Under the nostalgic theme “I grieve for you, my Lemko homeland” the all-Ukrainian festival of Lemkos’ culture “The Bells of the Lemkos’ Land” was held for the twelfth time in Bychova, Monastyryska raion, Ternopil oblast. Before 1950 Dubovytsia was here; Lemkos from the Horlytsky raion settled there. Later they were forced to resettle to Monastyryska. It is believed that the biggest number of Lemkos in Ukraine live in this area. Each year the festival welcomes representatives of this ethnic group from around the world. The organizers assure that on August 7-8 about 70 thousand people — delegations from all regions of Ukraine and Slovakia, Poland, Serbia, Croatia, USA, Canada, Australia, Moldova, and Russia — visited the Vatriane field. Some of them, they say, are pure Lemkos, others are half or even less, and some “became” Lemkos, meaning those who married a Lemko. Many fans of Lemko culture visited the festival, too.
All Lemkos have kept the traditions since ancient times, wear folk costumes with pleasure, and speak the Lemko dialect. By the way, some words are incomprehensible even for western Ukrainians. Lemkos got their name from the general intensive emphasizing particle “lem,” which doesn’t exist in any other Ukrainian dialect, as well as in the Slovak, Serbian, and Czech languages that had affected the formation of the Lemko dialect. According to some researchers, the Slavic tribe of white Croats who lived in the Carpathians in the 7th-10th centuries were the Lemkos’ ancestors. As history shows, the Lemkos’ land was a part of Kyivan Rus’ and the Galicia-Volyn principality. Later the southern part of the Lemkos’ land was occupied by Hungary, and in 1340 all their land became a part of Poland where it stayed until 1772. Later the eastern part of the Lemkos’ land became a part of the Rus’ province, and the Western part belonged to the Krakow province. The biggest number of Ukrainians before the World War II lived on the territories of the Novosondetsky, Horlytsky, Yaselsky, Korosniansky, Sianitsky, Lisky, and Novotarzky districts of the Krakow province. In 1944-47 the greater part of the Lemkos’ land became part of Poland and, according to the Polish-Soviet treaty, many suffered from expulsion, their lives broken.
On the way from Przemysl to Lviv,
A golden horseshoe fell off from the horse.
But I’m not sad because
of that golden horseshoe,
I’m sad because of the girl,
I’m sad because of that young girl.
Oh God, wet the pathway
to beat the dust down,
Tell the girl, Tell the girl not to grieve.
That’s the song Maria Myrhorodska sings, a native of Visloka Dolny, the Sianitsky district, the Krakow province. “Poles prohibited singing Ukrainian songs, walking in embroidered shirts, but young people still did it. My friends and I made tridents of beads, and guys attached them to clothes,” the old Lemko woman recalls her young years which befell for the times of the notorious Vistula Operation. When in 1942 the Nazis took fifteen-year-old Maria to forced labor to Germany, she didn’t know that she would never see her Lemkos’ land. The girl found her parents, sisters and brother in Oliievo, Zboriv raion, Ternopil oblast, in 1947.
Every year the Lemkos’ holiday in the Ternopil oblast is marked by rains. As they say, that’s how many tears their families cried out in 1944-47, when they were evicted from the lands where Lemkos lived for over a thousand years. So it was not hard to predict that this extremely hot summer the sky would drench the Lemkos’ festival again. But the bad weather did not become an obstacle: people danced in the rain not only near the stage, but in the forest as well. Sad literary compositions varied with humorous songs. For even after experiencing a lot of grief, Lemkos have never lost their sense of humor. “If there were no Lemkos in the world, there would be no fun. They have the greatest sense of humor. They have always been like that. No matter what hardships they face, they always sing and joke,” said Olha Vaniutsiv from the village of Krynytsia, Monastyryska raion, where many Lemkos live. A member of Liubystok and Beskyd groups Liubov Hatalevych from Ivano-Frankivsk says: “Lemkos have more joy and this is reflected in their songs and jokes. This is what attracted me to them, so I have been performing in these groups for nearly eight years, though I’m not a Lemko myself.”
Last year baptizing the chapel in the Vatriane field became a present for the Lemkos, it was built by the Hero of Ukraine, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Mria company Ivan Huta at his own expense; as he points out, he’s a half-Lemko. This year, due to his contributions, the belfry was erected. “I think that this will contribute to God’s blessing, which is here today, and should be continued,” Ivan Huta said.
Every year Bychova increasingly takes the form of a settlement. Just this summer, besides the belfry, a stylized house was erected in the Vatriane field, where things from Lemkos’ everyday life were placed, and at the court there was an exhibit of wooden sculptures by the world-known Lemko Ivan Merdak, who as a twelve-year-old boy was deported with his family to the village of Korolivka, Borschivsky raion, the Ternopil oblast. The works by this people’s master of Ukraine will stay here forever, as he wanted during his lifetime. One can also drink cold water from a wooden well at the Lemkos’ mansion. And soon a real open air museum will be established, which will be open throughout the year for visitors and artists which will be able to represent their folk art there. In Lemkivska Street exhibits of Lemko culture will be held.
The Lemkos’ land nurtured many talented and remarkable individuals whose contribution to the development of education, science, and culture is invaluable. Among them there is the copyist of the Peresopnytsia Gospel, on which the presidents of Ukraine swear, Mykhailo Vasylevych-Sanotsky; a poet, novelist, translator, and literary critic Bohdan-Ihor Antonych; a composer and social activist, the author of the hymn of Ukraine “Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished” Mykhailo Verbytsky.
“Our Lemko’s fireside is burning and shining! The bells are ringing throughout all the mountains!” one can hear the cries of joy when at the loud peal the oldest Lemko is igniting the fire. Firewood is crackling in flames, faces are glowing with happiness that once again the big Lemko family came together; it is united by the common history and common grief.
