There are a lot of them - and they are so different. There are the famous pereberya in Vashkivtsi and the incredible rituals of Krasnoilsk. But in the Chernivtsi region, dozens, and maybe even hundreds of villages have alive pagan rite of Malanka, and each malanka is valuable and worth to be seen. And malankars dance in Podvirne, and rich embroidery on the costumes of Vasyl and Malanka in Valya Kuzmina, and beautiful “horses” in Petrashivka, and huge carnival organized every year for the villagers by the Malankars from Horbova, and brave bear fights in Velykyi Kuchuriv. Ternavka and Hodynivka, Tysovets and Nizhny Stanivtsi, Ropcha and Chudey, Marshyntsi and Buzovitsa - it is not easy to choose which Malanka to see every year. Because the choice is so big. It is soooooooo good that this custom can be seen not only on traditional dates (January 13-14). The “horses” of Hertsa district, covered with ribbons, go from yard to yard on the New Year“s eva and  on January the 1st. And in Ternavka near Hertsa malanka traditionally takes place on January, the 2nd near the village school.

The Roman martyr Melania, worshiped by the Orthodox on January, the 13th, had little in common with the interpretation of her image by the Hutsuls or Bukovinians. The religious aspect of action of the rite has faded already in the nineteenth century. Marriage motives have come to the fore: even nowadays malanka in many villages are still entering the yards where the unmarried girls live. Folk art is sometimes left only on the stages of regional houses of culture and ethno-festivals. Malanka is the only opportunity to see the ancient ritual as it was intended, in the streets of the village. This is the phenomenon of the Bukovynian pereberya: it was not preserved in the formats of school lectures and concerts “on occasion”, it is not played out according to the published scenario. Malanka is alive, probably the last one in a series of folk rites.

 

It is impossible to know the Chernivtsi region without Malankas. Touch a custom that is older than the Khotyn fortress or church in Luzhany. Malanka is perhaps the most important cultural treasure of the region.