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Trinity
Trinity (Semuha, Zelyanets) in ancient times was a major spring holiday, which was based on the cult of vegetation and the cult of ancestors and it was celebrated in honour of the completion of all the spring field work. In the Christian calendar it is the Day of the Holy Trinity (Pentecost) for the Orthodox and the Day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit for Catholics, celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter. Trinity greens ("May") including the cut off young birch trees, branches of birch, maple, oak, linden, mountain ash, etc, were used to decorate the houses inside and out, to stick into the farm buildings, gates, wells, to put garlands on the horns of cows, to throw branches into the garden, to bury the young trees in the yard. A few days after (usually on Kupala bonfire) a part of the Trinity vegetation was burned, and the dried residues were used to protect them from evil forces, lightning, fire, or for divination, healing magic. At Rusal (the week following the Trinity) there was a ceremony of seeing mermaids off.
© National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2011
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