Rusalka, a 1968 painting by Konstantin Vasiliev.

Semik is an ancient Russian fertility festival celebrated in early June and closely linked with the cult of the dead and the spring agricultural rites. It usually fell upon the Thursday of the Green Week (better known as Trinity Week in Russia and the Whitsuntide week in Britain). Its name is derived from the Slavic word for "seven", because the Green Week was the seventh (sometimes the eighth) week after Easter. The end of Semik inaugurated the celebrations of the Trinity Sunday. Image File history File links Rusalka (Русалка) from 1968 by Russian artist Konstantin Vasiliev (Константин Васильев). From: Музей Васильева File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Rusalka (Русалка) from 1968 by Russian artist Konstantin Vasiliev (Константин Васильев). From: Музей Васильева File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with a length of 30 days. ... The god Thor, after whom Thursday is named. ... Note: This article is mostly about the Christian holiday of Pentecost. ... Easter, also known as Pascha (Greek Πάσχα: Passover), the Feast of the Resurrection, the Sunday of the Resurrection, or Resurrection Day, is the most important religious feast of the Christian liturgical year, observed between late March and late April (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity). ... Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. ...

The Rusalki were believed to be at their most dangerous during the Green Week (Russian: русальная неделя), and were supposed to have left their watery depths in order to swing on branches of birch and willow trees at night.^[1] Peasant women sometimes hung offerings to appease them. A cross, a magic circle, incense, garlic, wormwood, a pin or poker and verbal charms were used to render the rusalki harmless. Swimming was strictly forbidden, lest mermaids would drag the swimmer down to the river floor. The name Rusalka may refer to one of the following. ...

On Semik, funeral services were held for those who had not received a proper burial. Peasants decorated the insides and outsides of their houses with birch branches, and they selected a birch tree to decorate with ribbons and beads. The birch was usually left in the forest, but was sometimes brought into the village. The birch (referred to as "semik", just like the holiday itself) was seen as a symbol of vegetative power and stood as a focal point for girls' singing and dancing. Vows of eternal friendship were made here. Like Kostroma during Maslenitsa, this fertility symbol was destroyed at the end of the festivities. Usually, it was drowned "in order to provide the needed rainfall for the sprouting crops".^[2] Modern Kostroma Kostroma is a straw scarecrow of a girl burnt by East Slavs during the carnival season, or Maslenitsa. ... Boris Kustodiev Maslenitsa tuesday Maslenitsa or Pancake week (Russian: , also called Pancake week) is a Russian folk holiday that dates back to the pagan times. ...

References

1. ^ Max Vasmer notes that the very word rusalka originally referred to the dances of girls at Whitsuntide. The word is derived through Greek ῥουσάλια from "rosalia", the Latin term for Whitsuntide week (originally it meant "the festival of roses").
2. ^ Joanna Hubbs. Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture. Indiana University Press, 1998. ISBN 0253208424. Page 73.