Baltic Finnic paganism
Polytheistic religion practiced by the Finnic peoples / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baltic Finnic paganism, or Baltic Finnic polytheism was the indigenous religion of the various of the Baltic Finnic peoples, specifically the Finns, Karelians, Estonians, Vepsians and Izhorians, prior to Christianisation.[1][2] It was a polytheistic religion, worshipping a number of different deities.[3] The chief deity was the god of thunder and the sky, Ukko; other important deities included Jumala, Ahti, and Tapio.[3] Jumala was a sky god; today, the word "Jumala" refers to a monotheistic God. Ahti was a god of the sea, waters and fish. Tapio was the god of the forest and hunting.
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Baltic Finnic paganism included necrolatry (worship of the dead) and shamanism (tietäjä(t), literally "one who knows"), and the religion was not always uniform across the areas it was practiced, as customs and beliefs varied during different periods of time and regions.[4][5] Baltic Finnic paganism shares some features with its neighbouring Baltic, Norse and Germanic pagan beliefs.
The organic tradition was sidelined due to Christianisation starting from ca. 12th century and finally broken by the early 20th century, when folk Magic and oral traditions went extinct. Baltic Finnic paganism provided the inspiration for a contemporary pagan movement Suomenusko (Finnish: Belief of Finland), which is an attempt to reconstruct the old religion of the Finns. It is nevertheless based on secondary sources.