The Christmas Rite of ‘Ščadrec’ (Bountiful Night) takes place on the 13th of January, which is Bahataja Kuccia (Orthodox New Year’s Eve), and is a distinctive demonstration of the local cultural tradition of Roh Village. This rite is one of New Year’s walking greeting rites, practiced mainly on the territory of Belarusian Palessie (the southern part of Belarus). Ščadravannie (the rite of going door to door to sing carols, which is paid back by the households with treats or money) is performed with the participation of traditional masked characters: Dzied (an old man), Baba (an old woman), Kaza (a goat), Žuraviel (a crane), Koń (a horse), etc. The Dzied is a unique character of the carol singing group with his birch-bark mask, having no analogues in Belarus. His mask is made in the form of a cylinder hat, its top part forming a cross, which is a symbol of the sun. The rite group moves along the village from East to West — same as the sun goes — missing none of the households, except for those who might be mourning. The locals believe that carol singers’ visit will help their wellbeing and good health through the whole coming year. This Rite is safeguarded by the participants of ‘The Palesskija Krynicy’ folk-group (The Springs of Paliessie), which belong to the Vosava Village’s Dom Cultury (a culture and recreation center). The group has its satellite group for children named Ručajok (The Little Stream).
The singing style of Turaŭ Mižrečča (area between the Prypiać and the Scviha Rivers) is represented by the songs performed in the Agro-Town of Ryčoŭ, which have been traditionally passed on from generation to generation by the local people for decades. The singing tradition is developing in an organic natural environment, so the performance of the songs in the open space — in the streets, fields, at noisy celebrations — explaines the characteristic loud singing with open sounds. The singing heritage of the local community exists both in the traditional impovisation form (during various celebrations, traditional ‘biasiedas’ /talks/), and in the contemporary organized concert form. The original local song culture manifests itself primarily through a wide variety of genres. Along with the genres of the calendar-agricultural cycle of songs, mostly Christmas and spring ones, it embodied a most complete array of the wedding song cycle, including karavaj (bread) songs. Both single and group singing represent the traditional melodic styles, the latter being mainly single voice-based unison-heterophonic form and polyphonic singing forms with with a top solo voice. The distinctive feature of single voice unison-heterophonic singing is formulated tuning and narrow tonal range, some are characterised by the presence of a refrain, words repeated after each line. The same style of performance include ‘forest’ songs, which are performed in the woods while gathering mushrooms and berries, also when rakeing hay in the appropriate time of the year. Singing with a top solo voice is represented in songs of non-ritual genre
