MALANKA
MALANKA
CREDITS
Ukrainian photographer Serhiy Morgunov (b. 1986) documents Malanka in his series of the same name. Malanka is a holiday where villagers in Ukraine put on gypsy, goat, nurse, hunter and devil costumes and parade from house to house while singing carols. According to the photographer, “no one remembers when and where this tradition was born. People celebrate because their ancestors did so”.
The photographs in Malanka were taken in the Romanian village of Krasnoilsk and the village of Vashkivtsi. From Morgunov’s portrait shots of children and middle-aged men, he gives us the sense that everyone participates gaily in Malaka. Capturing people laughing and chanting, Morgunov’s photographs illuminate the joy and playfulness that this holiday is all about.
