Young men after taking part in the ritual of koleduvane on behalf of the Community Cultural Center Probuda, Bulgaria 1930
The Original Cannabis Caroler’s of Christmas Eve
Snuggled up in layers of warmth, out into the cold the joyous crowd goes with hot chocolate or cider’s in hand.
Hopping from house to house stopping to sing to bring joy and spirit to all who hear!
Christmas Caroling is steeped in tradition with the holiday season, of course most wouldn’t guess what is responsible for starting such a joyous tradition…
That’s right, Hemp!
Christmas carol singers in a London suburb, 1927
In Pagan times, area’s encompassing present day Lithuanian, Poland, Germany and Russia celebrated the Slavic holiday of Koleda. Koleda was celebrated around Christmas time celebrating the god Koliada who is a Slavic pagan deity symbolized by the weak winter Sun that is reborn the morning after the winter solstice(December 22).
Street performers singing Koleda songs. Russia 1904
On the Eve of Koleda, a sacred rite would be performed called Koleduvane. Unmarried young men suit up dressed as ‘Koledari’ venturing into the night.
Koledari are costumes split up into 3 main categories, the anthropomorphic, the zoomorphi , and the anthropo-zoomorphic mostly represented by goats, bears, ox and demons.
Bulgarian ‘Kukeri‘
These Koledari are lead by an elected leader called “Grandpa”, who is generally portrayed as a older, wiser and calmer character to the wild Koledari…
You ask where’s the Hemp?…
Bride, notice the Hemp hair on the mask
The last character in this ghoulish looking group is special…
Dressed as a pregnant woman ‘Bride’ is the main character in this wild troop. She symbolizes both the death of the old moon and birth of the new. Still no hemp, here it comes…
Bride, as the showpiece, would be seated on a wooden hemp breaker. The Koledari would carry the Hemp Breaker as if Bride was riding a horse from house to house.
Thats right, a hemp breaker horse!
Not enough, Bride seated on top of the hemp breaker horse, would be spinning hemp to thread using a distaff.
The Koledari and Grandpa would poke fun at Bride the whole night to bring a comic side to the festivities.
Russian Soldiers during World War 1 celebrate Koleduvane in Salonica, Greece. January 1, 1915 (notice the use of the distaff on the left hand side of the photo, Bride in the middle)
The whole group would venture out on Koleda eve at midnight, traveling house to house with a lively spirit… Knocking on the door, the group would burst out into special Koledo song’s lead by Grandpa.
Traditional songs would be sung with the word “koledo” sprinkled in and with every sentence ending in a koledo chant.
After some singing and dancing out front, the Koledari would then tear through the house searching for evil spirits that are hiding in the home…
Finding the evil spirits, the koledari would chase them from the home ensuring a bountiful harvest in the coming year.
Mummers in Poland dress for a Koleda performance
With the evil spirits chased away from the home, the homeowners would give the group some heckled hemp fiber’s for their service…
The heckled hemp fiber’s were of course made into thread by the riding Bride. This special thread symbolized fertility which would be made into newborn’s cloths…
a Koledari
When those joyous Christmas caroler’s come knocking on your door, you can smile knowing that it is Hemp that brought you all together for the spirited tradition!
Bride and Grandpa with Koledari, can you guess which one is Bride – Macedonia