Māra

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Māra" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Latvian. (November 2012) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Latvian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Latvian Wikipedia article at [[:lv:Māra]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|lv|Māra}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on
Baltic religion
Mythology Prussian Lithuanian Latvian Indo-European
Deities Panbaltic Perkūnas Velnias Dievas Saulė Mėnulis Prussian Patollo Peckols Potrimpo Swayxtix Autrimps Aušlavis Bardoayts Kurka Pilnytis Puszajtis Latvian Ūsiņš Ceroklis Jumis Auseklis Laima Dēkla Kārta Lauma Māra Mahte Lithuanian Gabija Žemyna Laima Medeina/Žvorūna Laumė/Ragana Aušrinė Bangpūtys/Vėjopatis Rūgutis Miscellaneous Aitvaras Kaukai Barstukai Lauksargiai/Žemėpačiai
Festivals Užgavėnės/Meteņi Jorė/Ūsiņi Velykos/Lieldienas Joninės/Jāņi Žolinė/Māras Ilgės/Veļu diena Apjumības Apkūlības Kūčios/Bluķa vakars Kalėdos/Ziemassvētki
Concepts Alka Romuva Sovij Sacred grove Kriwe Waidelotte
Contemporary Baltic neopaganism Romuva Vydūnas Jonas Trinkūnas Inija Trinkūnienė Dievturība Ernests Brastiņš Valdis Celms
Religion portal Mythology portal
v t e

Māra is the highest-ranking goddess in Latvian mythology, the ancient Dawn-goddess, previously called Austra,^[1] and,^[2] not at all, although often stated,^{[clarification needed]} the same as Zemes māte (Mother Earth, pace).^[3]

Alternative names: Māre, Mārīte (diminutive), Mārša, Māršava (Western Latvia).

She is the patroness of all feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of all the economic activities ("God made the table, Māra made the bread"), even money and markets. Being the alternate side of Dievs, she takes a person's body after their death while Dievs is taking the soul. She is the goddess of the land, which is called Māras zeme ('Māra's land'). She is called 'Mother of Cows' (Govu māte), the same way the Vedic Dawn-goddess is called gávām mātár- 'id'.

In western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity.^{[citation needed]}

The festival Māras was held in her honor every August 15. This is probably a result of Christian influence and identification of Māra with Mary, whose main festival (the Assumption) has fallen on the same date since early times. Opinions are divided over whether Māra is a pre-Christian deity,^[4] or originated as a reflection of the Christian Mary created by semi-Christian Livonian peasants.

• Morana (goddess)
• Mara (Hindu goddess)
• Mara (disambiguation)
• Mare (folklore)
• Marah (Bible)
• Mokosh
• Semele
• Eos
• Aurora (mythology)
• Ēostre
• Freyja
• Bendis
• Mara (demon), a "demon" of the Buddhist cosmology
• Hausos

• Laurinkienė, Nijolė [in Lithuanian] (2007). "Motina Žemyna baltų deivių kontekste: 1 d.: Tacito mater deum, trakų-frigų Σεμέλη, latvių Zemes māte, Māra, lietuvių bei latvių Laima, Laumė ir lietuvių Austėja" [Mother-Goddess Žemyna in the context of Baltic deities]. Liaudies kultūra (in Lithuanian) (2): 9-19 [13-14]. ISSN 0236-0551.

• Māre at Krisjanis Barons folk closet, Latvian Folklore (in Latvian)
• Latvia seeks common roots in Tamil Goddess Mariamma , Times of India