Festival of Perun, Perun's Day, Perunica is a Slavic festival in honor of the god Perun celebrated by modern

Slavic neopagans The Slavic Native Faith, commonly known as Rodnovery * bg, Родноверие, translit=Rоdnoverie * bs, Rodnovjerje * mk, Родноверие, translit=Rodnoverie * cz, Rodnověří * hr, Rodnovjerje * pl, Rodzimowierstwo; Rodzima ...

(rodnovers); its existence in times before the Slavs began to be Christianized remains hypothetical.

Origin of the holiday

The existence of the cult in pre-Christian times is a hypothesis put forward as part of

Boris Rybakov Boris Alexandrovich Rybakov (Russian language, Russian: Бори́с Алекса́ндрович Рыбако́в, 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001) was a Soviet Union, Soviet and Russian historian who personified the anti-Normanist the ...

's interpretation of the ornamentation of archaeological artefacts. The cult of Perun was probably replaced by the cult of the prophet Elijah among the

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

boyars in the process of Christianization of Rus. Elijah's Day, celebrated in Christian times on July 20, bore distinct features of ancient pagan cults, and it is presumed that it replaced the original festival in honor of the god of thunder Perun. In popular belief Elijah wields storm clouds to influence the fertility of the fields and uses lightning against demons and blasphemers.

Traditions

The festival is celebrated on July 20 or 21 by the neopagans in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

within registered religious organizations, as well as informal communities, and also in other

Slavic countries Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

, including

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, where in some groups of rodnovers this holiday is regarded as the most important of the year. During the festival there are games (sports competitions) in honor of Perun, during which participants compete in such disciplines as combat sports and

tug-of-war Tug of war (also known as tug o' war, tug war, rope war, rope pulling, or tugging war) is a sport that pits two teams against each other in a test of strength: teams pull on opposite ends of a rope, with the goal being to bring the rope a certa ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Slavic religion Slavic holidays Modern pagan holidays Slavic Native Faith

Origin of the holiday

Traditions

See also

References

Bibliography