File:Gypsy bear-leader and its Bear.jpg

English: Malanca Festival is an elaborate pagan ritual held by the ethnic Romanian inhabitants of Krasnoil's'k’s locality in Strozhynets Raion of Chernivtsi County, Northern Bukovina Region in the southwestern part of Ukraine, on January 14. This is the day of the Christian-Orthodox New Year according to the Julian calendar, which pre-dates the Gregorian calendar. According to folklorist Horia Barbu-Oprișan who studied Malanca ritual for more than four decades, Bukovina's Malanca represents a form of collective caroling of an entire village community (Oprișan 1981). Indeed during the days of January 13-14, the entire rural community is involved in various ways to prepare and celebrate this custom. The preparations start at least two weeks in advance, and at least 500 people bring their contributions to make this ritual happen. The inhabitants of Krasnoil's'k describe the arrangements for Malanca like “organizing five big weddings at the same time.” Malanca represents a massive agglutination of masked characters like: calfa (the journeyman) who led the Malanca, the bears (between 10 and 20), kings and queens (between 15 and 20), old men and women (between 4 and 8), Jews (between 15 and 30), the little horses (between 5 and 7), the Gypsies who are in fact the bear leaders (between 10 and 20). Next to these main characters, there are secondary ones such as: doctors, politicians, policemen, stars, devils, and the death. This highly sensational ritual is celebrated each year enthusiastically and generate strong feelings, that lead to the surpassing of the physical body limitations. The bear costumes catch in the pictures are carried a few hours by the participants through the entire village. These costumes are made from straws and weigh between 40-50 kilograms. At least 3-5 people are making one such costume, and it takes at least two days to finish it. During Soviet times, the participants to Malanca ceremony were persecuted by the state police. There were cases when a few of the organizers of this custom were sent to prison were they spent from two weeks to four years. In spite of this opposition by the Soviet dictatorship, the ritual survived. As a reminiscence of those times, the bear costume still has a knife stuck in his shoulder. The knife was used during Soviet times by bear-leaders to cut the straw costume and to run away if the soviet policemen would show up. The knife has no other meaning today except for "talking" about those times.