Europe's last pagans defend their faith on the net

Europe's last pagans defend their faith on the net

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Many readers would be surprised that there remains one corner of Europe where at least in some areas Christianity never took root at all and the locals remain pagans just like their parents and their parent’s parents before them.
This corner of Europe is the Republic of Mari-El (Capital city: Yoshkar Ola) in the middle Volga region of the Russian Republic. The Mari people are classified as a Volga-Finnic people which means, as the name suggest, that they are related to the modern day Finnish and possibly the Hungarians. The Mari have their own language or set of dialects which are widely spoken throughout the republic

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Maris have traditionally practiced a pagan faith that closely connected the individual with nature. According to their beliefs, nature exerts a magical influence over people. They relate to it as a sacred, powerful, and living being outside of which man can not exist. Nature serves as a source of absolute good who always helps man as long as he does not harm or oppose it.[2]

The Mari faith also possesses a pantheon of gods who reside in the heavens, the most important of whom is known as the Great White God (Ош Кугу Юмо). Other lesser gods include the god of fire (Тул Юмо) and the god of wind (Мардеж Юмо). The Mari also believe in a number of half-men, half-gods (керемет) who live on earth. The most revered of these gods is Chumbulat (Чумбулат) or Chumbylat (Чумбылат), a renowned leader and warrior[3].

Many Mari today still practice paganism or are of the Marla faith, a form of Christianity that retains significant amounts of pre-Christian elements.


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[edit on 24-2-2009 by stewartw2]

Very cool!

Hope that they are able to further the public knowledge about the nature of their beliefs and help quell the hate against the Pagans.