Ukrainian folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 and among ethnic Ukrainians

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

. The earliest examples of folklore found in Ukraine is the layer of pan-slavic folklore that dates back to the ancient Slavic mythology

Slavic mythology

Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....

 of the Eastern Slavs. Gradually, Ukrainians developed a layer of their own distinct folk culture. Folklore has been an important tool in defining and retaining a cultural distinctiveness in Ukraine in the face of strong assimilatory pressures from neighboring lands.

Distinctiveness

Ukrainian folk customs have numerous layers defined by the period in which that aspect developed and the area in which it was exploited. The lowest and oldest level is the pan-slavic layer of folk culture which has many elements that are common to the slavic people in general. Above that are elements common to the Eastern Slavs, and above that are elements found only in Ukraine itself. The layer above this contains cultural and folkloric elements that define the various micro-groups of the Ukrainian ethos such as the Boikos, Hutsuls, Lemkos, Lyshaks, Poddolians and Rusyns.

Some features of Ukrainian folklore are quite distinctive from that of the neighbouring Slavic peoples

Slavic peoples

The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...

. The songs and festivities of Ivana Kupalo (St John's Feast) and the Koliada normally associated with some of the deepest and most ancient levels of folklore contain features not found in the neighbouring Russian culture

Russian culture

Russian culture is associated with the country of Russia and, sometimes, specifically with ethnic Russians. It has a rich history and can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture...

, and are distinctively Ukrainian. These elements put into a quandary the notion that the ethnic Russian and Ukrainian people sprang from one source.

Folk customs

Ukrainian folk customs and rites were rituals connected with the calendar and with the course of human life. They were often accompanied by religious ceremonies, incantations, folk songs, dances, and dramatic plays

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

. Life cycle rituals mark birth, marriage, and death. Many of these customs are ancient and have blended in many cases with Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 rites. They can be divided into three categories:

• familial customs and rites - which consist of birth
  Birth
  Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring. The offspring is brought forth from the mother. The time of human birth is defined as the time at which the fetus comes out of the mother's womb into the world...
  
  , wedding
  Wedding
  A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
  
  , and burial
  Burial
  Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
  
   rites
• seasonal-productive customs and rites - which are tied to farming, herding
  Herding
  Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group , maintaining the group and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. While the layperson uses the term "herding", most individuals involved in the process term it mustering, "working stock" or...
  
  , and hunting
  Hunting
  Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
  
   tasks
• communal customs and rites - which mark certain events in the life of the community
  Community
  The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
  
  

Folk customs have undergone many changes in Ukraine as modern culture was introduced. Under the Soviets, folk customs were unsuccessfully suppressed. Believers still practiced the Christian customs, and some people in the country even revived the ancient customs and rites. Many Christian rites have been revived in post-Soviet Ukraine after 1991, especially in western oblasts

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

.

Folk dances

Dance has existed in Ukraine as a ritual since ancient times, but it was mostly absorbed by Christianity and blended with Christian rituals. The earliest dances were circle dances concerned with agriculture. Dances took place on Ivan Kupala day, St. George's day, Pentacost, days of harvest, and weddings. Ritual dances were rarely performed to music, and usually to a chant. Folk dances were performed with or without music. The majority of Ukrainian folk dances are circular. Some of the most famous dances are the Arkan and Hopak

Hopak

Hopak , also referred to as Gopak or Cossack dance, is a Ukrainian dance. It is performed most often as a solitary concert dance by amateur and professional Ukrainian dance ensembles, as well as other performers of folk dances...

. Dance was also enriched with traditional Ukrainian folk dress. Today many Ukrainian dance groups exist in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora

Ukrainian diaspora

The Ukrainian diaspora is the global community of ethnic Ukrainians, especially those who maintain some kind of connection, even if ephemeral, to the land of their ancestors and maintain their feeling of Ukrainian national identity within their own local community.-1608 To 1880:After the loss...

, particularly in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and have kept the tradition of folk dancing alive.

Folk songs

Ukrainian folk songs can be divided into four basic groups:

• ritual songs - such as carols (koliadky and shchedrivky), spring songs, songs about nymphs (rusalka
  Rusalka
  In Slavic mythology, a rusalka was a female ghost, water nymph, succubus, or mermaid-like demon that dwelled in a waterway....
  
   songs), and Kupala festival
  Ivan Kupala Day
  Kupala Day is celebrated in Poland, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine currently on the night of 6/7 July in the Gregorian or New Style calendar, which is 23/24 June in the Julian or Old Style calendar still used by many Orthodox Churches. Calendar-wise, it is opposite to the winter solstice holiday...
  
   songs
• harvest songs and wedding
  Wedding
  A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes...
  
   songs
• historical songs and political songs - such as dumas
  Duma (epic)
  A Duma is a sung epic poem which originated in Ukraine during the Hetmanate Era in the sixteenth century...
  
   and ballads
• lyrical songs - such as family songs, social class songs, and love songs
  Love Songs
  Love Songs, Lovesongs or The Love Songs may refer to:*Love song, a song about love-Albums:*Love Songs *Love Songs *Love Songs *Love Songs...
  
  

Ukrainian folk songs contain an abundance of symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...

ism. Bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 symbolism is popular. The eagle

Eagle

Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...

 or falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

 is the symbol of manliness, power, beauty, courage, and freedom. The dove

Dove

Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...

 symbolizes femininity. The sea gull is the symbol of the suffering mother. Other symbols include the guelder-rose tree, which represents the girl, and the oak which represents the boy. In songs similes predominate: a girl is compared to a star, a red guelder-rose tree, a pine tree, and a poppy; a boy is compared to an oak, a maple, and a pigeon. Some songs make use of repetition

Repetition (music)

Repetition is important in music, where sounds or sequences are often repeated. One often stated idea is that repetition should be in balance with the initial statements and variations in a piece. It may be called restatement, such as the restatement of a theme...

, antithesis

Antithesis

Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition...

, hyperbole

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....

, and metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

. A technique often used in lyrical songs to express emotion is the dramatic dialogue. In some folk songs assonance

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. For example, in the phrase "Do you like blue?", the is repeated within the sentence and is...

, alliteration

Alliteration

In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...

, and onomatopoeia are also used.

Folk songs have provided inspiration for many Ukrainian composers, such as Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Lysenko

Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...

, Mykola Leontovych

Mykola Leontovych

Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was a Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, priest, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired by Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian nationalist music school, along with Kyrylo Stetsenko, Alexander Koshetz, and Yakiv Stepovy...

, and Kyrylo Stetsenko

Kyrylo Stetsenko

Kyrylo Hryhorovych Stetsenko was a prolific Ukrainian composer, conductor, critic, and teacher. Late in his life he became an Ukrainian Orthodox Priest and head of the Music section of the Ministry of Education of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic.- Early life and Education :Kyrylo...

. The famous Russian composers Peter Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...

, and Serge Rachmaninoff also collected and used Ukrainian folk melodies in their works. Today many folk songs are still used, and are even used by contemporary artists.

See also

• Slavic folklore
• Polish folklore
• Russian folklore
• Ukrainian wedding traditions
  Ukrainian wedding traditions
  Ukrainian wedding is the traditional marriage ceremony in Ukrainian culture, both in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora. The traditional Ukrainian wedding featured a rich assortment of folk music and singing, dancing, and visual art, with rituals dating back to the pre-Christian era...
  
  

External links

• Ukrainian Traditional Folklore. University of Alberta
  University of Alberta
  The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
  
  
• Folk articles at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  The Encyclopedia of Ukraine is an English language, free, online encyclopedia covering wide range of issueson Ukraine, including its history, people, geography, economy, culture etc....