Beaivi, Beiwe, Bievve, Beivve or Biejje is the

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...

Sun-deity; the name of the deity is the same as the name of the Sun. The Sami Sun-deity is usually depicted as female, but sometimes as male. In

Sápmi (, smj, Sábme / Sámeednam, sma, Saepmie, sju, Sábmie, , , sjd, Са̄мь е̄ммьне, Saam' jiemm'n'e) is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi is in Northern and Eastern Europe and includes the ...

, north of the

Polar circle A polar circle is a geographic term for a conditional circular line (arc) referring either to the Arctic Circle or the Antarctic Circle. These are two of the keynote circles of latitude (parallels). On Earth, the Arctic Circle is currently ...

, where the sun does not even reach the horizon in winter, the sun was widely venerated and played a major role in the

cultic Cult is the care (Latin: '' cultus'') owed to deities and temples, shrines, or churches. Cult is embodied in ritual and ceremony. Its present or former presence is made concrete in temples, shrines and churches, and cult images, including votiv ...

coherence. Beaivi is goddess of the sun, spring, and sanity, associated with the fertility of plants and animals, particularly reindeer. She made the plants grow so that the reindeer flourished and reproduced, and brought wealth and prosperity to the humans. On the

winter solstice The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winte ...

, a white female animal or animals, usually

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

, were

sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

d in honor of Beivve, to ensure that she returned to the world and put an end to the long winter season. The sacrificed animals' meat would be threaded onto sticks, which were then bent into rings and tied with bright ribbons. This is called the Festival of Beaivi. At the time of the year when the sun was returning,

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

(which melts in the sunshine) was smeared on the doorposts, as a sacrifice to Beivve, so that she could gain strength during her convalescence and go higher and higher in the sky. At the

summer solstice The summer solstice, also called the estival solstice or midsummer, occurs when one of Earth's poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere ( Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer ...

, people made sun-rings out of leaves and pinned them up in her honor. On these occasions, they also ate butter as a

sacral Sacral may refer to: *Sacred, associated with divinity and considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion *Of the sacrum The sacrum (plural: ''sacra'' or ''sacrums''), in human anatomy, is a large, triangular bone at the base of the spi ...

meal. At the time of the year when Beivve returned,

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified a ...

s were made for the people who were mentally ill. The Sami believed that madness (in the shape of psychoses and depression) were provoked by the lack of sunshine and light during the long, dark winter. In Sami myth, she travels with her daughter,

Beaivi-nieida Biejjenniejte ("Daughter of the Sun") was a deity of the Sami shamanism, Sami mythology.Karsten, Rafael, Samefolkets religion: de nordiska lapparnas hedniska tro och kult i religionshistorisk belysning, Stockholm, 1952 She is the goddess of medici ...

, through the sky in an enclosure covered by reindeer bones or antlers, bringing spring with them.

References

External links

December 2003 Holidays- School of Seasons
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121228010434/http://www.schooloftheseasons.com/decdays2.html , date=2012-12-28 Sámi mythology Sámi goddesses Health goddesses Fertility goddesses Sky and weather goddesses Solar goddesses Spring (season)

See also

References

External links