The saint's day of St. Andrew, the first-called apostle, falls on the 30th of November by the old Julian calendar (OS), but is celebrated in Ukraine on the 13th of December (by the new Gregorian calendar).  St. Andrew's Night, more accurately referred to as the "Eve", is thus celebrated the night before, or on the 12th of December.

The following is translated from Oleksa Voropay, “Folk Customs of Our People,” page 20-25.

According to Ukrainian chronicle of the 13th century, “St. Andrew taught at Sinop (a city on the Black Sea shore of Turkey). When he came to Chersonesus, he saw that from Chersonesus it was near to the Dnipro river mouth. And he went to the Dnipro mouth. From there he traveled up the Dnipro river, and opportunely came to shore near a series of hills.  Arising early the next morning, he pointed to the hills, and told his disciples 'Do you see those hills? Onto these hills will shine God's benevolence and there will be built a large city, and in it God will build many churches.'  He then climbed the hill, and blessed them and placed a cross, and having prayed to God, came down from this hill, upon which later would be built the city of Kyiv.  And he continued to sail up the Dnipro."

Although St. Andrew is a Christian saint, the folk traditions and rites of St. Andrew’s feast day have an ancient, pre-christian character: guessing one’s future fate, magic spells, the ritual biting of the “kalyta (kalleta).”

Of all of the traditional holidays of the autumn cycle, the feast day of St. Andrew is the most exciting; magical ancient Ukrainian elements gently flow from it.

Girls’ Fortunetelling

From the earliest times, girls in Ukraine have been involved in fortune-telling on the eve of Andrew.  Girls, or, rather, single young women, would gather together on this night, and try to ascertain their fortunes.  In the old days, a girl's fate was generally marriage, so they would try to discover as much as they could about their future spouses.  Would they marry?  When? Whom? Would he be handsome? Would he be a good husband?

Then there was the custom of listening; the girls would run up to a house, and hide under the window, listening to snatches of conversation inside.  If they heard the command "sit," it would mean they wouldn't marry that year; if they heard the command "go," it meant they would. 

There was another custom mentioned that involved dogs. A girl would go outside at dusk, and listen for a howling dog.  If she heard one, it would be that direction from which her husband would come.

A custom which Voropay consigns to Kateryny (St. Catherine's Day, Dec 8), but others put on St. Andrew's Night, is the custom of cutting a branch from a cherry tree, and placing it in water in a bottle in the house.  If cherry blossoms bloom by Malanka (Jan 13), then a girl will marry that year ("her fortune will flower"); if not, oh well.

But is was not enough just to know if they would marry; the girls also wanted to know if their intended would be well suited to them (if they would "make a pair"). Late in the evening, when it was dark out, a girl would gather  hemp seeds in the hem of her skirt, carry them outside, and sprinkle them on the snow, singing:

Андрію, Андрію,

Конопельку сію,

Спідницею волочу,

Заміж вийти хочу!

Andrew, Andrew,

I sow the hemp seeds,

I plow with my skirt,

I wish to marry!

She would then gather a handful of snow from the area she had sprinkled the seeds, bring it into the house and, when the snow had melted, count the seeds.  If each seed had a partner, then she would be well paired and the couple would be well suited to one another; if not, a bad sign. (I assume this means even or odd number of seeds.)

What sort of man would the future husband be?  What sort of character, and what occupation?  This was also of great interest. There were several ways to ascertain this.  One was simple--a girl would place some grain on the floor, and near it a bowl with water, and a mirror.  Then a rooster would be released, and its motions observed:

if the rooster drank the water, the husband would be a drunk

if the rooster pecked at the grain, he would be a good provider (a "good master")

if the rooster looked in the mirror, he would be lazy and vain (a "gentleman")

Alternatively, the girls would run down to the river, gather some sediment from the bottom, and bring it to the house.  There the sediment would be carefully analyzed:

if there was a nail or a bit of metal, the future husband would be a blacksmith

if there was a splinter of wood, an woodsman

if there was any glass, a glazier

if thee was any leather, a cobbler

if there was any sand, a bricklayer

if only soil, a farmer

The girls would also want to know what the name of their future husband would be.  There were several ways to divine this.  A girl would wander out onto the street, and ask the first man she came across “Diad’ko, what is your name?” Our people don’t find this odd, as everyone knows what the matter is. After hearing the question, the passerby answers, for example:

"Michael!" This means that her future husband will also be called Michael.

Another thing to be discovered was the appearance of the future husband; the girls were quite curious about this.  One way to try and see one's husband was to dream about him on St. Andrew's Night.  When she lay down to sleep, the girl would remove her belt (a cloth one), shape it into a cross, and place it beneath her head.  She would murmur these words before she went to sleep:

Живу в Києві на горах,

Кладу хрест в головах,

З ким вінчатись, з ким заручатись,

З тим і за руки Держатись.

I live in Kyiv in the hills,

I place a cross at my head,

Whom to marry, whom to betroth,

His is the hand I will hold.

That night, as she is sleeping, if she dreams of a young man who comes to her, takes her hand, and leads her to a crown, then he will be her intended husband. 

One more facet of fortune telling is determining what sort of household the soon to be married pair will have; i.e., who will rule the household (and the marriage).  To predict this, the girls will take a rooster and a hen, and tie them together by the tails.  They will cover them with a sieve (woven, basket-like), and wait until they settle down. Once they've quieted down, the sieve will be removed, and the girls will watch to see which one will drag the other around. If the rooster overpowers the hen, the man will "be on top", and, if the hen overpowers the rooster, then the woman will rule her husband.

This is how Ukrainian girls "guess their fate" on St. Andrew's Night.

“The Kalyta"

Later in the evening, on St. Andrew's Night, young men and women gather together in a large,  spacious house.  They need space so they can run around and try to bite the "kalyta".  With the eating of the kalyta begin the evening's festivities.

The dough is sweet, with honey.  The surface of the kalyta is ornamented with dried cherries or raisins, so that "it will be pretty." It is then baked in the oven, and it is baked until quite hard, so that it will be difficult to nibble.  A hole is left in the middle, and a red ribbon is threaded through this and tied; the other end of the ribbon (or sometimes a rope) is brought up to and around the central beam of the house.  It is hung high enough that the young bachelors will have to jump to get a bite of it. The end of the ribbon rope held, and can be tugged to move the kalyta up and around.

A guard is stationed next to the kalyta – "Mr. Kalytynskyi."   This role should be played by a jolly, funny bachelor with a good sense of humor, the "life of the party." He holds in his hand a brush dipped in greasy soot, stands under the kalyta, and invites the guests:

"I, Mr. Kalytynskyi, invite Mr. Kotsyubynskyi to try and bite the kalyta!"

"Mr. Kotsyubynskyi" (any participant of the game can play this role) takes the kotsiuba (a fire rake) between his legs, as if riding a horse, and rides up to the kalyta to try and take a bite.  He rides up to the guard and says:

"Good evening, Mr. Kalytynskyi!"

"Good health to you, Mr. Kotsyubynskyi!  Where are you going?"

"I'm going to take a bite of the kalyta!"

"And I will write your name on the list!"

"And I will bite the kalyta!”

"And I will list you!"

This light-hearted argument continues with jokes and laughter.  It is the job of Mr. Kotsyubynskyi to make Mr. Kalytynskyi laugh.  The rules state that Kotsyubynskyi can take his bite of the kalyta only if he can endure the jokes of Kalytynskyi without laughing.  This is not very easy, as Kalytynskyi laughs, tells funny anecdotes, and is allowed to sing and dance, and to do whatever it takes to amuse his guest and make him and, understandably, all those present laugh. Everyone laughs, leaving only the "guest" standing, kotsiuba in his hands, trying to hold back the laughter. Even if Kotsyubynskyi manages to keep a straight face despite the antics of Kalytynskyi, he is unlikely to actually get a bite of the kalyta because, as soon as he jumps toward it, Kalytynskyi jerks the rope–and the kalyta flies up and away.

If Kotsyubynskyi cannot restrain himself, and laughs, then Kalytynskyi will swipe the sooty brush across his face, and sends him away; he has lost his right to bite the kalyta.  Another player takes his place, becoming the new Kotsyubynskyi, and play continues.  Kalytynskyi usually remains the same for the entire evening.  If the Kalytynskyi is really good, no one will even get a chance to approach the kalyta.  This cheerful game is the main event of Andrew's night.

The evening ends with the kalyta being lowered and removed from its rope, and is divided up among the participants.   The girls get their slices for free, but the boys have to pay the girls (?with ribbons) for making the kalyta.

Afterwards, everyone has a seat at the table and the supper begins.  There may be many courses to the meal, but the first is always varenyky with kapusta (cabbage), because it is still Lent.

The girls prepare the supper, and the boys buy the horilka  –  "a gift to the girls because the kalyta was sweet."

During the kalyta meal, a girl pours out a saucer of wine, horilka or honey, diluted with water, places a ring on the bottom of the saucer, and makes her boyfriend try and grab the ring with his lips.  If he manages to pick it up without getting his nose wet, then he will marry and be happy.  This divination occurs in an atmosphere of general laughter.

The Boys Celebrate

On the eve of Andriy, boys have the most rights — it's the only night of the year when young men are forgiven for their roistering.

If a young man is mad at the father of his girlfriend (who doesn’t allow his daughter to carouse all night, or tells her “Don’t go out with him, that loafer!”), then such a father needs to be “educated.” The young man eggs on his friends, makes a bargain with them, and then…..the boys carouse!

The fathers of grown daughters understand this, as they were once young men themselves, but…….”boys, like the devil–you can’t keep your eyes on!”  In the morning they may find that the wagon is on the roof, the gate is floating in the river, and at another house, where the father really plagued a young man–the gate has been totally disassembled, you won’t even find a pin.

“ I made merry when I was a young man,” says Svyryd Halushka. “One time I got mad at my father-in-law (he wasn’t my father-in-law yet) and I said to the boys: ‘I’ll treat you to a bucket of horilka, if you bring old Kudlai to his senses.’ And they did……. He long remembered and swore at me. ‘You villain, Svyryd,’ he said, ‘is it right for a master's son to be such a troublemaker!" But it’s alright, we made peace, and threw such a wedding that even now I find it hard to imagine.’ “

“What did you do to him?”

“They caused the trouble for old one: they took apart the barn! He was angry, quarreled, but ... what can you do? ‘Parubok (bachelor) law,’ that’s what Andriyivskyi vechir is for! "

Of course, "on Andrew" the night is dark. The boys who did not get to bite the kalyta (the girls did not invite them) were angry: “We’ll get them ..." They bring ropes and ties them across the street where the girls need to walk.  They stretch and tangle the ropes, and then hide behind the fence and wait.  Girls leave the "Andrew" festivities in groups; they go happily, laughing and singing - and the boys will suddenly pop out from behind the fence and how they cry: "Puhy, a kozak from a meadow!" The girls run helter-skelter ... and get tangled in the ropes. The guys untangle them, joking. ... It was fun - so much laughing, jokes!  Not like now: you walk through the village – no dogs bark, no chickens cross the road……..

And then it was so: the guys would build a new street. They would bring sheaves of straw, old fences, gates and would construct so many things, that on a dark night and drunk, you be able to figure out where you are: at home or on the tenth street …

My Kalyna, when she was a girl, told fortunes: she would hang the keys on the post under the pantry and listen, would they ring.  If they rang – she would be married.  I needed to steal those keys so, when I married, mine would be on top.  I was smart, but she was no fool: she hung the keys, and hid herself in the pantry and held a pitcher of water in her hands. The moment I extended my hand to grab the keys she ‘washed’ me.  That’s how she was, may her life be easy, if she still lives.”

This is how Svyryd Halushka remembered “Andrew,” remembered and always said: "Eh, it's in the past! Nowadays people seem much smaller: they don’t sing, they don’t carouse, bah, and when it comes to drinking horilka – they can’t even do that well!

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1. 1.“Ukrainian stories.” Collected by M. Vozniak, Lviv. 1944, p. 5
   

2. 2.My mother tells me of another custom she had heard of from an older friend from the Poltava region (she was just a child when she left Ukraine, and never got to take part in such rituals).  On St. Andrew's night, a girl would take a shoe or boot, and toss it over the house.  She would look to see in which direction it was pointing; that would be the direction from which her husband would come. (In this girl's case, her brother found the boot before she did, and hid it. She had to confess to her parents on the following Sunday, when she had no boots to wear to church, of what she had done – taken part in pagan rituals they didn't approve of.  It was only then that her brother gave her the boot back.) —LNP
   

3. 3.From Orysia Tracz: “Counting fence posts and marking every ninth one with a ribbon was another game - in the morning, the girl checked what the ribbon-tied post looked like. If it was old, ragged and crooked, she would marry some old geezer. If the post branched off into two, she or he would be married twice. If the post had no bark and was bare, her husband would be just as poor. If the post was very dry, she would marry a widower, and if it had small branches and bumps, he would be a widower with children. But if the post was straight and covered with bark, she would marry a tall, good-looking rich guy.”
   

4. 4.Recorded in the village of Voronovytsia, Vinnytsia oblast, from Dokia M., a woman of more than 50 years of age.
   

5. 5.This method of divination by girls is widespread throughout Ukraine, not only in villages, but also in cities. I have more than once seen such divination on Andrew’s or New Year's Eve in Odesa.
   

6. 6.Another means, according to some, was by peeling an apple, and dropping the peel, and trying to guess what letter it looked like; this would be the initial (or if a very long peel, perhaps the name) of the future husband.  This would only work if the peel was removed in one continuous strip.—LNP
   

7. 7.Recorded in the village of Kordyshivtsi, Vinnytsia oblast, from Halyna S., app 30 years old
   

8. 8.Another way to discover the appearance of your future husband was by using wax.  Hot wax would be poured into a bowl of cold water; the resulting hardened mass would be examined, and its shape used to guess the future.  Some say the wax would be held before a candle, and the resulting shadows on the wall interpreted.—LNP