“In Karelia it was believed that a bird brings the soul to a newborn baby, and that the same bird takes the soul with it when person dies. This soul-carrying bird was called sielulintu, "soul-bird". In some traditions people carried artifacts depicting their sielulintu. Sielulintu was believed to guard their souls while they slept. After the person died, the artifact-bird was inserted to sit on the cross at the person's grave. Such crosses with soul birds still exist in graveyards in Karelia. This is one example how Pagan beliefs still exist hundreds of years after the Chistianization of the Finnish people.”
Source: wikipédia
Andas,
I found this important similarity between Turkish and Finnish Paganism. Actually, as told the Finnic people, among Turks, when a respected or beloved person dies, people say “he became a bird (his soul) and flew off”.
For instance, a few months ago, when a Turkish soldier dead in the war against the pkk’s monkeys, the mother of the brave guy said “everybody tells me that my son didn’t die, he became a bird and flew off”. This quote is really spread among Turks. My grandmother used this phrase by calling up the death a newborn baby!
I remember that when I was reading an article about Babur Shah, the glorious emperor of the rich Indian sub-continent. He was really a Turanist, he told “any territory which has been run by Turks at any time of the History should be considered as being part of their patrimony”!
This great Leader told about his grandfather (son of Tamerlane) and father, when he referred to their death, “they become gyrfalcons”.
In spite of the centuries and thousands of kilometers which separate Turks from Finns, we can still and always see this nice ancient similarity!
In Turkish the phrase is "Kus oldu uçtu".
TTK
May Tengri Protect the Turk!
