Malanka
Malanka is a Ukrainian folk holiday celebrated on 31 December, which is New Year's Eve in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Formerly it was celebrated on 13 January corresponding to 31 December in the Julian calendar. The festivities were historically centred around house-to-house visiting by groups of young men, costumed as characters from a folk tale of pre-Christian origin, as well as special food and drink. The context of the rituals has changed, but some elements continue to the present.
Origins and history
The idea of house-to-house visits during the Christmas season is a pan-European one. Similar customs are observed in Ireland and England as "mummering", in Winterbräuche or Faslam in Germany, etc. In the West Slavic lands, even more closely related customs are found, with Poles even using many of the same stock characters in their house-visiting traditions.The ritual is derived from an unspecified pagan origin.
Descriptions of this holiday from the nineteenth century mention the folk play with a character named "Malanka". They also frequently mention the tradition of driving a goat from house to house to bring good luck. In some regions of Western Ukraine and in Romania, a live goat is replaced by a dancer in a goat costume.
During the Soviet period, Malanka celebrations were unofficially banned as part of the anti-religious campaign: people participating in the ritual were persecuted and arrested. Nevertheless, the tradition survived and remains popular in many towns and villages of modern-day Ukraine.
Name
This holiday is also known as Bounteous Evening in much of Ukraine and Belarus, but this name can also be applied to Epiphany Eve in Western Ukraine. A traditional way of referring to the holidays during the Christmas season in the Eastern Slavic languages is by which recipe of kutia, the most symbolic ritual food, is used. A lenten version is associated with Christmas Eve, with the Old New Year's Eve or Malanka, hence "bounteous evening", and a second lenten version.Ukrainian traditions
Geography of celebrations
Historically the most lavish Malanka celebrations would take place in the lands of Hutsulshchyna, Bukovyna, Pokuttia and Dnieper Ukraine. In our days the tradition of celebrating Malanka has been best preserved in the southwestern Ukrainian regions of Bukovyna and Pokuttia, as well as in southern Podolia. Malanka celebrations are also common among ethnic Romanians and Moldovans living in the area. In localities such as Vashkivtsi and Krasnoilsk Malanka processions attract numerous tourists every year. Traditional celebrations of this holiday in Beleluia, Horoshova and Nyzhnii Bereziv are also famous. In Chernivtsi the annual Malanka parade is held every January.Food
Traditional foods other than kutia eaten during Malanka involved sausages, meat and varenyky. Other foods popular on this day are kholodets, ham, holubtsi, bigos, chicken or turkey, pancakes etc. In Southern Ukraine bublyky would be baked for this day and given to carolling as a kind of "payment". In Podolia and western Black Sea region lots of bread products would be baked for Malanka, including kalach, palianytsia, knysh, pies and pyrizhky and pampushky. In southern regions two loaves of bread symbolizing Malanka and Vasyl would be put on the festive table together with hemp seed, a coin and a wreath of garlic. In the outskirts of Vinnytsia the head of a family would hide himself behind the loaves of bread and ask his children if they could see him, wishing that it would also be possible in the following year. A popular drink in Southern Ukraine on this day was milk kysil with fruit.In some villages of Vinnytsia Oblast on this day people prepare a traditional festive dish of blood sausage, which is also called "malanka". They also bake special breads which are called "Malanka" and "Vasyl".
On the morning of Malanka the second ritual kutia is prepared – the "generous" kutia. Unlike the "bahata" kutia on , it is made with non-Lenten ingredients. As is done on Sviat Vechir, the kutia is placed in the – the corner of the house where religious icons are displayed, opposite the pich. In addition, the women bake mlyntsi, and make pyrihs and dumplings with cheese, to give as gifts to the carolers and "sowers".
Food is given a very important role: on Malanka, as it is believed that the more variety on the table that day, the more generous next year will be. The dishes should be very satisfying, but, for example, cooking fish is a bad sign, because happiness can "pour" out of the home. Pork dishes are definitely prepared, as this animal symbolizes abundance in the house. Traditionally, pork is prepared as kholodets, kishka and pork sausage, , salo, stuffed whole pig, and more.
Rituals
According to a tradition, members of the Malanka procession sing songs in front of each house in the village before going inside and presenting a humorous play. In Bukovyna only men take part in Malanka processions; in some places exclusively unmarried males are allowed to participate. In many cases the participants are followed by musicians using various instruments, from drums to trumpets. Members of the procession wish good luck to everyone thay meet on their way, but may also engage in tricks and even symbolic "theft".Among unmarried girls Malanka was traditionally known as a time of fortunetelling: on New Years' Eve they would attempt to predict their success in marriage by performing divination. Farmers would also perform rituals on this day, attempting to predict rain and drought, which could influence the future harvest. Garden trees which had failed to bring a fruitful harvest would be "threatened" to be cut down by the host carrying an axe, with the hostess preventing this by pleading her husband for "mercy" and bandaging the trunk with straw. In Western Ukraine the hostess would leave a glass of water for the night and measure its quantity on the first morning of the new year to predict the length of her lifespan.
The next day,, the young men go to "sow grain" in the morning after sunrise. The grain is carried in a glove or bag. First they visit their godparents and other relatives and loved ones, then their neighbors. Entering the house, the sower sows grain and greets everyone with the New Year:
I sow, I sow, I sow, I greet you with the New Year!
Good fortune, and good health in the New Year,
May your fields bear better this year than last,
Rye, wheat and any grains,
Hemp piled to the ceiling in large rolls.
Be healthy for the New Year and Basil's Day!
God grant us this!
The first sower to visit on New Year's day brings happiness to the house. A person performing this action would receive money or sweets as a sign of gratitude. According to popular belief, girls do not bring happiness, only boys do, and therefore it is not appropriate for girls to go "sowing".
On New Year's Day the inner half of the house would be cleaned, waste thrown away into the fields. In southern parts of Ukraine pig bones left from the festive dinner would be buried on a land plot to provide the soil fertility. In western regions on New Year's Day the host of the household would take a piece of bread, wash it with water from his well and roll it across the house to the table, wishing for the year to go as smoothly as the loaf. Afterwards the family members would wash themselves in a bowl of water, into which coins would be thrown, or in a nearby stream. In some localities, for example in Podolia, a male household animal, such as a horse or a ram adorned with bands, ears of rain, flowers and berries, would be led into the house to provide good luck for the host. In the Middle Dnieper region an ox would be used for this purpose, followed by a ram, pig, horse or even birds. Presence of animal excrement in the house was seen in this case as a sign of special luck.
According to custom, after finishing their ritual rounds, the young men went to a crossroads to burn the "Did" or "Didukh" – a sheaf of grain that had stood in the since – and then jumped over a bonfire. This was meant to cleanse them after dealing with the evil spirits all night. In many villages several groups would take part in competitions between each other, followed by common meals involving both the winning and losing sides. Malanka celebrations would also involve dancing, in which anyone could participate.