{"id":4392,"date":"2012-07-02T14:02:17","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T20:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4392"},"modified":"2012-07-02T14:19:17","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T20:19:17","slug":"europes-oldest-paganism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4392","title":{"rendered":"Europe’s Oldest Paganism"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Forging the Sampo<\/em>, a link to a short documentary video on the revived Pagan religion of the Mari people of the former Soviet Union.<\/a> (Wikipedia entry on Mari-El<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Massive sacrificial feasts, accordions, sacred oaks and groves, priests in tall woolen hats, even a sort of Bigfoot reference \u2014 what’s not to like?<\/p>\n

I have been reading chapters from a forthcoming book<\/a> on revived Paganism in Central and Eastern Europe, which includes a chapter on the Mari by Boris Knorre, who writes,<\/p>\n

Even during the Soviet times, within the isolated rural population of the Mari, certain elements remained well preserved: local and family prayers, reverence for the sacred grove,<\/ins> and similar \u201cprivate\u201d practices of the tradition. In the 1990s, some urban intellectuals among the Mari initiated an active process of restoration of the native faith. The conduct of these Pagan rituals extended the boundaries of family tradition into public space, and at this time public communal sacrifices and prayers reemerged. In the Republic of Mari El, there are six hundred holy groves (kusoto<\/em>), of which the majority have been taken under the protection of the state.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I look forward to being able to promote the entire volume when it is published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Forging the Sampo, a link to a short documentary video on the revived Pagan religion of the Mari people of the former Soviet Union. (Wikipedia entry on Mari-El.) Massive sacrificial feasts, accordions, sacred oaks and groves, priests in tall woolen hats, even a sort of Bigfoot reference \u2014 what’s not to like? I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[131,5,53],"class_list":["post-4392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-europe","tag-paganism","tag-russia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-18Q","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4848,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4848","url_meta":{"origin":4392,"position":0},"title":"More on “Europe’s Oldest Paganism”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Following up on last July's post about Mari Paganism, here via Forging the Sampo is another contemporary journalistic article with links. Two of the grandmothers are less concerned, lying down in the grass in their shawls as their grandsons collect wood for the fire. \u201cIn [Orthodox] Church, you have to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14010,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14010","url_meta":{"origin":4392,"position":1},"title":"What Does ‘Pagan Persistence’ Look Like?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"For more than a century, scholars and Pagans (who are sometimes the same people) have debated the persistence -- or not -- of Pagan ideas and practices into the Chritian era. This is the question that Robin Douglas and Francis Young examine in Paganism Persisting: A History of European Paganisms\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/oaganism-persisting.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8037,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8037","url_meta":{"origin":4392,"position":2},"title":"Being “Nones” in a Pagan Society?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In Estonia, as with many Eastern European countries, the native Pagan religion is entertwined with national pride. Conquerers from the medieval Teutonic Knights to the Soviet Union have tried to supress it. According to this writer, many\u2014perhaps a majority\u2014of Estonians are spiritual-but-not-religious in a Pagan sort of way: Taaraism [native\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Estonia\"","block_context":{"text":"Estonia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=estonia"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sacrificial pine tree of Lalli in Tartu county - photo by Pille Porila","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/estonianworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Sacrificial-pine-tree-of-Lalli-in-Tartu-county-photo-by-Pille-Porila.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":905,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=905","url_meta":{"origin":4392,"position":3},"title":"Pomegranate 9.1 (June 2007)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Contents of the newest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies:\u2022 Marisol Charbonneau, \"The Melting Cauldron: Ethnicity, Diversity, and Identity in a Contemporary Pagan Subculture.\"\u2022 Carole Cusack, \"The Goddess Eostre: Bede's Text and Contemporary Pagan Tradition(s).\"\u2022 Victor Schnirelman, \"Ancestral Wisdom and Ethnic Nationalism: A View from Eastern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"nature religion\"","block_context":{"text":"nature religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=nature-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11548,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11548","url_meta":{"origin":4392,"position":4},"title":"Interview with an American Pagan Studies Scholar in Latvia","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Long-time Pagan studies scholar Michael Strimska has been in Latvia the last few months on a Fulbright, teaching at Riga Stradii\u0161 University. He edited the volume Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives\u00a0 and guest-edited a recent\u00a0 issue of The Pomegranate devoted to Paganism and politics. The university has published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6240,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6240","url_meta":{"origin":4392,"position":5},"title":"Pentagram Pizza from Rome’s Enemy","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 The word went around last week of the passing of Jonas Trinkunas (1939\u20132014), founder of the revived Lithuanian Pagan group Romuva. This Lithuanian website has video of his funeral ceremony,\u00a0everyone in archaic ritual gear, lots of singing and drumming. (Video may be slow to load.) \u00b6 \"Perhaps the future\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Africa\"","block_context":{"text":"Africa","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=africa"},"img":{"alt_text":"pentagrampizza","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4392"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4400,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4392\/revisions\/4400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}