Rusalna songs are part of the calendar-ritual folklore, timed to Rusalnyi (Green) Week, which falls in the season of blossoming and the surging of nature at the end of spring. These songs are closely tied to the ancient, pre-Christian beliefs of Ukrainians about the rusalky — mysterious spirits of water, fields, and forests.
According to folk belief, in this period the rusalky come out of their waters, so the ritual songs were meant either to greet them, or to guard against their wiles, or to see them off — during the rite of the “farewell to the rusalky.” The texts are full of enigmatic, magical imagery, and the melodies preserve archaic features. Rusalna songs are a precious testimony to the ancient mythological worldview of our ancestors, in which a person felt themselves part of a living, animate nature.
