Kupala songs are heard just one night a year — the night of Kupala. The roots of this festival reach pre-Christian Rus: the summer solstice, worship of the gods of sun, water, and fire. After the Christianization of Rus, the holiday was linked to the feast of John the Baptist (hence Ivan Kupala).
Their themes are of love, marriage, and the search for a partner: girls wove wreaths and floated them on the water (whichever boy caught a wreath was to become a husband), young people leaped over a bonfire in pairs. Famous melodies: “Oi na Kupala, ta Ivanovoho,” “Oi na Yvana, na Kupala.” Kupala traditions are being actively revived in Ukraine through the Kraina Mriy festival, ethnographic expeditions, and the work of bands Bozhychi, Buttya, Ho-Ra.
