There are events after which one does not want to speak right away; instead, one wants to linger in silence for a while, allowing what has been heard and lived to settle in the heart. This is exactly what the meeting “Club #NarodnyiKhor Kolyada” became — a monthly gathering where completely different, often unfamiliar people come together simply to sing.
This time we gathered around kolyada not as a genre or musical form, but as a living thread that connects past and present, memory and contemporary experience, the personal and the collective. We spoke about the meaning of kolyada for the individual and for the people; about how it unites pre-Christian symbols with the story of Christ’s birth into a single message of the New Birth of All; about the deep continuity of tradition, where there are no ruptures, only an unbroken movement from generation to generation. About how the power of this Tradition is what sustains us in resistance to evil.
Kolyada sounded as a voice of national identity — something deeply personal and at the same time immense, something that has survived centuries, wars, borders, and has been preserved in the memory of songs. For many, it carries especially warm associations with childhood, family, and home — with those Christmas evenings when everyone went caroling together. That is why, during the Christmas season, these songs return us to a sense of safety and love that adult life so often lacks. It was particularly moving that people of different ages from all across Ukraine gathered in one circle — from Zaporizhzhia and Volyn, Vinnytsia and Chernihiv, Chornomorka in the Mykolaiv region, Lviv, Kharkiv, Ternopil, Volyn, and other cities.
We sang carols and shchedrivky from different regions, and in this polyphony Ukraine seemed to come together as one — not on a map, but in living song.
Most of the carols and shchedrivky were предложені by Natalia Polovynka, but especially valuable was the way participants recalled their own family songs and shared them. Together we tried to restore these texts so that they would not fade away or be lost in time, but instead receive new life.
After this gathering, a special sense of calm and deep unity remained — a feeling that you are not alone, that there are people nearby with whom you are connected by something greater than a chance meeting. What felt new were not only the carols and shchedrivky we heard, but also the realization of how powerful tradition and Transmission truly are when they are cherished by people.
We express our sincere gratitude to Mercury Art Center for the opportunity to present “Club #NarodnyiKhor KOLYADA” within the art project “Waiting for Christmas: Stories of an Indestructible Feast.”
Special thanks for the opportunity to receive the Bethlehem Light from the Plast scouts.
Thank you sincerely for the collaboration, and until we meet again!