Leto

Serbian word "leto" means both "summer" and "year". The word comes from Proto-Slavic *lěto, which comes from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁tom. Cognate with Ukrainian "літо" ‎(lito) meaning "summer", Belarusian "слецiць" ‎(sljecicʹ) meaning "to warm" and "слетный" ‎(sljetnyj) meaning "warmish", Bulgarian "лято" ‎(ljato) meaning "summer", Russian "лето" (leto) meaning "summer, year", Slovene "poletje" meaning "summer", Czech "léto" meaning "summer", Slovak "leto" meaning "summer", Polish "lato" meaning "summer", and Upper and Lower Sorbian "lěto" meaning "year".

Possibly also cognate with Old Gutnish "ladigh" meaning "spring" and dialectal Swedish "låding, låing" meaning "spring", and with Irish "lá" ‎meaning "day".

The etymology of this word is unknown. So let me propose one. Is it possible that the word "leto" comes from the word "let" meaning "flight"? The word "let" comes from Proto Slavic verb "letěti" meaning "to fly".  So why would you derive the word meaning "summer, year" from the verb "to fly"? Because of the migratory birds. Every year, starting from the second half of February, right after the climatic start of the spring, 4th of February,  migratory birds start arriving from their wintering sites. The bulk of the migratory birds return by the end of April, just before the climatic start of the summer, 6th of May.

So every year, during spring, which is in Serbian called "proleće", which can mean both "before summer" and "flying by, migrating", migratory birds arrive back home, signalling the end of the cold part of the year and the beginning of the warm part of the year. 

Equally the end of the warm period of the year, which normally coincides with the end of October, the end of the climatic end of autumn, is signaled by the flight of the migratory birds, this time in the opposite direction, flying away to their wintering sites.

In the old Celtic and Serbian calendar, year only had two parts: the warm, white part, summer (6th of May to 5th of November), and cold, dark part, winter (6th of November, 5th of May).

So the period between these two "let" (flights) of migratory birds, between their arrival and their departure, is "leto" (summer). This beginning of the new "summer" is the beginning of the new period of vegetative growth and abundance, the "important" part of the year. I believe that this is why Serbian word for "summer" and "year" is the same: "leto"...

I was just made aware of the existence of a Macedonian folk festival called Letnik. The following is excerpt translated from Makedonians in Albania by Dragoslav Budimovski. Original title: "Будимовски К, Драгослав. „Македонците во Албанија“. Студентски збор, Скопје, 1983. стр. 151":

"Letnik, which is celebrated every year on March 1 in the old calendar and is associated with the return of migratory birds from southern regions to Macedonia. The return of the migratory birds is celebrated as the beginning of spring or summer, the period of growth and the beginning of agricultural work. Therefore this feast is often considered to be a celebration of the beginning of the year in terms of the active period of the year. 

Holiday is mostly celebrated in Western Macedonia, in Galichnik, Golo Brdo, Pustec, Debar, Prespa, Ohrid and Struga. That this celebration has ancient pagan roots can be seen by the fact that in the areas where we have mixed population Orthodox and Muslim, like in Golo Brdo and Reka area, Letnik is celebrated by both Orthodox Christians and Muslims. However in mixed Macedonian Albanian areas only Macedonians celebrate Letnik. 

According to the testimonies of the local people, Letnik celebrations start in the early morning of the 1st of March. The first thing everyone does in the morning when they wake up is to look for a chicken (bird) so that you can be as light as a bird all year round. My comment: Originally people probably looked for return of migratory birds in flight. Then people look into their pockets so that they will have money and success (prosperity) all year round. People then go out in the forests and mountains and from there they bring home boughs made from blossoming cornel branches and they would put them over the fireplace. Alternately they would bring a cornel branch with which they would touch verige (the chain holding the cauldron over the fireplace), and then they would eat cornel blossom, so that they are healthy as cornel and as solid and strong as iron. My comment: Cornel is probably chosen because it has bright yellow flowers, like the summer sun everyone is awaiting...

Young children would pick dry branches and would go from house to house throwing them into house fires saying: How many sparks so many children (similar to Christmas Eve ceremony my comment: ceremony which is related to rekindling of the sun's fire). During Letnik day it was mandatory to bring a branch of cornel if you visited anyone's house, and in return the hosts would give the guests nuts, boiled grain and sweet. If the year turns out to be good for the host, the person who entered the house on first on Letnik morning is asked to do the same next year as he is believed to have brought luck to the family. my comment: Similar to the Christmas Položajnik (first footer) ceremony. 

This pretty much confirms my theory that the word leto comes from let. But there is more. 

In Slavic mythology, Jarilo was the son of the supreme Slavic god of thunder, Perun, his lost, missing, tenth son, born during Velja Noć (Great Night), the pagan Slavic celebration of the New Year. We don't really know what the "Great Night" means, but I believe that this Great Night was originally the night before the beginning of winter which in the Irish calendar is marked by Samhain, the 31st of October, and in the Serbian calendar by St Mitar day (Mitrovdan) the 8th of November. I believe that this night was originally the night of the 5th of November, the mid point between the autumn equinox and winter solstice. 

I also believe that the expression Great Night was also an euphemism for Winter, the time of cold and death. Right in the middle of the winter is the night of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, which is also the middle of the winter, the middle of the darkest part of the year. This is the night when new fires are rekindled, to symbolize rekindling of sun's fire, the birth of the new sun, new solar year. This new sun is Jarilo, whose name means the young one, but also the hot one.

However, on the same night when he was born, according to the Slavic tradition, Jarilo was stolen from his father and taken to the world of the dead, where he was adopted and raised by Veles, Perun's enemy, Slavic god of the underworld and cattle. The Slavs believed the underworld to be an ever-green world of eternal spring and wet, grassy plains, where Jarilo grew up guarding the cattle of his stepfather. In the mythical geography of ancient Slavs, the land of the dead was assumed to lie across the sea, where migrating birds would fly every winter. This land of the dead was by Slavs known as Iriy, Irij or Vyriy (Russian: ирий, ирей, вырий). And when do the migrating birds leave the land of the living? By the beginning of the winter, which is marked by Samhain (Mitrovdan).

With the advent of spring, Jarilo returned from the underworld, that is, bringing spring and fertility to the land. Spring festivals, actually more precisely summer festivals of Jurjevo/Jarilo, St Georges day,  that survived in the Slavic folklore celebrate Jarilo's return, the return of the summer heat. This is also the time when in Irish folklore we find Beltane, the day of bonfires...

And when does Jarilo return from the land of the dead? When the migratory birds return from Irij, the land of the dead where they spend winter, the period between Samhain (Mitrovdan) and Beltane (Djurdjevdan)...So again we have the link between the migrating birds and the beginning and the end of the year...

And there is more:

Remember my post about Radegast - Welcome guest?

In it I talked about a group of bronze idols which was discovered in mid 18th century in the lake Tollensesee near Prillwitz in Mecklenburg, South Baltic. Many of them bear Slavic inscriptions in runic letters. A significant number of the figures shows the characters with lion heads and lush manes. 

Baltic Slavs who lived in Pomerania, Pomorje, Fomorie and other Western Slavs had a god called Radegast of which we have many medieval records but of which we know very little. What is interesting is that the lion headed idol with the duck on his head from the Prillwickie idols group has inscription on identifying it as Radegast. 

Radegast, who has a lion's head, has bull's head on his chest. Why? Summer, starts in Bull (Taurus) and ends in Lion (Leo). The Lion headed figure has bull on his chest because the Leo sun, the old sun at the end of the summer contains Taurus sun, the young sun at the beginning of the summer. The old Sun is the young sun at heart :) 

Slavs also had god Belbog of whom we know even less. I would like to propose that Radegast and Belbog are one and the same deity and they were represented as the man with the lion's head. 

Belbog means white god. This god is the equivalent of the Celtic god Belenos and Welsh god Beli. This is the god of day, summer, light. The white part of the year and the white part of the day. The name of the Celtic god Belenos comes form the root bel. In Slavic languages bel, beli, beo means white. 

Why is this god represented as a man with the lion's head? This is a representation of an anthropomorphic sun. Sun is the strongest in the middle of Leo. And the middle of Leo is also the middle of the white part of the year, which as I said, in Serbian and Celtic calendar starts on the 6th of May Beltane (Djurdjevdan, St Georges day) and ends on the 5th of November Samhain (Mitrovdan, St Martin's day). This is the day of Thundering sun, Grom Div, Crom Dubh, Hromi Daba.

You can read more about this calendar in my post "Two crosses".

And what is the duck doing on Belbog's head. He has a duck on his head, as ducks, and other migratory birds return by the end of April just before Beltane (Djurdjevdan, St Georges day), announcing the beginning of the summer, the white (bel) part of the year. It is the duck who is the "welcome guest" = Rad Gost, Radegos. Radegast. This is basically an euphemism for the long awaited beginning of the new summer...The beginning of the new Leto.

I wish it was summer now...I hope the welcome guests start arriving soon :)

Radegost - Welcome guest

This is a stone statue from Armagh, Ulster, Ireland, (pre-christian / pre- 5th c.). It represents a man with a lion's head. It was discovered and first recorded during the reconstruction of the Armagh cathedral in the late 19th century. 

The statue is still kept inside the Armagh cathedral with other strange stone slabs and statues found in the area:

Ulster is the same place where we find the only Scythian Baba stones found in Ireland. Like this one called Tanderagee Idol which is also kept in the Armagh cathedral. 

Or this one from Boa Island:

I wrote about Baba stones here. It is amazing that we find thousands of these Baba statues from Central Europe to Central Asia....A lot of these statues were found in South Baltic area. The only other place where these statues are found west of South Baltic is Ulster, Northern Ireland. I proposed that this shows the cultural link between South Baltic and Ulster, showing the cultural influence of the South Baltic area on Ulster probably linked to the presence of the same population in both areas. 

The man with the lion's head is another proof of this cultural link. The man with a lion's head is a very strange image indeed. But this carved slab from the Armagh cathedral is not the only representation of this image. 

A group of bronze idols was discovered in mid 18th century in the lake Tollensesee near Prillwitz in Mecklenburg, South Baltic. These idols are today known as Prillwickie idols. The first information about their discovery was published in 1768. Many of them bear Slavic inscriptions in runic letters. A significant number of the figures shows the characters with lion heads and lush manes. Here is one:

Finding of these idols was a big event in Europe at the time and initially researchers commonly accepted their authenticity. The authenticity of the finds was confirmed by many scientific authorities of the time, such as Lawrence Surowiecki, Joachim Lelewel and Wojciech Cybulski. 

The authenticity of the alleged findings of Prillwitz was challenged in the mid-nineteenth century. They were alleged to be "clumsy bronze replicas of other idols unrelated to Slavs....probably forged by a goldsmith from a nearby town...."

The whole debate about the authenticity of these idols has restarted again. It is not entirely certain whether the figures are the work of a forger...

Prillwitz idols are now kept in a museum in Schwerin (Slavic Zverin).

Is it possible that the originally "authentic" idols were proclaimed to be "forgeries" during the rise of the German nationalism in the 19th century which tried to remove any mention of the existence of the Slavic culture in German lands? Is it possible that this idol form Armagh actually proves the authenticity of these Pomeranian idols? I believe that it does. 

The Armagh statue was first recorded during the reconstruction of the Armagh cathedral in the late 19th century. This means that the Pomeranian figurines are genuine as the Armagh statue was recorded 100 years after the Pomeranian figurines. 

The importance of this is impossible to emphasize....

It is hard to believe that some Pomeranian goldsmith from a small village of Prillwitz would have known about this obscure statue hidden in Armagh cathedral and that he made his "clumsy copies" that look exactly like the Armagh lion man. And if he did why would he had done it? What I think we heave here is a proof that the Pomeranian figurines are authentic ancient Slavic idols and that the Armagh stone slab is just another proof of the South Baltic, Slavic, Scythian influence on Ulster. 

Now that we know that the Pomeranian idols are authentic, and considering that the Pomeranian idols have Slavic texts inscribed on them in runic alphabet, this shows that Slavs did use runic alphabet to write. This confirms the words of Chernorizets Hrabar, early medieval missionary among Slavs, who said that "Slavs wrote using several foreign alphabets and their own alphabet which he called cuts and notches"...This means that Slavs had alphabet before Cyrilic and Glagolitic alphabets were invented for them by Christian missionaries. 

Baltic Slavs who lived in Pomerania, Pomorje, Fomorie and other Western Slavs had a god called Radegast of which we have many medieval records but of which we know very little. What is interesting is that the lion headed idol with the duck on his head from the Prillwickie idols group has inscription on identifying it as Radegast. Here is another depiction of the lion headed man with the duck on his head from the Prillwickie idols group:

 This is one of the Prillwickie idols group statues from south Baltic.

This is another sculpture from the Prillwickie idols group.

If we look closely to the head of this idol we see that it has changed into what seems like a bull's head. It seems that there are indeed two related images, the bull and lion. The obviously lion headed Radegast, the idol with the duck on his head, has bull's head on his chest. The below image indeed could be either bull headed or lion headed, it is not clear. Crom Dubh, Hromi Daba, Grom Div, The Thundering Sun Giant, was often associated with the bull and is said to have been the bull or that bull was his sacrificial animal. Summer, the growing season, starts in Bull (Taurus) and ends in Lion (Leo). The Lion headed figure has bull on his chest because the Leo sun, the old sun contains bull Taurus sun, the young sun. The old Sun is the young sun in its heart. But also it is the lion that kills the bull. The Leo is the end of summer, the death of summer. Also it is the beginning of autumn, the harvesting season, and this is why the bull gets slaughtered, killed, harvested by Lion as a sacrifice for the good harvest....Lion slaughtering bull is one of the oldest mythological scenes. I am preparing an article about the symbolism of these scene and will publish it soon.

Slavs also had god Belbog of whom we know even less. I would like to propose that Radegast and Belbog are one and the same deity and they were represented as the man with the lion's head. 

Belbog means white god. This god is the equivalent of the Celtic god Belenos and Welsh god Beli. This is the god of day, summer, light. The white part of the year of the day. The name of the Celtic god Belenos comes from bel + nos. In Slavic languages bel, beli, beo means white, and nos means carries, brings. So belenos = bel + nos = white + brings = the bringer of the white??? Belbog comes from bel + bog = white + god.

Why is this god represented as a man with the lion's head? This is a representation of an anthropomorphic sun. Sun is the strongest in Leo and middle of Leo is also the middle of the white part of the year, of Bel. This day, the 2nd of August, is also the day of Crom Dubh, Hromi Daba, Grom Div...The thundering sun giant who has sun as his head... 

In both Serbian and Celtic calendar the year was divided into two parts, the dark, black part (winter and spring) and white part (summer and autumn). Beltane (Djurdjevdan, St Georges day) and Samhain (Mitrovdan, St Martin's day) marked the borders between these two parts of the year. Beltane is the day of Bel, Beli, Belenos, Belbog the day of Bringer of white, light. Samhain is the day of Bran, Vran, Chernunos, Černbog, Crnbog, the Dark god, the bringer of darkness. Čern, Črn, Crn means black in Slavic languges, so Chernunos = Chern + nos = black, darkness + brings, carries = the bringer of darkness??? Belbog - Črnbog; Bel - Bran, Vran; Belenos - Chernunos; are two halves of the solar year, the white and dark part of the year from the Celtic and Serbian calendar.

Beltane is the Gaelic May Day festival. Most commonly it is held on 30 April, but sometimes on 1 May, or about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man....Beltane is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and it is associated with important events in Irish mythology. It marked the beginning of summer...

The name for Beltane In Irish it is Bealtaine, in Scottish Gaelic Bealltainn and in Manx Gaelic Boaltinn or Boaldyn. 

Since the early 20th century it has been commonly accepted that Old Irish Beltaine is derived from a Common Celtic *belo-te(p)niâ, meaning "bright fire". The element *belo- might be cognate with the English word bale (as in bale-fire) meaning "white" or "shining"; compare Old English bael, and Lithuanian/Latvian baltas/balts, found in the name of the Baltic; in Slavic languages byelo or beloye also means "white", as in Беларусь (White Russia or Belarus) or Бе́лое мо́ре (White Sea). 

In Irish the word for fire is tine. In Serbian word "tinja" is a verb meaning "to smolder, start, kindle fire". Beltine means white fire but also smoldering kindling, starting of the sun's fire, the beginning of summer. This is why bonfires are lit for Beltine, to help the sun to rekindle...

Beltane is the day of Beli, Belenos, Belbog the god which brings summer. And here is another one of the lion headed Radegost Belbog figurines from south Baltic:

I often wandered what the duck was doing on this idol's head? Knowing what I know now, I am certain that the duck is on his head to represent the return of summer, the white (beli) part of the year. Ducks, which are migratory birds, and which according to Slavic mythology spend winters in "the land of the dead, Irij", return to Pomerania and have ducklings at the end of April, just before the beginning of the summer, the 6th of May . Duck is the welcome guest = rad gost, Radegos. Radegast. This is an euphemism for the beginning of summer...This means that Radegost was not a deity, but the name for the beginning of summer. The deity is Beli, Belenos, Belbog. 

We have hundreds of Baba stone figures in Central Europe and South Baltic and only few in Ulster and nowhere else in Europe. We have hundred of Belbog figurines with Slavic inscriptions in South Baltic, and only one isolated example in Ulster and not one anywhere else in Europe. Beli, Belenos, Belbog, Beltine all have full etymology in Slavic languages. This opens a big question: how did these tradition come to Ireland and Britain? Who brought them and when?