Also called Mesiats, Mjesec, Miesiąc, Month.
Their story
In Slavic folk speech the moon is male, often the "young month" when new and an old man when waning. Songs and tales tell of his marriage to the Sun, or of his courting the morning star, and of the Sun and Moon quarrelling so that they now rise at different times. Russian and Ukrainian charms asked the young moon to take away toothache or illness as it waned.
Best times to give to them
- the new moon
- the full moon
- Koliada
What they like being given
- bread shown to the new moon
- water left in moonlight
- a coin turned over in the pocket
How to honour them
- Greet the first thin crescent and turn a coin in your pocket for growing luck.
- Speak a short healing wish to the waning moon, as old charms did for toothache.
How they can help you
- beginnings (waxing)
- banishing pain (waning)
- keeping time
Symbols
- the crescent
- a young man or old man
- silver
A folk personification rather than a temple god; the marriage myths vary widely between regions.
Sources
- Alexander Afanasyev, Poetic Views of the Slavs on Nature
- W. R. S. Ralston, The Songs of the Russian People (1872)
More Slavic gods
- Perun The thunder god of oak and axe
- Veles Lord of cattle, wealth and the underworld
- Dazhbog The giving god, the sun
- Svarog The heavenly smith, father of fire and sun
- Jarilo The youthful god of spring and growth
- Rod The god of kin, birth and fate
- Stribog Grandfather of the winds
- Khors The bright disc of the sun