Getting ready for Ivana Kupala
Women gather flowers ... Singers rehearse ... Embroidered
vyshyvanka shirts are ironed ... Helpers find chairs,
tables, loudspeakers and cables.
Flower crowns
Traditionally, flowers are woven into crowns for
young women to wear on Ivana Kupala night. According
to old folk beliefs, if a woman throws her crown into
a river and it drifts to the far bank, she will marry
a man from a village on that side. But if it sinks,
that's not a good sign ...
photo: Przemek Karpicki
Gathering the flowers
'A few days before the celebration we would go
around looking for wildflowers, memorising where they
were located, and where the best ones were. We would
pray to God that they wouldn’t wilt or that they would
bloom by the time we needed them to make a wreath. On
the morning of Ivana Kupala, we went to collect those
wildflowers. My grandma always used to help me; we
would make wreaths together.'
Lesia
Kyrylenko
Sound systems
People from the wider Brighton community also help
with the preparations for Kupala. One of the busiest
is Phill Minns of Best Foot
Music, a local organisation that collaborates
with refugee and migrant musicians. Phill acts as the
sound technician for the Ukrainian community's many
public events, and through Best Foot Music has
introduced Ukrainians to local musical communities. He
also works on 'Razom' gatherings for Ukrainians and
friends at the Rose Hill.