OREANDA-NEWS. The traditional Eastern Slavic holiday of Ivan Kupala is celebrated on July 7th. Kupala is not a public holiday, therefore there is no additional holiday on this day.

The history of the holiday of Ivan Kupala contains information that such a double name arose at a time when the Church tried to completely replace the pagan holiday with a Christian one. The priests were extremely negative about the festivities and fortune-telling that took place on this day. Constantly tried to ban them, considering this kind of amusement godless, demonic and connected them with the worship of the unclean.

Traditions. After lunch 6 July (23 June), the girls began to pick flowers, and grass to weave wreaths. Also the youth was manufactured stuffed Marena and Kupalo, the protagonists of the holiday. In different regions they were made in different ways: straw, branches, whole trees, etc. They are decorated with flowers, ribbons, berries and fruits. Madder symbolized the winter withering, dying nature, while Kupala was a symbol of rebirth and abundance. Around the stuffed boys and girls danced and sang special ritual songs, thus glorifying the eternal natural cycle. Then stuffed usually drowned in water or burned at the stake, and the celebration continued around the big Kupala fire.

There was also a custom to burn on this day old and unnecessary things, getting rid of old grievances and troubles with them. Even at the Midsummer fire burned mother the shirt of the sick child to her burned and illness, tormenting their child. And sometimes through the Midsummer bonfire has surpassed even the livestock, in order to get rid of the plague and diseases.