Let’s Twine the Shum!

Song SHUM by band Go_A is popular all over the world. And do you know what they sing about?

Shum is the spirit of the forest. In ancient times, the forest was named so.Shum has its own secrets, which can be scary and dangerous. Shum becomes angry, especially when its habitants fight among themselves, then it creates a storm and breaks trees. There are a lot of different fairy tales, legends, songs, etc. about the forest and its inhabitants.The forest provided people not only with materials for building but also with food, material for clothes, remedies. Food was not easily obtained, so our ancestors had sacred places where they came to pray and made some rituals, during which they sang special songs - haivky and vesnyanky. Spring ritual folklore is connected with the feelings of people and with their traditional lifestyle. People asked for spring and for special whether, important for harvest. Hrushevsky in the "History of Ukrainian literature" mentioned, that "green Shum" is a "symptom of spring", of being the farmer works. The Shum wakes up in early spring, when warming is just coming.The girls called God with haivky:"And our Shum has a green fur coatThe girls were playing and torn fur coat/ Sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing hemp plants,Sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing green ones.Come on, come on, let’s twine the Shum,Twine the Shum, dance it around.Sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing hemp plants,Sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing green ones"By these haivky girls woked up Shum. So this ritual was made in order to make people feel happy.What mean twine the Shum?All participants join hands and stand in one line. The last pair brings the joined hands up, thus forming a "gate". The first participant, leading the others, passes through the "gate". Every dancer twists under his right hand, and with his left hand forms a gate with the next partner. Thus, the line is completely twined. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/x_H_Uzq2RVk All collected haivky from different regions do not differ much from each other.For example, you can see one from the Kirovohrad Oblast, written by "Baba Yelka" https://youtu.be/llC8W3pLekQ (Nastya Zelenko, Kirovohrad region).https://youtu.be/sDeMfL8Ib9A (Go-A, it is believed that this song is from Podillia). The main in haivky was the text of the song, while the dance was based on the earlier traditional moves from rituals. Record of haivky can easily be found in You-Tube. Calling the Shum the participants of the dance promote the rapid opening of trees, the good growth of greenery and crops, and even the unification of young people in families. Of course, we understand that all rituals are a thing of the past, now it's just for fun, but it's the duty of every Ukrainian to protect what has passed over such a long period of the world's existence. It is very cool that through our past Ukrainian culture is now famous for the whole world. And we need to preserve all our songs and traditions and should be proud of them.