^{Illustration: “Kalanda”, artist: Kubedin}

«Kalanda, Kalanda,

Alpah, yalpah,

Başına giyin halpah!

At tübünde ayılım,

Ne versenız hayılım!

Versenız - oğlunuz olsun,

Vermesenız - taz qızınız olsun!»

...

“Kalanda, Kalanda,

Put the hat on your head!

There is a girth under the saddle,

What you give, I will take!

Let the generous have a son,

The greedy have a bald daughter!”

...

Once upon a time, in my school days, while flipping through an old book on the history of a Crimean village, I accidentally came across this funny poem. It was with this poem that my journey through the darkened paths of a forgotten winter fairy tale began.

After all, as it turned out later, this poem, or rather, a song, has long been sung by Crimean children, going from house to house on a December night and begging for treats from their owners.

Wearing a sheepskin coat and lighting a fire, they would frighten the evil spirit Karakonjal. He was blacker than night, covered in wool, with crooked horns sticking out of his forehead and a shaggy tail stretching behind him.

The grandmothers said that he jumped on travelers who got lost at night and made them dance until they fell off their feet from exhaustion.

One night only, on the longest night of the year, he crawls out of the deepest depths to harm honest people.

For the first time, Crimean Tatars will celebrate Kalanda in Germany. The organizers of this year's holiday are the Crimean Cultural Center “Kermen”. Song: “Eçkiçigim”, performers: Mamut Lumanov and Rustem Dzhelilov. Artist: Kubedin.

We know the figure of the evil winter spirit well from Gogol's The Night Before Christmas. Apparently, the stories about a cunning visitor from the other world who once a year brought fierce terror to the whole Crimea were so popular that they reached the Poltava region.

The longest night of the year has long been celebrated by various peoples of the Black Sea region.  

On the southern coast of Crimea, this night was called “Kalanda,” and in other regions it was called “Yıl gece” (new year), because after the longest night, the day became longer, and a new solar cycle could begin to count down.

To satiate the souls of the dead with delicious aromas, the hostesses fried sweet elva, the Crimean halva, baked hurabiye cookies, and baked a kobete pie, a symbol of the sun, with rooster meat and decorated with a dyed egg on that evening.

Before the festive dinner, family members would play and try to smear soot on each other for good luck.

The longest night was not without romantic adventures. On this night, young men would make their way to the windows of their beloveds and give them a coal, a symbol of the family hearth. On this magical night, girls would secretly hide a mirror under their pillows. It was believed that this way they could see their future husband in a dream.

Unfortunately, the tradition of celebrating the longest night is almost completely lost in Crimea. But it is no coincidence that our grandfathers managed to tell us about it, as they managed to scare the damned Karakonjal away from their native land in the festive bustle, wearing sheepskin coats and singing joking songs.

Now it's our duty to revive this magical tradition, because the dark forces are not far behind. This year's Winter Solstice begins on December 21 at 11:20 am Kyiv time. The longest night will last 16 hours. So, let's start getting ready.

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