The Slavic goddess
of love, beauty, marriage spring and is also known as the “Lady of the
Flowers“ She is linked to the planetary power of Venus who is, besides
love and beauty, associated with fertility. Lada is represented as a
young girl with long golden hair sometimes with a wreath of ears of
grain braided into her hair, which symbolises her function of fertility
deity.
A symbol of Sun, a
mark of lifegiving power was sometimes on her breasts. As a fertility
goddess, Lada has her annual cycles, which can be shown by the belief
that she resides in the dwelling place of the dead until the vernal
equinox comes. This world of the dead is called Irij, and here, besides
Lada, dwells Veles, the horned god of cattle. At the moment when Lada is
supposed to come out into the world and bring spring, Jarilo/Gerovit opens the
door of Irij letting the fertility goddess bless the earth.
At the end of
summer, Lada returns to Irij (there is a similar myth in German
mythology in which Freya spends a part of the year underground among the
elves, whereas Greek Persefona dwells in Had during the winter period).
Although her reign begins on the 21st of March, Lada is primarily the
goddess of summer. She follows Vesna, the Slavic spring goddess.
However, both of these goddesses are associated with fertility so
sometimes it can sometimes be difficult to separate their functions. As
we can see, Lada's reign begins in spring, the proof of which is ladenj,
another name for April, given after this goddess. Apart from the Sun,
Lada is also associated with rain and hot summer nights, the ideal time
for paying respect to the love goddess.
Lada's animals
are a cock, a deer, an ant and an eagle, whereas her plants are a
cherry, a dandelion, a linden and a peony.
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