Ivana Kupala 2013
The wreath on the water, and what it was actually for before it became a photograph.
A good Kupala night.
The wreath is the image everyone knows. A girl weaves one, sets a candle in it, and floats it on the river; where it goes and whether it stays lit is read as an answer about the year ahead and about marriage.
What strikes me is how practical the divination is underneath the romance. A wreath that sinks, drifts to the far bank, or catches in reeds is telling you about currents, weather and the state of the river. Communities that lived on water paid close attention to it, and a ritual that made everyone watch the river carefully on one night of the year was not purely decorative.
I do not want to over-explain a lovely custom. But the older layers of a calendar are usually practical before they are poetic.
Fire, water, the shortest night.
Share this analysis
Comments