Each child sooner or later asks parents how they got it. And then it turns out that some of the babies were found in cabbage, others were bought in the store, and the third was brought in by a stork in its long beak.
Stork: symbol meanings
The stork in the role of a symbol has many different meanings, and some of them are diametrically opposite, which makes you think. Interpretations of this symbol differ, first of all, depending on the country and religion. For example, in China, the stork is identified with longevity and happy old age, among the British it is a symbol of infidelity between spouses, and Moldovan legends tell about the courage of the bird, about its help on the battlefields. Poland has added its fly in the ointment to the barrel of honey: you can learn from the Poles that the stork owes its white feathers to God, they are a symbol of the purity and kindness of this bird, but the black feathers at the ends of the wings are a gift from the Devil himself, making the stork an unkind, evil creature. But still, most peoples believe that it is the stork that brings happiness and long-awaited replenishment to their home.
Stork with baby
The history of this symbol refers the curious to ancient Greek mythology, to Hera, the goddess of motherhood. It was she who was subject to storks, who were considered indispensable helpers of the goddess. Women who wanted to become mothers prayed to Hera, and if a sacred bird appeared at their home, it means that the prayer was heard, and soon a baby would appear in the family.
As you know, in ancient times, people paid special attention to nature, therefore, another theory of the appearance of a symbol, associated with natural phenomena, appeared. Storks are migratory birds, in autumn they fly to the south, where they hibernate, and return to Europe in spring, when all living things wake up - animals, plants, even people seem to shake themselves after hibernation.
But there are a lot of migratory birds, and for some reason the stork was chosen as a symbol of childbearing. The fact is that June 21 is considered the day of the solar solstice, in addition, pagan ancestors celebrated on this day a holiday dedicated to the bonds of marriage and the birth of children. And as a result of this, a large number of babies are born nine months after June - in March, in the same period when storks arrive. So it is believed that storks - the sacred birds of the goddess Hera, flew away at her order to the south, and at the beginning of spring they returned already with babies in their beaks.
So, it is clear that the appearance of a baby in a family is a simple fairy tale for children who are still too early to learn the whole truth. But after all, in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth, so the story of storks has its own background.
