koledari

The tradition & historical record

Koliada or koleda (Cyrillic: каляда, коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional Slavic name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, for Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian times. It represents a festival or holiday, celebrated at the end of December to honor the sun during the Northern Hemisphere winter solstice, and is practiced in East Europe. It also involves groups of singers, koledari, who visit houses to sing carols. One theory states that Koliada is the name of a cycle of winter rituals stemming from the ancient calendae as for example the Kalenda Proclamation. ¹

The word originated in Old Church Slavonic Kolęda (Колѧда). It is used in modern Russian (Коляда́, pronounced [kəlʲɪˈda]), Ukrainian ("Коляда" pronounced [kɔlʲɐˈda] ), Belarusian (Каляда, Kalyada, Kaliada), Polish (Szczodre Gody kolęda [kɔˈlɛnda]), Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian (Коледа, Коледе, koleda, kolenda), Lithuanian (Kalėdos, Kalėda), Czech, Slovak, Slovene (koleda) and Romanian (Colindă). In modern Belarusian (каляда), Ukrainian (koliada), Czech, Slovak, Croatian (koleda, kolenda), Kashubian (kòlãda [kwɛlãda]) and Polish (kolęda [kɔˈlɛ̃da], Old Polish kolenda) the meaning has shifted from Christmas itself to denoting the tradition of strolling, singing, and having fun on Christmas Eve, same in the Balkan Slavs. It specifically applies to children and teens who walk house to house greeting people, singing and sifting grain that denotes the best wishes and receiving candy and small money in return. The action is called kolyadovanye (Russian: Колядования) in Russian, kolyaduvannya (Ukrainian колядування) in Ukrainian and is now applied to similar Old East Slavic celebrations of other old significant holidays, such as Generous Eve (Russian: Маланья, Щедрый вечер, Belarusian: Шчодры вечар, Ukrainian: Щедрий вечiр) the evening before New Year's Day, as well as the celebration of the arrival of spring. Similarly in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, in the tradition of koleduvane (коледуване) or koledarenje (коледарење) around Christmas, groups of children visiting houses, singing carols and receiving a gift at parting. The kids are called 'koledari' or rarely 'kolezhdani' who sing kolyadki (songs). ¹

Koliadari or koliadnyky (Ukrainian: колядники) are Slavic traditional performers of Koliada. It is associated with Koliada (Calends), a celebration incorporated later into Christmas. This type of caroling is called kolędowanie (pronounced [kɔlɛndɔˈvaɲɛ] ) in Poland, koleduvane (коледуване) in Bulgaria, colindat in Romania, koliaduvannia (колядування, pronounced [kolʲɐdʊˈwɑnʲːɐ] ) in Ukraine, koledování in Czechia and koledarenje (коледарење) or kolede (коледе) in North Macedonia. ¹

Croatian composer Jakov Gotovac wrote in 1925 the composition "Koleda", which he called a "folk rite in five parts", for male choir and small orchestra (three clarinets, two bassoons, timpani and drum). Also, the Dubrovnik kolenda is one of the oldest recorded traditions of this kind in Croatia (its first mentioned in 13th century). There is also a dance from Dubrovnik called "The Dubrovnik Koleda." ¹

The koledari carolers traditionally start their rounds at midnight on Christmas Eve. They visit the houses of their relatives, neighbours and other people in the village. The caroling is usually performed by young men, which are accompanied by an elder one called stanenik. Each caroler carries a stick called gega. They wish the people from the village health, wealth and happiness and then the people they wished it too gave them gevreks. The time for the koleduvane is strictly defined by tradition - from midnight to dawn on Christmas Eve. With the power of the songs they have to chase away the demons. By sunrise they lose that power and stop to koleduvat. Preparations began on 20 December. Men are in traditional festive attire with a special decoration on their hats. ¹

Kolida (Greek: Κόλιντα), Koliada (Κόλιαντα) or Kolida Babo (Κόλιντα Μπάμπω) is celebrated across northern Greece by the Slavic speakers of Greek Macedonia, in areas from Florina to Thessaloniki. It is celebrated before Christmas by gathering in the village square and lighting a bonfire, followed by local folk music and dancing. In North Macedonia, the caroling starts early in the morning on 6 January, which is the Christmas Eve or known in Macedonian as Badnik. Usually kids are caroling in North Macedonia and they go from house to house waking the people up with a song. They sing songs called koledarski pesni or carols. After the song is finished, the person, that the song is sung for, rewards the kids with money, fruit, candies, chocolate and other gifts. The kids usually wake up to do this in between 5am and 11am and they go around the whole neighborhood or village. One of the most popular koliadkas (songs) in today North Macedonia is called Kolede lede. It was recorded by the Bulgarian folklorist Dimitar Matov and published in Sofia in 1893. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Koliada”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

koledari is Slavic traditional performers of a ceremony called koleduvane, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 3 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²