Sun for everyone. Kupala Night – Midsummer feast in Belarusian style (photos)

Foreign guests from Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania and other countries visited Rudabelka (Homiel region) to take part in the celebration of Kupala Night, a Midsummer feast in the Belarusian style.

Over 800 participants showed up at the event held as part of the Belarusian folklore festival ‘Beraginya’.



Kupala Night, also known as Ivan Kupala Day and Feast of St. John the Baptist, is celebrated in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia currently on the night of 6/7 July in the Gregorian calendar, which is 23/24 June in the Julian calendar still used by many Orthodox Churches. The celebration relates to the summer solstice when nights are the shortest and includes a number of pagan rituals.



Some early mythology scholars claimed that the holiday was originally Kupala; a pagan fertility rite later accepted into the Orthodox Christian calendar. There are analogues for celebrating the legacy of St. John around the time of the summer solstice elsewhere, including St. John’s Day in Western Europe.



On Kupala day, young people jump over the flames of bonfires in a ritual test of bravery and faith. The failure of a couple in love to complete the jump while holding hands is a sign of their destined inseparability.



Girls may float wreaths of flowers (often lit with candles) on rivers, and would attempt to gain foresight into their relationship fortunes from the flow patterns of the flowers on the river. Men may attempt to capture the wreaths, in the hope of capturing the interest of the woman who floated the wreath.



The Kupala feast in Rudabelka attracts amateurs of the traditions of the past and performance groups from diferent corners of Belarus.