Rod (Slovenian, Croatian: Rod, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian Cyrillic: Род, Ukrainian Cyrillic: Рід), also as Sud (translated as the judge) in the pre-Christian religion of Eastern and Southern Slavs, is the God of the family, rain, fertility, fate, kinship and ancestors and also regarded as the Supreme God. He is usually mentioned together with Rozhanitsy (goddesses of fate and childbirth) deities (among Southern Slavs, the Sudzenitsy). One's first haircut (postriziny) was dedicated to him, in a celebration in which he and the rozhanitsy were given a meal and the cut hair. The root word --Rod-- in the name of this god essentially means birth or origin, but also kinship, tribe and destiny. The South Slavic ancestors called him --Sud-- (the Judge) as he was the ultimate decision-maker who could interweave destiny. Another name for Rod was --Praboh-- which derives from the Slovak tradition, meaning pre-god, first-god or primordial-god. His cult lost its importance through time, and in the ninth or tenth century he was replaced by Perun, Svarog and/or Svetevid, which explains his absence in the pantheon of Vladimir the Great. According to ethnologist Halyna Lozko, Holiday of Rod was celebrated on December 23, or according to Czech historian and archaeologist Nada Profantová, on December 26. Rod and the Rozhanitsy were offered bloodless sacrifices in the form of bread, honey, cheese and groat (kutia). The scholar Boris Rybakov presented the concept of Rod as a supreme deity in the era of patriarchal agricultural societies which later lost its power. Rybakov based his theory on the work --Word of St. Gregory… -- which describes how the Slavs initially offered sacrifices to wraiths after which they offered it to Rod and the Rozhanitsy and finally to Perun. (Info-Credit: Rod_(Slavic_religion), Wikipedia) (Info+ Image Credit: meettheslavs .com /rod-slavic-god/ )
Slavic Mythology
