Hymn to Vid
This is an old Serbian folk hymn sung by young girls at the rite of spring equinox, what later became the Feast of Annunciation, to call back the sun and keep the evil at bay — the darkness, death and disease of winter. It is one of the many works of folk art and mysticism that has inspired us, and we thought it fitting at this occasion, in this time when a great calamity is upon us all, reminding us that we are all in this together. Take care, keep clean, stay with your family and near your hearth, and remember that the Sun always comes back. Love, the CL team.
And at the morn of the equinox, the maidens went down by the waters, crowned with wreaths of the first spring flowers. The wreaths they would cast into the great Danub, ever flowing eastward, towards the sun’s home. And they did sing joyously, calling for the sun to come back and drive away the cold winter and with it, the foul disease that was unleashed upon the world:
Oh, Vid, you true and bold
You would be our glorious Lord
Rise up early, Vid, do haste
To the river cold and chaste
For fair maidens gather there
Throwing their wreaths downwater
In the footsteps of warriors.
Maidens, stir the waters more!
Sweep and flood and hide the way
So that Vid won’t go this day
To those lands so far away
Where skies are ruled by birds of prey
Where six-winged golden shelducks lay
So that, dear Vid, you would stay
And hold the cold for all at bay!
