They depart to Valhalla: Azov marks the “Day of the Dead”

The boat on which Azov fighters depart for Valhalla. Photo: Azov YouTube channel

On the night of December 22, the Azov regiment held a rite called the “Day of the Dead,” one of the organization’s leaders, Maksym Zhorin, reported on Telegram.

“Azov’s Day of the Dead. In the flames, our fallen symbolically depart on a drakkar (a Viking longship – UOJ) to another world, to Valhalla (in ancient Scandinavian pagan mythology – the realm of the dead where warriors fallen in battle go – UOJ) or Iriy – as it was called by warriors of antiquity,” Zhorin wrote.

A video of the event was posted on Azov’s YouTube channel. The footage shows Azov members standing in the dark with lit torches around an improvised boat, which is placed on the top of a hill and set on fire. Incendiary projectiles slowly fall from above. At the same time, members of Azov recite the “Prayer of the Ukrainian Nationalist,” which, among other things, states: “Ukraine, holy mother of heroes, enter my heart. You, most holy, are my entire life. Let me be reborn in You, be illumined by Your glory, for You are my entire life, for You are all my happiness.”

The video description says that this “traditional and truly sacred custom, under the conditions of a great war, has today acquired even greater sacral significance.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Azov battalion lit torches near the Lavra.

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