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8 Dec, 22 tweets, 7 min read
Thread: Winter Solstice Celebration, by the Latvian painter Evalds Dajevskis, Acrylic, 1989...

The traditional masked characters dancing in the room are all symbols of death and resurrection of nature...

stork
bear
goat
white horse
death, the dead
bride
sheaf of wheat Image
Stork:

Storks are migratory birds, which disappear in the autumn and reappear in the spring...Slavs believed that migratory birds spent winter with the sun in Iriy, the land of the dead...So stork = death - resurrection

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/01/leto.h… Image
Bear:

Bears also danced during the winter in Russia... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koliada Image
Goat:

Goat is the symbol of winter. In Slavic lands the carollers performed ritualistic dance which showed the goat dying and then being brought back to life...

So Goat = death - resurrection

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/01/krampu… Image
Also winter zodiac:

Sagittarius (start of winter), Capricorn (mid winter), Aquarius (end of winter, snowmelt)...

The meaning of these symbols was preserved in Slovenian legends

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/12/trenta… Image
Oh look, goat, bear and stork dancing together in Russia. From oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/01/krampu… Image
White horse:

Sheaf of wheat:

In the autumn, grain dies and gets buried (sown)...It then gets resurrected (sprouts) over winter and spring and grows into new grain...The last sheaf of grain represents the living "sprit of grain"...

Grain = death and resurrection
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/04/diduch… Image
Which is why sheafs of grain dance around Europe every winter oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/01/walkin… Image
Death, The Dead:

Winter was in Continental Europe seen as the time of death. The nature died at the beginning of winter, when the sun went to the land of the dead...The nature got resurrected at the end of winter when the sun returned from the land of the dead...
While in the land of the dead, sun had a lot of time to chat with the dead. And, Slavs believed, it was the dead ancestors which were remembered by the living, that "put the good word in for the living" and were the source of the prosperity of their descendants...
Check this thread about the dead and their influence on climate and fertility of the land

Check this forgotten thread too about sacrificial feasts with the dead:

The dead ancestors also visited their descendants during the winter (the scull guys behind St Nick)

And expected to be wined and dined by them and shown the good time during winter parties...Or else...

Because:

The Bride:

The Bride is the hag (winter earth) which magically gets transformed into the maiden (spring earth)...

She is the virgin goddess from Irish folklore

The "bride", made out of the butter churn, that came at the same time when Slavs celebrate "Maslenitsa" (butter festival)
Soooo...Ready for the party?

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More from @serbiaireland

oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
10 Dec
Thread: "On Christmas morning in Norway every gable, gateway, or barn-door, is decorated with a sheaf of grain, called "Julenek", fixed on the top of a tall pole, wherefrom it is intended that the birds should make their Christmas dinner"...Julenek, Karl Uchermann 1855-1940... Image
On Christmas Eve, the Swedes hang out the last sheaf of grain from the harvest, known as the Julkarve, as an offering to the birds. And they believe that the more birds come to feed, the better the next year's grain harvest will be...Bird sheaf, Siegwald Dahl 1827-1902... Image
The usual explanation for this custom is that that the birds were fed to stop them eating grain from grain stores...But the belief that feeding the birds has influence on the next year's harvest points at another explanation for this custom...Preserved in Slavic folklore... Image
Read 7 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
26 Nov
Thread: Fur women from Sudan making clay pots...Pic from "Sudan Notes and Records Vol. 22, No. 1 (1939)" (jstor.org/stable/41716315).

And in there we read that Fur people regarded pots, their making and their use, as "female" only and a taboo for men...
For instance, in the above article we can read that when ethnographers asked Fur men how do you say in their language "he lit fire under "burma" (pot used in brewing beer)", the reply was that "you can't say that in our language, cause only women can do that"...
The authors then say that this taboo most likely originates from the ancient association between pots and goddess [mother earth] as for instance "in Nigeria, pots are still associated with mother goddess and a pot is a symbol for a female genitals"...
Read 15 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
25 Nov
Thread: MOTHER Earth...The symbolic link between women and earth depicted on this Early Vinča Culture terracotta figurine from Jela, Iron Gate region of the Danube, Serbia, c. 5200 BC, H. 5.3 cm, which has a branching plant growing out of the womb...
It is interesting that this Neolithic Early Vinča culture depiction of the mother goddess was found in the same region where in Mesolithic we find Lepenski Vir culture, whose people made exactly the same image out of a bone...3000 years earlier, around 8000BC...
The symbolic depiction of a mother earth as a woman is kind of easy to understand. They both give birth to things...

What is interesting is that Slavs who live in the area today, have preserved this symbolic depiction of the mother earth as a female...
Read 25 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
24 Nov
Thread: Wall painting from a house in Çatalhöyük (7500-6500 BC) showing a fruit tree and ibexes/wild goats...From "Flora Unveiled: The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants" by Lincoln Taiz, Lee Taiz

Tree of life with ibexes, goats of rain? Most definitely...

Why goat of rain?
Because Bezoar Ibex goat, which is the kind that live(d) in the Çatalhöyük area, start their mating season in Oct/Nov. Their mating season is characterised by vicious male goat fights. The head banging can be heard from miles away, so it is difficult to miss...
And in Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Anatolia, Middle East, Iran, Central Asia, this is when the rains arrive after hot dry summer and autumn...The rains that are source of life, arrive when Ibexes start mating...Hence goat of rain and tree of life...Çatalhöyük climate chart...
Read 10 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
23 Nov
Thread: The late 3rd millennium BC, was a time of huge upheaval in Iberia. The existing social structures collapsed...When the dust settled, around 2200BC, a new civilisation, known as El Argar culture, emerged in this area...
People of this culture built amazing hillforts, like the La Almoloya citadel...Which were at the time also built in Eastern Mediterranean (including Greece)...And nowhere in between...
They were metalworkers and warriors...Who were buried in single graves...Located under the floors of houses...Again feature of the cultures in Eastern Mediterranean (including Greece)...And nowhere in between, and nowhere else in Iberia...
Read 18 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
21 Nov
Thread: One of many Bronze Age halberds found in Ireland...

You know when you were a kid, and you were told that you can't play until you finish your homework?

This must have been how Ronan O'Flaherty felt when he started work on his archaeology PhD in UCD, Ireland... Image
The title of his thesis was "The Early Bronze Age Halberd in Ireland - Function and Context" and in it he tried to see if he could disprove this:
"Irish halberds have traditionally been regarded as non functional, ceremonial artefacts. In particular, the mode of hafting and the slightness of the haft head have been cited as reasons why this artefact could not have been put to any practical use"...
Read 25 tweets

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