I recently have seen a lot of discussion of holidays on the subreddit and in other pagan spaces online. I felt a short outline of my own practice would be helpful. What follows in the Solntsa Roshcha calendar, my hearth cult calendar, the holidays (major and minor) which I celebrate.

It is a personal interpretation from a reconstructionist perspective of Slavic pre-Christian festivals. In this sense, I cannot claim that this is the Slavic pagan calendar. Nor do I think that I myself, or probably anyone else, can claim definitively from the scattered information we do have about these holidays, to have reconstructed a whole wheel of the year. In some sense, UPG is required.

As much as possible, I have opted to use East Slavic (primarily Russian) names, and reference East Slavic traditions for each holiday. But the degree to which these holidays are preserved today (as festivals or Saints’ Feasts) vary in different countries.

This page is not meant to be an exhaustive how-to guide for every holiday. Rather, it is standing in place of more thorough research to come. I will try to work on individual pages, with sources and instructions, for each holiday slowly.

Winter

Kolyada (Коляда)

December 20-21

Also known as Koleda, Koliada, and Kutiya. Kolyada is a midwinter holiday primarily focused on ancestor worship. Archaic, folk practices among the Eastern Slavs include a holding a family meal, praying in remembrance of the deceased, pouring a few drops of vodka on the tablecloth, and lighting candles in the sacred corner. Among the Southern Slavs, decorating and burning a badnjak was common; this practice is similar to the Yule Log in heathen/Asatru traditions, although the log was often dressed and toasted to as symbolic of one’s house spirit, the domovoi.

In my own hearth cult, I celebrate a syncretic Norse and East Slavic holiday. While keeping to some Yule traditions, I make vodka offerings to my ancestors, make offerings to Khors Dazhbog as the sun beginning to return on the solstice, to Veles as the lord of the dead, and to my domovoi in thanks for their protection during the winter season. In my own practice, the Kolyada celebration carries on for a few days.

Velesa Den (Велеса День)

February 11

In Eastern Orthodoxy, this is the Feast of Saint Blaise. Veles was often identified with Blaise (Vlas, or Vlaho). Across Russia many different folk practices involving the blessing of cattle, at home, in the stables or at the nearest church, survived Christianization. Further, among the Southern Slavs Blaise was identified as an wise old man defending the town from malevolent spirits.

In my own practice, this day consists of the worship of Veles. Offering milk, butter, a portion of that night’s meal, perhaps some flowers, wine or vodka. I might play music for Veles, and ask him to protect my home from any dangerous spirits still roaming around this winter.

“The Day of Veles” is a minor feast in my practice, solely because Veles is not a deity I worship often. However, it is still important to me to acknowledge and pay respect to Veles on this day.

Spring

Maslenitsa (Масленица)

End of February – March 1st

Maslenitsa is a holiday celebrated to this day in Russia and other Eastern Slavic countries. It has a similar counterpart, the Polish Marzanna, although time of year tends to be different. Maslenitsa’s contemporary celebration is a sort of pre-Lenten festival, a feast before a time of fasting. It’s very common to eat pancakes, traditionally crepe-like blini during this period. Ancient traditions of burning or drowning a female effigy still exist to this day.

The Solntsa Roshcha interpretation of this holiday is that Maslenitsa is a celebration of the coming of spring and the destroying of an effigy of Morena, the goddess of winter. It is a feast, and the sweet, fruit-filled blini are a taste of the first victory of the hero Yarilo.

In my hearth, this celebration is a major holiday. It involves a feast and offerings to Yarilo, the appearance of Khors-Dazhbog as a young, heroic savior defeating winter. Flowers and a portion of the pancake meal are left to him, bidding him to chase out what remains of winter and to make the earth fertile. However limited, it is important to symbolically destroy something of the lady of winter: perhaps drowning a ribbon, if not a small doll in a nearby creek.

Radonitsa (Радоница)

Mid-April

Radonitsa is a contemporary Orthodox holiday on the second Monday or Tuesday of the Easter season (it varies based on region). It involves Easter egg painting, giving gifts to family members (particularly), and leaving flowers or painted eggs on the graves or in the tombs of the departed. Etymologically, it’s related to Russian radost, meaning “joy”.

The graves of my ancestors are hundreds of miles away from where I live, so instead I make offerings to them in my home. I will do a lot of cleaning and some decorating, leaving flowers for my ancestors and domovoi, asking them to protect my house and fill my household with joy. This holiday is a minor festival in my hearth. Being not tied to the Orthodox Easter season, this holiday in my hearth is not necessarily one day or one feast.

Den Pobedy (День Победы)

May 9

Victory Day, first and foremost, is not a Slavic pagan holiday. The practice described is therefore entirely UPG.

Rather, it is a day celebrated in many Eastern and Southern European countries commemorating the end of the Second World War. The struggle against fascism by the millions of people living in occupied Europe or fighting along the front, in my own UPG, I see as a heroic act worthy of veneration. In Russian epics, bylinas, the knight-errant like heroes were often called bogatyrs. These larger-than-life heroes often defeated enemies of the Kievan Rus or fought mythical beasts.

This day is one moment of hero worship in my Slavic pagan practice. I leave offerings to the souls of those who died during the war. I pray to Perun for the defeat of white supremacist ideology which still holds so much sway over organized Rodnover groups in Eastern Europe. This is a minor holiday for me.

Summer

Semik (Семик)

Week of the Summer Solstice, June 20-21

Semik, also known as Rusal’naya Nedelya, “Rusalka Week”, or Zeloniye Svyatki, “Green Week”, is celebrated the seventh week after Easter in Orthodoxy, meaning it’s date can vary a lot but usually in the month of June. The primary rites of this holiday involve venerating trees (particularly birch), the souls of the dead and the Rusalky, the water spirits. It is a holiday recognizing that spring has fully come into fruition, recognizing the souls of the dead as they return to the world of the living, and staying out of lakes, rivers, and other Rusalka territory.

Semik in my hearth cult doesn’t take place much in my hearth at all. Rather, it’s a celebration outside my home, at a nearby creek. I’ve opted to tie it to the solstice rather than calculate its date based on Easter. I make offerings to the Rusalky, the leshy and to my ancestors. The offerings consist of flowers, music, wine and fruit, which I leave at the base of trees and toss into the creek. The intentions for this festival are to show respect to the Rusalky and Leshy as land spirits outside the home, to bid them to leave me be or make our garden fertile.

Deities that would be relevant to worship here would include Mokosh, the moist Mother Earth, Veles, the god of boundaries, the realm of the dead, rivers and lakes, and Khors Dazhbog as Yarilo, the god of spring and the Sun most powerful now around the solstice.

Kupala Noch (Купала Ночь)

July 6-7

Kupala Night, also called Ivana Kupala, is a living tradition in Slavic countries with many folk practices. While in its Christian form the holiday is the Feast of John the Baptist, it likely connects to some pre-Christian traditions. Traditions include making flower wreaths and leaving them in rivers and lakes, dancing and singing, feasting, jumping over and dancing around bonfires, celebrating fertility, divination about finding a husband or wife and weaving a rushnyk, traditional Slavic textiles.

Kupala Night is, in some sense, the opposite of Rusalka Week: the fields and rivers are now open places under their protection and with their blessing.

Kupala Night in my practice is another outdoor ritual. My focus around this time of year is on Perun, the god of summer thunderstorms. Considering the importance of fertility and marital status to many of the practices of Ivana Kupala, Mokosh is another important deity to the holiday. On Kupala Night, I make offerings of music, flowers, yarn and wine to Perun and Mokosh, secluded among the trees with only candlelight. Kupala Night is one of the main celebrations for my practice throughout the year.

Peruna Den (Перуна День)

July 20

This day is the Orthodox Feast of Saint Elijah, often called Elijah the Thunderer (Iliya Gromovnik). Before even the official conversion of the Kievan Rus, the connection between Elijah and Perun was being formed: treaties between pagans and Christians involved swearing oaths, the Christians in the Church of St. Iliya and the pagans before Perun’s idol.

This is a minor holiday in my practice. It consists of offerings and prayers to Perun in my home, thanking Perun for defending my home from evil spirits, for rains throughout the summer to keep us cool, and for receiving the Kupala Night offerings.

Fall

Obzhinki (Обжинки)

Autumnal Equinox, September 21

Known as Dożynki in Poland, this is a harvest festival. Old Russian folk customs include leaving a ‘last sheaf’ called the ‘beard of Veles’ aside from the harvest as an offering. Scarecrows or other effigies, wreath making and harvest feasts are common. A nearby feast of Mary in Belarusian customs is known as Mary the “Mother of Herbs”.

Obzhinki in my hearth I practice as a syncretic holiday combined with Norse Haerfest, sometimes called Winter Finding. It consists of herb and meal offerings to many deities I worship, primarily to Yarilo as the god of harvests, also to Veles as the god of the last sheaf, and some Norse deities. I hope to make some autumnal wreaths and have a good meal with friends.

Roditel’skaya Subbota (Родительская Суббота)

First Saturday in November

Subbota being “Saturday”, this Russian holiday in orthodox traditions is sometimes described as the ‘Day of Remembrance of Departed Parents’. It is the Russian equivalent of the Polish Dziady, Serbian Zadushnitse or Ukrainian/Belarusian Dyedy. All these holidays in English are often described as “Forefather’s Eve” and usually revolve around All Souls’ Day celebrations.

In my hearth practice, this feast involves a meal, offerings from that meal and libations to the ancestors and to Khors Dazhbog, the mythic ancestor of the Rus, asking all the ancestral spirits for protection throughout the coming winter. I celebrate this holiday in a syncretic manner with the Norse Winter Nights.