Kupala’s Night - Noc Kupały, old Slavic celebration of midsummer, love and happiness.
Kupala’s Night - Noc Kupały, Kupalnocka, Kupała - is the Slavic summer solstice celebration, a night full of fires that reach the skies, magic, dances, divination - but most importantly, love.
Kupala is celebrated during the shortest night of the year - which falls usually around the 21st-22nd of June - and is both one of the most known and studied practices of our ancestors, and the one that survived the strongest in our cultures, being celebrated today not only by Rodnovers (Slavic pagans, practitioners of reconstructionist slavic polytheism) but also by people far from the pagan path. In common Slavic culture, especially West Slavic - as that will be, as always, the main focus of my post - it survived in the rituals and beliefs associated with Noc Świętojańska (or sobótka, signifying the eve, day/evening before a sacred day) - St. John’s Eve.
It is yet another old pagan celebration which was difficult to uproot as people held it dearly - it is up to debate to what extent it was the Christianised people deciding to incorporate old ways into their lives no matter the faith - or even to oppose it to some degree; the Church trying to cover ancient beliefs with new Christian retellings; or just one of the natural and more organic processes of cultures accepting and incorporating new faith with their beloved customs, as it often happens with folk traditions and Christianity. No matter the processes that Kupala’s Night went through - most likely much less drastic that some Rodnovers would want to believe - the beliefs are still alive, not only in folktales and academic research but the common conscience of our people.
This post is meant to bring Kupala closer to the reader in tale-like form and simpler terms - as far as my sources are largely academic, I want to talk about my favourite holiday in a much more lively way. Bear in mind that my perspective - both as a Rodnover and as a person researching old Slavic beliefs - is mostly founded on West Slavic practices. Slavs differed in beliefs and approaches greatly, even from village to village, as you can read more here. Sources shall be listed at the very end of the post.
Let us break Kupala into three important parts: Love, Cleansing, and Celebration.
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“The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” – Utah Phillips
Just 100 companies are responsible for more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. The guys who run those companies – and they are mostly guys – have gotten rich on the backs of literally all life on Earth. Their business model relies on the destruction of the only home humanity has ever known. Meanwhile, we misdirect our outrage at our neighbors, friends, and family for using plastic straws or not recycling. If there is anyone who deserves the outrage of all 7.5 billion of us, it’s these 100 people right here.
It sounds fun and all, but you do realize that it’s not actually that simple, right? Some ppl in the notes are like “kill those people, problem solved” but you do realize that these companies are vital to survival of milions of people, the way things stand now? Let’s take the Russian company Gazprom as an example. They deliver fossil gas to Russia and Central and Eastern Europe (for example 2/3 of Polish fossil gas is imported, mainly from them). Fossil gas is currently an important source of heat for houses. If the company stops functioning overnight you’ll have an international energetic crisis, and if it happens in winter it would pose a risk of a lot of people simply freezing to death. What we need to do is render them obsolete (and fast), fight for alternative energy sources to be used by countries worldwide. Sure, I can get angry at Gazprom’s ceo, but it won’t actually change anything - the whole country is running on this product. You treat them like companies like amazon, which is an error and it won’t get anyone anywhere.
It has been shown again and again that individual consumption choices can’t fix the problem. You switch to green energy, but the company you get it from gets it’s ‘bio fuel’ by cutting down forests and shipping them to bio fuel plants on coal ships. You buy local food but it’s still packed in plastics made in the most unethical ways. The chain of production is not transparent at all, incredibly complex and far out of our control. Most CO2 emission is entirely beyond the reach of your consumer choices. I won’t go into every single detail, that conversation has already been had a thousand times.
Let’s go to the more interesting question:
If you could somehow kill these 100 people, would it change anything?
Well, it probably wouldn’t bring about a revolution. The change we need, both the destruction of the systems in place and the creation of a new world in which everyone is provided for without destroying the planet, requires much more change than that.
But that’s not the only way to look at this question. All these companies, every single one of them, has consistently made objectively evil choices to make a little more profit. From oil spills and pipe lines through sacred lands to kill squads to polluted drinking water, each of these companies ruin lives for profit. They could provide us with energy in far far more ethical ways, but they consistently ruthlessly choose the most profitable option.
This doesn’t happen because the 100 people running them are evil, but because the capitalist system is designed in such a way that the profit motive always wins.
Capitalism is what is driving us to the edge of extinction. Capitalism pushes politicians and corporate rulers into power who are willing to ruthlessly follow the profit motive.
Now, let’s ask (without recommending any course of action, considering every practical barrier or starting a whole debate) the question:
if people can’t bring the whole capitalist system down in one go, what would happen if you struck a blow at the rule of the profit motive and added the survival motive?
Right now, the only consequence these companies face for pursuing the profit motive at all cost is, well, profit. What if the people who make the decision to pollute, evict and pillage for profit suddenly found that that was an extremely dangerous job to be in? Would that have an impact on how these companies behaved in the world?
Throwback Thursday: Apollo 11 Moon Landing Questions Answered
The Apollo 11 Moon landing was a feat for the ages. With the help of the NASA History Office, we’ve identified some of the most frequently asked questions surrounding the first time humans walked on the surface of another world. Click here to check out our post from last week.
Is it true that the Apollo guidance
computer had less
computing power than a smartphone?
Believe it or not, yes! The Apollo guidance computer not only had less computing power than a smartphone, it had less computing power than the calculator you use in your algebra class. The computer, designed by MIT, had a fixed memory of 36 kilobytes and an
erasable memory of 2 kilobytes. That’s fairly advanced for the time!
Why did Buzz Aldrin take a picture of his bootprint?
A substantial portion of the Apollo 11 crew’s checklist was taking photographs. Taking closeup shots of the "very fine” moon dust was a critical component of mission objectives and helped scientists better understand the surface makeup of the Moon.
Armstrong and Aldrin wore lunar overboots over their main spacesuit boots to protect them from ultraviolet radiation and hazardous rocks. To make room for the nearly 50 pounds (22 kilograms) of lunar samples, the crew left all their pairs of boots on the Moon. But don’t worry; they wouldn’t get charged an overweight baggage fee anyway.
What were the first words spoken from the surface of the Moon?
That’s somewhat subject to interpretation. Once the Lunar Module’s footpads touched the surface, Buzz Aldrin called out “Contact Light” to Mission Control. After the engine shut down, he said “ACA out of detent,” simply meaning that the Eagle’s Attitude Control Assembly, or control stick, was moved from its center position.
But the first words heard by the entire world after Apollo 11 touched down were delivered by Neil Armstrong: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” More than six hours later, Armstrong stepped off the Eagle’s footpad and delivered the most famous words ever spoken from the surface of another world: "That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."
And although we have a hard time hearing it in the recording, Armstrong clarified in a post-flight interview that he actually said, “That’s one small step for a man…”
What will the first woman and the next man to go to the Moon say when they first step on its surface?
We can’t say for sure what our next moonwalkers will decide to say, but perhaps the better question is: What would be your first words if you were to land on the Moon? There’s no doubt that the astronauts of the Artemis Generation will inspire a new crop of explorers the way Apollo Generation astronauts did 50 years ago.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
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This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
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