Ivana Kupala 2005
Fire, water, wreaths on the river and the shortest night of the year — the oldest layer of the Ukrainian calendar, and the least explicable to a newcomer.
A good Kupala night to everyone.
My first was outside the city, at somebody's dacha, and it was the moment I understood that the Ukrainian year has a layer underneath the one you first meet. Bonfires. People jumping them, mostly badly. Girls putting wreaths on the water and watching where they drifted. Somebody explaining the fern flower to me with an entirely straight face and then laughing.
None of it is Christian and nobody pretends it is. It is much older, it survived every attempt to tidy it away, and it is observed now with a mixture of genuine ritual and cheerful irony that I find very appealing.
The shortest night of the year, spent outdoors, near water, with a fire. There are worse ways to organise a calendar.
Share this analysis
Comments