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Carols and Christmas carols were extremely popular ritual songs among the people. Carols are sung from December 25 to January 7. They were timed to Christmas. And donations - before the New Year (according to the old style - January 14).
Christmas carols are the oldest folklore genre. They preserve the memory of the old tribal era and are associated with the winter turning of the sun into summer, which was called the holiday of Kolyada. It was celebrated on December 25 (old style), when the night was the longest. Nature seemed to freeze at this time. It was believed that the sun was eaten by the evil Korochun - a dark Slavic deity. The goddess of the sky Kolyada was giving birth to a new sun, a little Bozhich.

All this is sung about in carols, which were known long before the beginning of Christian times in Ukraine, it is also found in ordinary rituals, such as: twelve wormwood, twelve Christmas Eve dishes, calling for a dinner of frost, a wolf, a black storm and evil winds, grandfather on penance, hay on the table. All these movements, actions and words, which at first glance have no meaning in a person's life, blow on the heart of each of us with the charm of the native element and are a living balm for the soul that fills it with powerful strength.

Существует гипотеза, что название праздника - "коляда" - и песен - "колядки" происходит от названия Нового года в Древнем Риме (Calendae lanuarie), что свидетельствует о тесных контактах украинско-славянской культуры с греческо-римской в предхристианские времена. Своеобразным "воспоминанием" о весенней новогодней обрядности является в украинском фольклоре весенняя тематика многих колядок и щедривок Ф.Колесса, например, считает, что аутентичным названием зимних величественных песен на украинских территориях была собственно "щедровка". Уже в XIX веке существенные отличия между колядками и щедривками по тематике фактически исчезли (В.Гнатюк).