Generous Eve and St Basil’s Day: Ukraine’s “Old New Year”

For a long time, “Old New Year” was the name for the holiday that fell on the night of 13–14 January under the Julian calendar. In Ukrainian tradition this is Generous Eve (Shchedryi Vechir, or Malanka) and St Basil’s Day, with shchedrivky carols, masked processions and ritual grain-sowing. Since 2023 the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church have followed the Revised Julian calendar, so these holidays are now marked on 31 December and 1 January. Here is what they mean and what they look like today.

Festive flowers: flower baskets and flowers in a box.

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The holiday at a glance

Generous Eve and shchedrivky

On the eve of St Basil’s Day the family gathered for a “generous” supper: kutia with butter or lard and meat dishes, unlike the meatless Holy Supper at Christmas. Young people went from house to house singing shchedrivky — songs wishing prosperity and a good harvest. The most famous is “Shchedryk” as arranged by Mykola Leontovych, known worldwide as Carol of the Bells.

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Malanka

Malanka is a merry folk performance with costumes: mummers play Malanka, Vasyl, an old man, a goat, a bear and other characters, act out scenes and greet the household. The liveliest Malanka processions survive in Bukovyna and the Carpathian foothills.

St Basil’s Day and grain-sowing

On the morning of St Basil’s Day, boys go “sowing”: they scatter grain in the home and wish the family a good harvest, health and happiness in the new year. By custom the first guest should be a man, which was believed to bring luck.

Decorating the home

• A didukh or ears of wheat — a symbol of the harvest and ancestors.
• Arrangements of evergreens, guelder rose berries and dried flowers.
• Embroidered rushnyky and candles on the festive table.

More about “Shchedryk” in Shchedryk: the Ukrainian carol that conquered the world, and about Christmas customs in Christmas in Ukraine on 25 December.

FAQ

When is Generous Eve celebrated now?

Since the OCU and UGCC switched to the Revised Julian calendar, on 31 December, with St Basil’s Day on 1 January. Some people still also celebrate on 13–14 January out of habit.

Why was it called the “Old New Year”?

Because it coincided with New Year under the Julian calendar, which ran 13 days behind the Gregorian one.

Author: Maria Svitlovir

Graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Biology and Medicine (2001). BSc in Biology, MSc in Horticulture. Writes about plants, works at a garden centre selecting and repotting plants, and contributes to plant reference guides.

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