Koliada or koleda (

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional Slavic name for the period from

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

to Epiphany or, more generally, for Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian times. It represents a festival or holiday, celebrated at the end of December to honor the sun during the Northern-hemisphere

winter solstice The winter solstice, or hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's geographical pole, poles reaches its maximum axial tilt, tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern Hemisphere, Northern and So ...

. It also involves groups of singers who visit houses to sing carols.

Terminology

The word is still used in modern

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

(Коляда́), Ukrainian ("Коляда", Koliadá), Belarusian (''Каляда'', Kalada, Kaliada), Polish (Szczodre Gody ''kolęda'' ), Bulgarian, Macedonian,

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

(''Коледа, Коледе, koleda, kolenda''), Lithuanian (''Kalėdos, Kalėda''),

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

, Slovak, Slovene (''koleda'') and Romanian (''Colindă''). The word used in

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

language (Колѧда - Kolęda) sounds closest to the current Polish language pronunciation, as Polish is one of two Slavic languages which retains the nasal vowels of the Proto-Slavic language (the other is closely related Kashubian). One theory states that Koliada is the name of a cycle of winter rituals stemming from the ancient '' calendae''Encyclopedia of Ukraine
/ref> as for example the Kalenda Proclamation. In modern Belarusian , Ukrainian (koliada),

, Slovak, Croatian (koleda, kolenda), Kashubian (''kòlãda'' wɛlãda and Polish (''kolęda'' , Old Polish ''kolenda'') the meaning has shifted from Christmas itself to denoting the tradition of strolling, singing, and having fun on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...

, same in the Balkan Slavs. It specifically applies to children and teens who walk house to house greeting people, singing and sifting grain that denotes the best wishes and receiving candy and small money in return. The action is called kolyadovanye () in Russian, kolyaduvannya ( Ukrainian колядування) in Ukrainian and is now applied to similar Old East Slavic celebrations of other old significant holidays, such as '' Generous Eve'' (, , ) the evening before New Year's Day, as well as the celebration of the arrival of spring. Similarly in

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and

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, in the tradition of koleduvane (коледуване) or koledarenje (коледарење) around Christmas, groups of children visiting houses, singing carols and receiving a gift at parting. The kids are called ' koledari' or rarely 'kolezhdani' who sing kolyadki (songs). Koleda is also celebrated across northern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

by the

Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia Slavic speakers are a minority population in the Geographic regions of Greece, northern Greek region of Macedonia, Greece, Macedonia, who are mostly concentrated in certain parts of the Peripheries of Greece, peripheries of West Macedonia, West ...

, in areas from

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, where it is called Koleda (Κόλιντα, Κόλιαντα) or Koleda Babo (Κόλιντα Μπάμπω) which means "Koleda Grandmother" in Slavic. It is celebrated before Christmas by gathering in the village square and lighting a bonfire, followed by local Macedonian music and dancing. Croatian composer Jakov Gotovac wrote in 1925 the composition "Koleda", which he called a "folk rite in five parts", for male choir and small orchestra (three

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

s, two

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...

and

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

). Also,

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kolenda is one of the oldest recorded traditions of this kind in Croatia (its first mentioned in 13th century). There is also a

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

from

called "The Dubrovnik Koleda." It is celebrated in the Büyükmandıra village of Babaeski district,

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Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

as a

halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

-like festival and dates back a thousand years.

References

{{Slavic holidays, state=collapsed Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Slavic culture Slavic holidays Folk calendar of the East Slavs Belarusian traditions Bulgarian traditions Czech traditions Polish traditions Russian traditions Serbian traditions Slovak traditions Ukrainian traditions Slavic Christmas traditions Winter solstice Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukraine Croatian traditions

Terminology

See also

References