The culture of Ukraine is composed of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian people that has formed throughout the history of Ukraine. Strong family values and religion, alongside the traditions of Ukrainian embroidery and folk music are integral aspects of the country's culture. It is closely intertwined with ethnic studies about ethnic Ukrainians and Ukrainian historiography which is focused on the history of Kyiv and the region around it.
Other than the many gods and goddesses of the Slavs, the ancient Slavs believed in and revered many supernatural beings that existed in nature. These supernatural beings in Slavic religion come in various forms, and the same name of any single being can be spelled or transliterated differently according to language and transliteration system.
The samodiva, samovila or vila, are woodland fairies or nymphs found in South and West Slavic folklore.
Stories and practices that are considered part of Korean folklore go back several thousand years. These tales derive from a variety of origins, including Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and more recently Christianity.
A vila, or víla is a Slavic fairy similar to a nymph.
Kolach or kalach is a traditional bread found in Central and Eastern European cuisines, commonly served during various special occasions – particularly wedding celebrations, Christmas, Easter, and Dożynki. The name originates from the Old Slavonic word kolo (коло) meaning "circle" or "wheel". Korovai is sometimes categorised as a type of kolach.
In Slavic folklore, the rusalka is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water, it has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as the French Melusine and the Germanic Nixie. Folklorists have proposed a variety of origins for the entity, including that they may originally stem from Slavic paganism, where they may have been seen as benevolent spirits. Rusalki appear in a variety of media in modern popular culture, particularly in Slavic language-speaking countries, where they frequently resemble the concept of the mermaid.
"St. John's Eve", also known as "The Eve of Ivan Kupala", is the second short story in the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol. It was first published in 1830 in the literary Russian periodical Otechestvennye Zapiski and in book form in 1831.
The Ukrainian wreath is a type of wreath which, in traditional Ukrainian culture, is worn by girls and young unmarried women. The wreath may be part of a tradition dating back to East Slavic customs that predate the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. The flower wreath remains a part of the Ukrainian national attire, and is worn on festive occasions and on holy days, and since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution increasingly in daily life as part of a wider cultural revival.
Ukrainian wedding is the traditional marriage ceremony in Ukrainian culture, both in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora. The traditional Ukrainian wedding featured a rich assortment of folk music and singing, dancing, and visual art, with rituals dating back to the pre-Christian era. Over time, the ancient pagan traditions and symbols were integrated into Christian ones.
Natalie Kononenko is a professor of folklore currently with the University of Alberta. Kononenko is a major contributor to the study of Ukrainian Blind Minstrels as well as in the area of witchcraft in Slavic cultures. She currently holds the Peter and Doris Kule Chair of Ukrainian Ethnography and is the head of the Slavic and East European section of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies. She attended Radcliffe College and Harvard University.
Koliada or koleda is the traditional Slavic name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, for Slavic 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. It also involves groups of singers who visit houses to sing carols.
The Russian folklore, i.e., the folklore of Russian people, takes its roots in the pagan beliefs of ancient Slavs and now is represented in the Russian fairy tales. Epic Russian bylinas are also an important part of Slavic paganism. The oldest bylinas of Kievan cycle were recorded in the Russian North, especially in Karelia, where most of the Finnish national epic Kalevala was recorded as well.
Mykola Fedorovych Sumtsov or Nikolai Fyodorovich Sumtsov, sometimes spelled Sumcov, was an ethnographer, folklorist, art historian, literary scholar, educator and museum expert, who flourished in the Russian Empire, Ukrainian People's Republic, and Soviet Ukraine.
Kazka is a Ukrainian band that performs pop with elements of electro-folk. Since its creation in 2017, vocalist Oleksandra Zaritska, sopilka player Dmytro Mazuriak and multi-instrumentalist Nikita Budash have become a "breakthrough of the year".
A Ballad About Green Wood is a 1983 Czechoslovak short film written and directed by Jiří Barta. It is also known as The Ballad of Green Wood. It tells a story about spring and renewal, portrayed with animated pieces of firewood. It is inspired by the Legend of Vesna from Slavic folklore.
Ukrainian animation, which began in the late 1920s, is part of Ukrainian cinematography and has involved a variety of techniques, including frame-by-frame filming, time lapse, and computer animation.
Straw Bull or Straw Ox, sometimes Chaff Goby, is a Ukrainian folk tale about a poor old man and woman whose lives are improved by the creation of a straw bull coated with tar.
A Ukrainian fairy tale, "Kazka", is a fairy tale from Ukraine. The plural of казка is казки (kazky). In times of oral tradition, they were used to transmit knowledge and history.
"Mare's Head" is a Ukrainian folk tale in which a character of the same name is a creature who thanks a good girl for her hospitality and punishes an inhospitable girl. A variation is called "The Old Man's Daughter and the Old Woman's Daughter" which features a similar plot, but does not include a mare's head.
