Тетёрки

Тетёрки (pronounced tetyorki), singular Тетёрка (pronounced tetyorka) are large ceremonial cookies baked for spring equinox in the northern part of Russia. 

They were given to children who were supposed to look through them at the spring sun. 

In Russia, spring equinox signals the imminent arrival of migratory birds. And it is these birds that bring Jarilo, young Sun god, from Irij, the land of the dead, where sun god spends winter. 

I talked about this in my post "Leto".

Yarilo, the Slavic Young Sun god, painting by Russian artist Andrey Shishkin. The word "Yar" means young, green, spring, so Yarilo literally means "Young one" and "Green one". He is the original "Green man", the bringer of Spring...

Jarilo's arival is, according to Russian legend, announced by the mad mating song and dance of the "sun bird" black grouse. 

Proto-Slavic name for black grouse is "tetervь". According to the Russian sources, this is where the name for Spring Equinox cookies "Tetjorki" comes from. Тетёрка (pronounced tetjorka) literally means female grouse. 

The equivalent in South Slavic tradition is partridge, whose mad mating song and dance announces the immanent arrival of Jarilo. 

As a matter of fact, Serbian name for partridge "jarebica" literally means spring fucker :) from jar = spring and jebica = fucker, feminine.  I wrote about this in my post "Partridge".

What is very interesting is that "тетёрка" cookies come from Kargopol (Russian: Ка́ргополь), a town in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. 

And according to "Symbolism of animals in Slavic folk tradition" by Aleksandar Gura, in Arkhangelsk region, where "тетёрка" cookies are made, the word "тетёрка" doesn't mean grouse but partridge....

Both female partridge and female grouse are symbol of fertility in Slavic tradition. They represent girl, bride and in mythological sense, Spring Earth, Spring Goddess Vesna. 

This is one of the reasons why tetjorka cookies were also made as part of wedding rituals. They were made by the bride's mother and were given to groom's family as presents.

Recipe:

Ingredients: 

2 cups rye flour (or rye flour in half with wheat),
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup of warm water,
1 pinch of salt

Make dough from rye flour, water, salt, honey 

Kneed it until firm and hard

Form long thin dough thread

Wind the dough rightward, as the sun goes across the sky, starting from the centre outward. The cookie symbolises the sun and its effect on nature. 

Brush the dough with oil and bake for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of 180 ° C. Turn to the other side and bake for another 5 minutes.

Let the cookies cool. 

Tetjorki can be stored for about a year. 

This video shows making of Tetjorki.

Skier

This large ceramic vessel was found in Bronze Age Шиловское (Shilovskoe) settlement in Ural region of Russia. The engraving on the vessel is the earliest depiction of a skier.

This is the tracing of the engraving from Russian archaeological report. The meaning of the squiggles above the picture is still debated.

This is the description of the Shilovskoe settlement from "The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus" By Pavel Dolukhanov:

Excavation at the Shilovskoe site exposed two layers, one from Early Bronze Age Abashevo culture (2500–1900 BC) and the other from Late Bronze Age Srubnaya culture (1800–1200 BC). It is not clear who made the pot with the skier.

Hungarian graveyards

Ancient graveyards (medieval or older) are in Central Serbia called "Madžarska groblja" (Hungarian graveyards), "Grčka  groblja" (Greek graveyards) or "Džinovska groblja" (Giants graveyards).

This is one of these "Greek graveyards" from Hrta, Serbia.

Neither Greeks nor Hungarians ever lived in Central Serbia. The border between Hungarian and Greek graveyards goes along the line of the old border between Hungarian occupied Northern Serbia and Turkish occupied Southern Serbia during the Turkish Austrian wars 1718—1739.

His is history map of South Eastern Europe 1648-1739, Wars of Turkey with the Austro Hungarian Empire, Venice and Poland 

- The Austro-Turkish frontier fixed by the Peace of Carlowitz 1699 (yellow)
- The Ottoman Empire as in 1739 (green)
- The Austro-Turkish frontier fixed by the Peace of Passarowitz 1718 (red)

The so called Hungarian graveyards are located above the red line.

This is Jovan Hadži-Vasiljević, a Serbian historian and ethnographer.

He excavated one of the "Hungarian graveyards" located in the village of Stave in western Serbia. He found that all the graves contained dead buried according to Orthodox Christian custom. One of the graves contained Austrian coin from 1650

What is incredible is that he did his excavation in 1914 right after Kolubara battle, one of the biggest battle which Serbian army fought, and won, against invading Austrian army at the beginning of the WWI.

He fought in the battle, then during the lull after the battle asked his commander to give him couple of soldiers and let him excavate the graveyard in the nearby village...

Basically he excavated on a battlefield. What a guy 🙂

The description of his excavation can be found (in Serbian) in 1931 "Journal of the Ethnographic museum in Belgrade, book 6".

Milenko Filipovic in his work "Ancient graveyards from Takovo region" (Central Serbia) talks in detail about Hungarian graveyards from this area still standing in 1950's.

This is one of the old tombstones from a "Hungarian graveyard" from his book

Milenko Filipovic tried to explain the reason why these old graveyards are called "Hungarian". His conclusion is that these were old graveyards built by Serbs who escaped across Danube and Sava with Austro-Hungarian army after they pulled out of Serbia at the end of the 18th c.

The whole clans moved away. Locals in the 1950's still knew for some cemeteries who built them and said that some "Hungarians" used to come back for years to visit their dead...

Axe of Perun

Very interesting 14th c AD axe found in Kaliningrad area of the Baltic. The head is made of bronze with iron blade inserted in. The axe is decorated with engraved Lion on one side and bull on the other. Summer starts in Taurus and ends in Leo, on the day of Perun, Slavic thunder god, whose main weapon and symbol was an axe...

This is very interesting. Zodiac symbols on Pagan Slavic axes???

All of Vedas

The syllable Om is first mentioned in the Upanishads, a part of the Vedas, ancient Sanskrit texts that contain some of the central philosophical concepts and ideas of Hinduism.

The concepts of Brahman (ultimate reality) and Ātman (soul, self) are central ideas of the Upanishads, and "know that you are the Ātman" is their thematic focus.

The Upanishads are commonly referred to as Vedānta. Vedanta has been interpreted as the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" and alternatively as "object, the highest purpose of the Veda".

The syllable Om has variously been associated with concepts of "cosmic sound" or "mystical syllable" or "affirmation to something divine", or as symbolism for abstract spiritual concepts in the Upanishads.

In the Aranyaka and the Brahmana layers of Vedic texts, the syllable is so widespread and linked to knowledge, that it stands for the "whole of Veda" (all there is to know).

The Brahmana layer of Vedic texts offers various shades of meaning to Om, such as it being that which is "mysterious and inexhaustible", or "the infinite language, the infinite knowledge", or "essence of breath, life, everything that exists", or that "with which one is liberated".

Vedic scholars state that Upanishads recommend Om syllable as a "tool for meditation". They say that the Om syllable may appear in the mind of the meditator as "highest concepts such as the cause of the Universe, essence of life, Brahman, Atman, and Self-knowledge".

Now this is very interesting.

In my article "Vowels" I talk about natural meaning associated with pure vowels "A, O, U, E, I" in Serbian language.

Here is the relevant bit:

I will finish with OM - the sacred sound of Vedas.

In Serbian "Budi" means "Be, Exist". "Budan" means awake.  Buda was the awaken one, he was Budan (awake).

Buda claimed that "being awake" was "all knowledge"...

The holy sound of Vedas which is said to represent "the whole of Vedas", is OM, pronounced as "AUM"

I actually believe that this sound was originally AOUM but that O was lost first only for AU to be later replaced with O.

AOUM consists of these vowels: 

A - outside
O - surface of the body
U - inside of the body
M - core. 

M is one of the only two sounds that can be made with your mouth closed. And the only sound that produces the vibration of the whole central cavity, our core. This is why M is the core sound of words that mean me, my, myself (me, mene in Serbian), the words whose meaning is directed inwards. 

So the above mantra brings our focus from outside into our core, (m)ind by using emotional discharge through descending vowels. 

The word for mind in Serbian is UM. This word derives its meaning from U + M = inside + me = mind. This is probably the old "AOUM" shortened down to the absolute minimum number of sounds necessary to convey the intended meaning of internal me, real me....mind, UM.

This is kind of incredible, right?

AOUM, through its inner natural meaning encoded in its sound, conveys all the above Vedic teachings. 

It is "All of Vedas". 
It is "The meditation tool".
It leads us to "Brahman (The Creator, God, The ultimate reality), Atman (Soul which is part of the Ultimate Reality), and Self-knowledge (Realisation that I am Brahman, God)...

Interestingly the root "UM" meaning mind is found in Sumerian language as the root for words related to knowledge, intelligence, ability, respect...

To use the words from one of my favourite songs by Amy Winehouse, "Me and Mr. Jones": "What kind of fuckery is this?"

Bescherkind

Bescherkind meaning Gift child in German, or Dzecetko meaning Child in Sorbian is a character from Sorbian (Baltic Serbian) folklore.

It is the oldest unmarried girl in the village, dressed up as a "bride". She is probably representing the young Spring Earth which brings presents of new crops, new food. She visits houses on last Wednesday before Christmas (originally probably on Winter Solstice day) accompanied by two or more girls dressed in traditional Sorbian dress, bringing good luck and sweets.

She carries a birch broom with which she strikes house and all the inhabitants "for good health". Slavs considered white slender birch sacred and associated it with spring, purity, natural beauty, and feminine qualities. Bescherkind also touches cheeks of all the children with her white gloves "for good luck". She never utters a word...

East Germany stamp depicting Bescherkind (Dzecetko in Sorbian)

Thunderer - Thunder

The most terrifying sight for any grain farmer anywhere. Angry thunder god about to destroy everything they worked for all year. I talked about this in my post "The power of thunder giant". 

In the past people were convinced that the sky was the domain of the sky father, sky (thunder) god. It was him who caused thunder and lightning. And so when people heard thunder and saw lightning, they would point to the sky and say with fear: "the sky (thunder) god such and such"...

This is why in some Slavic and Baltic languages the word for thunderbolt and for thunder god is the same: Perun. This was originally just the God's name, which people exclaimed in fear during thunderstorms, and only later, after Christianisation this became "only" a  thunderbolt.

This is the depiction of the god Perun holding his axe. Left of him is the so called "Perunika" (Perun's flower, or Perun's wheel), otherwise known as "Thunder mark". Thunder marks were engraved on buildings to protect them against lightning...

We find the same situation in Celtic culture, where thunder god Taranis eventually became "just thunderbolt". Welsh "taranu, taran", Breton: "taraniñ, taran", Cornish "taran", Gaelic "tórnach" all mean "to thunder and thunder"...

This is the depiction of the god Taranis holding both the solar wheel and thunderbolt...

In Slavic mythology, Thunder god Perun's wheel is blazing Sun god Svetovid's wheel...

In Slavic mythology this dual aspect of Sky God is preserved in the character of St Elijah the Thunderer. I wrote about him in my post "Thundering sun god"...

Finnish Sky (Thunder) god was Ukko and thunder is Ukkonen. Again the Sky god became "just thunder"...

In Germanic mythology there's something similar. In most Germanic languages the name of the thunder god and the word for thunder were (almost) identical. Proto-Germanic root for thunder was *þunraz and Proto-Germanic root for the thunder god was also *Þunraz...

This is a statuette of Zeus hurling a thunderbolt from Dodona, Epirus, Greece

Now here is the question: where does South Slavic word "sev, sijev" meaning flash (chiefly referring to lightning) come from? And does it have anything to do with Zeus (Zevs in Serbian, Zefs in early mediaeval Greek)? Maybe Balkan "Slavic" population originally pronounced the God's name as Sev which became the name for the thunder and lightning after the Christianisation? 

What is very interesting is this: The god's name in the nominative was Ζεύς (Zeús). It was inflected as follows: vocative: Ζεῦ (Zeû); accusative: Δία (Día); genitive: Διός (Diós); dative: Διί (Dií). 

A vocative expression is an expression of direct address. This is what we use when we are shouting someones name. In this case when we are shouting thunder god's name. So maybe I am right? People used to look at the rumbling sky and shout Ζεῦ (Zeû) = Sev...

Interesting indeed...

BTW, the official etymology of sevati is Limited to South Slavic, formed as *sijati (“to shine, to illuminate”) +‎ *-vati, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“to shine”)...