Slavic Rituals, Festivals, Traditions, and More

Slavic Rituals, Festivals, Traditions, and More

In addition to myths, legends, heroes, and mythical creatures, there are many other fascinating topics, rituals, stories, and traditions that are difficult to categorize within our other sections. That’s why here we’ve gathered important materials that deserve your attention and are no less captivating than those already presented.

Slavic traditions are highly diverse and have partly survived to this day, having laid the foundational basis for many Christian holidays and thus been reborn in a new form. There are numerous examples of this: the Green Holidays, the celebration of the god Kupala, the Festival of Perun, Veles’ Night, the Carrying Out of Marena, and others. All of these have Christian equivalents. Some even retained similar names.

There’s a clear explanation for this. Although the transition to Christianity involved the prohibition of pagan gods and worship, festivals couldn’t be erased as easily. How do you uproot from people's consciousness what they had practiced for centuries—especially things they deeply enjoyed? It was necessary to accept these practices as integral, adapt them to the new religion, and allow people to continue celebrating them.