Vesna (Cyrillic: Весна) was a mythological female character associated with youth and springtime in later[1] Slavic mythology, particularly in the South Slavs. Along with her male companion Vesnik, she was associated with rituals conducted in rural areas during springtime.[1]
In mythology
editAccording to Slovene mythology, beautiful women called "vesnas" lived in palaces atop mountains where they discussed the fate of crops and of human inhabitants. A magical circle around their palaces kept them from leaving the mountain top except during February, when they would travel in wooden carts down to the valley below. Only certain people were capable of hearing them singing. People who snuck up to their mountain palaces might learn their fates, but risked an unpleasant end if they were caught by the vesnas.[1]
It has been suggested[citation needed] that Vesna was originally a goddess representing the earth during the spring, making her an alternate form of Mokosh.
The character was documented in Croatia,[2][better source needed] Serbia, North Macedonia[3] and Slovenia.
According to English author G. F. Abbott, Russian peasants from the 19th century celebrated the return of spring on March 1 by going out to the fields, carrying a clay figure of a lark on a pivot which had been decorated with flowers and singing songs about springtime ("the vernal season"), or vesna,[3] a word for 'spring' inherited in Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian from Proto-Slavic *vesna.[4]
Legacy
editToday it is the poetic word for 'spring' in Slovene (where Februrary is occasionally known as vesnar),[1] Croatian,[5] Czech and Slovak. In Serbo-Croatian variants, the word v(j)esnik (ultimately derived from Proto-Slavic *věstь, "message")[6] is used to denote someone or something that heralds an upcoming event, commonly used in the collocation v(j)esnici proljeća ("heralds of spring")[6] denoting early-blooming flowers such as snowdrops, crocuses and primulas.[7]
The term is also used in the feminine name Vesna.
In popular culture
edit- The story of Vesna and the Sun Prince gave inspiration to the 1983 Czechoslovak short film A Ballad About Green Wood, directed by Jiří Barta.[8]
- Vesna was featured on a Slovenian postage stamp that was sold in 80.000 units between 2005 and 2006.[1]
Notes
edit- ^ a b c d e Bogataj, Janez (2005). "Slovenska mitologija – Vesna" [Slovene Mythology: Vesna] (PDF). Poštne znamke (in Slovenian) (56). ISSN 1318-6280 – via Bilten.
- ^ "Lost Slavic Mythology". dalje.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-29. Retrieved Sep 8, 2020.[dead link?]
- ^ a b Abbott (1903), p. 19
- ^ Derksen, Rick (2008). "*vesna". Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon. Brill. p. 517.
- ^ "vȅsna". Hrvatski jezični portal. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
- ^ a b "vjȇsnīk". Hrvatski jezični portal. Retrieved 2024-08-11.
- ^ "Zašto se proljetnice zovu vjesnici proljeća i koja je razlika?" [Why are spring flowers called the "heralds of spring" and what's the difference between them?]. Telegram. 13 June 2024. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
- ^ "Balada o zeleném dřevu" (in Czech). Czech Television. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
References
edit- Abbott, George Frederick (1903). Macedonian Folklore.
External links
edit
Media related to Vesna at Wikimedia Commons
