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The Mari Traditional Religion (in Mari language: Чимарий йӱла, Chimariy Yüla) is the ethnic religion of the Mari people, a Volga Finnic ethnic group based in the republic of Mari El, in Russia. The religion has undergone changes over time, particularly under the influence of neighbouring monotheisms. In the last few decades, while keeping its traditional features in the countryside, an organised Neopagan-kind revival has taken place.

The Mari religion is based on the worship of the forces of nature, which man must honour and respect. Before the spread of monotheistic teachings amongst the Mari, they worshipped many gods (the jumo, a word cognate to the Finnish Jumala), while recognising the primacy of a “Great God”,Kugu Jumo. In the XIX century, influenced by monotheism, the Pagan beliefs altered and the image of a Osh Kugu Jumo, literally “Great God of Light”, was strengthened.

Subject to persecution in the Soviet Union, the faith has been granted official status since the 1990s by the government of Mari El, where it is recognized as one of the three traditional faiths along with Orthodox Christianity and Islam.

Gods

• Kugu Jumo, the main god, often seen as a monistic godhead. Also called Kugurak, the “Elder”.
• Tul, god of fire, attribute of Kugu Jumo.
• Surt, god of the household, attribute of Kugu Jumo.
• Saksa, god of fertility, attribute of Kugu Jumo.
• Tutyra, god of fog, attribute of Kugu Jumo. And other attributes of the godhead.
• Purysho, the god of fate, the caster and the creator of the future of all men.
• Azyren, the god of death.
• Shudyr-Shamych, the god of the stars.
• Tylmache, worker of the divine will.
• Tylze, the god of the Moon.
• Uzhara, the god of the dawn.
• Shochynava, the goddess of birth.
• Tunya

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