The Red Hill is an ancient Slavic feast, one of the rituals of the cult of Dazhdbog, dedicated to the goddess of rebirth of nature, the goddess of youth and love Lyalya, the daughter of the goddess Lada. This holiday was celebrated at the end of April or beginning of May, when everything alive was waking up and the first rays of Jarilas-Sun had already melted the snow on the hills and the rebirth of nature had begun. These hills people called Red Hill because they were the first to meet the caressing rays of Dazhdbog, god of the Sun and the patron of weddings (according to the legends of our ancestors). Grass and flowers sprouted on them first of all, they were the first to be “liberated” from the power of the long winter, so Red Mountain near each settlement had a sacred meaning of a place of power.
How Red Mountain is celebrated
Such holiday began by raising a ritual fire and glorification of Dazhdbog-Sun, who melted the snow and revived nature. Then there were many rituals with the sacral meaning of the creation of a family. This is the extant game “torch”, where the ritual meaning of the rite was that a single guy “caught” a young girl and the game-rite “And we sowed millet” (in it was necessary that in the line of unmarried girls “… our regiment decreased, decreased”, and married “our regiment has arrived, arrived…”)
How to celebrate Red Mountain
But most of the rituals were performed by young girls separately from the boys. After all, this holiday also has a second name – Lelnik. It was considered a true girl’s holiday, dedicated to the goddess Lelia, who patronized all young girls. The first Lelnik rite girls underwent at the age of 13. From this age they were allowed to go to festivals, sing songs, read fortune-telling, and lead round dances.
How the Red Mountain is celebrated
On Lelnik there were roundels with a certain ritual, and if you look closely, you can see in this ritual ancient “love magic:
The most beautiful girl of the group was chosen who could perform the ceremony and charm, symbolizing the Goddess Lada. She would stand in the center of the circle and recite the words of the ancient incantation: “Hello, red sun! Celebrate, clear bucket!”Then came the “invocation” of the sun-Dazhdbog: “From behind the mountain, roll out, to the light of the world rise up”. After that one pronounced a request to Dazhdbog: “peep into the soul of a good man, take your spirit out of your soul, put it into the well of living water…”
How Red Mountain is celebrated
Then she listed where the key was, who lost it, and all the girls repeated the ritual: “I, girl (here everyone called her name), went along the road and found the golden key.”Imagining your soul mate, you should have “closed the guy”: “…whom I love, whom I know – and the soul I close. I close with it, with that golden key, a good fellow (beloved’s name) for many years, for many springs, for everlasting spells by a secret inviolable paternoster. Amen!” (The plot is taken from ethnographic sources).
In another rite, the girls chose Lada, sat her on a bench, offered her butter, cheese, eggs, milk, loafs as a “sacrifice” and led round dances with majestic songs to gain the “favor” of the goddess.
And in the evening the Yarila boys and the Lely girls played games together, jumped over the fire, sang songs. The meaning of this holiday was that young people could “marry” and “make love” and then create a family, the patrons of which were Dazhdbog, Lada and Lelia.
A custom of celebrating the birth of a young family on Red Mountain has survived to our time. It was believed that such a “unit of society” would be the strongest and happiest, marked by special patronage of the gods.
How the Red Mountain is celebrated
This tradition is also helped by orthodoxy, because now the Red Mountain is the first Sunday after the great orthodox holiday of Christ`s Resurrection. Prior to Lent, couples were not married, and only on the Red Mountain were churches “opened” for the wedding and blessing of young families.
Thus ancient Slavic rituals in honor of pagan gods and orthodox traditions of blessing united in one most important omen: “Whoever gets married on the Red Mountain will be happy forever
