Edition: English | 中文简体 | 中文繁体 Монгол
Homepage > Culture Video

Village elders preserve Ukrainian traditions

Reporter: Coletta Wanjohi 丨 CCTV.com

12-03-2016 01:05 BJT

UNESCO officials have also added the "Cossack songs of the Dni'prope'trovsk Region" to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. 

Villagers in eastern Ukraine sing the songs of their grandparents. But many singers in this choir are already grandmothers themselves.

For 27 years they having been meeting twice a week, whatever the weather, in the small town of Pidgorodne in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Eastern Ukraine, to sing traditional songs that were nearly lost forever.

The group was formed in 1989 and since then their repertoire has grown to include a number of songs, of which many have been handed down for generations.

Singer Raisa Polyvyana says they were able to piece together some traditional songs by singing them together.

UNESCO officials have also added the "Cossack songs of the Dni

UNESCO officials have also added the "Cossack songs of the Dni'prope'trovsk Region" to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

"There was such poverty, but the songs never disappeared. Our parents always sang. And we heard the songs but we knew just one or two lines from each. And when we united into a band each of us started to recall the lyrics and we collected them from people. When we gathered together, we all recalled songs. One woman knew two lines, another one knew a few of them and we put words together into a song, because the melody was the same. In such a way we revived many ancient songs," she said.

The senior folk group calls themselves "Krynytsya", which means "water well" because they work to collect songs like a well collects rain.

Some of the songs are  cossack songs and tell the story of cossack battles, destiny and national pride.

"Our region is cossack. And the cossack lyrics are being passed down from parents to children. My granddaughter was always asking "Grandma sing to me songs about cossacks, about cossacks," said singer Kateryna Karapysh.

Cossacks lived in the Pidgorodne area during 15th to 19th centuries. Some of the songs haven't changed much since then and have being transmitted between generations in their original version.

But today they are under threat.

The youngest member of the group is 53-years-old, the oldest woman is 82-years-old.  Generally it is only the elderly who remember the lyrics.

Other groups such as "Znakhidka" and "Boguslavochka" as well as individual singers in Dnipropetrovsk region are also mostly elderly people.

The Ukrainian government is keen to promote this unique tradition.

"For us it is crucially important to save these cultural elements. If  cossack songs are recognized as world heritage by UNESCO it would be a significant signal for us and then it would become a duty to do recording expeditions," said Yevgen Nyshchuk, minister of culture.

Cossacks, who spearheaded imperial Russia's expansion and helped guard its far-flung outposts, trace their historic roots to both Ukraine and southern Russia.

Follow us on

  • Please scan the QR Code to follow us on Instagram

  • Please scan the QR Code to follow us on Wechat