Mara (Morena)

The etymology of the name the Morena (Mara) goes back to the word «mor» – death, destruction. Therefore Morena was initially an embodiment of pestilence, the spirit of death. The researchers mark the Indo-European origins of Slavic Mara. In Sanskrit the word maras means "destroying". The deity named Mara is known in Buddhist mythology. The malicious spirit Mara is known to people of the Western Europe as an embodiment of nightmare (French cauchemar). In a medieval monument “Mater verborun” Czech Morana is identified with Greek Hecate – the goddess of gloom, night images and magic, the dead and phantoms, hunting among tombs at night. In the Polish fairy tales Mara is the spirit of death therewith spirit-werewolf.

            The traces of her cult were traced until recently: the straw scarecrow – an embodiment of winter frost, which was torn to pieces and scattered in the fields on the Pancake week was called Mara or Morena.