Let’s continue with the story of carolling in the Bohuslav region. Just like with Koliada (carols), there were two groups of carollers or performers. We have already told you about one of them. Now let’s look at the theatrical youth group and how they used to go carolling.
To begin with, this team of volunteers also carolled on 7 January. First of all, they carolled at the stadium during a charity football tournament. Among other things, the carollers visited a fire station, a monastery and a church, and a centre for people with special needs. They raised about 9 thousand hryvnias.
Let’s move on to the shedrivky. It was a completely new performance that the volunteers prepared in three days and… three nights. It featured new characters: a gypsy man and a woman, a goat, a doctor, a Cossack, and shchedrivky singers and “grain sowers” (blessers for generousity). This meant new lyrics and new songs, and the members of the team were not singers or actors, but amateurs, just young people who had come together.
“The goat horns were the hardest to make,” smiles and recalls Yevhen Bahniuk, a volunteer and coordinator of the group who created the costumes. “The night before the performance, I stayed up until three in the morning, painting and varnishing the horns by candlelight and flashlight. It took me a total of 2.5 days. It is incredibly cool when there are dedicated people, young people who are united and have a desire to do something good, something kind. And to learn something new for themselves. It was such a satisfying fatigue.”
They performed shchedrivky for two days – on 14 January in different locations of the city, and on 15 January, at the invitation of one of the entrepreneurs, they performed shchedrivky at the market, at the Centre for the Revival of Traditions, and in the church. There, the carollers recall, Father Krzysztof presented symbolic candles, because “Ukrainians bring light.”
“During the shchedrivky singing, we also visited a home for the elderly, and they were delighted and sang along with us. One of the songs we sang was the song that one elderly lady was trying to recall before we came, and then we sang it and she was happy to recognise it immediately. She started crying, bless her. The most emotional moment was when, amid such a difficult time and in the face of adversity, an old lady who was in a wheelchair leaned over to us and dropped 100 hryvnias into our donation bag. It was heartbreaking. People who need help themselves try to help,” says volunteer Yevhen Bahniuk.
The volunteers also visited the Oberih Rehabilitation Centre for Children and brought them handmade sweets and children’s books.
The team had the best impressions after the shchedruvannia tradition. “It was the first time I ever took part in something like this, because no one managed to persuade me before. I was really lucky with the team. Everyone is so supportive of each other. I really liked it,” says Ruslan Nechyporenko.
“I am very grateful to our defenders for the opportunity to help them, for the opportunity to live and organise various charity events. I am very impressed with this team, they are all talented, and their talents, which they did not know about, have been revealed and it is indeed gratifying. It really brings us together because we are all united by a common goal. I had the honour to be a part of two teams. And this is a very cool team that has a common goal – to help our defenders. And even small children who have their own dreams, their own wishes to buy something – this year, they all have one common goal. And all children, all adults, young people – everyone united around it. The team also energised me in the first days of rehearsals with the following short lines that we chanted together when we entered the venues, and it was so nice:
“We are carolling, we are carolling!
We feel the Victory at the back of our hearts!
We are helping the Ukrainian Armed Forces!
We are bringing victory closer!
Let’s carol and be generous!
We bring a great mood to you!” [Iryna Liubchenko shared her impressions]
“I have very cool emotions that will stay with me forever. Nowadays there is a lot of tension everywhere. Many tragedies and bad news. And when you have a chance to have a good time in Ukrainian style, and to do something useful, it helps people. We gave people good emotions, which fully paid off for other good deeds,” says volunteer Yevhen Bahniuk.
In the meantime, the volunteers have plenty of plans, the most important of which is to achieve Victory. For now, everyone is recovering a bit and is starting to think about further activities that will help bring it closer.
We would also like to remind you that, in addition to bringing warmth and showing traditions and customs to people, the carolling was also for another good purpose: to raise funds for the needs of our defenders. During the shchedruvannia performance, we managed to raise about 6 thousand hryvnias. The total amount raised by the theatrical youth group during the carolling sessions reached UAH 36 thousand.
“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.
