Holidays of the Slavs - Day of Karna the Mourner

On April 7, the ancient Slavs honored Karna the Mourner. The goddess was also called Karna-Kruchina and her sphere of responsibility included grief, sadness and loss of spirit. As a rule, such emotions accompany us when we lose a loved one or dear one. Therefore, Karna the mourner is an inescapable companion of funerals, ritual ceremonies and burials. The word “reincarnation” is widely known; it is reincarnation. The root of the term is Latin, carnation, meaning “incarnation,” that is, literally “taking on flesh.” It is surprising that Karna the mourner, in addition to sadness, is also in charge of the transmigration of the spirit into another body, that is, into another flesh. This is done in order to give the soul another chance to correct the mistakes of the previous body. To provide the opportunity to fulfill what is destined and intended by Rod, the god of the highest pantheon. And the consonance of these words is clearly heard: reincarnation and Karna. But the name of the original Slavic goddess could not be borrowed from Latin. This means the roots go deeper. Another interesting detail: the word carnation refers to a special variety of carnation, pale pink-fawn in color, which resembles the color of human skin. It was precisely these carnations, according to the legends of our ancestors, that Karna-Kruchina loved. Therefore, it was customary to carry carnations to the burial places of their dead. Or plant them near the graves to pay respect to Karna. The image of the deity had a female appearance with black wings. Karna needed the wings to be the first to fly to the place of death of a warrior who died far from his homeland. Kruchina accepted the soul of the deceased and mourned it; she always knew where the heroes were who died for the glory of their Fatherland. Therefore, if during the war it was not possible to find any information about the resting place of a soldier, then on the day of Karna the Mourner a fire was lit in the courtyard, to which, according to legend, the goddess showed the way to the soul. To thank the deity for such sad and mournful work, it was customary to leave a special dish, kutya, on the table on the night of April 7, the same as that prepared at funeral rituals. Funeral kutia is a wheat or rice porridge sweetened with honey and raisins. The table was decorated with carnations, Karna's favorite flowers. And the very fires around which the souls of their ancestors warmed themselves were supposed to burn all night, and a small fire burned near each yard in memory of their fallen relatives. The goddess had several names, including Karina. But the female name Karina has nothing to do with the mourner, so its bearers have nothing to fear. Salt calcined on Karna's night was believed to have healing properties. Special buns were baked with it, which were fed to livestock; it was put into special bags and stored for a whole year, adding it to medicinal potions. According to signs, rain falling on April 7 foreshadows a mushroom summer, and snow that falls on Karna will remain until May. If there happened to be such an early thunderstorm (thunderstorms are not typical for April), then they expected a warm summer and a large amount of hazel and hazelnuts.