Scary Tales: Midday Terror

Have you ever had this experience: a bright, cloudless day outside the city, it's noon, nature has quieted down-it seems like the grace of the moment-but you feel irrational anxiety, perhaps even terror? The world looks frozen, ominous, even more ominous than at midnight. But soon the sun leaves its zenith and lets you go - perhaps until the next time. This phenomenon has a name: "midday horror".

In Slavic mythology, this phenomenon had its own explanation. This feeling was aroused by the Poludenitsa. She catches those who work in the field at noon. Often people are found unconscious after an encounter with her (which can explain the sunstroke).

Poludenitsa was represented in the form of a girl in a white transparent dress. She combines features of a solar spirit, associated with summer sunlight and heat; a seasonal demon, which manifests itself in the period of flowering and ripening of crops and influences the vegetation of plants.