Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Hundreds of Ukrainians watched Saturday’s longest day, midsummer celebrated some of their oldest traditions, a cultural perseverance displayed by a war-threatening country.
Ivana Kupala is rooted in events of the Pagan Pagan Path in ancient Ukraine, with ritual and symbolic significance to commemorate the summer solstice related to fertility, nature, purity and renewal, values in the region before Christianization at the end of the first millennium.
In the open-air National Folk Architecture Museum and the Ukrainian Living Museum in the outskirts of Keeff, participants in embroidered shirts and shirts stroll through thatched huts, wooden churches and windmills in the 18th and 19th centuries. Women and girls wear Vinoks (wreaths made of wild flowers) to attend folk dances, games and craft workshops.
Museum folk art master Viktoria Phi teaches tourists to weave colorful flower headdresses. She said Ivana Kupala had a variety of other different countries in the Ukrainian war, “the Czech Republic, Bulgaria to Russia” where people could “enjoy nature, architecture, songs and dance”.
“It's the most popular among young people, and I feel so happy when a family gets along with young children,” she said.
As the sun began to set on wheat fields and wildflower meadows, hundreds of people formed a circle around the wooden pyramid. As the bonfire lit up, as the music swelled, people swirled their wood on their hands and the flames crawled into the twilight sky. During the ritual of purification, some people skipped the burning embers.
With Russia's war in Ukraine, now the fourth year, and the aerial attacks on cities intensified, people's adherence to old folk customs has a deeper meaning.
Saba Alekseev, 25, said the event gave her a chance to breathe some fresh air for at least a while without thinking about it (war) because it is impossible to avoid your mind from shelling. ”
For 18-year-old Sofia Orel, this reminds people that “it is crucial to support Ukrainian culture and tradition, especially since the beginning of the war, because so we have retained our stuff.”
“When I weave wreaths, I think I’ll teach my daughter how to do it,” she said. “These are traditions that have to be passed on and respected.”
