"Smrt u jeseni" ("Death in autumn") - with English subtitles.

Morana is the Slavic goddess of death and winter.

In Slavic mythology, the name Morana is related to the proto-Indian word "mara" which means to die by force.

She appears in various guises, and the most common character is a beautiful girl with black hair and extremely white skin with wolf fangs and claws on her hands.

According to folklore she knew how to sneak into sleeping homes and eat children and young men, and her kiss made girls wild and unbridled lust.

But in the spring, Morana's strength and wickedness decrease, then she, in the form of a beautiful girl with long hair as white as snow, comes out on earth and seduces young men with her beautiful face and sweet speech.

She asks for sincere love and attention from them, but she never gets what she wants.
She does not kill these young men like the others, but abandons them, leaving in their hearts an endless sadness that is a reflection of hers and that follows them throughout their lives.

Morana flew on a broomstick and sailed on an eggshell, and these qualities would later be attributed to a new spiritual being - a witch.

Many interpret that her other character is Baba Jaga (Baba Roga, Baba Zima), an ugly old witch.

During the Ice Age, the winter goddess Morana was in the service of the cruel giant Leđan. (Leđan or Legen was an ancient, often described as magical, city from Croatian mythology and folklore and it's also a name for a giant who ruled over the frozen empire, according to Croatian mythology).
Then Morana froze everything alive on earth, all people and animals, including giant prehistoric mammoths.

The old Slavs believed that all winter calamities, winter, snow, ice and death come from Morana, and they called her the goddess of death of the human, animal and plant world.

In some Slavic nations, there was a custom of burning a doll of Morana or Baba Roga as a sign that the winter danger had passed.

In Dalmatia and Slovenia, this custom is still held today in the form of a masquerade procession with a Morana doll at the head, which is burned in the presence of many people.

Morana's doll was used in rituals related to dying and resurrection in nature or in summoning rain.

It is also mentioned in Slavic mythology that Morana enjoyed causing suffering to people and animals. She entered houses through keyholes, at night, to torture people, especially children, by pressing on them and taking their breath away during their sleep. By doing so, she weakened them, spiritually and physically.

This activity of Morana was accompanied by Slavic proverbs:
"Noćna Mora" - (Night Mora - Nightmare), "Pritisla me mora" - (I was pressed by the Mora), "Gušila me mora" - (I was suffocated by the Mora), etc. and these terms were transferred to other human misfortunes, so the memory of the goddess Morana (Mora) was preserved in Slavic dictionary.
Several other sayings:
"Mori me žed" - (Thirst is exhausting me),
"Mori me ljubav" - (Love is exhausting me),
"Ne mori me" - (Don't exhaust me) and others.
Basically "mora" - "exhausting".

Also when a girl would die, old Slavs would dress her in a white wedding dress, because the white dress was also Morana's, and at the funeral music would be played.
At all funerals, relatives and friends of the deceased addressed Morana by crying, wailing and beating their chests.
On that occasion, Morana's cult places were marked with a ribbon or lined up white flowers.

The Slavs defended themselves from Morana by placing horsehair, a spindle and an ax in front of the house - facing east.
They also defended themselves against her with various charms, garlic, cherry saplings with roots - which they decorated, thyme, decorating horses with basil, catching an egg on a string with their mouths, placing an apple with a stuck coin on the grave and feeding poultry in the circle.

Among the Eastern Slavs, Morana is the goddess of fertility, the protector of women and women's work, especially spinning.

Her wooden idol was placed by Prince Vladimir on a hill in Kiev next to the idol of Perun and other gods.

In the north of Russia, she is also called Mokusha and in legends she is depicted as a woman with a big head and long nails. Judging by the toponyms, her cult was also widespread among the Western Slavs.

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