![Mari Native Faith symbol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Mari_Native_Faith_symbol.png)
The Mari religion (
Mari: Чимарий йӱла, ''Čimarii jüla''), also known as Mari paganism, is the
ethnic religion of the
Mari people
The Mari ( chm, мари; russian: марийцы, mariytsy) are a Finnic people, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, with significant populations in ...
, a
Volga Finnic
The Volga Finns (sometimes referred to as Eastern Finns) are a historical group of List of larger indigenous peoples of Russia, indigenous peoples of Russia living in the vicinity of the Volga, who speak Uralic languages. Their modern representa ...
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
based in the republic of
Mari El
The Mari El Republic (russian: Респу́блика Мари́й Эл, ''Respublika Mariy El''; Meadow Mari: ; Hill Mari: ) is a republic of Russia. It is in the European Russia region of the country, along the northern bank of the Volga Rive ...
, in
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 ...
. The religion has undergone changes over time, particularly under the influence of neighbouring monotheisms. In the last few decades, while keeping its traditional features in the countryside, an organised
Neopagan-kind revival has taken place.
The Mari religion is based on the worship of the forces of nature, which man must honour and respect. Before the spread of
monotheistic teachings amongst the Mari, they worshipped many gods (the ''jumo'', a word cognate to the
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
''
Jumala
(), () or ( Mari)[A History of Pagan Europe, P. 181](_blank)
means "god" in the ''), while recognising the primacy of a "Great God", ''Kugu Jumo''. In the 19th century, influenced by monotheism, the Pagan beliefs altered and the image of a ''Osh Kugu Jumo'', literally "Great God of Light", was strengthened.
Subject to persecution in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, the faith has been granted official status since the 1990s by the government of Mari El, where it is recognized as one of the three traditional faiths along with Orthodox Christianity and Islam. Some activists claim that the Mari native religion believers are subject to pressure by Russian authorities as part of a wider campaign to
Russify
Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...
Mari culture. Vitaly Tanakov, an adherent of the faith, was charged with
inciting religious, national, social and linguistic hatred after publishing the book ''The Priest Speaks''.
Organisation
![Mari karts](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Mari_karts.jpg)
Followers of the Mari native religion perform public rituals and mass prayers and conduct charitable, cultural and educational activities. They train and educate the younger generation and publish and distribute religious literature. Currently, there are four regional Mari native religion organizations. Prayer meetings and mass prayers are held in accordance with the traditional calendar; it always takes into account the position of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
and
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
.
Public prayers are held, usually in the sacred groves (küsoto). Ceremonies are held by a rank of priests. There is a significant discrepancy between the pantheons of the Lowlands Mari, who worship roughly 140 gods, and Highlands Mari, who worship about 70 gods. However most of these deities are different forms of other gods. Nine deities are the most important ones, and these are often said to be
hypostases of the high god Osh Kugu Jumo. The Mari native religion includes tree worship and animal sacrifices.
Following
The religion is one of Europe's indigenous religions of unbroken lineage which have survived Christianisation, although it has co-existed with
Russian Orthodoxy for generations. Many Mari today are baptized as Christians yet they attend traditional prayers rather than Church services. A sociological survey conducted in 2004 found that about 15 percent of the population of Mari El consider themselves adherents of the Mari native religion. Since Mari make up just 45 percent of the republic's population of 700,000, this figure means that probably more than a third claim to follow the old religion.
The percentage of pagans among the Mari of Bashkortostan and the eastern part of Tatarstan is even higher (up to 69% among women). Mari fled here from forced Christianization in the 17th to 19th centuries.
A similar number was claimed by
Victor Schnirelmann
Victor Alexandrovich Schnirelmann (russian: Виктор Александрович Шнирельман, b. 18 May 1949, Moscow; frequently spelled Shnirelman in his English-language publications) is a Russian historian, ethnologist and a member o ...
, who found that between a quarter and a half of the Mari either worship the Pagan gods or are adherents of Neopagan groups. Mari intellectuals maintain that Mari ethnic believers should be classified in groups with varying degrees of Russian Orthodox influence, including syncretic followers who might even go to church at times, followers of the Mari native religion who are baptized, and nonbaptized Mari.
Gods
Many gods in Mari have counterparts in ancient Hinduism and European religions. Some gods and spirits in the Mari pantheon:
*
Kugu Jumo, the main god, often seen as a
monistic
Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:
* Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., i ...
godhead. Also called ''Kugurak'', the "Elder". He is associated with a duck.
*
Tul, god of fire, attribute of Kugu Jumo.
*
Surt, spirit of the household, attribute of Kugu Jumo.
*
Saksa, god of fertility, attribute of Kugu Jumo.
*
Küdryrchö Jumo, god of thunder.
*
Tutyra, god of fog, attribute of Kugu Jumo. And other attributes of the godhead.
*
Püryshö, the god of fate, the caster and the creator of the future of all men. Cognate with
Purush
*
Azyren, the god of death.
*
Shüdyr-Shamych, the god of the stars.
*
Tylmache, worker of the divine will.
*
Tylze, the god of the Moon. Also known as Tõlze.
*
Uzhara, the god of the dawn. Cognate with
Usha
*
Mlande, the god of earth.
*
Shochyn-Ava, the goddess
of childbirth.
*
Tünya, the god of the universe
*
Keremet, evil spirit
Many of these gods, especially those controlling natural phenomena, have female counterparts, with the name ending in ''ava'' ("mother"), like Tul-Ava, goddess of fire, Mlande-Ava, goddess of earth, Kudurcho-Ava, goddess of thunder, etc.
See also
*
Mari mythology
Mari mythology is a collection of myths belonging to the Mari folk heritage. It has many similar features and motifs with Maris' neighbouring people, like the Komis, Udmurts and Mordvins. Many of their myths are also distantly related to the my ...
References
Resources
*
*
*
External links
Mari Native Religion- Official Website in Russian
* Nikolaus von Twickel.
Europe's Last Pagans Worship in Mari-El Grove'. Saint Petersburg Times, 2009.
*
'. Keston News Service, 2002.
Blog
{{Paganism
Uralic modern paganism
Modern paganism in Russia
Mari people