Section 6. Death and Resurrection of Kostrubonko.
I RUSSIA funeral ceremonies like those of "Burying the Carnival"
and "Carrying out Death" are celebrated under the names, not of
Death or the Carnival, but of certain mythic figures, Kostrubonko,
Kostroma, Kupalo, Lada, and Yarilo. These Russian ceremonies
are observed both in spring and at midsummer. Thus "in Little
Russia it used to be the custom at Eastertide to celebrate the
funeral of a being called Kostrubonko, the deity of the spring. A
circle was formed of singers who moved slowly around a girl who
lay on the ground as if dead, and as they went they sang:
`Dead, dead is our Kostrubonko!
Dead, dead is our dear one!'
until the girl suddenly sprang up, on which the chorus joyfully
exclaimed:
`Come to life, come to life has our Kostrubonko!
Come to life, come to life has our dear one!'"
On the Eve of St. John (Midsummer Eve) a figure of Kupalo is
made of straw and "is dressed in woman's clothes, with a necklace
and a floral crown. Then a tree is felled, and, after being decked
with ribbons, is set up on some chosen spot. Near this tree, to
which they give the name of Marena [Winter or Death], the straw
figure is placed, together with a table, on which stand spirits and
viands. Afterwards a bonfire is lit, and the young men and maidens
jump over it in couples, carrying the figure with them. On the next
day they strip the tree and the figure of their ornaments, and throw
them both into a stream." On St. Peter's Day, the twenty-ninth of
June, or on the following Sunday, "the Funeral of Kostroma" or of
Lada or of Yarilo is celebrated in Russia. In the Governments of
Penza and Simbirsk the funeral used to be represented as follows.
A bonfire was kindled on the twenty-eighth of June, and on the
next day the maidens chose one of their number to play the part of
Kostroma. Her companions saluted her with deep obeisances,
placed her on a board, and carried her to the bank of a stream.
There they bathed her in the water, while the oldest girl made a
basket of lime-tree bark and beat it like a drum. Then they returned
to the village and ended the day with processions, games, and
dances. In the Murom district Kostroma was represented by a straw
figure dressed in woman's clothes and flowers. This was laid in a
trough and carried with songs to the bank of a lake or river. Here
the crowd divided into two sides, of which the one attacked and the
other defended the figure. At last the assailants gained the day,
stripped the figure of its dress and ornaments, tore it in pieces, trod
the straw of which it was made under foot, and flung it into the
stream; while the defenders of the figure hid their faces in their
hands and pretended to bewail the death of Kostroma. In the district
of Kostroma the burial of Yarilo was celebrated on the twenty-ninth
or thirtieth of June. The people chose an old man and gave him a
small coffin containing a Priapus-like figure representing Yarilo.
This he carried out of the town, followed by women chanting dirges
and expressing by their gestures grief and despair. In the open
fields a grave was dug, and into it the figure was lowered amid
weeping and wailing, after which games and dances were begun,
"calling to mind the funeral games celebrated in old times by the
pagan Slavonians." In Little Russia the figure of Yarilo was laid in a
coffin and carried through the streets after sunset surrounded by
drunken women, who kept repeating mournfully, "He is dead! he is
dead!" The men lifted and shook the figure as if they were trying to
recall the dead man to life. Then they said to the women, "Women,
weep not. I know what is sweeter than honey." But the women
continued to lament and chant, as they do at funerals. "Of what
was he guilty? He was so good. He will arise no more. O how shall
we part from thee? What is life without thee? Arise, if only for a
brief hour. But he rises not, he not." At last the Yarilo was buried in
a grave. 1