Conversational songs

The publication introduces listeners to the tradition of Belarusian feast songs, collected in various regions of Belarus from the 1960s to the present day.

Singing accompanied our ancestors from birth to death. Feast songs were sung at festive moments, when family, neighbors, and acquaintances gathered for a feast. Their regional names are feast, guest, drunken, tavern, banquet, feast, and fair. They said about feast songs: "As soon as I drink one glass, that's it, it's over: you sit down, and I'll sing songs."

Feast songs were performed at feasts in honor of the birth of a child and glorified the hospitality and generosity of the hosts, a good meal. Songs "by the glass" told about family relationships: life in a stepfamily, relationships with husbands, father-in-law and mother-in-law, sadness for the home.

"They sang about saying goodbye to a carefree life, praised the newlyweds, and made fun of the bride and groom's entourage at the wedding feast. During fairs and festivals, where relatives and friends gathered, they sang fair songs," explains Yanina Hrynevich, the compiler of "Besednye peysyon".

Most of the feast-time works were not ceremonial, but "life-related." They told about women's fate, unfulfilled hopes, an unloved husband: "I thought that a falcon flies, but the unloved one runs after it," infidelity, and social inequality. Cheerful, humorous works coexist with sad, thoughtful ones.