folklore memories and folkloric narrators
Talking about lives, community, history and the present
through folklore. Our stories so far.
Marichka and Ivanko
The storyline of the theatre piece performed at the
2023 Kupala festival in Brighton: Marichka and Ivanko
fall in love, but a war starts and Ivanko is sent to
fight. When the community begins to prepare for
Kupala, Marichka protests that people shouldn't be
singing and dancing while a war is going on. Then,
however, she meets a widow who understands her
feelings, and reminds her that Ivanko may not yet be
lost. Marichka sets out to look for the fern flower
that blossoms on the eve of Kupala, so that she can
wish for Ivanko's safe return. She finds the magic
flower, and turns round to see Ivanko there, back safe
from the war. They wed, and the people of the
community celebrate, leaping over the Kupala bonfire.
We've written more about the meaning of the play in
our Gramarye
article, which tells the story of the Kupala festival
in Brighton.
Vladyslava
Vladyslava Bondar's story, set in her childhood and around her grandparents' village, shows how Kupala is rooted in Ukraine's natural environments and landscapes. 'Surrounded by a forest, a river, meadows and cherry trees, it was a perfect place for everything folkloric.'
Lesia
Setting fire to car tyres and rolling them down a
hill, 'like a symbol of the sun': Lesia Kyrylenko's
Kupala used twentieth-century technology to sustain a
European tradition previously reported in
fourth-century France.
Hanna
Hanna Mariienko makes motanka dolls, female figures made from cloth in traditional folk designs. 'I wanted to share a piece of my home with our new community, tell where I come from and what family traditions we have. Every Motanka I make is a quiet storyteller of our homeland and our hopes for the future.'
Rusalka
Rusalka introduced herself at the 2023 Kupala festival in Brighton. As she is a troubled and tragic water spirit, it fell to her to tell visitors about the floods that followed the destruction of the Kakhovka dam the previous month.
