Folklore, food and books from Belarus
Village beliefs and holidays, the Belarusian table, and the books behind them, from the publisher of Belarusian classics in English.
Dziady: When the Dead Come Home to Supper
Dziady is the Belarusian day of the dead, when a family lays a memorial supper and invites its ancestors home. When it falls, how villages kept it in...
The Belarusian Christmas Eve Supper: Kuttsia and the Lenten Dishes
On 24 December and again on 6 January, Belarusians sit down to kuttsia: a meatless supper of an odd number of Lenten dishes around a pot of grain,...
Kishka Explained: Belarusian Blood Sausage, Potato Kishka and Jewish Kishke
Kishka is the Belarusian word for “gut” and the sausage stuffed into it: first a blood sausage with buckwheat, then a 19th-century potato kishka. How both differ from...
Draniki: Belarusian Potato Pancakes (and How to Serve Them with Machanka)
A basic Belarusian draniki recipe, the four kinds of draniki in The Belarusian Cookbook, and how to serve them: with sour cream, salt pork or a pot of...
Belarusian Food: 25 Traditional Dishes and the Stories Behind Them
What is Belarusian food, and what is the national dish of Belarus? A tour of 25 traditional dishes, from draniki and kalduny to kuttsia and birch sap, with...
The Dragon Hatched from a Rooster's Egg
How Belarusian villagers believed a rooster's egg could hatch a fiery, money-bringing serpent, and how Barszczewski turned the belief into the first tale of Nobleman Zavalnia, the story...
Kupala Night (Kupalle): Fern Flowers, Witches and Bonfires
From the herb-gathering to the playing sun at dawn: Kupalle, the Belarusian midsummer night of fern flowers, treasure, dew-stealing witches and bonfires, as Bahdanovich recorded it and Barszczewski...
Rusalki: Slavic Water Maidens in Belarusian Belief
Rusalki swing in the birches and tickle passers-by to death; the water spirit drags bathers into the whirlpool. What Belarusian villagers believed about them, and where Barszczewski set...
Leshy (Lesavik): The Forest Spirit in Belarusian Belief
The leshy, the Slavic forest spirit, as Belarusian villagers described him to Adam Bahdanovich, and the tale from Nobleman Zavalnia of a young man who threw a stone...
Slavic Witches, Sorcerers and Healers: What Belarusian Villages Believed
Witches who steal milk and knot curses into the rye, sorcerers given the seat of honour at weddings, and healers who whisper charms over water: the accomplices of...
The Serpent King and His Golden Crown
The serpent king, his crown of golden horns and the gift he leaves for those who bow to him, as Belarusian villagers described them, and Barszczewski's tale of...
The Weeping Woman: Belarus's Mourning Ghost
The Weeping Woman of Nobleman Zavalnia weeps in ruined chapels and on forgotten graves, and treasure hunters who dig where she sits find only bones. Here is her...
The Werewolf of Zavalnia: A Belarusian Werewolf Tale and What It Hid
In Barszczewski's Nobleman Zavalnia, a young peasant is turned into a wolf at his sweetheart's wedding and lives for years with a human mind. Here is the tale,...
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Folk tales, food and new books from Belarus
Animated folk tales, Belarusian words and dishes, and news from the press.