Where did the companion of Grandfather Frost , snow Maiden or Full pedigree

It is believed that Santa Claus and the snow maiden is relatively young, as it appeared only in the XIX century. This is only partially true, because it is about literary characters, invented by writers. In the mythology of the Slavs Claus, Ded Treskun, snow white and Snejinka appeared in ancient times. We will try to trace their history from the very beginning.

Santa Claus first appears in the tale of Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky "frost Ivanovich", written in 1840. Snegurochka — a little younger, because the tale of Vladimir Ivanovich dal "Girl, maiden", was released in 1861. Both authors were great connoisseurs and lovers of Slavic fairy tales, so it is not difficult to guess what inspired them.

Almost all the stories that for centuries have told their grandchildren grandmother in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus based on more ancient and serious sources — myths. In ancient times, our ancestors worshipped many spirits, who surrounded the man around in the forest, in the field, on the river and lake, in the yard and even at home.

Communicated with each of the spirits on a certain day of the year, arranging a celebration with various ceremonies. The priest organized the dances and songs dedicated to the deity and believe what the spirit is infused into the body of the cultist. Often, these celebrations were accompanied by the playing of the scenes involving the masked spirits of the people. They were able to demonstrate the struggle of spring to winter or light with darkness.

Today we treat with humor to the events, and before that it was very serious. Our ancestors were convinced that if the ritual does not happen, the spring may be delayed and it will not have time to ripen the harvest and the start of the famine. The scripts of these performances, which spoke of the struggle of good and evil spirits and their interaction with people is those myths that have reached us in the form of fairy tales.

With the development of civilization, the myths played a less significant role in people's lives, because every century people all the more hope for his strength and knowledge. Myths formed the basis of science, because it contained the collected generations of information about changes in the weather, the movements of stars and other surrounding human phenomena.Also it is safe to say that mythology has played a huge role in the development of art. Carving of idols, the production of ceremonial jewelry and clothes, setting the cult dances and songs — it all turned into fine art, theatre and literature.

Story telling about the spirits, the characters and their world over the centuries has acquired a lot of details and turned into stories, which are happy to exploit in their works, writers and poets. But, in spite of everything, traces of mythology are clearly visible in many modern tales.

The mystery of Santa Claus is really his name. In our days, the word pestilence means a deadly epidemic. But in ancient times its value was other — Latin mors, Italian, morte, muerte Spanish, French mort and, most importantly, the ancient Indo-European mertis meant that, too, and pestilence, namely, death.

It turns out that Santa Claus was the spirit of winter and death with Pestilence. It is logical to assume that the first name of his daughter will sound like Morevna. In Slavic mythology there is a character with a similar last name is Marya Morevna! Is the bride of Ivan Tsarevich and a magician, able to sign with chains of bones.

But in some fairy tales Marya Morevna also a friend of Baba Yaga, and sometimes even her own daughter. How is it that a fairytale beauty was connected with the ugly evil old woman from the forest? Historians say that among the other powerful spirits of the ancient Slavs revered or Mora Moreno, who was considered the goddess of winter and death.

Morena is often mentioned in the Novgorod birch bark manuscripts on birch bark. One of them written by the hand of a man who wants to warn the Prince and force him to abandon the overly generous gifts to guests, on the eve of winter. "Morena, talk some sense into the Prince of our winter anger remind me," he writes, referring to the matriarch of the winter weather.We can assume that Morevna is not a patronymic, and a bit mangled name of an ancient deity. In Polish and Bulgarian folklore, this character has been preserved to our days. Bulgarians call this spirit Mara-lishanka and the believe that at the beginning of winter he is like a young maiden, but by the end it grows old and becomes ugly wicked witch. Maybe this passage lies the connection of the beauty of Maria Morevna and Baba Yaga?

Until relatively recently, Bulgarians and poles in honor of the end of winter made of straw or rags doll Moraine and burned it. I am immediately reminded of the death of the fairy Maiden, who died while jumping over the fire.

From all this it follows that for the New year come to us is not some abstract literary characters from fairy tales Odoevsky and Dahl, bound by the order of Stalin for the holiday in 1937, and the ancient spirits of winter — Mohr and Morin, which we, the new fashion is called Grandfather frost and snow maiden. For thousands of years nothing has changed, we are just a bit rusty on the value of certain ceremonies and distorted the names of the deities.