Are you bored by the domestic version of Christmas carols which bother the ears, whereever you make a step?
You should try some Koledo songs!
In all countries, where a Slavonic language is spoken or was spoken (Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Russia etc.), pagan rites connected with the winter solstice have been associated with the close Christmas season.
Here some masks:
https://www.pinterest.com/mteodorovic/koledo/
And a very poor wikipedia article about this rite:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koliada
I added some videos for you, where you can study this rite in Bulgaria (especially a documentary of the particular rite at the Russe province along the Romanian border), in Bukovina and in Belarus. It exists as well in Poland under the name kolęda. Golec, some gifted musicians of Zakopane who mix Guralski folk with Jazz and Mexican traditions, made a Christmas CD. They even imitated the traditional Slovakian tunes of the fujara players, one of the biggest flutes in the world which are constructed in the montains near Zakopane.
Some links to historical recordings of koledo songs, collected in the folk archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Science:
http://musicart.imbm.bas.bg/en/karton.asp?zapisID=5976
http://musicart.imbm.bas.bg/en/karton.asp?zapisID=2296
http://musicart.imbm.bas.bg/en/karton.asp?zapisID=2232
I wish you a merry Christmas!
Replies