In Ukraine there is an own tradition of the Old New Year’s celebration. This day is called Malanka. In Chernivtsi, after a two-year break related to the coronavirus pandemic, the Malanka Fest 2022 festival will take place.
The festival will take place in the historic part of the city on Jan. 15-16, 2022. The city authorities guarantee that this festive mass winter event will comply with all quarantine requirements of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
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The Malanka Festival in Chernivtsi was launched in 2011 by the Bukovyna Palette tourist organization. The main idea of the Festival is the presentation of the Chernivtsi region as an ethnically diverse land. In this region, the traditions of folk festivals, in particular the traditions of lightning, are preserved. Because among the traditional holidays of New Year’s ceremonies in Bukovina in the winter cycle.
Malanka is a folk holiday celebrated on Jan. 13, which is New Year’s Eve in accordance with the Julian calendar.
The Malanka Festival in Chernivtsi is a unique event, which presents Ukrainian, Bessarabian, Hutsul, Moldavian, Romanian lightning, whose traditions are preserved in Bukovyna. Bands with modernized lightning, the so-called periphery, also participate in the Festival. Particular importance is given to participation in the Festival of lightning bands of the region, which demonstrate authentic lightning, which is more than a hundred years old.
During the festive, carnival procession of the Festival participants through the streets of Chernivtsi, the audience can see and feel the colorfulness, diversity, uniqueness of the groups.
The Eastern Slavs’ New Year obtained the name Malanka from a Christianized folk tale of pagan origin. The story is based on the creator god Praboh, and his four sons and one daughter. One of his sons was the Devil (Veles), the second son was St. George (Yar-Yarylo), the third St. John (Rai), and the fourth was Lad or Mir (Peace). The one daughter is an earth goddess named Lada, who had two children: a son called the Moon and a daughter “Spring-May”, later referred to as Mylanka because she was loving. As mother Earth, she was responsible for the blooming of flowers and the greenery of spring. In a version of the myth of Hades and Persephone, Mylanka’s evil uncle (the Devil) desired her presence in the underworld and abducted her one-day when the Moon was hunting. While she was gone, the Earth was left without spring and once she was released from the vices of the Devil, flowers began to bloom and greenery spread around the world. Russians celebrate Malanka to symbolize the onset of spring
During the inter-festival period, the bands carefully prepare for the Malanka Festival to impress the audience and be appreciated by the jury members. Experienced ethnographers, art critics, and cultural experts evaluate the groups’ performances and choose the best among the best. Jury members consider the creative individuality, performance skills of groups, musical accompaniment, the integrity of the repertoire.
From our partner magazine The Odessa Journal
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