Like a scene from a Russian fairy tale, bearded men in richly embroidered white cloaks and women in colourful scarves and blouses gather in a thick forest to place offerings of cakes and bread and fruit before a tall birch tree. A sheep is sacrificed, and chanting priests - called karts- pass an axe and smouldering timber over the offerings. It is Saint Petrovo's Day.
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Russia's foremost media organization, MediaSoyuz, has awarded "Pagans and patriarchs" its gold prize, known as Zolotoy Glagol, for foreign journalists doing significant work about Russia and its culture. |
This is not a performance of folkloric myth for tourists or the stage. It is a very serious, contemporary manifestation of life in the modern-day Russian republic of Mari-El. The original Finnic inhabitants of this republic on the middle Volga have lived here since before Christianity, and the Saint Petrovo's Day rite is a celebration of the survival of their ancient religion.
Religious revival
Since the fall of communism, Russia has seen a rebirth of religious worship, especially in the once so powerful Russian Orthodox Church. However, the Russian Federation - by far the world's largest country - is home to a vast diversity of cultures, languages, and religions. In the current process of reasserting their identity, some ethnic groups are reviving their ancient, pre-Christian beliefs and rituals nearly destroyed by Russian orthodoxy and communism.
"Many national holidays and ceremonies have been resurrected, many with a sacred nature element to them", says Valentina Kharitonova, director of the Centre for the Study of Shamanism and Traditional Beliefs in Moscow. "Older people tend to see these more in a religious light, while younger people perceive them as a kind of folklorised tradition."
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Circle around Statol |
Great Creator
One such ceremony is the Erzyan Rasken Ozks of the people of Mordovia, held only twice since 1999, after being banned in the 1600s. Like the people of neighbouring Mari-El, many Mordovians speak a Finnic language called Erzyan and have lived in the middle Volga region since long before Russian culture was imposed on them in the wake of Ivan the Terrible's l6th-century conquests. They pray to a "Great Creator": Inye-Shkipaz.
The day-long Rasken Ozks begins with the ceremonial lighting of a three-meter-tall statol or candle of beeswax carved with special symbols. The statol stands in a wide-open field on a mound made of dirt that the celebrants have brought with them from cemeteries where their ancestors are buried. Hundreds of men, women and children join hands to form a giant human circle around the mound.
"Pagan practices"
Creating a modern version of the Erzyan Rasken Ozks ceremony required a bit of effort. No one quite knows anymore exactly what that earlier event commemorated, for example. The person responsible for resurrecting this age-old ritual is Grigory Musalyov.
"Religion is more important than language", he says. Inspired by the national revival movements in Georgia and the Baltic states during the 1980s, Musalyov set out to research the ancient Erzyan customs. He also had to contend with resistance from the local authorities, including the Orthodox hierarchy, before getting the project off the ground. "I didn't have support, even from some of my friends. But when they saw the idea was real, then they did support me."
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Farther east a similar revival is underway in the Russian Asian region of Tuva, where shamanism has long been the principal religious practice. Shamans are people who go into trance-like states to enter the spirit world and offer advice - even of a medical nature - to others. There are even medical clinics in Tuva where shamans perform ceremonies to assist those with ailments. |
Even today, the Russian Orthodox Church denounces these practices as pagan. "The Bible vigorously rejects paganism", argues Bishop Varsonofy, head of the Orthodox Church in the Mordovian capital Saransk.
"God does not ignore faithlessness, which is what these people in Mordovia are doing," he adds. At the same time, it is expedient for local politicians to at least pay lip service to the interest in old traditions, but there is little official support.
Towards official status
The media, for example, broadcasts almost exclusively in Russian. Ruslan Moro, a Princeton-educated Muscovite with roots in Mordovia, attended the most recent Rasken Ozks in recognition of his family's roots. He says the Erzyan people would also like to have more education in their own language: "We would like to see more support, especially from the authorities, maybe not just support but also understanding."
A distant dream for some is to have their traditional faith declared official. This has already happened in parts of Mari-El and may be extended to the entire republic. That would make Mari-El one of the first modern European states to have a "pagan" rite recognised as an official religion.