Iavnana is a genre of Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 folk song, traditionally intended as a lullaby

Lullaby

A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process. As a result they are often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in every culture and since the ancient period....

, but historically sung also as healing songs for the sick children. Some of the Iavnana lyrics are, however, of didactical or heroic character.

The name of the genre comes from its refrain iavnana (or iavnaninao, nana naninao, etc.), which contains the vocable nana (ნანა), purportedly derived from the name of a pagan mother goddess. Some of its variants, e.g., iavnana vardo nana, combine the names of the two flowers violet

Violet (plant)

Viola is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae, with around 400–500 species distributed around the world. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, viola species are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes in...

 (ia) and rose

Rose

A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...

 (vardi) which frequently feature in Georgian folklore and classical literature, and are commonly associated with feminine and masculine symbols, respectively.

Over sixty versions of "Iavnanas" have been recorded. Most of these lullabies are sung directly to the child, and are largely preserved in modern-day Georgia. Many of the Iavnana variants, however, were "healing songs" performed specifically in the presence of the sick child, but addressed to the "lords" (batonebi) or "angels" (angelozebi), the spirits who were popularly believed to have taken possession of the patient suffering from smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

, measles

Measles

Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...

, scarlet fever

Scarlet fever

Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...

 or other infectious diseases.

The Iavnana motifs have been exploited in their poetry by several Georgian poets such as Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli

Akaki Tsereteli

Prince Ak'ak'i Tsereteli was a prominent Georgian poet and national liberation movement figure.He was born in the village of Skhvitori on June 9, 1840 to the prominent Georgian aristocratic family. His father was Prince Rostom Tsereteli...

, and Galaktion Tabidze

Galaktion Tabidze

Galaktion Tabidze was a leading Georgian poet of the twentieth century whose writings profoundly influenced all subsequent generations of Georgian poets. He survived Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s, which claimed lives of many of his fellow writers, friends and relatives, but came under heavy...

.