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belaruskasti... For traditional Belarusians belaruskasti is the 'national myth' made up of three parts: language, village and Vilnia  For a new generation Belarusians it is haljava. "Haljava is for us the greatest joy. It is when you get something for nothing. It is when you end up with maximum gain for minimum effort. This is haljava." Sasha, research student from Minsk. MUSIC OF BELARUS In the past 14 years of Belarusian Independence an interesting trend has appeared in Belarus. People with highest conservatory education have started to study and perform original traditional Belarusian folk music. Academicians went folk music :) These new collectives study the music of Belarusian regions trying to find Belarusian folk standards, perform them in undistorted original ways. They restore or build from scratch ancient Belarusian musical instruments. They cherishingly study and perform things like pipe tunes. They work on creating traditional folk costumes of the region etc. The Folk Music of Belarus (www.belarusguide.com) One of such new folk music groups is: GUDA Dobry veczar ciabie, Panie-Haspadaru (Good evening to you, Lord-Master) GREAT BELARUS  Location: Europe Status: UN Country Capital City: Minsk Main Cities: Gomel, Vitebsk, Brest, Grodno Population: 10,304,000 Area: 207,000 km2 Currency: 1 ruble = 100 kopeks Languages: Belorussian, Russian, Polish Religions: Roman Catholic, Russian Orthodox
Comments (2)
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Thank you for an interesting insight on Belarus. It's rather said to see that
young generation (to which I also belong) identifies Belarusian-ness with
'haljava'. For me it is an indicator of Belarusian self-identity state nowadays,
and the crisis it undergoes. Within last couple of hundreds years there were too
many wars, struggles for power, and desire to preserve this power and too less
attention to cultural identity and nationalism (in a good sense of this word).
And, perhaps, that is why the word 'pamiarkouny', which was mentioned in the
previous comment by Ludmila, comes on stage. It is, actually, a rather proper
word for my country. It does not only have those qualities mentioned by her, but
also something like 'indifference', 'slowness' and 'reluctance', combining both
joy and sorrow, tranquility and despair, tiredness of numerous changes and
courage to stand in hard circumstances. There is a saying in Belarusian language
"Maja hata z kraju" (literally meaning "My house stands aside",
i.e. "I don’t care", "I go with the flo", "I keep a low
profile" etc.).
The poem by Yanka Kupala you quoted in "A Globalization Survival
Toolkit" to depict Belarusian identity is very accurate. Now, after more
than hundred years from when it was written, our identity is in the same place,
and different groups of society (regardless whether they accept it or not) have
different 'myths' (or, perhaps, 'illusions' sometimes) about what we,
Belarusian, are.
Thank you very much again and I wish you all the best in your work.
P.S.: I have noticed some misprints, if you don't mind: 1. the country name is
Belarus (instead of Balarus -editors note: has been corrected-) 2.
"belaruskasti" is a genitive form. Nominative one is
"belaruskasc'" (or belaruskasts').