Priest Lukash from Greater Kozhmin writes around 1410 c. about an interesting custom he read about:
„"I remember that in my youth, I read in a certain chronicle that there were deities in Poland. Hence, to our times, such a ritual has survived – namely, dances performed by girls with swords, as if as an offering to pagan gods rather than to God. Boys armed with swords and sticks also participated, and they would break each other's weapons during the ritual."
A picture i Cossac and Caucassus Sword Dance From Youtube:
This chronicle is deemed credible, yet was found just in 1979 during the works in archives so it is still not yet incorporated in most of the scholar works.
We also don’t know which goddesses were this girls dancing for, although we know Lukash mentions Łado (Łada?), Jassa, Quia and Nija as names of gods revered in Poland. But there is not much else we know about this gods, and names could been mixed (it is possible that nobody actually mentioned it near a priest and he just wrotee what „was said” or what he concluded).
Then again another Church document mentions in 1420: „ We also prohibit dances and songs in which the names of idols are mentioned: Lado, Ileli, Lassa, Tya, conducted during the green holidays.” and Częstochowa manuscript of Jan from Mihochin, 1423 states
„ But on these three days, when it would be appropriate to engage in reflections (Trinity Day, Pentecost...), old women, women, and girls gather, not in the church, not for prayer, but for dances; not to appeal to God, but to the devil: Issaya, Lado, Hely, laya.".
In Bulgarian and old Slavonic Lelya is an aunt, and as we will learn further in the text Tetka (an Aunt) was also a mythical Czech figure, of which according to Kozma of Prague (XII c), 'Tetka taught foolish and unaware people to worship mountain, forest, and water nymphs, and she taught them various superstitions and unrighteous customs.'"
An interesting fact is that most Polish gods are known from Jan Długosz chronicles and he is though to make many of them up. But he started to write his work in 1455 and this was in 1410-1420 (he was born in 1415). Anyway, researchers claim that there were popular wedding folk songs with exclamations like „Lado” or „Leyli” that were inspiration behind all of these; Church didn’t like it as more wild, folk form of celebrating the sacred union, instead of more sombre one.
In this context very interesting is croatian custom of Ljelja.
It is a spring procession held once a year on the Catholic holiday of Pentecost, although it does not have any church-related characteristics. And what is especially interesting to us it consist of women singing songs about ljelja and dancing with… swords.
This is a part of a book “The Book of Slavic Goddesses, Female Creatures and Mythical Figures” that You can find here.
