Kolyada The Old Slavic Winter Solstice Kolyada The Old Slavic

Kolyada The Old Slavic Winter Solstice Kolyada The Old Slavic Kolyada: the old slavic winter solstice on the darkest night of the year, when the world is cold and the sun only peeks out for a few short hours every day, we all need something to lift our spirits. Koliada or koleda ( cyrillic: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional slavic name for the period from christmas to epiphany or, more generally, for slavic christmas related rituals, some dating to pre christian times. [ 1] it represents a festival or holiday, celebrated at the end of december to honor the sun.

Kolyada Slavic Pagan Christmas Winter Solstice Day Traditions And The winter solstice is no different. though the time frame did vary some by region, typically koliada was celebrated on the shortest day of the year. it was a grand festival, symbolized in the polish name szczodre gody, which means “generous feast” (source: lamus dworski ). Caroling (kolyada, koleda) is an old slavic ritual timed to the period after winter solstice and before the new year. a group of participants visits neighboring houses, performs songs and chants good wishes addressed to the owners of each house – for which they receive various gifts. ꏍ. Festivities used to be held from december to february among all of the slavic folks. in russia this festival is named “short day” or korochun . for slavic people, winter was the time dedicated to the black god or chernobog and other minor deities associated with darkness and death. chernobog, is an old dark spirit with a devil like form. The eastern slavic nations called this time a festival of koliada, the winter solstice (‘solntzevorot’ in russian). germanic nations celebrated yule. even romans had a similar holiday – the saturnalia. in russia this festival is also known as korochun (or the ‘short day’ in russian), because it is the shortest day of the year.