The Rusalki
This week is Green Week, an ancient Slavic Fertility Festival, also known as Rusalka Week ( русальная неделя) in Russian because during this week the Russian Water Nymphs, the Rusalki, are said to be at their most dangerous and powerful. These days Green Week runs from midnight Pentecost Sunday to the midnight that heralds Trinity Sunday, so its dates move each year. Originally the Rusalki (singular Rusalka) were Fertility Faeries, Nymphs or Spirits who rose out from the lakes, rivers and streams in which they lived during Springtime to water and bless the land with fertility. As they walked on land for this one week of the year, especially through the growing rye or hemp fields, they watered it, for as they passed for their hair and clothes dripped with the water from their home body of water. They were one with Nature, working with the phases of the Moon, and able to control the weather. They were said to be in charge of the spring rains that watered the crops, and t...