Our team started a new season of expeditions in Bohuslavshchyna. Just a few days ago, our ‘expeditioners’ visited Maria Shyianenko, a resident of the village of Misaylivka. In winter, when we were collecting Bohuslav carols, we met with Maria and her fellow villagers.
Yesterday, we learned more about the life story of Maria and her family, and that she inherited her love for a song – and, in fact, most of the songs she knows and loves – from her mother.
In addition to the winter traditions we have mentioned, we learned a lot more about wedding customs in the Bohuslavshchyna, Easter celebrations, field work songs, and summer holidays: Ivan Kupalo, Maccabeus (or Makoviy), Savior (Honey Spas)… You can now listen to the caroling and singing in Mysaylivka here, and watch Maria talk about Easter in this video. We hope you will enjoy watching and learning more about our traditions!
We recorded quite a lot of conversations and various songs, which, in terms of numbers, is more than 35 GB of valuable content! By the way, Maria has several songbooks where she records songs she loves. And many of them are exactly the ones her mother used to sing…
We are very grateful for the memories, warm communication and treats.
And, we do not stop at this point. Therefore, if you have any elderly relatives or friends who are willing to share their life stories, memories, including the observance of various holidays, according to the traditions inherent in the Bohuslav region, who can also share songs and photos with us, please let us know!
We will appreciate your help in supporting the expeditions.
