Merry Malanka from Chervona Hreblia

The Malanka ritual, inherited from ancestors still remains extremely popular in the village Chervona Hreblia, which is located in Vinnytsia oblast. With years passing, the residents not only have preserved the old traditions, but reconsidered them in a creative way and gave a new meaning to the archaic phenomena. Every year they hold an ethnographic festival “Merry Malanka” in their village. The admission for this extraordinary event is free for everyone.

This year the community of the village decided to present its archaic costumes for the broad audience. With the assistance of the National Nature Park “Karmeliuk’s Podillia” they opened the exhibit “On Malanka and Vasyl: celebration tradition in Podillia” in the academic hall of the Vinnytsia Oblast Local Lore Museum.

“The New Year’s day is one of the oldest and most popular calendar holidays. The night before the New Year’s Day is considered to be magical. Many beliefs, rituals, and traditions have always been connected with it and they have been preserved in different corners of Podillia. The village Chervona Hreblia has a very interesting way of celebrating this holiday. Even in Soviet Time, in spite of all bans, the villagers held the festivities. They have preserved a somewhat different tradition of singing New Year’s carols with a bigger lineup, when not only boys are singing but married men as well.

“During the holidays the groups of masqueraded singers start false fighting, according to the rules of the game. Probably, such fights symbolized the struggle of good and evil forces or the struggle of winter and summer. Also quite typical for the ritual are ‘Gypsy families,’ with the father (Old Man), the mother (Old Woman), and the ‘Sons.’ The villagers select Malanka, a handsome boy of 13 or 14 years old and Bereza (Birch), the main character,” says the head of the scientific-research department of the ancient history of the Vinnytsia Oblast Local Lore Museum Lilia HALCHEVSKA, “The archaic masks worn by the masqueraded group are especially amazing. They are passed from one generation to another and are considered a symbol of wealth. The masqueraded groups were greatly welcomed, especially by the families with daughters. A typical feature of the fur masks are the holes for eyes and mouth, framed by the red clothes as a protection against evil eye. The headwear is no less original. The broader the hat, the more authority its owner has in the so-called ‘Gypsy family.’”