Podʹa, the Fire-Spirit of the Hearth
Nanai · numen · Nanai traditional religion; continuing · numen
Podʹa is the Nanai spirit-master of fire and, in the household, the indwelling spirit of the hearth, personified as an aged woman called Fadzya Mama (mama, 'grandmother'). Across the Amur peoples — Nanai, Udegei and Ulchi — fire is treated as a living and easily offended being: small offerings of food were placed in the flames, children were not allowed to run up to the fire for fear of startling the fire-grandmother, and men kept a courteous bearing in the presence of the hearth. The cult of the fire-spirit remains one of the most everyday and enduring observances of Nanai folk religion, recorded by ethnographers from A. V. Smolyak to Kira Van Deusen.
Domains
- fire and hearth
- domestic household protection
Powers
- to dwell in and guard the hearth-fire
- to receive the household's offerings and grant its welfare
Epithets
- Fadzya Mama
Sources
- Kira Van Deusen, The Flying Tiger: Women Shamans and Storytellers of the Amur, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001.
- A. V. Smolyak, 'Nanai', in P. Friedrich & N. Diamond (eds.), Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. VI: Russia and Eurasia/China, trans. Lydia T. Black, Boston: G. K. Hall, 1994.