Motanka

"Motanka", elaborately decorated but always faceless cloth doll was once a common feature in every Ukrainian peasant home. These dolls weren't just toys. They were magic talismans...

The name "motanka" comes from the word "motaty" (to wind) ie to make a knotted doll out of fabric, without using a needle and scissors. The winding of the doll was to be carried out only clockwise...

The fact that the doll had to be wound clockwise (sunwise) is very important as this direction was by our ancestors considered "positive, natural" and the opposite direction was considered "negative, unnatural"...

The Gaels in Ireland/Scotland were particularly obsessed with this. I talked about the importance of "sunwise" (clockwise) motion, movement in Gaelic rituals in my post "Sunwise". 

The reason why dolls had no faces, is because people believed that giving the doll a face could tie a person's soul to it. Which indicates that these dolls are symbolic depictions of the female ancestors, all the way down to the Mother Earth.

The common characteristic linking all these female ancestors is fertility, ability to give birth, without which there would be no one here today to make "Motanka" dolls...

Remember my post "Palaeolithic Venus figurines" in which I asked: Were European Palaeolithic "Venus" figurines made faceless and with super exaggerated sexual characteristics to depict an "idea" of fertility?

And remember my post "The faceless one", in which I talked about the faceless Persephone? 

Persephone, the anthropomorphised female ancestral fertility and grain fertility, was also sometimes depicted with vailed face or with no face at all...Two statues from Cyrene, Libya...   

And do you remember my post "Bescherkind", about a living "Motanka" from Sorbian tradition?

A girl dressed as a faceless "bride", who brings presents (and good luck) to Sorbian families on last Wednesday before Christmas (originally probably on Winter Solstice day). 

Another confirmation that the doll was a depiction of (the fertility) of the female ancestors is the fact that the process of making "Motanka" dolls is called "kutannya" or swaddling as it is very similar to swaddling a baby.

And because of "Motanka" dolls like this cute one 🙂

And because: There are three main types of the "Motanka" dolls: a bride, a baby and a married woman.

A bride "Motanka" was made to help the girls get married. This doll was richly dressed because it symbolised the dowry of the bride and was supposed to attract a wealthy husband.

At birth of the child, a baby "Motanka" was made which looked like a swaddle baby. It was put in the cradle in order to protect the baby. It was also left in the cradle after the baby overgrew the cradle to protect the cradle until the next baby was born.

A (married) woman "Motanka" was made to help the woman with her marital duties, especially things linked to her own and the land (crops and animal) fertility. Coins, grains, wool were put in the doll.

Also, before the wedding the mother made the doll for the daughter, symbolically passing the female ancestral support and expectation down to the next generation.

All the above dolls were "guardian" dolls and had to be made "while thinking good, positive thoughts"...

But there were also "Motanka" dolls made ritually to get rid of (troubles, diseases). They were made while thinking about the badness they were supposed to represent, and then the dolls were burnt or drowned in water...

Interesting...Remember this: Slavs equated The Goddess of Death, Morana (mor=death) with The Old Hag, The Winter Earth, Marzana (marz=frost). She is ceremonially burned (warmed) or drowned (thawed) or both (to de sure to be sure 🙂) during Slavic spring festivals...

I talked about this in my posts: "Bride", "Bannock", "Gryla", "Party", "To kill a witch", "Baba's day", "Living stone"...

Finally, as I already said, originally, all the the "Motanka" dolls had white empty faces. But today, they usually have a cross across their white empty faces, most likely as symbol of "Christianisation" of this ancient magical artefact...