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The world of Ukrainian Christmas Carols [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-12-28  

One of the unique traits of Ukrainian culture is the depth of Ukrainian folk tradition.

In this diary, I wish to share with you some of the Ukrainian Christmas carols' beauty.

Thanks to the fact that Ukraine is a relatively big country and nation, the more remote and less urbanized regions were able to preserve an authentic culture that reaches back to prehistoric times. With the arrival of Christianity at the very end of the 10th century, the olden rituals were adopted to include Christian symbolism.

During the Communist rule, Ukrainian authentic culture had been brutally suppressed, both for its demonstration of Ukrainian ethnic identity (that ran contrary both to the Communist internationalist aspirations and the Russian imperial race ideology) and the Christian faith (a Soviet Ukrainian had to believe in Communism and practice only Communist rituals). Finally, the tradition was killed simply by killing the people who carried the tradition (Holodomor, repressions, and the Stalinist methods of waging war).

Ukrainian Christmas carols, called ‘koliadka’ derives from the feast of Koliada, literally the celebration of the beginning of the new solar year after the winter solstice (likely from Roman “kalendae”). A typical Koliadka usually tells the story of the birth of Christ, somehow connected with the description (and wishes of) beauty, fertility, health, and overall abundance of the life of the master of the house and his family.

There are literally hundreds of various koliadkas, and they come in all styles, including rock, jazz and hip-hop, but I will stick here to a more classic/folk/mainstream pop tradition.



Let’s start with one of the most ancient texts, “Oy jak zhe bulo izprezhdy vika” (Oh, How it Was at the Beginning of Times), which describes the creation of the world (At the beginning of time, there was nothing, except for the blue sea. At the sea, there were three trees, and on the trees, there were three doves. The doves dove to the bottom of the sea and brought the sand that became the earth and so on).

And here is one from the Ukrainian Carpathian sub-ethnos of Hutsuly. ‘V nedlu rano sonce skhodylo’ (On the Sunday Morning the Sun was Rising’):

“On Sunday, the sun rose early,

The cherry orchard was bright.

In the cherry orchard, there is a white flower,

Oh, a little Christ was born.

Oh honest people, honest people,

A Christ is born - it's a merry day.

A Christ is born - let's celebrate.

Let us give glory to the Jesus Christ.

We, koliadka singers, let's do our work well,

Let's raise our silver axes up,

Let us turn the silver axes in our hands,

And let us walk lightly with light feet.

The violin is playing - let us sing to the Christ”.

(and this is just the beginning of the song :)

A recently rediscovered koliadka, which is apparently 400 years old describes the building of the St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv and the victorious holding of the siege in the monastery against the attack of the Muscovites (!) Performed for the first time in decades just this Christmas by Tina Karol.

‘Pomylui zhe nas Hospod’ (Show Your Mercy, God, Upon Us).

Probably one of the most popular koliadkas is “Dobry vechir tobi, pane hospodariu” (Good Evening to You, oh Honorable Master [of This House]). Performed here by Oleksandr Ponomariov and friends (begins at 0:40):

Another rendition of the same song by Pikkardiyska Tertsiya, with the video showing parts of the koliada ritual:

“Nebo i zemlia nyni torzhestvujut” (The Heavens and the Earth are Now Celebrating) by the National Veryovka Ukrainian Folk Choir:

“Nova radist stala” (A New Joy Emerged), with some Baroque throwbacks, by opera singer Ivan Kozlovsky:

In its most developed form, koliadkas are a part of vertep – a street theater that revolves around the story of the birth of Christ, but on a larger scale is also a story of fighting between good and evil. As a true folk tradition, vertep often refers to contemporary events and personas. For example, since 2014 either Herod or Satan is often pictured as Putin.

Here is a koliadka referring to the brutal Stalinist purges and deportations of the Ukrainians in 1946 as a response to the Ukrainians’ attempt to create an independent state during WWII. Of course, banned by the Communists.

Understandably, it has been increasingly performed in Ukraine since Christmas 2022.

‘Sumny sviaty vechir’ (A Sad Holy Night), performed by Iryna Fedyshyn:

Last year, a new koliadka was born: ‘Tam vo Bakhmuti’ (There in Bakhmut):

And a couple of other nice and great koliadkas to relieve the sadness:

“Boh sia rozhdaje” (The God is Being Born):

“U temnu nichku” (In the Dark Night)

Rody, Bozhe, zhyto na novee lito (Give us God the Harvest in the New Year)

And, of course, the Schedryk (I hope everyone knows by now that it is a Ukrainian melody with quite a story behind it). By Katie Melua and The Gori Women's Choir

I want to thank all Americans and particularly all DailyKos readers for their heartwarming support of our country in these hard times.

Just in case you still looking for ways to contribute to the help of Ukraine, here is the list of the ways you can do it.

Have yourself some great holidays.

See you next year!

[END]
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