Koliadka



Koliadka  (колядка,, коледарска песен, colindă, Polish: kolęda) are traditional songs usually sung in Eastern Slavic, Central European and Eastern European countries during the Christmas holiday season. It is believed that everything sung about will come true.

The history of koliadka
Koliadka have been used since pre-Christian times in Kievan Rus'. Those songs were used with ritual purposes. First koliadkas described ancient people's ideas about creation, natural phenomena and structure of the world. With the advent of Christianity content of koliadkas began to acquire the relevant religious meaning and features.

Thus now koliadkas are mostly Christmas carols which describe the birth of Jesus Christ and biblical stories happened in connection with the event. However heathen roots are still there.

In modern culture
Serbians and Montenegrins sing koliadkas dedicated to Saint Nicholas in their churches. Slovaks, Czechs and sometimes Belarusians sing koliadkas not only on Saint Nicholas Day (which they celebrate on December 6), but on Saint Stephen Day (December 26) too.

Ukrainians sing koliadkas and Shchedrivka from Saint Nicholas Day (December 6) until the holiday of baptism of Jesus (January 6). There are other types of winter holidays ritual songs in Ukraine named schedrivkas and posivalkas. Traditionally, their purposes are clearly divided, but in modern Ukrainian culture these concepts have intertwined, mixed and acquired traits of each other.

Koliadkas are often sung in countries where big diasporas are present, including Ukrainians which live in Canada.

Koliadkas which are dedicated to saints
There are several koliadkas which are dedicated to Saint Nicholas in Ukraine. Among them: "Ой, хто, хто Миколая любить" ("Oh, who Loves Saint Nicholas"), "Ходить по землі Святий Миколай" ("Saint Nicholas Walks Around The World"), "Миколай, Миколай ти до нас завітай!" (Nicholas, Nicholas, Come To Visit Us!).

"The Little Swallow"
Ukrainian "Щедрик" ("Shchedryk"), known in English as "The Little Swallow", is a famous folk song that has pre-Christian roots. The song was arranged by the Ukrainian composer and teacher Mykola Leontovych in 1916. "Shchedryk" was later adapted as an English Christmas carol, "Carol of the Bells", by popular American composer, educator, and choral conductor of Ukrainian ethnic origin Peter J. Wilhousky following a performance of the original song by Alexander Koshetz's Ukrainian National Chorus at Carnegie Hall on October 5, 1921. Peter J. Wilhousky copyrighted and published his new lyrics (which were not based on the Ukrainian lyrics) in 1936.

Conceptually, Ukrainian lyrics of this song meets the definition of schedrivka (Malanka song) while English content of "Carol of the Bells" indicates it as koliadka (Christmas song).

On December 9, 2016, Georgian-born British singer Katie Melua and The Gori Women's Choir (which is conducted by Teona Tsiramua) sang original Ukrainian "Shchedryk" on BBC.