Spiritual day (beginning of the mermaid of the week) (13/06)





It was also a day of remembrance and communication with water, meadow and forest navyas — mermaid spirits of a kind. According to legend, mermaids and mermaids were those who died prematurely without becoming adults, or died voluntarily.

Women performed secret rituals, leaving the household to the men, sometimes for the entire week. And those with children left their children’s old clothes, towels, and canvases for mermaid children in the field or on branches at springs. It was necessary to appease the mermaid spirits so that they would not pester children and other relatives, so that they would promote the fertility of fields, meadows and forests, and give them water with the juices of the Earth.

According to legend, during Mermaid Week, mermaids could be seen near rivers, in flowering fields, in groves and, of course, at road intersections and cemeteries. They said that during dances, mermaids perform a ritual related to the protection of crops. They could also punish those who tried to work on the holiday: trample sprouted ears of corn, send crop failures, downpours, storms or drought.

A meeting with a mermaid promised untold wealth or turned into misfortune. Mermaids should have been feared by girls, as well as children. It was believed that mermaids could take the child to their round dance, tickle or dance to death. Therefore, during Mermaid Week, children and girls were strictly forbidden to go out into the field or meadow. If children died or died during Mermaid Week, they said that mermaids took them in.

To protect yourself from the mermaid love spell, you had to carry sharply smelling plants with you: wormwood, horseradish and garlic.

358