Vesna
Vesna
Slavic mythological being
Vesna (Cyrillic: Весна) was a mythological female character associated with youth and springtime in early Slavic mythology, particularly within Croatia,[1] Serbia, North Macedonia and Slovenia. Along with her male companion Vesnik, she was associated with rituals conducted in rural areas during springtime.[2] In the nineteenth century, Russian peasants celebrated the return of spring on March 1 by going out to the fields, carrying a clay figure of a lark on a pivot which had been decorated with flowers. They sang songs naming the spring season Vesna.[3] The word "vesna" is still the poetic word for "spring" in Slovene,[2] as well as Czech and Slovak. In Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, vesna/wiosna is the actual word for 'spring'. The month February is sometimes named vesnar in Slovene.[2] In Serbian, the word vesnik is used to denote someone who heralds or brings about springtime. It is likely that Vesna was originally a goddess representing the earth during the spring, making her an alternate form of Mokosh.