Kuba Falk - Morana / Marzaniok

MORA ZMORA

2021, happening

Kadenówka Artist's House / Organistówka, Rabka-Zdrój, Poland

Performing the Spring Equinox Slavic Ritual (Marzanna) at the exhibition Mora Zmora. Female mythological creatures in Slavic folklore curated by Paulina Olowska.

Photographs by Karol Pałka.
Video by Barbara Borkała

MORA ZMORA - MARZANNA -hb.mp4

MORANA (Maržanna, Mara, Maržena, Morana, Moréna, Mora, Marmora or Morena, and also Marzaniok) was a Slavic goddess of winter and death. Morana was a goddess of a long and cold winter, a winter that could bring death through famine and extreme cold, and which could cause disease and massive death of the cattle.

Morana’s name most likely comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *mar-, *mor-, signifying death. Some theories claim her name is derived from the same Indo-European root as the Latin mors, ‘death,’ and Russian mor, ‘pestilence’. Some authors also likened her to a mare, an evil spirit in Germanic and Slavic folklore, associated with nightmares and sleep paralysis. That spirit is named Mora, which could be just one form of Morana. In Belarus, Polish, Ukrainian and in some Russian dialects, the word mara means ‘phantom’, ‘vision’ or ‘hallucination’.

The tradition of burning or drowning an effigy of Marzanna to celebrate the end of winter is a folk custom that survives in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Typically taking place on the day of the vernal equinox, the rite involves setting fire to a female straw effigy or drowning it in a river, or both. This ritual represents the end of the dark days of winter, the victory over death, and the welcoming of the spring rebirth.

A handmade Marzanna (and often also Marzaniok dolls, the male counterpart to Marzanna) is carried to the nearest river, lake or pond by a procession consisting of men, women and children. Traditional songs are sung, and effigies of Marzanna are thrown into the water. Sometimes the effigies are first set on fire, or their clothes are torn.