Tuesday - holly day

Folklore claims that snakes live like humans: they have their families but also kingdoms and monarchies. They always gather exclusively on Tuesdays in order to hold their meetings and agreements and at that moment, according to folk belief, there are hundreds of them on one place. Depending on the religion that they follow they have names which are identical to humans. How widespread this belief is still today is best shown by the statement of stravarka Alija from Velika Kladuša. On one occasion, when she went to her neighbour's house, Alija met a black snake laying on the road and observed her. Seeing the snake on the road Alija stopped and started uttering all Bosnian female names that she could think of: Mejra, Bejza, Hanifa, Fatime, Senada,. and only after she uttered the name Katka the snake reacted and started moving towards a nearby meadow, disappearing in the tall grass. According to Alija's belief each snake has its own name, which is identical to a human name, and as soon as one guesses it the snake will disappear.

Even though people avoid close contact with snakes from fear of their attack we should mention that a snake bite is not seen as a large unfortunate event. Namely, it is considered to be a heavenly gift since the person which is bitten by a snake, will according to belief, gain magical strength - it will gain the power of the curse. Alije, which was bitten by a snake at a very young age, claimed that she possessed the power of the curse which she never wanted to demonstrate sine "it is a great sin!".

All those Bosnian beliefs are the result of a tradition over a thousand years old, whose Illyrian origin is evident in all of its parts. It is especially recognizable in beliefs tied to Tuesday - holly day of snakes but also of Bogomils. That's why this day has a special meaning for understanding numerous segments of Bosnia's past but also mythology. Tuesday is a holly day which is in accordance with that marked by various taboos, especially the ones that have to do with men, which can point to an idea of a "female" day i.e. that in the past it was dedicated to a goddess, probably the goddess of moon. There is some evidence for this fact, namely, in Visoko it is believed that a deer fasts every Tuesday and that it refuses to feed its young on that day. In order to understand the hidden meaning of this belief we need to reach out to mythology of those people which had a significant influence on our Illyrian forefathers, and those people are the Celts.

In Celtic mythology the goddess of moon was transformed into a deer by magic and in that form she is taking care of her son Oisin. Moon goddess is at the same time the ruler of the dead which is analogous to the Bosnian belief that on Tuesday men shouldn't shave or that their clothes should be washed "since the dirty water is poured into the eyes of the dead". In the background of this belief we can notice the cult of the moon goddess Arianrhod, depicted on a Bosnian tombstone, which is taking care of warriors and their souls.

 

The connection of a deer i.e. a roe with the underworld, especially in combination with the depiction of a bird, was relatively a constant occurrence on tombstones,  Šefik Bešlagić claims in his book "Stećci-kultura i umjetnost" (tombstones - culture and art), which means that he belief in the fast of the deer on Tuesday is not accidental and it is only a small segment of a once large cult of fertility in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We shouldn't forget the fact that without death there is no new life, no new fruit unless a seed is buried in the ground, and that the entire concept of the cult of fertility and cult of the dead is based upon that principle. And in other cultures one addresses the ancestors when one wishes their intervention in the form of protection for the family, facilitation of fertility and new-borns.     

Since we are talking about a lunar deity, which has an arbitrary role over water and weather conditions, it is logical that all gathering of Bosniaks on Tuesday on high places, had in their background the cult of the moon goddess, water and fertility. Their location is besides a place which were geopolitically important in the thousand year old history of Bosnia. All dovišta (pilgrimage site) are located on clearings and plateaus with lush vegetation and undergrowth, forests and local streams. The most important characteristic of all dovišta is that they are former worshiping places of Bogomils, where they gathered and prayed together to god to send them rain and ensure a bountiful harvest, successful defence from enemies, protection of the home, fertility of women, etc. However, ethnologists found out that ritual sacrifices of sheep at those places are proof that dovišta are not exclusively a part of the Bogomil tradition but that they only continued to observe much older Illyrian cults, especially astral cults and the cult of god of streams Bindu.

One of these places of worship dovište Dobre vode (good water) near Foča which is connected to the tomb of two "dobri" (good), i.e. a father and son that a stepmother wanted to kill with the help of a snake, is an ideal example of the cult of water. Visit to medicinal streams which are located there and where prayer is done during the first Tuesday up to Hidirllez and first Tuesday after it.  

With the advent of Islam or better to say with the conversion of Bogomils to Islam besides Tuesday, Friday also gained the characteristic of a holly day and because of that fact we have numerous common beliefs and taboos connected to them. The most dominant belief is that during these days one shouldn't wash clothes, especially male clothes, in order to avoid lightning striking a home or even a homeowner dying, which is a clear influence of the cult of the snake, the protector of the family and home. In Rogatica and Žepa it is believed that on Tuesday and Friday it is not good to neither wash clothes nor do anything else on the river or stream in order to avoid stirring the water since it can cause hailstorm.    

Illyrian religion in Bosnia

Illyrian religion was based on totemism - belief in holly animals which represented with their divine significance and supernatural characteristics specific deities, its manifestation or even the spirit of nature. While it is definitely known that the supreme deity was a snake, the forefather of all Illyrians, for other mythological creatures we can presume that they are hiding in the form of individual animals which are most widespread in folk beliefs. But, surely the thing that can be concluded, by detailed research and analysis of certain segments of Bosnian mythology, is that all those animals which are represented in folk beliefs and magical practice belong to the cult of fertility, a very important part of the Illyrian religious tradition.  

According to that, even though a snake in Bosnian tradition and mythology it has superpowers compared to other animals, zviždenjak and frog are more widespread in folk religion, especially through various beliefs and rituals. In certain beliefs there are identical claims like the one in which a witch can transform into snake and frog, or that in the grave a dead man is being eaten by zviždenjak but also snake, etc. However, each individual animal has its own individual powers and characteristics which at the same time make them connected but also independent part of the cult of fertility.

While in Roman tradition we come across the cult of ancestors - protectors of the household, family and food (Penati, Lari, Mani) among the Illyrians that cult role is taken over by certain animals, such as a snake and a frog. Why did the Illyrians choose animal instead of spiritual  guardians is not hard to discern especially because of the fact that their religious structure in certain segments is pretty different from the Greco-Roman one. As we all know the Greeks and Romans were particularly prone to raising grandiose temples and statues nurturing in such a way the cult of man. Unlike them, the Illyrians aspired to a more intimate contact with nature and its forces which resulted in building temples, or better to say chapels, which were both architecturally and dimensionally very modest. Their sacral rituals were observed on tops of hills and mountains, near water, forest or some other ambient in the vicinity in order to subject their religious work to natural cycles.

 

Snake as the saviour of the world

Why this is, is best explained in the legends about snakes which have the role of a protector, as certain myths implicate, it is not coincidental but it was earned by its efforts to help nature and humans. On all localities where the snake lives (mountain, forest, meadow, water) we notice religious practice of the Illyrians and with that we can undoubtedly conclude that they are largely based on the desire for closeness but also blessing of the supreme deity.

In a cosmological myth of the Illyrians it is said that a long time ago in the sky there were three suns and that's why there was a constant draught and infertility. One day a large snake (dragon) which lived on a large mountain in the east swallowed two suns. Seeing what was going on the swallow, perhaps in correlation with the snake, raised the third sun on its back into the sky giving it in such a manner a new direction. After that event rain started falling from the sky and it woke the fertility in nature.

With the appearance of Christianity, which tried everything to demonise the cult of the snake, the part of the legend about the lethal effect of the three suns was forgotten on purpose in order to hide the merit of the snake for saving nature and all life in it. However, this legend in a very clear and direct way presents the snake as the saviour of entire life on earth which is a mythological idea also evident in the legend from Velika Kladuša. In that legend it is said that on the bottom of Noah's ark a mouse dug a hole through which water started pouring in. The only animal which noticed what was going on was the snake and to punish him she swallowed the mouse and curled up above the hole preventing the water from going in.

These two myths are an ideal example of long continuity of fostering Illyrian inheritance whose dominant symbol was always a snake - holly protector of the house and family. Since writing about the cult of snake is a rewarding job, primarily because of a large number of ethnological data, it can appear to some that more or less everything was written on the topic, but each time one starts researching new information appears which reveal fascinaiting mythological world of our famous ancestors.

 

Traditional beliefs

In some parts of BiH a house snake is called blazna. Even though she will never harm any of the inhabitants of the household and in case it was seen inside the house it was chased outside with the help of smoke, usually one would burn an old rag or something else which will create a lot of smoke and that would make it leave the house. In Ljubinje if they find a snake inside a house they will not kill it, they will chase it out with smoke. In Mostar they say that a house snake shouldn't be killed but chased away with smoke or it should be caught in a gap, and bring it far away from home and release it uttering: "My Blazna, Blazna, you will protect my house from here"

In Mostar it is believed that the one that kills a house snake will die or that the householder of that snake will die. People from Mostar talk of a Glavaš who killed a blazna, and that he died the same year and that the house was destroyed in a couple of years.

Among the Bosnian people it was once believed that a snake can enter a human through his mouth and live in his stomach. That would usually happen when a man would fall asleep outside, on a meadow or in the forest, and at that moment carelessness the snake would enter his body through his mouth. According to belief, inside the stomach the snake would eat everything that the human eats or drinks and that's why he was skinny and pale. In order to expel the snake from his body the following methods were undertaken; milk would be cooked and the sick man would open his mouth wide above the bowl of milk so the snake can smell the milk and exit the body. Or one would place a grilled chicken next to a sleeping man, in order to entice the snake out by the smell of the chicken.

In the same way, the people believe that a snake has the power to blow inside a human or animal, i.e. to use its breath to fill out a human or animal body in such a manner as to seriously endanger its health. Each case that occurs during summer, when a cow would get bloated, is considered a snake intervention i.e. that it blew inside the animal. It is interesting to compare this belief with the legend of the dragon which tries to attack the rising sun every morning but it is prevented to do so, and as revenge it blows towards the sun and, according to folk belief, a wind is created which spreads across the entire world.

At the end we should also mention another belief about snakes which claims that each cow has its snake, which is its guardian and which feeds itself with the cow's milk. The owner of cattle shouldn't kill that snake, if he does his cow or calf will die. Snake as the guardian of humans and cows and the snake which enters the human body directly is connected to the mythological belief of Bosnian people about snijet - a dragon baby, which can only be borne by a woman or a cow.