Makosha - the mother of a good harvest.

MOKOSH (Makosha, Makesha) - one of the main goddesses of the Eastern Slavs, the wife of the thunderer Perun. Her name is made up of two parts: "ma" - mother and "kosh" - purse, basket, koshara. Mokosh is a mother filled with cats, the mother of a good harvest. This is not the goddess of fertility, but the goddess of the outcome of the economic year, the goddess of the harvest, the giver of wealth. Harvest each year determines the lot, fate, so it is still revered as the goddess of fate. Mandatory attribute in its image - a cornucopia. This goddess linked the abstract notion of fate with a specific notion of abundance, patronized the household, sheared sheep, spun, punished the negligent. The specific concept of "spinner" was associated with the metaphorical: "spinning fate." Mokosh patronized marriage and family happiness. It was presented as a woman with a big head and long hands, spinning at night in a hut: it is forbidden to leave tows, “and Makosha will be tied”. The direct continuation of the image of Mokosh became Paraskeva Friday. Since she had at her disposal all the fruits of the earth, she knew the fate of the harvest, i.e. distribution of products, raw materials, handicraft items. It was she who managed to bargain, patronized trade. In Novgorod, in 1207, the Church of Paraskeva Pyatnitsa was built on the Marketplace, the same temples were built in the XII-XIII centuries. in Chernigov, Moscow in the shopping and hunting. Mokosh is the only female deity whose idol stood on top of a hill in the pantheon of Prince Vladimir. “And the beginning of Volodymer in Kuyev is united. And put the idols on the halm in the courtyard of the Teremniy: Perun drevyana, and his head srebryanu, and pay, and Harsa, and Dazhbog, and Striboga, and Smargla, and Makosh ”(sources XII-XIV centuries.).