Ivan Kupalo
The holiday connected to the summer solstice and St. John the Baptist is called Ivan Kupalo. The celebration of Ivan Kupalo takes place in the evening. People gather by a river, a lake, or another body of water and build a bonfire. We have many pictures and two videos of Ivan Kupalo festivals we made in 2001.
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Ivan Kupalo in Berlozy
In the celebration we witnessed in Berlozy, Kozelets region, Chernihiv province, women sing Kupalo songs while girls dance around a tree decorated with ribbons and called Marena. A male effigy, called Kupalo and dressed in a Ukrainian shirt, stands nearby. The girls have wreaths on their heads and, at a certain point in the celebration, they remove these, set lighted candles upon them, and float them in the water. The direction in which the wreath floats predicts the direction in which the girl will go when she gets married. At this point the bonfire is lit. The women’s choir is joined by men and the songs become faster-paced and more joyous. Young people dance around the bonfire, soon to be joined by people of all ages. In contemporary villages, the more traditional celebration is followed by a disco night or karaoke music, allowing the young to dance and to mingle (please note, most of these photographs were taken in almost total darkness).
Here is a video we made at this Ivan Kupalo
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Ivan Kupalo in Lyshnia
The Ivan Kupalo we witnessed in Lyshnia, Makariv region, Kyiiv province was less impressive. It had taped music, but also fire, water, and vegetation elements. The celebration was held near a beautiful lake. A young man dressed in brief bathing trunks with leafy branches attached and wearing a crown and a beard represented Kupalo. He had an entourage of handmaidens called rusalki, represented by young women dressed in bikinis and also adorned with leafy branches. Kupalo and his handmaidens came in across the lake on a boat. Upon arrival at the grounds where the celebration was being staged, the young women began to dance and were soon joined by girls in their early teens dancing with long, leafy fronds. After dancing to taped music, these girls too put candles on their wreaths and set them floating on the lake. Finally, a huge pre-erected bonfire was lit and the celebration then focused on the fire, and disco dancing.
Here is a video we made at this Ivan Kupalo
