Alara (Azerbaijani: ''ӘЛӘРӘ'', Tatar: ''ӘЛЕРӘ'') is a water fairy from

Turkic mythology Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrism, Tengrist and Shamanism in Central Asia, Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and wa ...

. Alara is also referenced in the mythologies of

Siberian Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states si ...

people and told in the folklore and elders' stories among the

Yakut people The Yakuts or Sakha (, ; , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to North Siberia, primarily the Republic of Sakha in the Russian Federation. They also inhabit some districts of the Krasnoyarsk Krai. They speak Yakut, which belongs to the Si ...

. Said to originate from

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal is a rift lake and the deepest lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the Federal subjects of Russia, federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblasts of Russia, Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

and made of the love tears of a thousand women, Alara takes the appearance of a beautiful little girl with butterfly-like wings made of light but sprinkle water as she beats them to hover above the lake. Her beauty and youth depend on water so she must always remain close to water sources. She has the power to remove hate and greed from people's hearts and hence make them capable of true love. Those who seek Alara's help must travel to a lake where she was last seen and tie a colorful ribbon on the branch of a blooming lakeside tree. If the ribbon was cut from a

handkerchief A handkerchief (; also called a hankie or, historically, a handkercher or a ) is a form of a kerchief or bandanna, typically a hemmed square of thin fabric which can be carried in the pocket or handbag for personal hygiene purposes such as w ...

last used to wipe off the tears of a heartbroken person, the wish becomes more likely to come true. Wishes must be made under a cloudless night sky shortly before dawn. Alara then answers the wish maker with a light breeze, a

shooting star A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

, a light show of bioluminescent algae or by outright manifesting herself and even talking to the wish maker.

External links

* Turkic legendary creatures Water spirits {{Europe-myth-stub

See also

External links