The Drowning of Marzanna.

Goodbye Marzanna

I may be going a little off schedule here but a rather interesting (if somewhat dark) Polish tradition marks today's spring equinox. It is called "The Drowning of Marzanna" and it is an annual tradition dating way back before Poland was a predominantly Catholic country.

Take a look after the jump...

Slavic pagans believed that Marzanna was the goddess of winter, plague and death, so there is little wonder why they wanted to drown her really. Doing so upon the spring equinox was believed to herald the coming of a bountiful spring. Marzanna would have been beaten, tortured, set alight and finally hurled into a river every year in the majority of Slavic provinces in eastern Europe way back before paganism was paganism and was 

merely the way things were done at the time.

Nowadays however, the tradition is upheld by having children make effigies of Marzanna, (much like Guy Fawkes in Britain) parading the effigy around town dunking it into every puddle or trough of water on the way to a river bank where the effigy will be set on fire and thrown into the water. Songs of spring are sung by all in attendance as Marzanna floats downstream to her doom.

Given this years rather poor start to spring and and even gloomier forecast for the next few weeks, I'd say that the Drowning of Marzanna has been somewhat unsuccessful this year and the goddess of winter still abounds spreading winter, plague and death across the open plains where daffodils should now be flourishing, across woods and forests where leaves should be sprouting from trees and bushes should be bursting into life. Marzanna's icy touch has not been thawed this year. Efforts must be doubled and redoubled until the witch Marzanna has been vanquished. 

Make your own Marzanna effigy today, burn it then drown it. It doesn't have to be life size, an old doll can be used as an effigy of Marzanna but please do practice responsible effigy burning. Fire is hot and will burn. Water is wet and has no breathable air in it, hence the drowning part of the Drowning of Marzanna. Be safe when burning and drowning effigies of witches and have a great spring time.