Ivan Kupala – 2026: how this mysterious holiday was actually celebrated in Russia
The feast of Ivan Kupala, which is celebrated annually on July 7, has preserved for centuries a complex system of folk beliefs related to the natural cycle, purification and household rituals, as well as the pre-Christian beliefs of the Eastern Slavs. Read about the history of the holiday, its traditions and signs in the Izvestia article.
What is Ivan Kupala and what is the essence of the holiday?
Ivan Kupala is one of the most famous folk festivals dedicated to the summer solstice. It falls on July 7, but the main festivities begin on the evening of the 6th, immediately after sunset. In ancient times, the holiday was associated with the summer solstice and was celebrated on June 20, 21 or 22, the shortest night of the year.
After the adoption of Christianity in Russia, pagan celebrations were replaced by St. John the Baptist Memorial Day, which was celebrated on June 24 in the old style. With the transition to the Gregorian calendar, the date shifted to July 7. Thus, in fact, two holidays coexist on the same day: the church holiday — the Nativity of John the Baptist — and the folk pagan Ivan Kupala.
Ivan Kupala in the folk tradition was perceived as a special milestone in the annual cycle associated with the summer solstice and the subsequent shortening of daylight hours. As Sofia Didkovskaya, a researcher at the Russian Ethnographic Museum, explained to Izvestia, the proximity of the dates formed the idea of it as a turning point of the year.
"This determined the perception of the holiday among the people as a turning point, and the ritual actions dedicated to this day turned out to be closely related to the idea of shortening daylight hours, turning summer into winter," the ethnographer noted.
In peasant culture, this period was considered as a time of maximum activity of natural forces and transition to a new economic stage. Therefore, many rituals had practical significance and were related to the protection of crops and people.
How the Ivan Kupala holiday appeared
Ivan Kupala's roots go back to the time before the Baptism of Rus. Slavic tribes glorified on this day the sun god Yarila, who was considered the patron saint of all living things. The main rite in pagan times was purification: people believed that bathing in reservoirs helps to get rid of diseases and the evil eye. Most rituals were performed on the shortest night of the year, during the summer solstice.
The very name of the holiday combines two cultures, although scientists still have not come to a consensus on its origin. Some believe that this day was originally called simply Kupala. At the same time, there is a version that the modern name appeared after the holiday was timed to coincide with the day of John the Baptist, since the word "Baptist" is translated from Greek as "bather, submerger".
With the advent of Christianity, the church sought to supplant pagan customs. Ivan Kupala's history is reminiscent of Maslenitsa: once it was pagan, then it became Christian, but folk rituals and omens have been preserved. In the church tradition, this is the day of the great prophet who baptized Jesus Christ himself.
According to Sofia Didkovskaya, the Kupala ritual complex is not uniform in origin. It was formed under the influence of various cultural strata and regional traditions.
"Researchers at the beginning of the twentieth century suggested that many of the customs of Ivan Kupala were not so much autochthonous (local. — Ed.) relics (from Latin relictum literally means "what remains"), as much as the result of interethnic interaction. They were borrowings from Western Slavic, and in some cases from Baltic and Finnish cultural traditions," she explained.
As Ivan Kupala was celebrated in Russia
Kupala Night was accompanied by various rituals, including lighting bonfires, bathing or dousing with water, and herbal rituals. An important place was occupied by collective actions that united the entire community. Modern ideas about the holiday often associate Ivan Kupala with the cult of the sun, bonfires and flaming barrels and wheels rolling down the hills.
"Usually, the solar component is seen in the largest and most expressive rituals of this day: lighting bonfires, rolling burning wheels down the mountain or launching burning torches on the water," said Sofia Didkovskaya.
However, the researchers emphasize that bonfires have not always had an exclusively "sunny" meaning. In a number of traditions, they were perceived as a purifying force capable of destroying diseases and negative effects.
"A bonfire, for example, was not always interpreted solely as a symbol of the sun: in a number of local traditions, it was interpreted primarily as a purifying element capable of driving away evil spirits," the ethnographer added.
In the East Slavic tradition, the Kupala complex of rituals was distinguished by significant regional diversity. At the same time, the Russian Kupala ritual, compared with the Belarusian and Ukrainian, was much less developed. For Russians, Peter's day (July 12) and Ilyin's day (August 2) were considered equivalent, and sometimes even more significant calendar milestones. They celebrated the change of economic seasons: the ripening of the harvest, a turn in the weather, the beginning of haymaking and preparation for autumn.
"Russian peasants, unlike Ukrainians and Belarusians, rarely lit bonfires. Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin, who was at the origin of the study of the ethnography of the Eastern Slavs, suggested that the tradition of building bonfires, as well as setting fire to the wheel, could have been borrowed by the Eastern Slavs from Western peoples. Motives unrelated to the sun were much more important in the context of the holiday," Didkovskaya explained.
The main folk customs and traditions of Kupala night
The main traditions of Ivan Kupala in Russia included the collection of medicinal herbs and roots, as well as compulsory bathing in reservoirs, making protective bonfires, jumping over fire, as well as night festivities of young people with songs and fortune-telling related to the search for the mythical fern flower.
"According to popular beliefs, on the night of Ivan Kupala, all the hidden treasures come out of the ground, and exactly at midnight, a fiery red fern flower blooms for a moment, capable of indicating the treasure and granting the ability to understand the language of animals and birds," Didkovskaya explained.
The Eastern Slavs believed that on Kupala night, natural forces reach their maximum. The peasants gathered herbs, believing in their special power. The holiday was known to Russians and Belarusians as Ivan the Herbalist, and to Ukrainians as Ivan Tsvetoshin or Ivan Lopushnik. From that day on, they started harvesting bath brooms, and before the holiday they didn't even mow the grass, considering it insufficiently nutritious for livestock, the expert said.
In Russia as a whole, there were many Kupala traditions related to plants. For example, the Eastern Slavs on the morning of Midsummer Day sought to find two ears of corn on one stalk in the loaves, as they believed that there would be golden horns with protective power in the hole under it.
According to popular beliefs, water also had miraculous healing powers that night. The peasants bathed not only in lakes and rivers, but also in dew. They also tried to water the cows with dew so that they would give plenty of milk.
"Bathing in reservoirs among the Eastern Slavs often took place at the moment of throwing a ceremonial tree, wreaths, greenery, and an effigy into the water and was the culmination of the holiday. Although it could also become his conclusion: boys and girls ran to the water to swim or douse themselves with water at dawn, when the Kupala bonfire was completely burnt out. In the Novgorod province, girls bathed with flowers and herbs, guessing on them on the water. In the southern provinces, peasants poured water on each other and sprinkled livestock," the expert noted.
Kupala night also had a dark side. It was believed that all evil spirits were activated at this time: witches, warlocks and mermaids. In Polesie, the holiday was even called "Witch's Ivan". Special charms were used for protection: wreaths with wormwood, aspen branches, greenery wrapped around cattle horns.
Any woman who ignored the Kupala bonfire or failed to jump over the fire was suspected of witchcraft. She could have been severely whipped with nettles and doused with water for "forced cleansing." The remains of the Kupala bonfire — firebrands, stubs, coals, ashes — were considered a magical means of increasing fertility, so they were scattered across fields and vegetable gardens.
What can I do on Ivan Kupala?
On Midsummer Day, young people in the villages had the opportunity to have a lot of fun: girls and boys stole carts, dragged gates onto roofs and propped up the doors of houses so that it was impossible for residents to leave.
"In general, young people of both sexes spent the whole night together: singing, dancing, swimming. Scientists see in this an erotic subtext and echoes of the archaic institution of marriage periods," said Didkovskaya.
At the same time, the bonfires for the holiday were lit by the most respected old people in the community. They produced "living fire" in archaic ways, mainly by rubbing wood against wood. For the Kupala bonfire, old trash was brought from the houses: unnecessary harrows, brooms, wheel rims. And this, according to Didkovskaya, also highlights the symbolism of the purification and renewal of the Kupala bonfire.
The timing of the key Kupala practices to the night, the expert noted, further emphasizes the ambivalence of the holiday: this time was understood as the period of the greatest activity of otherworldly forces, when the boundary between the worlds is thinning.
The symbolism of the burning wheel deserves special attention. Its shape was associated with the circle of life and the calendar cycle. A wheel rolling downhill could become a universal way of transition, symbolizing the completion of one stage and the beginning of another. At the same time, the focus could shift to the very movement of the wheel.: It was understood as a magical act aimed at maintaining a continuous cycle of life in nature.
What not to do on a holiday
Ivan Kupala's national calendar has preserved an extensive set of beliefs about what not to do. For example, on the night of July 6-7, they tried not to sleep in the villages — it was believed that evil spirits were especially active at this time, and a sleeping person was defenseless. It was forbidden to swim alone, not because of superstition, but for practical safety reasons: swimming at night without witnesses is dangerous today.
On the day of Ivan Kupala, it was forbidden to swear and do hard work. The night should have been spent in a large company. It was forbidden to give anything from hand to hand over the threshold - a common national prohibition for many holidays. It was also not recommended to swear and quarrel — on holidays it was considered a bad omen.
According to popular beliefs, water and fire combined for Kupala. Evil spirits were scared away by noise and light. In some areas, pets were driven through bonfires — according to legend, this protected them from pestilence.
Refusal to participate in Kupala rituals could be perceived as a violation of the established order related to protection from evil spirits. At the same time, from the point of view of the church, any ritual actions and Kupala divination are considered paganism and occultism.
"The feast of Ivan Kupala has ancient pre-Christian roots and is associated with pagan rituals and rituals. The Russian Orthodox Church treats these traditions negatively, considering them to be remnants of pagan cults and spiritually incompatible with the Christian faith," said Priest Oleg Zhilyakov, dean of the Baltai district of the Saratov Diocese, in an interview with Izvestia.
The clergyman stressed that instead of folk rituals related to magic and pre-Christian traditions, it is better to devote this time to spiritual purification and attend the service.
"In the church's understanding, any attempts at fortune-telling, invoking magic, omens, or dreams as a way to know the future contradict the biblical teaching of God's providence and are unacceptable to believers. Instead of participating in such rites, Orthodox Christians are advised to attend a service in honor of the Nativity of John the Baptist on the night of July 7 or on Ivan Kupala Day itself," added Priest Oleg Zhilyakov.
Folk signs of Ivan Kupala
The Eastern Slavs believed that on Kupala night, natural forces reach their maximum. It was believed that water on this day acquires healing and magical powers. If you jump over a campfire three times, it will be a happy year. If you stumble, you will get sick. If a fire is turned around by a foot, there will definitely be quarrels in the family.
Jumping over a campfire meant attracting good luck: whoever jumps higher will be the happiest all year. If a guy and a girl jumped through the fire and did not separate their hands, the wedding will be soon.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
