Muma paduri -tale from eastern Serbia

Full moon, hot summer night, you are heading home. As youre walking you feel warm breeze, there is nothing in front of you except the road. Its dark everywhere and only lighting you have is the moonlight. The silence is broken by the laughter, but you are alone! Where did that come from? Adrenaline rush and you speed up. Laughter goes on and on, and it vanishes in the distance. Quiet. You hear only the sound of your steps.

In the hilly Balkan region there is a small country, Serbia. In the eastern part of Serbia, there is a region inhabited by the folks named Vlasi. That regions are known for their mineral wealth, forests, history, magic and the unexplainable phenomenon that local people call “Muma Paduri”. (Mother of the Woods)

“Muma Paduri” has appeared and is still appearing in that region. There were many stories and legends about her since the ancient times. In some literature it is written that such “appearings” as Muma Paduri are not seen anywhere in the world but in eastern Serbia. It could be the only place in the world where exists something like her. Old folks describe her as “force” which appears in the middle of the night, although she rarely appeared during the day.

Term “Muma Paduri” is probably taken from Vlasi language. Her appearance is in that region where that language is used and if we translate the term, we get name Mother of the Woods. “Muma” means mother, “Padurja” means woods, forest.. As a matter of fact that region has thick vegetation, so they claim that she actually appears where no one lives. 

If you dig deeper, you could learn some pretty bizzare things. She is dressed as a bride, has a long hair, wandering alone in the forest and hills, making creepy sounds (Laughter, cry, imitates animals, singing..) Sounds are spreading fast, in one moment you hear it next to you and in another it goes on the hill few miles away. There is no chance that normal men, animal, could cross that distance so fast.

Old folks says that if you have encounter with this supernatural being, you should not do anything, she will not harm you unless you provoke her. There were cases when she stopped and stared at a passanger, walked with him, next to him, and then literally vanished!

In case if you meet her in person, you should not tell her anything, just mind your own business.

Muma paduri - True stories from eastern Serbia

In the hilly Balkan area is the small country of Serbia. In the eastern part there is a region where Vlachs live. This area is known for its mineral wealth, forests, Vlach culture, Vlach magic and an inexplicable phenomenon that the locals call Muma paduri, which appeared and still appears and stories about ancient times are told about it.

It is written in the literature that such occurrences of "Muma paduri" have not been recorded anywhere and it is assumed that the areas of eastern Serbia are the only places in the world where "Muma paduri" appears.

The old inhabitants of these areas describe "Muma padri" as a "force" that appears mostly at night, although they say that there were cases when it appeared during the day, but these are still rare cases.

The very term "Muma paduri" is probably taken from the Vlach language because it appears mainly in areas where the Vlach language is used and in translation means "FOREST MOTHER".

In Vlach, MUMA is MOTHER, and PADURJA is SUMA, and since this is a rich area of ​​forests and its occurrence is mostly in uninhabited areas, it is logical that the term FOREST MOTHER has been taken over.

How they recognized her

The question of recognizing "Muma paduri" by old people is mostly logical, because to see a young girl with loose hair or still dressed in a white wedding dress on a glade, forest or by a stream in the middle of a moonlit night is not a scene that could happen in the past, especially a hundred young girls they did not wander at night alone because it was a way of upbringing. Young girls did not go out alone at night, especially not far away where there is no living soul at night.

And as for the shape of the animals it could have taken any shape but the eyewitnesses mostly heard the sounds or announcements of the animals. It is very interesting that this animal or sound appeared very quickly after the announcement almost immediately a few hundred meters or even still in another place (for example at the top of one was originally heard advertising and then at the top of the nearby at high speed so there is no possibility to that animal travels that distance in such a short period of time).

What to do

From conversations with people who know this topic, I realized that if "Muma paduri" is seen, you simply should not do anything because they say that it does not touch anyone unless it is provoked.

Old people say that the appearance can be far or even very close to someone, SHE can "go her own way and not pay attention" to a passerby and it happened that she stood and looked at someone or there were cases when she stopped when she noticed someone and she watched him for a while, then after a while she continued without paying attention to the casual passer-by. They also say that it happened that she went in front of, behind or parallel to someone part of the way and then literally disappeared.

As for contact with Her, they say that you shouldn't have any contact with Her, you don't even need to say anything to her, not even a good evening or something like that (so polite address). As for vulgar expressions, swearing or something like that, it's not coming considering that, as they say, she is very sensitive to such provocations and in case of such events, big problems should be expected because she will attack a person in some way, not to mention fear, especially if someone is alone in the middle of a remote uninhabited space.

Appearance

When it comes to appearances they say it can appear in many different posts or shapes but the most common way I have heard is in the form of a young beautiful girl who mostly has unbraided hair or looked like a bride (in a wedding dress) with the same braided hair and often appeared and occupying the appearance of some domestic or wild animal. In addition to this, very often people could hear very loud penetrating laughter

or giggles during the night which is of course attributed to that phenomenon (young girl).

Well, now it appeared in short intervals and moved from one place to another and often from one ridge or top of a hill to another (in these parts there are many hills and some peaks are clean, there are no trees and there is mostly the appearance of any and therefore a mountain massif consisting only of stone and low vegetation) although they told me that it often appeared next to forest streams and that they knew exactly where it "passed" as they say.

Shepherds

As I was told earlier, the appearance of "Muma Padri" was really common (the period before and after the Second World War, and of course much earlier, but I heard stories from this period. Old people are from those periods, although they also say that they were told by their elders) and that people and mostly shepherds had a problem with this appearance, but as I understood it, mostly the man was to blame for the inconvenience and not the "Muma Padri" herself. And as I mentioned the shepherds a moment ago, they say that they had the most problems because at leisure when they appeared (they could see or just hear her) they started verbally "harassing" her and then problems would arise because she would respond to those provocations. mostly on

by throwing large pieces of stone, whole wood or pieces of wood (broken branches) at them. During such or similar incidents, people ran into the houses, but it happened that the stoning continued on the house itself and they said that there was great damage.

Muma paduri and truckers

A true story from the period before the Second World War that happened to two truckers in the wooded areas of eastern Serbia was not a pleasant experience for them, but the event is true and this story was told to me by locals who lived in that period.

Before the war, the ore from the mine was transported daily by trucks between the two cities, of course at that time there were no good roads, but the trucks were lying on dusty roads carrying precious cargo and of course two truckers were at their workplaces. returned from delivery and there was nothing to indicate that they would experience an unforgettable adventure with what they thought did not exist.

Since they were already tired, the workers decided to stop about ten kilometers from the nearest inhabited place near the fountain in the thick shade to rest a bit and refresh themselves with fresh mountain water.

And until a certain point everything was fine until suddenly they heard thunderous laughter and giggles heard from the forest rising high above them. he goes down to them.

As they apparently overreacted in their intention, amazing things started happening for them and their laughter and teasing soon turned into a fight for life.

In the beginning, oysters and small branches started flying towards the two miners, and since they did not stop teasing, they started flying large boulders together with the uprooted trees, so it became clear to them that this was no longer a hall but a serious situation from which the only way out was to run as fast as possible. people so destroyed that it was no longer for use.

By the way, this is one of the rare events that took place during the day and not overnight, because most of the stories are from the late hours of the night.