Pagan Revival Movements

Why have neo-pagan movements gained large numbers of followers in regions such as the Baltics, The Caucasus and Russia while numbers have stayed very low in the rest of the Christian world (the highest being Iceland and New Zealand at 1% each).

Numbers:

>Estonia - 11%

>Abkhazia - 8%

>Ossetia - 29%

>Circassians - 3-12%

>Mari El,Russia - 6%

try to keep this thread academic and not /pol/ posting
i.e. avoid
>le magic LARPers
or
>le dead kike

cont.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Lithuania
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_neopaganism
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_El#Religion
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassians
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uatsdin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazia#Religion
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

well the baltics were the last christianized europeans, iirc like 1200-1300

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Lithuania

not to mention shortly after the reformation happened, so frankly im not sure what people are on about when they talk of a unified christian europe

cringe

so basically they have the weakest xtian tradition of continental europe id say im sure theres more to it though

Baltics and (northern) Caucasus converted from paganism relatively late, as did Iceland and Russia.

Source on these numbers?

>Abkhazia is over 1/4 Pagan

Holy shit.

excuse me, Ossetia

Officially christianized mind you. Pagan traditions in the Baltic (Influcing Finland) truly died at the reformation, when Christians got autistic about the religion. Mind you that especially Finnish/Estonian paganism (which are quite similar) survived in Russia, especially Karelia in oral tradition (some were discovered from Estonia and Finland as wlel). The last true carriers of said oral tradition died in the 20th century but by that time Finnish nationalist had collected most of their poems.

Petri Shemeikka is considered to be last one of them, and he even did some audio recordings. His speciality vere religious poems about deer.

I think this adds to the "authencity" of the neopaganism, as the material is not just some bishops recording of what the pagan religion was like.

cont.

My personal theory is that western European nations have complete written histories as well as sovereignty and the lack of a regional hegemon by the time nationalism emerges. Thus figures in the nations past can be used as symbols of national pride. In addition to this most states have a strong church that most of the population accepted (Catholic or a National Church) which is often distinctive enough to set them apart from their neighbors.

In the case of the territories I listed they were under the Russian Empire directly or in Russia's hegemonic zone. So when nationalism come around (both for the first time and after the fall of the Soviet Union) these groups, which often have little in the way of complete history and share a common religion with the Russians, need to find something on which to distinguish themselves from their former overlords they used their historical faith for this purpose.

For a final point Neo-Paganism has little future in the west as normies see the Germanic and Hellenic Pagan gods as little more than pop culture figures and this prevents them from taking neo-pagans seriously and the Celtic religion has been discounted by Wicca and "Witches". As well serious devotion to the Germanic gods is often connected to the Third Reich and modern Neo-Nazi's killing it in the eyes of the general populace even farther.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_neopaganism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_El#Religion

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circassians

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uatsdin

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazia#Religion

Wikipedia so number probably a bit off but still massively higher than the West

Op here

why did the revival movement work in Estonia and other places but fail to catch on in Finland where number stay similar to neighboring Sweden.

Because first worlders are too smart for religion

Christianity was pretty strong, so the interest was almost purely nationalist and romantic. And now most just feel apathy towards any form of religiousness. The traditions are very cherished though, to a much higher extent than most other countries.

Why can't you just enjoy old mythology and folklore without pretending that it's real?

why cant you enjoy ancient semite myths a folklore

What are some necessary reading materials for someone that has an interest European paganism?
I started the Mabinogion and plan on finishing it, but I'm asking for other recommendations from lesser known mythologies like Estonia.

Because Christianity is demonstrably true

I'm not a pagan myself but if you believe something happened then you believe it happened and there isn't any helping that, especially if you are happy believing it.

Let them, a wrong faith is better than no faith.

Not really

blablabla god somethin somethin muh bible prooofs

we're talking about pagan revival cultures here, go bother someone else

The Summer solstace is arguably a bigger deal than Christmas in the Baltics - at least Latvia and Lithuania.

I'd say the number of semipagans is much higher.

>le no context cherrypicking

Books on the topic of Baltic paganism by author

Finnish and by extension estonian:
Juha Pentikäinen (prof. of Religious anthropology and folklore)
>Shamanism and Northern Ecology
>Kalevala Mythology, Revised Edition
>Shamanism and Culture
>Lore of the northern bear
Ronald Hutton (historian)
>Shamans, Siberian spirituality and the western imagination
Anna-Leena Siikala (prof. of Folklore)
>Myth and Mentality Studies in Folklore and popular thought
>Studies in Oral Narrative
>Mythic images and shamanism a perspective on Kalevala poetry
>Songs beyond Kalevala, Transformations of oral poetry
Estonian folklore institution:
en(dot)folklore(dot)ee/inst/
For Lithuanian you could probably read: Of gods & holidays : the Baltic heritage. It's written by Jonas Trinkunas who is an academic, but he is the founder of the Romuva neopagan movement but the book should be more about facts. And you should of course read Kalevala, even though it is more of a literary work based on Finnish mytholoy. Here's some older stuff as well:
Fragments of Lappish Mythology by Lars Laevi Laestadious (the founder of Laestadianism so do take with some salt) and Mythologia Fennica by Christfrid Ganander, an older book from 1789 about Finnish mythology

>a wrong faith is better than no faith
If someone doesn't have a faith they have no choice in not believing in them

And in my experience they are quite miserable because of that.

Easter fires are equally as important to Easter celebrations as easter breakfast or looking for chocolate eggs in former Saxon lands (eastern Netherlands)