Belarusian Harvest Festival in Vyazynka

The Yanka Kupala State Literature Museum and the Students' Ethnographic Society celebrated the Belarusian harvest festival Bagach on 1 October. This year the ancient rite was renovated in the birthplace of Belarus People’s Poet Yanka Kupala – the village of Vyazynka in Molodechno District, Minsk Oblast. According to the folk calendar, the festival marks the end of the harvest and the first lighting of the hearth symbolized by a wax candle and rye which are believed to bring wealth and happiness.

Photo: Oksana Manchuk