Lada is the goddess of spring, fertility, beauty, and the household [S4][S5]. In folk belief, the 'Lada' is the beloved, the beautiful one (the word 'lada' means 'beautiful, lovely, harmonious') [S5]. Lada is associated with the spring, the blossoming, the fertility of the land, and the harmony of the household [S4][S5]. Her status as a formal pre-Christian goddess (vs. a folk concept) is debated: the 'Lada' is more clearly a folk deity than a member of the formal Kiev pantheon [S6]. She is a 'spring/fertility' goddess, comparable to the Indo-European spring-maidens [S6].