In ancient times, a legend was formed about the amazing fern flower. Witchcraft properties were attributed to the mysterious flower, thanks to which it could make its owner happy for life. But finding and picking a flower was incredibly difficult.
Fern Flower Legend
Legend has it that the fern blooms only once a year - on a magical night on the eve of Ivan Kupala. Allegedly, on this night, between the leaves of the fern, a small ember lights up - a flower bud. At the same time, she does not stand still, but moves, jumps from one place to another and even chirps. When midnight comes, the bud opens, a fiery flower appears, illuminating everything around with its light. It is sometimes said that at this moment there are thunderclaps and the earth shakes. Moreover, the flower blooms only for one short moment, and you need to have time to pick it at this very moment.
A brave man who decides to go in search of a fern flower should come to the forest closer to midnight, find a place where the fern grows, draw a circle around him and wait for the flower to appear. But, as soon as the flower appears, the evil spirits will try to frighten the daredevil with all their might. However, you need to take a knife and cut your palm, and then put the flower into the resulting wound and run home without looking back.
But the brave man who managed to get the flower will receive a worthy reward. He will learn to understand the language of plants and animals. From the conversations of plants, he learns which herb helps from which disease, and can become a great healer. He will be able to bewitch any girl he likes, any locks will open in front of him and any chains will break. By the way, this is why fern was sometimes called tear-grass. But the most important thing is that the owner of a wonderful flower will discover all the treasures hidden in the bowels of the earth.
For this reason, the fern flower is so anxious to get the evil spirits. But it is not given into the hands of evil spirits, and they have to use a person for their own purposes. Nikolai Gogol told a terrible story about this in his story "The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala". Its main character, poor farm laborer Petro, unknowingly fell into the clutches of evil spirits and was destroyed by it.
Does the fern actually bloom?
Science has long and reliably established that the fern reproduces by spores and never blooms. However, there is a version that sometimes, albeit extremely rarely, a mushroom grows at the roots of the fern. When ripe, its shell breaks, and the fungus begins to slightly phosphoresce. Perhaps one of the ancient Slavs saw this mushroom and mistook it for a mysterious fire flower?
But wherever the legend appeared, it found a response in the souls of people, inspiring them to new wonderful, and sometimes terrible stories.
