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Yarilo

Slavic god of fertility and spring

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Jarylo (Cyrillic: Ярило, Ярила; Serbo-Croatian: Jarilo, Јарило; Belarusian: Ярыла), alternatively Yaryla, Yarilo, Iarilo, Juraj, Jurij, or Gerovit, is an alleged East and South Slavic god of vegetation, fertility and springtime.

01Etymology

The Proto-Slavic root *jarъ (jar, yar), from Proto-Indo-European *yōr-, *yeh₁ro-, from *yeh₁r-, means "spring" or "summer", "strong", "furious", "imbued with youthful life-force". This youthful life-force was considered sacred in the Slavic pre-Christian religion and the god personifying this sacred force was thus called Jarovit, or hypocoristically Jarilo.

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