Koledari are
Slavic traditional performers of a ceremony called ''koleduvane'', a kind of
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...
ing. It is associated with
Koliada
Koliada or koleda (Cyrillic: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional Slavic name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian ...
, a celebration incorporated later into
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
.
This type of caroling is called "kolędowanie" in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, "коледуване" (''koleduvane'') in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
, "colindat" in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
, "колядування" (''koliaduvannia'') in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, and "коледарење" (''koledarenje'') or "коледе" (''kolede'') in
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
.
Bulgaria
The ''koledari'' carolers traditionally start their rounds at
midnight
Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...
on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
. They visit the houses of their relatives, neighbours and other people in the village. The caroling is usually performed by young men, which are accompanied by an elder one called ''stanenik''. Each caroler carries a stick called ''gega''. They wish the people from the village health, wealth and happiness. The time for the ''koleduvane'' is strictly defined by tradition - from midnight to dawn on Christmas Eve. With the power of the songs they have to chase away the demons. By sunrise they lose that power and stop to ''koleduvat''. Preparations began on 20 December. Men are in traditional festive attire with a special decoration on their hats.
North Macedonia
In
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
, the caroling starts early in the morning on 6 January, which is the
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...
or known in Macedonian as
Badnik. Usually kids are caroling in North Macedonia and they go from house to house waking the people up with a song. They sing songs called ''koledarski pesni'' or
carols
A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with Christian church worship, and sometimes accompanied by a dance. A caroller (or caroler) is someone who sings carols, and is said to be carolling (or caroling).
T ...
. After the song is finished, the person, that the song is sang for, rewards the kids with money, fruit, candies, chocolate and other gifts. The kids usually wake up to do this in between 5am and 11am and they go around the whole neighborhood or village.
One of the most popular
kolyadka
Koliadka ( uk, колядка, cz, koleda, bg, коледарска песен, ro, colindă) are traditional songs usually sung in Eastern Slavic, Central European and Eastern European countries during the Christmas holiday season. It is be ...
s (songs) in North Macedonia is the following folk song recorded in 1893:
Коледе леде
паднало греде
утепало деде
деде се мачи
баба го квачи
со четири јајца
гускини, шаткини.
Денеска е Коледе,
утре е Божиќ
ќе колеме теле
теле вика леле
не колете мене
ќе ви купам зеље
да месиме пита
да јадеме сите.
Kolede lede
padnalo grede
utepalo dede
dede se mači
baba go kvači
so četiri jajca
guskini, šatkini.
Deneska e Kolede
utre e Božiḱ
ḱe koleme tele
tele vika lele
ne kolete mene
ḱe vi kupam zelje
da mesime pita
da jademe site.
Serbia
''Koledari'' prepared themselves during several days before the start of the ''koleda'': they practiced the ''koleda'' songs, and made their masks and costumes.
The masks could be classified into three types according to the characters they represented: the anthropomorphic, the zoomorphic (representing bear, cow, stag, goat, sheep, ox, wolf, stork, etc.), and the anthropo-zoomorphic.
The main material from which they were produced was hide. The face, however, could be made separately out of a dried gourd shell or a piece of wood, and then sewn to hide so that the mask could cover all the head. The moustache, beard, and eyebrows were made with black wool, horsehair, or
hemp
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...
fibers, and the teeth with beans. Zoomorphic and anthropo-zoomorphic masks might have white, black, or red painted horns attached to them. The costumes were prepared from ragged clothes,
sheepskin
Sheepskin is the Hide (skin), hide of a Domestic sheep, sheep, sometimes also called lambskin. Unlike common leather, sheepskin is Tanning (leather), tanned with the Wool, fleece intact, as in a Fur, pelt.Delbridge, Arthur, "The Macquarie Dictiona ...
s with the wool turned outside, and calf hides. An ox tail with a bell fixed at its end was sometimes attached at the back of them.
[
The leader of the group was called Grandpa. The other ''koledari'' gathered at his house on the eve of ''koleda'', and at midnight they all went out and started their activities. Walking through the streets of the village they shouted and made noise with their bells and ]ratchet
Ratchet may refer to:
Devices
* Ratchet (device), a mechanical device that allows movement in only one direction
* Ratchet, metonomic name for a socket wrench incorporating a ratcheting device
* Ratchet (instrument), a music instrument and a ...
s. Most were armed with saber
A sabre ( French: sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...
s or club
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
...
s. One of them, called Bride, was masked and costumed as a pregnant woman. He held a distaff
A distaff (, , also called a rock"Rock." ''The Oxford English Dictionary''. 2nd ed. 1989.), is a tool used in spinning. It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly use ...
in his hand and spun
''Spun'' is a 2002 American black comedy crime drama film directed by Jonas Åkerlund from an original screenplay by William De Los Santos and Creighton Vero, based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the Eugene, Oregon, drug subculture. The ...
hemp fibers. The ''koledari'' teased and joked with Bride, which gave a comic note to the ''koleda''. Some of them were called ''alosniks'', the men possessed by the demon ala Ala, ALA, Alaa or Alae may refer to:
Places
* Ala, Hiiu County, Estonia, a village
* Ala, Valga County, Estonia, a village
* Ala, Alappuzha, Kerala, India, a village
* Ala, Iran, a village in Semnan Province
* Ala, Gotland, Sweden
* Alad, S ...
. There could have been other named characters in the group.
The ''koledari'' sung special songs, in which the word ''koledo'', the vocative case
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and num ...
of ''koleda'', was inserted in the middle and at the end of each verse.
Besides the singing, the ''koledari'' also chased away demons from the household. First they searched the house to find out where the demons hide. They looked everywhere, at the same time shouting, dancing, jumping, knocking on the floor and walls with sticks, and teasing Bride. When they found the demons, they drove them out of the hiding place, and fought with them swinging their sabers and clubs. After the demons were chased away, the ''koledari'' briefly danced the kolo
Kolo may refer to:
Places Poland
*Koło
*Koło, Łódź Voivodeship
* Koło, Lublin Voivodeship
* Koło, Lubusz Voivodeship
Other places
* Kolo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Kolo, Central African Republic
* Kolo (Tanzanian ward), Kondoa district, Dod ...
, and then blessed the household. As a reward, they received a loaf of bread which the family prepared specially for them, and other food gifts.[
]
Ukraine
One of the best known folk Ukrainian koliadka
Koliadka ( uk, колядка, cz, koleda, bg, коледарска песен, ro, colindă) are traditional songs usually sung in East Slavic peoples, Eastern Slavic, Central Europe, Central European and Eastern European countries during the ...
songs is '' Shchedryk'' in the 1916 arrangement of Mykola Leontovych
Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (23 January 1921; ua, Микола Дмитрович Леонтович, link=no (); also Leontovich) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist and teacher. His music was inspired by the Ukrainian ...
. It was later adapted as an English Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French ori ...
, ''Carol of the Bells
"Carol of the Bells" is a popular Christmas carol, with music by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych in 1914 and lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky. The song is based on the Ukrainian folk chant " Shchedryk". The music is in the public domain; Wil ...
'', by Peter J. Wilhousky.
See also
* Jasličkári
* Koliada
Koliada or koleda (Cyrillic: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional Slavic name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian ...
* List of Christmas carols
This list of Christmas carols is organized by country, language or culture of origin. Originally, a "Christmas carol" referred to a piece of vocal music in carol form whose lyrics centre on the theme of Christmas or the Christmas season. The d ...
* Trick-or-treating
Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". The ...
References
External links
Koledari in the Bulgarian tradition
New Year's customs in Romania and in the world
Macedonian songs for kolede
Kolede in Kavadarci
{{in lang, mk
Belarusian traditions
Bulgarian traditions
Macedonian traditions
Russian traditions
Serbian traditions
Polish traditions
Ukrainian folk music
Slavic Christmas traditions