Ivan Kupalo

[Mr Joshua Wilson]

Could someone help me with some of the imagry of this
slavic holiday?

I know that Kupalo was a god (or goddess) of
vegitation who was worshiped on Midsummer's Eve and
from what I can tell the "Ivan" must have added when
the Orthodox Church tried to convert the celebration
to one in honor of John the Babtist and the dvoeverie
kicked in.

Or was the doll that is ritually dismembered and
burned for the fest called "Ivan Kupalo" before that?
Was he some sort of god-everyman perhaps - a Christ
figure of sorts symbolizing salvation by bringing a
good harvest?  Or, if the doll was not Ivan before
that, were they actually symbolically killing a god on
the fire?

Josh Wilson


		
__________________________________
Discover Yahoo!
Stay in touch with email, IM, photo sharing and more. Check it out!
http://discover.yahoo.com/stayintouch.html

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------