Drowning Marzanna on Spring Equinox

There are many pagan traditions in Poland that are still celebrated.

One of them is drowning or first setting on fire and then throwing into water effigy of Slavic goddess Morana (Marzanna). The ritual takes place on the 21st of March which is a day of spring equinox.

Marzanna is a goddess of death, rebirth of nature, and dreams. And the ritual is to bring plentiful of harvest in the coming seasons. We no farmers but we did it symbolically anyway.

Drowning Marzanna is no easy task... but we eventually succeeded.

Yes, yes we did pollute this pond!
But we are also the ones to clean it in the upcoming cleaning actions.
It is a plan of our forest community.
We cannot clean the Earth but we can take care of the forest we live in. 

On a way back we sang on repeat the song "Marzanno". Kids loved it because of the catchy chorus that can be translated to: "Marzanno, Marzanno, you winter maiden, today we will drown you because we don't want winter." 

1. Wiosna już nadchodzi,

     zima odejść nie chce,

      nocą jeszcze mrozi,

      śniegiem prószy jeszcze.

Marzanno, Marzanno,

ty zimowa panno,

dziś cię utopimy,

bo nie chcemy zimy.

2. Odpłyń wraz z lodami,

     daleko do morza,

      niechaj wreszcie przyjdzie

     do nas wiosna hoża.

I couldn't help thinking that it is a song promoting violence towards females. I might be exaggerating. It surely is just an innocent song for kids about drowning an effigy, right... right? One last thought. My son who is disturbingly impressed with bad-guys and has to be constantly checked for as he has bursts of aggression (nothing unusual in terrible twos and yet again...) was very impressed with this tradition. It all does make me wonder.