Note 8 — WEDDING SONG CYCLE

Barwēnok: evergreen marriage flower, periwinkle.

“Barwēnok,” so often mentioned in the folk-songs in connection with marriage—sometimes it is placed on graves—is a creeping vine, green among the snows of winter. It is akin in meaning to the Polish “meert” or myrtle.

“Little Barwēnok,

You creep, creep low on the face of the earth,

So, O Barwēnok, may my lover ever stay—as close, as near to me.”

On the 24th of June when the passing of Kupalo, God of Frost, was celebrated, the girls of Southern Russia made wreaths of Barwēnok and mallow and threw them into the streams. If a garland were sucked down beneath the waters death was the omen, while if it floated the maiden to whom it belonged would be wed within the year.