"Gukanne" spring

Gukanne's in

In the Belarusian pagan tradition there is a beautiful and bright holiday dedicated to spring - "Gukanna Viasny". The name can be translated as calling spring to earth.

In pre-Christian times, the cult of plants and various field spirits prevailed on the territory of Belarus. Economic necessity dictated to our ancestors-farmers as carefully as possible to look at the changes in the weather, in time to prepare for future sowing and expelling animals into the meadow. Spring could have been both early and late. Late spring brought hunger. Therefore, Belarus was widely used rites of meeting and calling spring.

Sound, joyful songs were everywhere. The girls gathered at the highest place in the village, spread straw there and the Sevsh sang spring songs - vyasnyanki - until late at night:

Oh, blah, matsy,
I'll make a gook, ooh!
I'll make a gook,
springstone
Dajja..., ooh!
Dajadats.
- Oh, clear, clear.
I get it.

Every day there was a hymn to spring, sun, youth, love. In their songs, they not only welcomed the arrival of warm days, the awakening of nature, but also, as it were, informed everyone about their readiness for love, marriage.

Women celebrated spring in their own way. They baked figurines of birds from the dough, believing that in this way they would facilitate their early arrival. The girls took these birds and, performing “sawsnyanki”, threw them up: “Zhaдыranachki pimplyatsice, I will be slinging the pryniasice”.

The guys were laying a fire on which all sorts of old things were burned. They joined the girls only in the late evening, when they began to dance together. According to some folklorists, dancers represent an endless cycle of life and eternal youth. There are also opinions that the shape of the dancer resembles the shape of the luminary. The guys made a swing, on which the youth skated in pairs, trying to swing as high as possible to show their strength, skill, agility. There was a sign that the higher the swing, the higher the flax and other plants will grow this year. The children also had to swing on the swing at least once to be healthy and strong all year.

Girls and boys on the first day of spring went around all the houses, wishing a good harvest, the offspring of the herd, health to all tenants.

In some villages, a fire was laid out on a non-pahan field and a beautiful girl was chosen. A wreath was put on her head, planted on a harrow and carried around the fire with songs.

The children also enjoyed the arrival of spring. They met as their own group. They ran through the village without missing a single house. Sing springs with the wish of health and a good harvest. The owners gave the children bread, eggs, sausage, pumpkins, dried blueberries and apples. Then the children gathered in the same house, arranged a treat, sang, indulged, told funny stories.

In the early 1990s began to actively revive the rites of the "gukanni" of spring, which include traditional elements, songs, games. Today, this holiday under different names is widely distributed in different adult and children's groups of Belarus. A rather stable scenario of holding a modern version of the holiday has already been formed, both in the village and in the city with appropriate attributes and characters: branches of willows, birches, birds with straw, paper, dough, images of animals and tools of agricultural labor.

This holiday is so bright, cheerful, sublime that everyone who has ever participated in it, holds it again.