Belarus's Fire-Leaping Festival - Democratic Underground

bananas

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Sun Jun-28-09 02:01 PM
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Belarus's Fire-Leaping Festival

Picture Gallery at sky.com (8 photos, here are 3)

Belarus's Fire-Leaping Festival

Belarus has begun to celebrate its fire-leaping Ivan Kupala festival.

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Revellers leap over fires as part of the ancient heathen festival.

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The festival has now largely been included in the orthodox Christian calendar and also celebrates the baptising of John the Baptist.

<snip>

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silverweb

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Sun Jun-28-09 02:50 PM
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1. It sounds much like the Celtic festival of Beltane.

From the bonfires right down to couples meeting in the woods and girls dancing around a pole. It just occurs a little later on the calendar.

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AnnieBW

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Sun Jun-28-09 10:41 PM
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2. John the Baptist my ass!

Lighting fires on the longest day of the year was around looooong before Christianity. Happy Solstice to all!

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Lydia Leftcoast

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Tue Jun-30-09 09:20 PM
Response to Reply #2

3. It's a pretty typical adaptation in Eastern Europe

Latvians celebrate Midsummer on St. John the Baptist Day (June 24), too.

The winter solstice (Koleda, Kolyada, Kaladu, etc.) customs, including songs, got transferred to Christmas.

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