Realm of the Vampire: History and the Undead by Daniel J. Wood

Author:Daniel J. Wood [Wood, Daniel J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion & Spirituality, Occult & Paranormal, Supernatural, Unexplained Mysteries, Occult
Amazon: B00F8PHGO0
Publisher: Galde Press
Published: 2013-09-15T22:00:00+00:00

In a continuation of some ancient pagan festival which doubtlessly included human sacrifice, the Poles drowned “Death” each spring. Normally, simple folk wove sheaves of straw into a figure called Marzanna, which they threw into a river or pond. By thus drowning death, the peasants hoped to keep her from visiting their village that year. As a welcome diversion from the rigors of Lent, the ritual has continued as a popular festival all the way into modern Poland, where it exists with local variations. In Silesia, the effigy could also be called Marzanka, and she was dressed in the costume of a village lass. Adult women originally fashioned her outfit, but, in time, younger girls assumed the task. After the ceremonial drowning, the girls toured their village with a bough or small tree decorated with colorful ribbons, feathers, and painted eggshells. As they moved through the homes, they sang that they had taken death from the village. In some areas of Great Poland the effigy was that of an infant, a telling clue about the nature of pagan sacrifice.

The chronicler Jan D∂ugosz (1415–1480) linked Marzanna to the destruction of pagan idols following his nation’s conversion to Christianity in the tenth century. In Maurice Michael’s translation (The Annals of Jan D∂ugosz, 1997) we read:

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