer Day, Kupala, and is always celebrated on July 7 (June 24, old style). More precisely, the celebration begins at 12 o’clock on July 6 on the Day of Agrafena the Bathing Lady, when, according to legend, a magic flower blooms on a fern once a year.
Let’s say right away that there is no pagan deity named Ivan Kupala. The famous Russian ethnographer Ivan Sakharov writes that the word “Kupala” appeared only in the 17th century, and before that the Russians called this holiday Midsummer Night. Among the Czechs, Serbs and Poles it was known as Sobotok;
Photo: Andrey Bok / RIA Novosti
History
According to one version, the holiday has its roots in the paganism of the Eastern Slavs, as it coincides with an important reference point for farmers. The summer solstice falls at this time (another starting point is the winter solstice, which coincides with Christmas). The holiday is celebrated at the height of the flowering of nature and our ancestors observed special rituals, counting down a new important period. Recall that according to the old style, Ivan Kupala is June 24, which almost coincides with the current summer solstice, which falls on June 21. Where did you lose three days? The astronomical date of the summer solstice is considered floating and falls in late June or early July. So there is no mistake.
Traditions, rituals, customs.
Fire, water and magical herbs – all of these are closely related to the traditions of the holiday.
I definitely had to swim
It was believed that on the night before the day of the bathing suit of Agrafena (this is June 6), it was necessary to swim, either in the river or in the bathhouse. There are references to the fact that if the bathhouse was heated on that day, men were not allowed in, women went there alone, told fortunes and read conspiracies against the grooms. In the evening, after bathing, girls had to go out into the street or gather on a high hill, sing special ritual songs, and women cooked ritual porridge for the day of the summer solstice.
Jumping over the fire
On the night of July 6-7, Slavs lit bonfires near rivers and, holding hands, jumped over the fire. Our ancestors believed that only on this day water is a friend of fire. Researchers mention that fire was produced, as in ancient times, by friction, and this custom in some regions persisted until the 20th century.
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / RIA Novosti
He jumped into the nettle bushes.
Ethnographer Ivan Sakharov writes that young people jumped not only over fire, but also over nettles.
Crowns were dipped into the water.
On Ivan Kupala, girls were looking for their brides. They dipped wreaths into the water. If the wreath floated, there would soon be a wedding. They even plowed country roads so that matchmakers could quickly reach the girl’s house.
Photo: Victor Pogontsev / RG
Medicinal herbs collected
Early in the morning on July 7, you should collect medicinal herbs and herbs for a love potion. For example, bear’s ear (bearberry) – this plant has a diuretic effect, or bathing suit. Bathing suit has a diuretic and anti-inflammatory effect – by the way, our ancestors used it to prepare a love potion.
Mystical properties were attributed to the overwhelming herb, which was also collected in the midsummer evening. It was sometimes called the mermaid flower (most often it is a white or yellow water lily).
Our ancestors believed that the day of the summer solstice was celebrated not only by people, but also by witches who gathered on some mountain. In Belarus, on summer evenings, they even locked horses in the stable so that witches would not ride them until Saturday.
Signs
If there is a lot of dew on a summer night, there will be a large harvest of cucumbers. The cuckoo sings all night – for the autumn cold. If it rains on St. John’s Day, it means that the summer will be hot.
What Christian holiday is celebrated on the same day?
The birth of John the Baptist is celebrated on the same day as Ivan Kupala. The history of this Christian holiday dates back to the 3rd century, but it did not appear in general church calendars until the 11th century.
Ivan Kupala and John the Baptist have nothing in common. That’s a coincidence.
Interesting facts about ferns and more.
Fern
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s wonderful story “The Night on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” is dedicated to Ivan Kupala Day. It has everything: mysticism, treasures, love and a magical fern flower that blooms only once a year and has magical powers.
To those who find it, riches will be revealed and they will be granted power over evil spirits.
By the way, the fern is also called the bracken. As the ethnographer Ivan Petrovich Sakharov wrote in his book “Tales of the Russian People”, the nomad’s flower has magical powers. It appears in the middle of the night on July 6-7 and burns in the darkness, then jumps, and then returns to its place again, fluttering like a small bird. And all because the flower is protected by evil spirits that prevent a person from finding and picking it. At 12 o’clock at night, the flower blooms, burns with a bright fire, illuminating everything around. But at that moment the person can no longer pick it – the flower already belongs to evil spirits.
Photo: Ilya Naimushin / RIA Novosti
Anyone who finds a bright flower, in order to seize it and protect himself from demons and witches, must draw a circle around the fern and wait for it to bloom. Evil spirits will interfere, scare, make noise, but you can’t look at them… Do you recognize them? This is Gogol’s Viy. The writer, by the way, wrote that this is a legend, which he told almost word for word. There is no doubt that it has echoes of St. John’s Day.
tirlich grass
Another plant is closely associated with this holiday: the herb tirlich (gentian), which supposedly gives strength to witches, and can only be found by them on Bald Mountain near the Dnieper. And only on St. John’s Day. In Dahl’s explanatory dictionary, tirlich is described as “mad grass.”
By the way, it was to Bald Mountain that Naina Kievna, the heroine of the Strugatskys’ fairy tale “Monday Begins on Saturday”, went to meet her witch friends. And the Strugatskys also have Viy. The wonderful film “Sorcerers” was made based on the story; the song “River Witch” is dedicated to Bald Mountain.
weeping grass
Another mystical plant of the summer solstice is the weeping grass (merlin), which, as our ancestors believed, could scare away evil spirits. The plant (by the way, quite tall, more than a meter) had to be pulled out of the ground without a shovel or pitchfork, along with the roots. Ivan Sakharov describes cases when commoners came to church with this plant and almost knocked it into the altar. With good intentions, of course.
