Shining On: Ukrainians In Prague Celebrate Ancient Festival

Maria from Kyiv gathers wildflowers on the bank of Prague’s Vltava River on July 8 at an event organized to mark Ivan Kupala night. It is the third event of its kind to be held in Prague since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their country. 
 

Girls prepare a wreath of greenery foraged from Prague’s riverbank.

Ivan Kupala is an eastern Slavic tradition that predates Christianity and involves rituals, including the weaving of wreaths that are later cast into a river, and the burning, or "drowning" of effigies.
 

Alina from Lviv adjusts the wreath of her friend Zarina from the Mykolayiv region.

Alina says the skill of weaving wreaths from flowers and greenery is generally handed down from mother to daughter. “You need some experience, but generally it works out one way or another."

 

Kamila checks a selfie she made in front of the Prague skyline.

Kamila fled the 2022 invasion and moved to Slovakia with her family before settling in Prague. "I miss most the fields,” she said of her native region of Donetsk. "On nights like this I loved going out into the fields to have picnics and just enjoy nature, but I love Prague too."
 

Ukrainian girls wave at a passing tourist boat during the Ivan Kupala event.

Natalia Vesela, a Ukrainian who has lived in the Czech Republic since 2003, organized the Ivan Kupala festival and is behind several other events held for Ukrainians in Prague. "When [Russia’s full-scale invasion] began, I started thinking, 'How can I help, why am I just sitting on my ass in bed?'" she told RFE/RL.

Attendees of the festival sit alongside tourists and locals enjoying the summer evening on July 8.

Vesela said that soon after the 2022 invasion: “I thought maybe I can make some event that will show our culture to the world, because ours is similar to Czech culture. These are Slavic traditions."
 

Performers prepare to make a fiery gate for festival-goers to walk through.

The July 8 event opened with a minute’s silence for the victims of Russian missile strikes that shocked the world the same day. 

Women are sprayed with water during a ritual that closed the event.

After news of the July 8 missile strikes broke, Vesela said, “one group of folk singers that volunteered to perform told me they didn't want to sing on the same day." After the organizer promised to donate all money raised from the event to victims of the attacks, "they agreed to come," she said.  

 

An effigy is burned on the bank of the Vltava River.

Ivan Kupala night is disapproved of by many Slavic Orthodox Church branches, but is generally tolerated by the Ukrainian church as being a part of the country's popular culture.

 

Ukrainians dance around a fire after the effigy was burned.

Historians disagree over the exact history of Ivan Kupala night, but some believe it originally involved human sacrifice. Effigies now stand in place of human victims. 

A girl throws her wreath into the Vltava River.

Tradition holds that wreaths cast into a waterway by unmarried girls will float in the direction of their future husbands.

Wreaths float on the Vltava as the festival ends.