The Kupala festival at midsummer marks the peak of Dazhbog's solar power. Celebrants leap over bonfires and roll flaming sun-wheels downhill in rites directly honoring the sun at its annual zenith.
The witches' sabbath on Lysa Hora is held on Kupala Night (Midsummer Eve), when supernatural activity peaks and dark forces converge on the barren summit for their greatest annual gathering.
Kupala night celebrates the midsummer wedding of Jarilo and Marzanna, the peak of the seasonal cycle. The festival's bonfires and fertility rites mark the doomed union before Jarilo's death at summer's end.
During the Kupala festival, rusalki leave their waters to dance in the rye fields by moonlight, and where their feet touch the grain grows lush and green — villagers wove wreaths and cast them on the water to appease the spirits before driving them back beneath the surface.
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