“Oh, yesterday, in the evening Malanka was herding two drakes. Oh, she was herding, herding, and lost them, and while looking for them, she got lost herself.”
The ‘Portal through the Centuries: Bohuslav Carols’ project team continues historical and ethnographic expeditions to the villages of Bohuslavshchyna. We collect memories and songs, including carols, stories and traditions, customs and rituals specific to our area, in order to recreate them later, for example, in the form of traditional nativity scenes.
Today we have been on our sixth expedition. This time, we visited 81-year-old Ms Kateryna in Semyhory. She was born in the winter of 1941 and has lived in this village all her life. She has only left the village for Bohuslav, to go to the market in the city…
The woman sang us a few carols that she knew from her childhood and youth. She promised to recall more and pass them on to us with her daughter. We were also lucky enough to see a lot of photographs (which is actually rare), of people dressed in traditional clothes. And even a picture of a wedding ceremony.
And again, while collecting materials about Christmas celebrations, we heard many precious memories and life stories: about the war and the terrible famine, when 12 children, her older brothers and sisters, died in Kateryna’s family. She talked about the hard, almost unpaid work on the collective farm, about how she had to go to school in her grandmother’s skirt and old, oversized, torn shoes because she had no clothes or shoes.
‘I remember going to ask for bread. My mother, when brought some bread home, divided it up: a portion for the morning and a portion for the evening. Then she would leave it on the table saying: “Don’t eat before dinner, because God is watching, he will slap your hands.” And I was hiding under the table, and taking a piece of it and eating it.’
But, among these really painful memories, there appear some that simply make you smile… How they celebrated the Generous Evening (Shchedryi Vechir) by dressing up as Malanka and Vasyl and visiting the people to sing songs, how they sang and danced so that ‘their feet reached the light bulbs’ and how they jumped out of the train so that only pieces of shards remained of the new pots.
‘We used to go carolling, and when we grew up, we started Malanka and Vasyl tradition. I was always dressed as Malanka, and the woman next door would dress up as Vasyl, and we would go around the houses by night. During the day, when we were little, we would go carolling. They didn’t give us gingerbread then, they would give us nuts, or pies. We were happy with that, too.’
You can listen to more of Ms Kateryna’s memories of Christmas celebrations in Semyhory by following this link.
Each story and each memory of people is incredibly valuable, sincere and strong, so we will definitely continue sharing them with you!
And we have an exciting and busy weekend ahead of us, as we continue our travels around Bohuslavshchyna.
