Koleda January 6

The koleda was a custom in which a group of young men, masked and costumed, went from house to house in their village singing special koleda songs and performing acts of magic intended to invoke health, wealth and prosperity. prosperity for every home. The members of the group were called koledari. The koleda was performed from the feast of Saint Ignatius Theophorus (five days before Christmas) until Epiphany.

The Koledari prepared for several days before the start of the festival: they practiced the songs and made their masks and costumes. Masks could be classified into three types according to the characters they represented: anthropomorphs, zoomorphs (representing bear, cow, deer, goat, sheep, ox, wolf, stork, etc.), and anthropo-zoomorphs.

The main material from which they were produced was skin. The face, however, could be made separately from a dried gourd shell or a piece of wood and then sewn to hide so that the mask could cover the entire head. The mustache, beard and eyebrows were made of black wool, horsehair or hemp fibers, and the teeth of beans.

Zoomorphic and anthropozoomorphic masks may have horns painted white, black or red. Costumes were prepared from tattered clothing, sheepskins with the wool turned out, and calfskins. An oxtail with a bell attached to its end was sometimes attached to the back of them.

The leader of the group was called Papy. The other koledari gathered at his house the day before, and at midnight they all came out and began their activities. Walking through the village streets, they shouted and made noise with their bells and ratchets. Most were armed with sabers or clubs. One of them, called Bride, was masked and costumed as a pregnant woman.

He held a distaff in his hand and was spinning hemp fibers. The koledari teased and joked with Bride. Some of them were called alosniks, men possessed by the demon ala. There could have been other named characters in the group.

Another tradition is called Korochun. Koročun or Kračun was a Slavic pagan festival. It was considered the day when the dark god and other spirits associated with decay and darkness were most powerful. The first recorded use of the term was in 1143, when the author of the First Novgorod Chronicle referred to the winter solstice as "Koročun".

It was celebrated by the pagan Slavs on December 21, the longest night of the year and the night of the winter solstice. That night, Hors, symbolizing the old sun, becomes smaller as the days shorten in the northern hemisphere, and dies on December 22, the winter solstice. He is said to be defeated by the dark and evil powers of the Black God. On December 23, Hors resurrects and becomes the new sun.