So,
Uka was the god of fertility and in the pagan times Finland it was very much an aquaculture society and it was based on farming.
It was a farming culture and who do you worship when it is a farming culture?
You worship the thunder god obviously.
So,
Uka was very important god.
In many other cultures the thunder gods they have lots of different kinds of meanings like being the god of wars and all kinds of nasty stuff.
But Uka in Finland he has always been quite peaceful god in fact and he was also the protector of lovers and families and he was people approached Uka as being the god of fertility and being god of the good luck bringer and protector of life not just human life but all the life came from Uka and Uka pretty much.
Uka is Uka's spouse or her name is also Rauni and unfortunately in Finland we don't have much information left about Uka because during the middle ages the church both catholic and the lutherian church they pretty much destroyed all the cults the cult of Uka was pretty much destroyed and those female Finnish deities that were left they were either turned into virgin Mary type or they were demonized as witchy bitches.
Anyway unfortunately we don't have that much information about Uka.
If you know Kjallarhorn and you have heard the songs Suvedar I think that is about Uka pretty much it's one of my favorite Johan's songs.
Anyway when there was Uka and Vakkat during the midsummer sauce this it was a big party it was huge celebration for Uka and that included eating and drinking and dancing and just having good time and this still takes place in Finland today because that's what Johanos is about.
It's about eating and having good time and spending time in nature.
Uka and Vakkat.
Vakka means a sacrifice done for Uka and for Uka people usually sacrificed bread and booze and beer and grains and all kinds of food from the farms and that's what Vakka means so it was called Uka and Vakkat.
Uka was the god of fire because he rules the thunder so obviously the element of the midsummer sauce this is fire and he was the god who protected the fertility of the land he also protected the fertility of the people this is why in Finland many times during Johanos people did lots of love magic and love spells and I know many people who still do them today around Johanos.
One custom related to Johanos was to have these kind of birch trees or trunks of birch trees and they were put up next to houses and if you know something about Swedish summer midsummer celebration they have the midsummer pole like they have may poles as well so it's it was a bit similar in Finland back in the days but nowadays people don't really do that anymore and so many people live in the city so you can really like chop a birch tree and put that in front of your door
