Wolf feast

In some parts of Serbia, on Christmas Eve people used to take a table laid with food on the doorstep of the house and would then ask wolves to come to the feast. In other parts of Serbia they would invite the dead to the feast in the same way.

Doorstep is one of the most sacred places in Serbian houses because it is believed that the dead ancestors gather under the doorstep stone. There are indications that Serbs (some of them anyway) used to bury their dead under the doorstep, where they would "protect the entrance into the house" from evil spirits.

So why did Serbs invite wolves to the feast in the same way they invited the dead to the feast?

Serbs venerated their ancestors. They believed that all that is good and bad comes from happy or unhappy ancestors. So it was extremely important to keep them happy, which usually meant entertained, well fed and well watered. This is why no major Serbian celebration could pass without the ancestors being invited to join. And Christmas in particular, being the biggest celebration in Serbian calendar, had to be celebrated together with the ancestors.

Now Serbs believed in Father Sky (Sun) and Mother Earth. They believed that they actually descended from these "deities". They particularly considered Dabog (Sky, Sun god) to be their forefather.

At the same time wolf was the totem animal of the Serbs, their animal twin. The belief that wolf was Serbian animal twin was manifested in many folk customs. For instance when a child was born, the custom in Serbian villages was for the father to open the house door, stand on the doorstep, and announce the birth of a son by shouting: "Rodila vučica vuka!" (A she-wolf just gave birth to a wolf cub!). A mother would announce its wolf nature to her child by singing it a lullaby which started with "Nini sine, vuče i bauče, vučica te u gori rodila" (Sleep my son, my wolf, a she-wolf gave birth to you in a mountain). A newborn baby was pulled through a wolf jaw to protect it from evil, illness and demons...In that way Dabog, the supreme god of the Serbs, the archetypal ancestor of the Serbs, who was also called the Wolf Shepherd, was giving his blessing to his new descendant. Amulets made from various parts of wolf body were used to protect people from various dangers including devil himself. The name Vuk (Wolf) is a very common Serbian name and it is believed that it protects the person from evil.

It was even believed that Serbs turn to wolves when they die.

Vampire, a dead body which gets out of the grave attacks people and sucks their blood is by Serbs also called vukodlak (werewolf).

In Montenegro and Hercegovina, Serbs simply called vampire "wolf". Serbian Kuči tribe from Montenegro believed that every vampire after a while turns into a wolf. The reason why vampire is seen as a wolf is because Dabog, the Wolf Shepherd, is not just the Sun (Sky) god, but also the good of the underworld, the good of the dead. Which is why his animal, wolf, a chthonic animal itself, is seen as a natural metamorphosis for the dead. Werewolf (Vampire) is the link between the world of the living and the world of the dead, as he is both dead and alive...

So this is why the same ritual invitation to the feast was performed for both the ancestors and the wolves.

In some parts of Serbia, the Christmas feast for wolves was laid on a crossroads and wolves were called to come and "take theirs and leave mine". The man who brought the food for wolves had to run home without turning.

Crossroads are one of the favourite gathering places of the dead. The "not turning while going home" rule is also applied to the family coming back from the graveyard after burying someone. Here again we see the link between the wolves and the dead...

Bird wedding

The "Ptaškowa swajźba" (Sorbian Bird Wedding) is the centuries old "the end of winter" traditional custom practiced by Sorbs (Wends). Sorbs are a western Slavic ethnic group whose homeland is in a region divided between the eastern German states of Saxony and Brandenburg, and the provinces of Lower Silesia and Lubusz in Poland.

Birds' Wedding comes from the Upper Sorbian region where this custom is widely spread in families.

The wedding ceremony takes place on the 25th of January. In Kindergarten and schools, young children wearing traditional regional dress, which varies from town to town, are playing bird bride and groom.

In most areas the bride is a Magpie and the groom is a Raven, while in some other areas the bride is a Blackbird and the groom is a Thrush. 

Interestingly, ravens are one of the earliest birds to nest, nesting taking place in January/February, at the beginning of the spring...

The wedding guests are other "birds", wearing bird masks complete with beaks and feathers.

The custom has its roots in the pre-Christian era. The beginning of February (Imbolc in Celtic calendar) is the climatic end of winter and beginning of spring. The same climatic calendar seemed to have been used by Serbs too. I talked about the climatic cross quarter days in my post "Two crosses".

February is the time when first non migratory birds, like ravens, start making nests. This nesting activity signals immanent arrival of spring and summer.

In Slavic languages the word for summer "leto" comes from "let" meaning flight, because summer is the period between the arrival and departure of the migratory birds. The arrival of migratory birds was actually celebrated in some Slavic countries. I talked about it in my post "Leto".

Birds were extremely important in Slavic mythology. In pre-Christian times, Slavs believed that souls of their dead entered birds and through birds entered heaven, Iriy. So feeding birds with grain during the winter was basically a form of sacrificing grain to the ancestors. And happy full ancestors would repay hundredfold with bountiful grain harvest during the next summer. 

The birds were specially well fed the night before the Bird's wedding. Dishes were filled with grain and placed outside of the houses, high out of reach of any dogs or cats who might be around.  Overnight "birds" would fill the dishes with gifts to thank the children for feeding them through the winter: coloured eggs, bird shaped pastries, candies, nuts and apples.

In Serbia there is a belief that sparrows get married on the 2nd of February, Sretenje (Meeting), the day when Winter meets Summer....

Sceptre

BronzeAge warrior with a "Shillelagh", type of blackthorn knobstick. Sardinia, Nuragic Culture. 

This is the so called "Ptuj inscription", a line of text written in Noric language, a little known Central European #Celtic language spoken in Roman province of Noricum. 

It reads: ARTEBUDZBROGDUI

This is interpreted as two personal names: Artebudz [son] of Brogduos. The name Artebudz is proposed to mean "bear penis" (compare Welsh arth "bear" and Irish bod "penis")... 

In Serbian we have these two words: 

budža - knobstick, also anything that sticks out, that can be stuck into something else, like a penis. 
budžiti - to stick something like budža into something tight, like a penis into vagina 

This is an Irish knowbstick. I believe most people reading this know what penis looks like 🙂 

Serbian word budža also means someone important, someone who is sticking out...🙂 

In Brittany we find "Penn Bazh" which is exactly the same as the Irish knobstick. 

Penn Bazh was and still is used as a weapon. It literally means head stick where the word "bazh" means stick, basically Celtic "budz" or Serbian "budža" 

Interestingly in Serbian we have another version of the word "budža" meaning someone imortant: "badža" which corresponds with Breton "bazh". So we find both variants of the Celtic word for knobstick, budz and bazh in modern Serbian... 

The official etymology for the Irish word "bod" meaning "penis" is that it comes from Middle Irish "bot" (tail, penis) which comes from Proto-Celtic "*buzdos" (tail, penis).

Interestingly, there is a Serbian word "buzdovan" means a knobstick, battle club just like "budža". So we have two old Irish words (bod, buzd) in Serbian both meaning the penis (knob), knobstick.

In English the phrases "to be a knob" or "to be a dick" both mean that the person in question is showing off, is full of himself, is unpleasant, offensive or even abusive. Like someone who has or thinks he has absolute power, superior worth and right over others.

In Serbian when someone has power over others, he is called "budža" literally a penis, a knob, a knobstick. This is not a derogatory term, but an expression of respect. Knobstick is here directly linked to importance and power over others and is the symbol of that power

In Serbian when someone is "budža", has power over others he is also "neki kurac" meaning a penis, a knob. Like in "on misli da je neki kurac" meaning he thinks that he is important. This directly links a knobstick and knob, the power over others and reproductive power...

Here is a perfect example of the use of "neki kurac": "Modern paradox: The bigger cunt you are (obvious), the bigger chance you have to become a dick (not obvious, means powerful, important)"🙂

This is completely natural and logical, because in clan societies, where all clan members are blood relatives, the oldest male, "Djed" (grandfather) is the one who holds the position of power over others. And unsurprisingly in the Balkans, knobstick is the symbol of that power

Like on this medieval fresco from Macedonia where the elders called "Djed" (grandfather) carry knobsticks both as weapons and as symbols of power.

I believe that this is ancient. It is the simplest the most direct expression of the patriarchal power that you can get. I made you, you came from my penis, therefore I have power over you. 

In Serbian the word for descended from is "potekao" literally "poured out of (his penis)" 🙂

Originally the elders probably held their penises as symbols of powers. In Serbian when someone is behaving like he has power we say "kurči se", meaning "he is showing off, he is being a dick" but literally "he is sticking his dick out" and "he is wielding his knob" 🙂

In Serbian the expression "ponaša se kao da je uhvatio boga za kurac" means "he is behaving like he has absolut power", but literally means "he is behaving like he is holding God's dick". 🙂

Serbs believed that they descend from god Dabog. That they were children of Dabog. So Dabog being the oldest male, the DJED, means that his dick is the symbol of absolute god given power. Is knobstick the symbol of the Dabog's dick? And is this where sceptre of power comes from?

These medieval stećak standing stones from Bosnia all have engraved knobsick. As all the medieval stećak standing stone engravings have religious symbolism, this shows that knobsick was a symbol of not just civil but also religious power at the time. These were djed, elder graves...

And just so you know I am not the only one who has seen penis as the original sceptre, here is a line form the Sumerian lexicon by John A. Halloran:

ñišuš-bar: ruler's staff; scepter. Literally 'penis'+'to see,show'

Ear

Pulling kids by the ear was one of favourite school punishments the world over. But was this done just out of cruelty or was there originally another deeper reason for pulling kids ears which was over time forgotten?

In Serbia in the past, a teacher would ask kids a question, and would go through the class untill he found someone who knew the answer. That kid would then be told to go and pull the ears of all the kids who didn't know the answer. 

The licking clean of ears by snakes was a common theme in Greek mythology. The snake licked clean the ears of Asclepius, allowing him to learn knowledge and skill that had previously been hidden to man...

During Roman time, in court, a witness would be pulled by the ear by a person saying "memento!" to help the witness to remember what happened better... 

Babrius (Greek: Βάβριος) was the author of a collection of Greek fables. In one of them, while dying father is telling his son what he is leaving him, he is pulling the son by the ear, so he doesn't forget what he is being told. 

Pliny the elder wrote that people believed that the memory was located in the earlobes...Hence pulling the earlobes in Roman courts to stimulate the memory... 

While writing about kings and wars Virgil was pulled by the ear by Apollo. Servius says that this was because "ear is the seat of memory, just like the forehead is the seat of genius"...

The reason why Buddha has big earlobes is because big earlobes are the sign of knowledge and enlightenment...

This is why in India school kids are "punished" by "thoppukaranam". You pull your earlobes by opposite hands and you squat 10 times. By the way this is the same ritual performed in front of Buddha, the enlightened one. 

The latest research data from India says that this ear pulling yoga exercise balances the left and right hemispheres of our brains. Interestingly, ears contain acupuncture points that affect to all the other parts of the body. The earlobe corresponds to the head🙂 

Now where did this "belief" that pulling your earlobes will stimulate your memory originated? Maybe in India and was brought to Europe during various westward migrations? Serbs have preserved the memory of "motherland India" in their epics. I wrote about this in my post "Triglav, Trojan, Trinity, Trimurti, Agni"

But maybe it originated in Europe during Bronze age and was brought to India during one of many eastward migrations? After all, the earliest possible acupuncture evidence comes from Europe. The so called "Ötzi the Iceman" is the  5300 years old body found frozen in the German Alps. The Iceman's tattoos align with classic acupuncture points, and the plants found amongst his belongings have well-known medical applications .

Or maybe it originated in ancient Sumer. In "Ancient Near Eastern Gods Enki and Ea: Diachronical Analysis of Texts and Images from the Earliest Sources to the Neo-Sumerian Period" by Peeter Espak we read that:

The quality most often given to a king by Enki starting from the Early-Dynastic royal inscriptions is "geštu". The word means "ear(s); hearing; understanding, intelligence" and is in relation to Enki used to denote capability to receive through the ears,  practical skill, understanding, and cleverness. This feature is repeated in relation to Enki throughout the history of Sumerian texts. It seems that for Sumerians, the human ear was considered as the seat of intelligence. In the same sense the Akkadian uznu (ear, wisdom) was used. 

Live fire

In Serbia, during certain ceremonies, like when first fire is lit in the new house, the fire has to be lit using the "old way" (rubbing two pieces of wood against each-other). This process is known as "pulling living fire out of the wood"

Interestingly, the man who is about to perform the fire ritual, to "draw living fire out of the wood" had to have abstained from sex for a period of time.

Fire is male principle (Sun, Fire, Heat, Increasing, Yang) as water is female principle (Earth, Water, Cold, Decreasing, Yin). I wrote about how Yin-Yang relates to Earth-Sun climatic system in my post "Yin and Yang".

This is direct link between Fire and Male Fire. In Slavic mythology both are represented by Jarilo (Slavic young sun god) whose name means brightly burning, raging, young, green. He is the one who every spring brings "living fire" back into the world.

I talked about Serbian rituals related to building new house and moving into the new house in my post "New house".

The name"living fire" is very interesting. The only other "living fire" I know about is Deified Fire, Agni. And in my post "Triglav, Trojan, Trinity, Trimurti, Agni" I talked about Serbian belief, recorded in the Epic poetry, that Serbs came to the Balkans from India...Agni was said to be "hiding in a cave" from where he had to be summoned into the world. This is fire drill, instrument used for  "pulling living fire out of the wood". 

You can see that the initial smouldering amber is created inside of the hole made by the fire stick. Is this the "cave from which Agni had to be summoned into the world"? 

This is another reason why only men are allowed to summon "living fire"...

In Serbia, living fire was believed to have medicinal properties. This is why it was "pulled out of the wood, summoned" when both people and animals had to be protected from dangerous deceases. Animals were walked between, or around fires which were started with "living fire" to be purified. People jumped over these fires "for health". Ash scraped from "Agni's cave" was mixed in water and given to sick people as medicine...

During "pulling of living fire" ceremonies, if a man who was operating the fire drill couldn't make fire   from the amber three times in a row, he would step away from the fire drill saying: "It is not meant for me to make the cure". Then some other man would go to the fire drill and try himself...

This use of living fire as a medicine is interesting because when Agni came out of his cave, he was told that he will be "the purifier"... 

Sowing

In Serbia in the past people lived in extended families called "zadruga". When grain needed to be sown, the family would choose one man to do all the sowing. He had to abstain from sex from that moment until all the seeds were sown. 

Sowing (spreading of seeds) is here directly linked with ejaculation (spreading of semen). Male reproductive energy which is usually used to impregnate a woman has to be during sowing period preserved and used to impregnate the Earth... 

Once a man finished sowing grain seeds, it was female fertile energy of the "Mother Earth" which then turned each grain seed into a grain plant full of new grain seeds...Slavs believed that this fertile energy was taken away from the "Mother Earth" when the grain was harvested...

So, in the past in Russia, after the last sheaf of grain was cut, women harvesters would lie down on the ground and roll around the field "to return the strength to the earth"...

These Slavic harvest customs directly link female fertility with "mother earth" and male fertility with "father sky", who "fertilises mother earth with his semen, rain"...

You can find loads of stuff related to agricultural "magic", customs, folklore, beliefs in my twitter threads and in my blog posts, like these ones: "Diduch", "Wheat wreath", "Walking sheafs of wheat", "Catching rooster", "Partridge" 

Swallows

In the past people in the Balkans considered swallows to be "domestic" animals as no cowshed could be seen without at least one swallows nest. In the spring people used to say "Our swallows came back" and considered an empty nest to be a bad omen

A common belief among Slavs was that swallows were "blessed birds". Killing them or destroying their nest was believed to be a terrible sin and the perpetrator would be "thrice cursed".

They are believed to be Mary's birds. Mother Mary is among Slavs a common replacement for Mother Earth. Arrival and departure of swallows mark the beginning and end of the "fertile earth" period (spring-summer-autumn)..."Your mother will die if you kill a swallow"...

Slavs believed that swallows protected the cattle. Killing a swallow would make cows give blood instead of milk...Swallows do actually protect the cattle by eating the horse flies who attack the cows and suck their blood...

In Russia people used to bake special swallows shaped cakes when the first swallows appears in the spring to welcome them. In Hungary, kids used to clean swallows nests on Good Friday and place a bit of cake in each one as an offering to the birds...

South Slavs believed that Swallows nest under a house roof protected the house against lightning. If you destroyed the nest, angry swallows would bring hot coals in their beaks and burn your house down...Pic: old Serbian house from the Balkans

There is a Serbian legend that once there were three suns, but a dragon ate two. He would have eaten all three, if it wasn't for a swallow which hid the third sun, our sun, under its wing...You can read more about it in my post "Three suns".

Swallow fresco from Akrotiri,17th c.BC.Thera island,Cyclades,Greece.

A very interesting thing (to me 🙂) about swallow is its name in Slavic languages "lasta". Why? Because in Gaelic (Irish) the word "lasta" means "to move at high speed", just like swallows do...I wrote about it in my post "Lasta".

Slavs believed that Swallows, like all the other migrating birds, spent winter in "Iriy" Slavic paradise, "A green land full of cattle which lay in the west across the sea". You can read more about it in my post "Iriy".

Poles, Ukrainians and Belorussians believed however that swallows spent winter in water. They dived into rivers and lakes in the autumn. In the spring, only young swallows emerged from the water, old swallows became frogs...Swallows drink water from rivers...

One South Slavic legend says that swallow "saved human race during the great flood" when it fought and defeated "the great snake". The snake bit the swallow by the tail and this is why swallow's tail is forked...

In Bosnia, swallows and snakes are Lazarus's sisters. Lazarus is the symbol of rebirth. Both snake and swallow are solar animals and their appearance announce the "rebirth of nature" (end of winter) while their disappearance announces the "death of nature" (beginning of winter).

You can read more about the symbolism of migratory birds in my post "Leto". 

You can read more about the symbolism of snakes in my posts "The sunny part of the year", "Chimera", "You will trample the great lion and the serpent"...

Bulgaria legend says that swallow became from a beautiful girl which married the Sun. While she was running away, her veil split, and this is why swallows have split tail. Every spring, when swallows return, Vesna, young earth, marries Jarilo, young sun. Young girls in Serbia taking part in Lazarica procession to mark the beginning of Summer. You can read more about this in my post "Flower girls".

Serbian and Macedonian legend say that this is how swallow was made. This legend is full of solar cult references.

Here is the explanation: 

A year consists of 9 sun dominated months (9 sons). The sun was seen as male in Serbian tradition (Father Sun) as opposed to earth which was seen as female in Serbian tradition (Mother Earth). Hence one daughter (winter). 

Swallows spend the winter in Iriy (Slavic paradise) which was imagined as the "Green land across the sea". When swallows depart for Iriy the sun dominated part of the year is over. The winter starts. 

Swallows go to Iriy with Jarilo (Young Sun) whose name means "The bright burning one". He is the representation of the sun's heat.  Jarilo is "The youngest sun" of Perun, the Slavic sky god. Every spring, when sun's heat warms the earth, swallows return from "Iriy". The old "Leto" (summer, year, sunny, warm part of the year, 9 sunny months) begins. 

This is why Serbs call swallow "key barer". In folk poetry it is said that in the spring it brings the "golden key" from "across the sea" (Iriy, Paradise) with which it unlocks the summer and lock the winte

Sources

Simbolika zivotinja u slovenskoj narodnoj tradiciji - Aleksandar Gura

Srpski mitoloski recnik - Grupa autora