Māra

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This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in Latvian. (November 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Latvian article. Machine translation like DeepL or Google Translate is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Latvian Wikipedia article at [[:lv:Māra]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|lv|Māra}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

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Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology, Mother Earth,^[1] a feminine counterpart to Dievs. She takes spirits after death. She may be thought as the alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin and Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her assistants, or alternate aspects. Māra may have been also the same goddess as Lopu māte, Piena Māte (Mother of the Milk), Veļu māte or Vélių motę (mother of the souls/spirits),^[2] Zemes māte (Mother of the Earth), and many other "mothers", like of Wood, Water, Sea, Wind.^[3]

Names[]

Alternative names: Māre, Mārīte (diminutive), Mārša, Māršava (Western Latvia).

Description[]

She is the patroness of all feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of all the economic activities ("God made the table, Māra made the bread"), even money and markets. Being the alternate side of Dievs, she takes a person's body after their death while Dievs is taking the soul. She is the goddess of the land, which is called Māras zeme (Māra's land).

In western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity.

Festivals[]

The festival Māras was held in her honor every August 15. This is probably a result of Christian influence and identification of Māra with Mary, whose main festival (the Assumption) has fallen on the same date since early times. Opinions are divided over whether Māra is a pre-Christian deity,^[4] or originated as a reflection of the Christian Mary created by semi-Christian Livonian peasants.

See also[]

• Mara (Hindu goddess)
• Mara (disambiguation)
• Mare (folklore)
• Marah (Bible)

References[]

External links[]

• Māre at Krisjanis Barons folk closet, Latvian Folklore (in Latvian)
• Latvia seeks common roots in Tamil Goddess Mariamma , Times of India