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The merry Ivan Kupala

June 2011

"Look, Petro, you’re right on time:
tomorrow’s Ivan Kupala’s day.
One night and one and only night
when the fern blooms.
Do not miss your chance!"

N.V. Gogol
The Eve of Ivan Kupala, 1830.

Just like Maslenitsa the Kupaila day is a surviving and thriving pagan folk celebration. Again like it was in the case of Maslenitsa, its date was “displaced”, postponed by two weeks, i.e. to the early July, as the astronomical date of solstice coincided most unfortunately with the Apostles’ Fast (the Fast of Peter and Paul, or sometimes simply St. Peter's Fast). In the Christian calendar July 7 is the birth date of Prophet John the Baptist, that is why the church calendars had transformed slightly the name of the festivity dedicated to Kupaila making it – Ivan Kupala, Ivan’s Day.

However, despite the confusion and “tampering” with the dates and the attempts to impose a Christian flavour on this holiday, it has nevertheless preserved its initial pagan meaning. The night of the summer solstice continues to be one of the most picturesque, bright and colourful festivities whose pre-Christian meaning and spirit have come to this day almost unchanged, unaffected by the vicissitudes of time.

In pre-revolutionary Russia Ivan Kupala Day was one of the most important and revered religious holidays of the year. It was universally celebrated with the tradition demanding active involvement of each member of the celebrations into all rituals and the strict observance of a set of rules, prohibitions and customs. The merriness and fun of people affirmed their unity with nature, its ultimate heyday and earthly beauty. People who live in deep provincial areas, far away from the urban centres of modern life, still preserve certain elements of the ritualism of that day.

In the annual calendar cycle the Kupala day symbolises maturity. The Sun reaches its zenith in the sky as well as the culmination of its creative life-giving power and after this begins to gradually lose it, lose its royal power over the entire nature, descending from the celestial mountain, with days becoming shorter and shorter. The Kupala night is the shortest in the year and no-one is supposed to sleep during this night for it is a charmed night. Trees walk from one place to another talking to each other through the rustle of their leaves; animals converse with each other as well, and even herbs are imbued with special, magical, miraculous power.

The essence of the ritualism connected with this date is the mystical matrimonial union between the Earth and the Sky, the Sun and the Moon, Fire and Water, the Masculine and the Feminine. The main form of this mystical matrimony is the merging of the realms of Fire and Water. The culmination of their “wedding” is the rolling of a burning wheel (symbolising the masculine) from a steep slope down into water (symbolising the feminine). If Kupala is celebrated on the day when the summer solstice and the full moon coincide, this is in itself a symbol of a mystical union of the Sun and the Moon.

The Kupala Day is a major holiday filled with deep meaning and therefore embracing a multitude of rituals, songs, spells, superstitions, fortunetelling, legends and folk beliefs. Each and everyone has to go through an overall cleansing during the celebrations so as to proceed to gathering the harvest of the fields:

• The First Cleansing (Cleansing of the Body) – bathing in the sacred waters (rivers, lakes, pools, dews). Healing with dew was another typical custom of that day. For that one had to rise very early and walk barefoot on the charmed Kupala dew which is believed to accumulate its curative properties by the time the Sun rises. This is where the common saying about getting the first of the dew comes from.
• The Second Cleansing (Cleansing of the Soul) – setting up large bonfires and jumping over their flames
• The Third Cleansing (Cleansing of the Spirit) – walking barefoot on burning coals.

One of the most beautiful legends connected to this night is the “legend of a fern flower” which only blooms at that time. This legend shows the immense importance of nature, its powers and might. Only those pure of heart and endowed with remarkable courage have a chance to find a fern flower which opens the way to all treasures of the world. But one should not forget for a single instant that the path to that flower is guarded by the evil spirits!

The night to Ivan Kupala is believed to be mystical, vested with supernatural powers, the time of otherworldly forces and sorcery. The sorcerers and witches gather around marshes. Mermaids are especially powerful on this night and come out onto the bank to admire the Kupala fires from afar, but if they meet a man in the woods, they may well mesmerise him and drag him with them to the bottom of the deep pool.

There is another ritual for this festivity – and it is still observed to this day in both rural areas, and in large cities, particularly somewhere on the other side of the Urals - which prescribes pouring water over everyone who happens to come your way (only the elderly and young children are spared). It is, of course, the worst on young girls on this day! Their chances of staying dry on this day are next to none! That is why they usually avoid going out without any urgent needs.

It is, of course, the worst on young girls on this day! Their chances of staying dry on this day are next to none!

The Kupala fires is a poetic, mysterious, sorcerous celebration which has served as a source of inspiration for many poets and writers, primarily for the great Nikolai Gogol himself.

Traditions associated with this festivity:

1. Jumping over the flames of a bonfire. It is commonly believed that this helps to test the feelings of those in love.
2. Collecting and washing oneself with Ivan Kupala dew, collecting and drying herbs and flowers.
3. Unmarried girls make wreaths of flowers and herbs and float them in the evening watching in which direction it will float thus trying to foresee their future relationship fortunes and future husbands.
4. Searching for a fern flower on the night on the eve of Ivan Kupala. Those who find it will be rewarded with eternal love, wealth and happiness.
5. Bathing at dawn. Whoever does this will not know any ailments for the entire year to come.