Ivana Kupala, 7 July 2023

A holiday built on outdoor fires and gatherings by the water is harder to keep in a year with curfews and closed riverbanks, and in many places it was kept smaller, or in a courtyard, or not at all.

Where it did happen it seemed to matter more rather than less, which is often what happens to an ordinary custom when it becomes difficult.

These things survive because they are cheap to carry: a fire, a wreath, a song somebody remembers. That is a durable design.

A good Kupala to those marking it, however small.