Lada/Leyla, Slavic Spring Goddesses, and ritual.

[Danustouch]

http://www.mythinglinks.org/Spring~Strinennia~Garnet.html

[Agaliha]

Oh my gosh, I was just looking into Her in my quest to learn more about the Slavic path! :)

There's not much on Her (Which sucks for people like me)
But I did stumble on this great site, lucky most of it's in English and is more detailed then most sites:
http://www.plast.org/USP/Verkhovynky/members/eboard/eboard-lada/eboard-lada.html (http://www.plast.org/USP/Verkhovynky/members/eboard/eboard-lada/eboard-lada.html)

Here's a pic
http://www.plast.org/USP/Verkhovynky/members/eboard/eboard-lada/images/eboard-lada-r7_c16.jpg

From what I gather Leyla is Lada's daughter.

Anyone know more than the "Spring Goddess" info?? She has piqued my interested :)

[Agaliha]

Okay I just found this, pretty interesting what they are claiming--


Lada and Lado
Lada or Lado is a fakeloric Slavic pagan deity of harmony, merriment, youth, love and beauty which almost certainly never existed in the ancient Slavic pantheon. It is perhaps the finest example of misconception, confusion or pure invention caused by romanticised or neopagan attempts at reconstruction of old Slavic mythology through unskilled or uncritical interpretations of Slavic folklore.

Origin
The deity Lada was mostly an invention of the Renaissance, when many Slavic humanists and historians, following the trend started by their Italian, French and English colleagues, became increasingly interested in ancient mythologies. Many of them, most notably Polish and Croatian writers, even attempted to reconstruct the forgotten Slavic pantheon. Even though their basic idea - to look for forgotten pre-Christian elements in folk songs and customs - did have some merit, most of their results were simply disastrous. For instance, both the early medieval Czech historian Cosmas of Prague and the 15th century Polish historian Jan Długosz came to the conclusion that the pagan Slavs worshipped Jupiter, Mars and a number of other obviously Latin gods. In some cases, when nothing outstandingly non-Christian could be found in surviving folklore, old Slavic gods were invented to fill the gaps[citation needed]. This practice of Slavic fakelore continued well into the 20th century.

Confusion
In the early 15th century, the Statute of Krakow forbid the singing of certain "pagan songs", which were heard at folk summer festivities, because they mentioned the name of an idol Lado. By the end of the century, previously mentioned Jan Długosz, a cannon of Krakow, concluded that this Lado must be the Roman god Mars. Maciej Miechowski in his "Chronica Polonorum", written in 1521, identified Lada (which he derived as a feminine form of neutral Lado) with Leda, mother of Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology. This assumption was pushed further in 1582 by Maciej Stryjkowski, another Polish historian.
In 17th century, the idea of Lado spread to other Slavic countries. No-one even doubted that such a deity was truly worshipped by pagan Slavs: the question only remained whether it was a god (as Dlugsoz concluded) or a goddess (as Miechowski and Stryjkowski proposed). In 18th century, Russian historian Vasily Tatischev, wrote about Lado as a kind of Slavic Cupid, generating the idea that it was a deity who represented love. Croatian humanists Pavao Ritter Vitezovic, and later Matija Petar Katancic, both "found" Lado in contemporary 18th century Croatian folk songs, sung during mid-summer night festivals. An 18th century Croatian monk, Josip Bedekovic, recorded perhaps the most famous Lado song, which was sung, he stated, by an "assembly of folk girls [dancing] in a circle around a bonfire" during the summer solstice:

Lepi Ive trga rože,
Tebi Lado sveti Bože:
Lado slušaj nas Lado.
which translates as:
Pretty John picks flowers
To you Lado holy God:
Lado, listen to us, Lado.

In 1981, Soviet archeologist Boris Rybakov used this as the crowning evidence for the existence of the summer and love goddess Lada. In his zeal to prove such a goddess existed, Rybakov, deliberately or by accident, misinterpreted Bedekovic's text when translating it into Russian. The original Croatian Bože (God; in vocative) Rybakov translated into Russian as bozhestvo (deity), thus altering the meaning of the verses in favour of his hypothesis about the existence of the feminine deity Lada. Thus, to this day, there persists a belief that the ancient Slavs worshipped some deity of love. This idea is given credit not only by Slavic neo-pagans and romantics with limited knowledge of Slavic mythology, but by some scholars as well: even though the name itself wasn't recorded until 15th century.

Explanation
The word 'Lado' does indeed appear in many Slavic and Baltic wedding and folk songs, particularly those sung during Ivan Kupala and other summer festivals. Its meaning, if indeed it has any, is unclear; it appears to be a mere exclamation. While many of the folk songs containing such an exclamation actually do have some elements from the pre-Christian celebrations of summer solstice, they are not addressed to any god or goddess Lado.
This was explained in detail by Croatian ethnologist Vitomir Belaj, who studied a great number of songs of summer festivities from various Slavic nations. While not all of them contain Lado-exclamations, all of them do include a central character named Ivan or Ivo, meaning John, which is loosely associated with St. John the Baptist, whose feast day occurs in summer. However, the Ivan of these songs has almost no resemblance to the Christian saint: he is described as a young and handsome man, courting with young girls, and in one particular song he even explicitly refuses to baptise a young child presented before him, explaining he cannot do so because he himself is not a Christian. Belaj concluded that in these songs the name of Ivan stands in place of the name of an older Slavic god who was venerated at summer festival which later, after the arrival of Christianity, became the festival of St. John the Baptist. Belaj identified this lost god as Jarilo, a major Slavic deity of vegetation, harvest and fertility. Thus, in the above Bedekovic's record of Lado-song, the "holy god" mentioned in the verses indeed does refer to a forgotten pagan deity, though not to Lado, but rather to Ive or Ivan, who is actually Jarilo.
The same can be said for the following Serbian Lado-song recorded in Nikola Begović's Srpske narodne pjesme iz Like i Banije, which was likewise sung by young girls standing in circles.

Lado! Vid slept in a meadow
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! fair elf-maids were waking him
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! Stand up young Vid!
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! your house is on sale;
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! your mother is dying;
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! your lover serves another.
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! Then answers young Vid
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! you are lying fair elf-maids;
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! neither is my mother dying;
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! neither is my house on sale;
Lado is beautiful!
Lado! but my lover serves another.
Lado is beautiful!


Here it is perhaps most obvious that Lado is not the name of any deity, but merely an exclamation. However, the main character of this song does not bear the name Ivan, but rather Vid, in which one can easily recognise the name of Svetovid, a major Slavic god of war, prophecies and harvest. According to the contemporary sources of Christian missionaries of the early Middle Ages, particularly of Saxo Grammaticus who gave a detailed account of Svetovid's great temple on the island of Rügen, the pagan Slavs held a great festival each summer in honor of Svetovid. Some customs or songs from such pagan ceremonies survived well into Christian times under the guise of folklore, but their original meaning was completely forgotten over the centuries. The names of old gods were mixed with names of new Christian saints, the verses were corrupted, parts were lost, and a lot of nonsense or meaningless words entered the texts, Lado apparently being one of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lada_and_Lado



So Lada and Lado aren't really deities. That would explain the lack of any real info I got when I was looking into the Slavic path.

[Carla O'Harris]

So Lada and Lado aren't really deities. That would explain the lack of any real info I got when I was looking into the Slavic path.

This is polemic garbage. Wikipedia should be ashamed for allowing such one-sided POV that is completely disrespectful to the scholarship that very much demonstrates that Lada and Lado actually are deities.

But hey, all it takes in the modern world is for one or two skeptical scholars to say something doesn't exist, and modern pagans just jump on the bandwagon to look sophisticated and cool and say, hey, ok, if some academic says it doesn't exist, it must not exist, and that's that.

[Agaliha]

This is polemic garbage. Wikipedia should be ashamed for allowing such one-sided POV that is completely disrespectful to the scholarship that very much demonstrates that Lada and Lado actually are deities.

I was confused by that article because I thought they were deities. I didn't find much about Lada online so I couldn't nitpick the article's claims. Just about all I found was that Lada is linked to spring and beauty. Usually one line summaries. I have read that much of the native Slavic faith is unknown and some reconstructing is done...it seemed in line with the jist of the article.
Though my statement at the bottom when I said:
So Lada and Lado aren't really deities. That would explain the lack of any real info I got when I was looking into the Slavic path.
Should have had :wtf: in it. As in: okay, then (skeptical and questioning tone)-- for the first sentence. And then with the second about lack of info-- that was just me wondering if that's why there wasn't any real info on them.


But hey, all it takes in the modern world is for one or two skeptical scholars to say something doesn't exist, and modern pagans just jump on the bandwagon to look sophisticated and cool and say, hey, ok, if some academic says it doesn't exist, it must not exist, and that's that.


I'm sure you're being general here, but since you quoted me I'll just say that no, just because I read something on Wikipedia it doesn't mean I jump on any sort of bandwagon and actually fully believe it. And no, I'm not trying to look cool. And no, I'm not Pagan. I was just sharing something I thought was interesting and wondering if it was true. Sort of like when I posted in the Uindos thead and said "It seems that Uindos is the same as Cernunnos." I said that based on the little info I had, I didn't readily believe it, I just stated that based off what I found it seemed they are the same. There's a difference.
Though back to this Lada article... it provided more info on Lada and Lado than I've seen anywhere else. Do I think Lada and Lado are created? Honestly, I still believe all deities were created by humans at some point so that aspect doesn't phase me. But whether the article is correct in the history angle and all that I don't know. As I said, I tried to look into it further, but all I found was crap like this:


Lada
by Micha F. Lindemans
The Slav goddess of beauty.
pantheon.org


Not too helpful.
Do you have any resources that talk about them in depth?

And just so you know, I post links and articles all the time like this. I'm just sharing infomation and resources. I understand it looks like I agree with this article, but that's my fault. I should have been more clear.
I'm not on any Slavic path any longer-- well I never was, I just reasearched it (when looking into paths linked to my ancestry). I am still curious if you have any info.
The article though biased is just another view, if you have info to help the article be better and more balanced-- why not post it on Wikipedia? Anyone can discuss and edit it.

[Carla O'Harris]

First of all, Wikipedia is policed by skeptical cops who don't allow anything but the most reductionistic crap to pass their censors. That is in fact why I constantly use it as a reference, because anything which gets past their censors has to be taken as the most conservative of facts, and admission is always the strongest evidence.

Secondly, I applaud you for not giving in to this skeptical nonsense, and no, my comments were not directed at you personally, but they are directed at any conformist pagan who automatically cleaves to the most reductionistic, skeptical line set up by hostile witnesses, due often to their pathetic need to "fit in" with the mainstream. That is cowardly.

Thirdly, a lot of the most important supportive information for the Lada and Lado material has not been translated. Therefore, skeptics who simply throw out critical nonsense and garbage do so unfairly, as the material which can easily rebut them is not readily available.

However, a few references will suffice to indicate that they are working on very sterile ground :

W R S Ralston, Songs of the Russian People As Illustrative of Slavonic Mythology and Russian Social Life, Kessinger Publishing, Kila, MT, 1872/2004 :


"One writer has gone so far as to maintain that Lado and Lada are merely two of the meaningless refrains that occur in Russian songs. But the generally received idea is that Lado was a name for the Sun-god, answering to Freyr, and that Lada was the Slavonic counterpart of Freyja, the goddess of the spring and of love. In Lithuanian songs Lada is addressed as "Lada, Lada, dido musu deve!" "Lada, Lada, our great goddess!" And the epithet dido, or great, may account for the form Did-Lado, which frequently occurs in the Russian songs. One Lithuanian songs distinctly couples the name of Lado with that of the sun. A shepherd sings, "I fear thee not, O wolf! The god with the sunny curls will not let thee approach. Lado, O Sun-Lado!" In one of the old chronicles Lado is mentioned as "The God of marriage, of mirth, of pleasure, and of general happiness," to whom those who were about to marry offered sacrifices, in order to secure a fortunate union. And nearly the same words are used about Lada, on the authority of an old tradition. In the songs of the Russian people the words lado and lada are constantly used as equivalents, in the one case for lover, bride-groom, or husband, and in the other for mistress, bride, or wife. Lad means peace, union, harmony, as in the proverb, "When a husband and wife have lad, they don't require also klad (a treasure)." After the introduction of Christianity the reverence that was originally paid to Lada became transfered to the Virgin Mary." (pp. 104 - 105 ; the critic is mentioned as "Tereshchenko" and the author says "His merits as a compiler and his demerits as a critic, have been ably pointed out...")


In 1872, Tereshchenko's idea was already known and subject to critique itself. Yet on the basis of one idea and school of thought, Wikipedia allows the censoring of an important in-view on Slavic paganism. This is inexcusable, because as I have pointed out countless times before, paganism has already had to suffer enough censorship and persecution.


Joanna Hubbs, Mother Russia : The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1988:

"The Russian agrarian tradition features a fertility god, likened to the Greek Dionysus... he is called Iarilo, the "Ardent Sun", or Kupalo, linked with water, or Kostromo-Kostrobunko, associated with grain, or Lado, whose name is invoked as a refrain in folksongs. But unlike the Greeks, the Russians also attribute feminine names to these deities : Iarilo becomes Iarila ; Kupalo, Kupala ; Lado and Kostromo, Lada and Kostroma ... The three mythologems appear together in sharpest focus in the deities called Lado and Lada, whose names are a common refrain in the songs and chants of girls and women planting, harvesting, or performing wedding rituals ... Lada was regarded by one seventeenth-century chronicler as the mother of Lel and Polel, associated by the author with Castor and Pollux -- and the Greek Leda. In Lithuanian songs, Lada alone is addressed as a Great Goddess, "Mother Lada," the deity of the sun, accompanied by her son or consort Dido. The worship of Lada and Lado in Russia is mentioned in fifteenth- to eighteenth-century monastic texts, which refer to girls' invoking a phallic god called Lado or Ladon or Dido/Dida and a goddess they name Lada. One eighteen--century English traveller observed that Lada/Lado were not "twins" but a goddess and son-consort : "On Thursday before Whitsuntide" the peasant girls around Moscow "celebrate the festival of the Slavonian goddess Lada and her son Dida by singing, dancing, and decorating a birch tree with garlands and ribbons which they afterwards throw with great solemnity into a river and learn, from the figures the ribbons assume in the current, who they shall wed and what their fates will be in marriage. The worship of Lada-Dida was performed during the period of the Rusalia, when the rusalki were invoked by young women ... The word lad and the verb ladit' offer another clue to the nature of the goddess and the role of the girls in her ritual, particularly during the springtime cult of the rusalki. Lad means "harmony," and the verb ladit' means "to become on good terms with someone." This was precisely the function of the young women when in spring they brought the fertility of the forest into the village and fields by welcoming the rusalki. If Lada suggests the abstract concept of harmony, as well as the goddess of harmony herself, then her companion Ladon has a more specific etymological derivation. The term means both "threshing floor" and "palm of the hand"... In the songs of Russian peasant girls, the assimilation of Lado with grain and the harvesting and preparation of it was common : "Oi millet, oi Lid-Lado we have sown," they chanted, "and millet we will thresh, Oi Lid-Lado, we will thresh." " (pp. 61 - 63)


This demonstrates that there is a very solid basis for Lado and Lada as precisely the spring fertility deities they are described as, corresponding to Freyr and Freya, and Liber and Libera. As Indo-European cognates we would suspect their existence anyway.

Someone might dispute these sources, but there are more, and these are over a hundred years apart and agreeing in main details. Wikipedia should be publicly shamed for this and made to alter their article towards a more moderate entry.

[Agaliha]

I found a old paper of mine with some info I found on a Russian site (the info happened to be in English). The site is now down and I don't believe the info is elsewhere. So I'm posting what I found here, for people that may need more Lada info --there's not much info avalible about her online... (I have to retype it):


Lada is the the Slavic goddess of beauty, spring, love, harmony, youth, and charm. She is a guardian of women and presides over marriage, family life, happiness and order. In the time of Vollodymry the Great, a splendid temple to Kyiv was dedicated to Lada.

She is transcendently beautiful, as well as beneficent and tender. From her name comes an old Slavonic word for beauty. Lada is also the goddess of green meadows and a lover of singing. She is represented as a girl dressed in white with a crown of pink flowers in her hands. Her long chestnut hair is usually in braids. She is called the "Lady of Flowers," associated with the beginning of summer in May. In other areas, Lada appears as a young woman with flowing blonde hair. She wears a green veil, but is otherwise naked.

Her symbol is a red, 5-petaled, wild rose. The thorns of the rose she carries are said toexcite the passions, and to cause the wounds of love. Lada is responsibe for the rising desire in both men and animals, in the spring. Lovers who find themselves in desperate circumstances often call upon Lada to help smooth their way, and young girls who wish to win the hearts of certian young men often made Lada an offering of small loaves of bread decorated with candied rose petals.

Lada's sacred tree is the linden (lime-blossom), supposedly because its leaves are the shape of hearts. The lark is her animal, and her sacred flower is the purple loosestife. As a Slavonian love song goes: "As the bee is drawn by the linden-bloom, my heart is drawn by thou."

Until the Vernal Equinox, Lada resides in Vyryi, a heaven where the hearts of the dead and also the birds and snakes go. On fact, the birds keep the key to Vyryi. In Ukranian, the word "Vyryi" refers to hot countries where the migratory birds fly when they leave in autumn. Lada is often portrayed as a goddess when is born and dies yearly. When Lada returns to earth, she brings the lark and the springtime with her. In Slavic countries, birds were thought to bring the spring with them when they returned March 9, the holiday of Strinennia. On this day people make clay images of larks, smear their heads with honey and decorate them with tinsel. Special cakes are also made in the shape of birds, which is thought to ensure their return. They are carried around the village amidst the singing of Vesnyanki (invocations to spring). Children are given pasteries shaped like birds to toss into the air while saying, "the rooks have come!" Sometimes the pasteries are tied to poles in the garden. Dressed in a gown of greenery and pregnant with her daughter Lelya, Lada welcomes the birds and restores joy and hope to our souls.

One legend reveals that Lada is the mother of the gods, and the wife of Rod, the first Slavic god and creator of all that exists. Another myth has her married to the heavenly sky-god Svarog, the god of celestial fire. In yet another story, Lada is the partner of Dazhboh, the sun god. Other sorces give her a brother/lover named Lado, a solar god of joy, who joins Lada in May festivities to create the fertility of the greening world. As they dance in one another's embrace across the fields, each place that teir feet touch spring forth with flowers in full bloom. There is a tradition of her being the mother of divine twins Lel (god of love and passion) and Polel (god of marriage). She also has another son, Did (god of marital love), and a duaghter Leyla (goddess of spring, first flowers and young girls). Together Lada and Lelya are the Rojanitsas, goddesses of destiny, fruitfullness and the female force.

Lada is the protector of people, especially women. She is the one whom people sould address their prayers for personal protection and for maternal protection over children. Being extremely praised by old Slavs, Lada combines Hellenic Hera and Aphrodite or Germanic Freya and Frigg. Such combination between sexual attraction, lust, sex and marital virtue is comparatively rare in other Pagan mythologies. It witnessesthe certial patriarchal society's attitude to love and marriage. In every partiarchal society, parents (fathers) have the last word about marriage. In most nations' traditions, they did not need the bridegrooms' consent, but it is not like that among the Slavs. Naturally, it is again fathers or clan's elder who choose the proper parter, but it is not so much an unscrapulous, tyrannical decision and is more like a compromise. Young people gave a sign for their love and elders tried to grant their desire. Through attraction, true love evolved from the wedding ceremony into a higher-grade engagement, into life long mutual respect. This way, there is no need one goddess to patronize love and other to protect marriage, as two seperate social phenomena.

Lada recieves sacrifices from the bridal pair to ensure a happy marriage. In Russia, when a couple is happily married, it is said they "live in Lada," in love. Lad is also a word meaning "peace, union, harmony" as in the proverb "when a husband and wife have lad, they don't require klad (treasure)."

The feast of honor for Lada and Lelyais on Ruen (Sept 8). Lada and Lelya are honored on this day because of the work in the fields has ended. A celebration is held with dancing and song. This marks the passing of summer and its attendent warmth. An old Slavic feast of Lada and Lado occurs April 1st. Traditionally, at May festivities called Lado Lada, Poles weave 9 small wreaths, each of a different herb. This corresponds to the 9 herb charms of other traditions. The 9 herbs are: thtme, hazelwort, stonecrop, lady's mantle, sundrw, mint, rue, daisy and periwinkle.

Lada is one of the most loved and verenated goddesses. To matain marital love and to perserve families people brought flowers, birds, wool, skins, bays and honey to her. Other offerings included ritual bread, baked pastry, grains, kasha (gruel), milk, sir (white cheese), cheese, beef, mutton, deer, chicken, mide, linen sheets and beer.

Lada is also known as Llada and Leda.


Here's also this site:
http://www.jpc-artworks.com/gallery/maidens/lada.html