Ivana Kupala

For those of you who do not know about the St. John’s - Ivana Kupala festival, this is the original pagan midsummer night. In pre-Christian Ukraine, the festival was really a fertility rite that was supposed to assure a good harvest. (Kupalo was believed to be the god of Love and of Harvest. He was personified as the earth’s fertility — RJO). From the descriptions in ancient chronicles it was rather wild, featuring all kinds of sexual excesses… in other words, a lot of fun.

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Kyiv. Night city.

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povitroflotsky_bridge, originally uploaded by Oleksandr Telesniuk.

Kyiv city, Povitroflotsky bridge at night.

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Traditional Music and Instruments from the Ukraine

Archaeologists found a bone flute from the paleolithic age in mustier dwellings in Moldove in the Chernovitsy region, and a complex of instruments made of mammoth ivory in Mizynska village in the Chernigiv region. Pictures of musical instruments exist on frescos in the St. Sophia Cathedral and on cheap print “mamay” in the Ukraine. Continue reading »

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