Spring Ritual Circle Dance “Strilka”

About event

The traditional spring ritual circle dance “Strylka” takes place in Bezdezh on the first day of Orthodox Easter. After the church service and religious procession, participants gather in the square beside the church. Women and girls perform an unusual dance, moving not in a circle but along a route shaped like a horseshoe or a drawn bowstring, while groups of children, representing “grains”, stand inside. The ritual expresses wishes for a good harvest, prosperity, health and the community’s continuity. It is included in Belarus’s State List of Historical and Cultural Values.