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Malanka - Festival Web

Malanka is a Ukrainian folk holiday celebrated on January 13, which is New Year's Eve in accordance with the Julian calendar (see Old New Year).

Malanka commemorates the feast day of Saint Melania. On this night in Ukraine, carolers traditionally went from house to house playing pranks or acting out a small play (similar to Vertep), with a bachelor dressed in women's clothing leading the troop. Malanka caps off the festivities of the Christmas holidays, and is often the last opportunity for partying before the solemn period of Lent which precedes Easter.

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev (Kyiv) is Ukraine's capital.

From at least the ninth century, the territory of present-day Ukraine was a center of the medieval East Slavic civilization forming the state of Kievan Rus' that disintegrated in the twelfth century. From the 14th century on, the territory of Ukraine was divided among a number of regional powers and by the nineteenth century the largest part of Ukraine was integrated into the Russian Empire with the rest being under the Austro-Hungarian control. After a chaotic period of incessant warfare and several attempts at independence (1917–1921) following the Russian Revolution and the Great War, Ukraine emerged in 1922 as one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's territory was enlarged westward shortly before and after the Second World War, and again in 1954 with the Crimea transfer. In 1945, the Ukrainian SSR became one of the co-founding members of the United Nations. Ukraine became independent again after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This began a transition period to a market economy, in which Ukraine was initially stricken with eight straight years of economic decline. But since approximately the turn of the century, the economy has been experiencing a stable increase, with a real GDP growth averaging approximately 7% annually.

Ukraine is a unitary state composed of 24 oblasts (provinces), one autonomous republic (Crimea), and two cities with special status (Kiev, its capital, and Sevastopol, which houses the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement). Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate legislative, executive, and judicial branches. At the end of 2004, the country underwent an extensive constitutional reform that has changed the balance of power between the Parliament, Prime Minister, the Cabinet and their relationship vis-a-vis the president.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar was a reform of the Roman calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus. It has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added to February every four years. Hence the Julian year is on average 365.25 days long.

The Julian calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries as a national calendar, but it has generally been replaced by the modern Gregorian calendar. It is still used by the Berber people of North Africa and by many national Orthodox churches. Orthodox Churches no longer using the Julian calendar typically use the Revised Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar.

The notation "Old Style" (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to "New Style" (NS), which either represents the Julian date with the start of the year as 1 January or a full mapping onto the Gregorian calendar.