The Soviet period was destructive on Ukrainian culture in Donbas. The peopling of the region with newcomers, the man-made famine in 1932-33 and the repression of artists and clergy all had a deep impact on the region’s cultural fabric. Many people stopped celebrating Christmas out of fear of reprisals with time, New Year’s Eve became the most anticipated winter holiday.
The folklorist Illya Fetisov and his ensemble Bozhychi say that going from door to door to sing Christmas carols, a custom known as Kolyada, used to be wide-spread in Donbas. He and his colleagues have travelled Left Bank Ukraine to collect texts of Christmas carols. He says that locals cherished this tradition at least up until World War II.
In the past decade, people in Donbass started celebrating Kolyada more often, not only in villages but also on city streets. One of the promoters of this renaissance was the folklore ensemble Dyvyna that started to perform in 1998. Founded in Donetsk State University, the group relocated to Kyiv with the occupation of Donbas.
Journalists from Radio Free Europe recorded another collection of Kolyada songs from Donbas. The texts of these songs wish success and healthy living to the listener. They alternate with good wishes enunciated in spoken verses. The songs often name the owner of the house and many also refer to the sun and the moon. In a later stage these songs also started to feature Christian motives. The songs that are typical for Donbas, consist of short verses:
May you live healthily
in glory and with strength
May pleasant things come upon your family
May grace come to the good people
Kolyda lyrics also changed in the wake of intense industrialization. The singers no longer just went around the neighborhood but also, for instance, to the house of the Kolkhoz boss.
Oh, a bright star has risen
It shows the way to the entire world
And the trumpet sounded loudly
It woke all the working men
It united all the workers
and showed them the way
The entire world shall belong to the workers
The empire of life has presented itself
Folklorists say one typical feature for Kolyada from Donbas is the ironic tone in which they describe everyday life as a counterpoise to the celebration of Christ’s birth.
In Eastern Ukraine, some of the traditions of Christmas season have been conserved to this day. According to the folklorist Lyudmila Efremova, the custom of dressing up as goats and devils on Orthodox New Year’s Eve (13 of January) can still be found in rural areas and, less frequently, in big cities.
On the Orthodox New Year many people also still cook a traditional sweet meal made of different cereals called Kutya. Its main ingredient in this region was, and still is, rice, although in the Kolyada songs wheat is mentioned more frequently. On Orthodox Christmas Eve (6 of January) children would bring Christmas dinner to the house of their godmother and godfather. This tradition, although not very wide-spread, is still practiced today.
On the night of Orthodox New Year, here and there even adults dress up as different characters, goats, devils, or old women. In the 1960s the poet Vasyl Stus, who spent his childhood in Donbas, wrote a poem about one such occasion. Stus was a dissident writer and spent 13 years in Soviet prisons, where he died in 1985. His last holiday season at liberty in 1972, Stus spent in such a dress-up in Lviv with other dissident writers, just days before his arrest.
Today, folklorists make an effort to conserve the songs that mark the events in the traditional calendar. After the revolution of 2013-14 there is a noticeable renaissance of interest in Ukrainian culture. Activists organize folklore festivals in order to stimulate interest in old customs such as Kolyada. They establish theatre groups among internally displaced people, they mark the holidays with traditional songs and customs. Such events can attract the attention of the young generation and increase the chance that a common culture of commemoration will prevail.
On the nearby frontline too they do not forget about Christmas. A Christmas tree in a shell and eating Kutya in the trenches that’s how Christmas is celebrated there since 2014.
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