Yarilo

Jarylo (Cyrillic: Ярило, Ярила; Serbo-Croatian: Jarilo, Јарило; Belarusian: Ярыла), alternatively Yaryla, Yarilo, Iarilo, Juraj, Jurij, or Gerovit, is an alleged East and South Slavic god of vegetation, fertility and springtime.

[1][2] The Proto-Slavic root *jarъ (jar, yar), from Proto-Indo-European *yōr-, *yeh₁ro-, from *yeh₁r-, means "spring" or "summer", "strong", "furious", "imbued with youthful life-force".

The only historic source that mentions this deity is a 12th-century biography of the proselytizing German bishop Otto of Bamberg, who, during his expeditions to convert the pagan tribes of Wendish and Polabian Slavs, encountered festivals in honor of the war-god Gerovit in the cities of Wolgast and Havelberg.

Up until the 19th century in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Serbia, folk festivals called Jarilo were celebrated in late spring or early summer.

Early researchers of Slavic mythology recognised in them relics of pagan ceremonies in honor of an eponymous spring deity.