“Oh, on the river, on the Jordan, where the Virgin was washing her robes, swaddling her son…” Let us tell you more about the third stage of the project “Portal through the Centuries: Bohuslav Koliada (Bohuslav Carols)” – the carolling itself!
For two days, a group of about 20 people went carolling in Bohuslav and the surrounding villages! And they did it fantastically! With a goat, a gipsy, an elderly woman and an elderly man, a walker and a stargazer, a doctor and a soldier, a cat and a whole group of carollers. They started near the Museum of the History of Bohuslav Region, where festive locations and photo zones were set up, and an exhibition of nativity scenes made by Bohuslav craftsmen was unveiled in the museum itself. By the way, you can still attend the museum to see the exhibition now.
Returning to carols… We were eager to successfully recreate the ancient Bohuslav carol: in songs and wreaths, outfits and wishes! The carollers visited 26 hospitable hosts, where they sang ancient carols collected from old-timers in the Bohuslav region, played healing a goat, wished the hosts happiness and health, and most importantly, victory! Reviving traditions, reminding people of the real Ukrainian Christmas, which the soviets have been trying to take away from us for years, Bohuslav carollers raised funds to fight the constant enemy for centuries – russia. The carollers raised UAH 27,456 on 25 and 26 December. All the money raised was transferred to the Bohuslav Volunteer Headquarters.
The carollers also travelled to the villages of the community, in particular to Ivky, visited 96-year-old Hanna Narizhna and came to her house with a whole bunch of people! It was from her that our team had collected a number of ancient carols and shchedrivky, which they sang at Christmas! So Hanna sang with us, and we got an “A” for our performance. We agreed to meet again next year!
And when we were carolling on one of the streets of Bohuslav, a few houses further they heard us singing and invited us to carol. It turned out that Natalia Shevchenko, who invited us, had attended our “School of Carols”, she really liked the lectures. Originally from Cherkasy region, she knows many Christmas traditions and songs. So we already know where we will be going on our next expedition.
And there is even more to tell! The idea of carolling was also supported by a youth carolling group from the Bohuslav Volunteer Headquarters, which we will definitely write about in the coming days. They came up with a very creative approach to carolling and made a mini-performance. In fact, this is significant, because it is exactly what this project was launched for: to spread the tradition of carolling.
We sincerely thank everyone who invited us, who supported us and sang with us, who revives and preserves Ukrainian traditions!
“Portal through the Centuries: Bohuslav Carols” is implemented by the “Around Us. UA” NGO as part of the training course “From Ideas to Action”, which is implemented with the support of the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) within the framework of the Safe Harbour initiative. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the official position of the EED and are the sole responsibility of the “Buslav Sich” NGO.
