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Ivana Kupala
The first written mention of the Kupala holiday in Ukraine is in the Volyn Chronicle, which mentions the events "on the eve of Ivan's day at the Kupala itself" -
Modernization
After the Christianization of Rus, sacred texts were gradually replaced by everyday and game themes, along with pagan beliefs. By the 17th century, Kupaylo, from a central pagan activity connected with the cult of the gods of the Sky and the Sun, turned into a youth entertainment -
Resumption of the national holiday
During the USSR, Kupala celebrations in Ukraine, Belarus and Latvia were revived with a non-religious content in the 1960s. Roundabouts around bonfires and dropping wreaths on water became the basis of the action, and the Kupala holiday itself was reformatted into the "holiday of Soviet youth". For the first time such a celebration, officially enshrined in the state calendar, took place in 1959. -
How to celebrate Ivana Kupala in our time
Modern theatrical events, held on Ivana Kupala, dramatize ancient rites. The least developed holiday is in the Carpathian region, and the most developed in Polissia and central Ukraine. For the most part, its modern meaning consists in the preservation of ancestral traditions.