 Source of image: www.nbrb.by
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| THE LEGEND OF THE SKYLARK
In traditional Belarusian culture, the skylark (along with the dove, the swallow, and the nightingale) is one of "pure" and "divine" birds symbolizing spring, vast expanse, liberty, and joy. The Belarusians were prohibited from eating the skylark - the bird held in the highest esteem - and killing it (like killing the stork and cuckoo which have legendary descent "from the man") was deemed to be a great sin.
The Belarusians actively use the image of the skylark in spring calendar rites. For example, bird-shaped pastries-dubbed "skylarks" - are baked on the Forty Martyrs of Sebasta within the Dvina basin area in Belarus (the Vitebsk region mainly). Children toss them into the air so that real birds come as soon as possible and girls cast a spell thereon to have a happy marriage.
The first skylarks return in early spring - in February and March - just before the beginning of the planting season. Hearing or seeing a skylark after winter was considered a good omen.
Gradually and almost vertically, the bird gains height of several dozen and even a hundred meters singing its song, sometimes for more than half an hour without a break.
Etiologic Belarusian legends of the skylark are notable for their poetry and artistic expression. According to one of them, the bird was made of a clod of earth hurled by Adam, the first man, who was working in the field after the Fall. Feeling unbearably sad and disappointed he began to say a prayer and the Lord told him to throw a lump of earth into the sky. Adam did so and the skylark rather than the clod of earth soared. Its sonorous singing consoled Adam and helped him to accept the fate.
The coin has a bird with its wings covering the earth and the man on the reverse. The artistic design of the composition conveys the idea about the mythological character of space and time which is inherent in traditional outlook of a human being. The bird's plumage bears a resemblance to the pattern of furrows in a ploughed field. The skylark is marked with a rhombus and a sidelong cross which show a symbolic link between the bird and the earth and the Divine Principle.
The coin features a wheel, the symbol of perpetual motion and continuity of the link between the present and the past and the future, on the obverse. The representations of the skylarks - the first spring birds which symbolically connect the sky and the earth, announce the arrival of spring, and always accompany the man in his hard work on the soil - are silhouetted against the wheel.
A. M, Boganeva
Research Worker, the Yakub Kolas and Yanka Kupala Language and Literature Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
V. A. Labacheuskaya
Assistant Professor, Belarusian State University of Culture and Art
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| Date : 23.12.2009 |
| Metal : Ag 925 |
| Diameter, mm : 38.61 |
| Weight, g : 31.10 |
| Mintage, St. : 5000 |
Minted by :
CJSC "Lithuanian Mint", Vilnius, Lithuania |
Design :
O.Novoselova |
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Ebay-Statistic
(Prices in Euro):
| Year |
Count |
Ave
rage |
Min. |
Max. |
| 2006 |
0 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
| 2007 |
0 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
| 2008 |
0 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
| 2009 |
0 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
0,00 |
| 2010 |
16 |
30,42 |
25,00 |
36,00 |
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