Costumes, songs and bears: Ukrainian villagers celebrate Malanka

From the Kyiv Post archives (Originally published in January 2020).

One of the biggest and most famous celebrations of the folk holiday of Malanka takes place in the village of Krasnoilsk, near the Ukrainian border with Romania. On Jan. 13-14, thousand of people in costumes take to the streets of their village with performances, songs and dances to celebrate the New Year according to the old Julian calendar. The tradition dates back to 1431, the foundation of Krasnoilsk.

Krasnoilsk’s Malanka is a unique phenomenon in Ukraine. Malanka is not an ethnically Ukrainian holiday — 95% of the population of the village is ethnic Romanians. Rather, it is a Romanian-Central European tradition that is revered in Ukraine.

When this region of Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union in 1940, the tradition of Malanka was officially banned. Nonetheless, it has been preserved in Krasnoilsk to this day.