(opinion essay)

Let’s start with a simple one: mavkas are natural spirits, they live in completely different places; in the forest, in the field, in the meadow etc. The name of these magical creatures comes from the word “Nav” (according to the beliefs of proto-Ukrainians, this is the name of the lower world – the place where people go after death and from where, after rebirth, they return to Yav – the real world). Close relatives of mavkas are mermaids, but there is a difference between them. Mermaids are spirits and guardians of the entire water element.

Mavka is gentle and pretty. Thin, slender, has seductive eyes and long eyelashes. Has beautiful long hair. Its color is different, just like people`s, while mermaids have mostly green hair. The head of the mavka is always decorated with a wreath. If it is a forest mavka, then a wreath is made of the leaves of the tree in which she lives. If it is a field mavka, then it is made of wildflowers etc. The Mavka girl is always dressed in a long white shirt and walks barefoot. Because of all this, it is easy to confuse her with an ordinary girl. BUT if you look at them from behind, you can see their dead insides: withered lungs, a gray heart that does not beat…

According to ancient ideas, the mavka is the restless soul of a girl who shortened her life due to an unhappy love or longing for her beloved and refused to go to the world of the dead. So, after her death, she seduces men, trying to dull the sorrow for true love: she seduces them, leads them into the forest and destroys them, as she was once afflicted.

Neither garlic nor wormwood in a man’s hands will have any effect on a mavka. Nevertheless, it is quite simple to buy her off – give her a comb.

Mavkas fall asleep for the winter, like most spirits of nature, and wake up on Navskiy Thursday. Ukrainians called Navskiy the Thursday before the pagan Easter. The pre-Christian holiday always fell on the vernal equinox (approximately March 20 or 21). When the day becomes longer than the night, the birds return from their flight, and the forces of light finally defeat the darkness. The whole week before this day, you couldn’t do anything with the earth or with the trees – neither digging, nor sowing, let alone cutting. Because it was possible to accidentally disturb a hawk or one of the spirits of nature.

This is what Ukrainian legends tell. Have you ever encountered mythological creatures in your life? And if yes, how did you come back alive?