Traditionally, the Sorochintsy fair focused on Ukrainian music and culture, but it has evolved into something more akin to a modern fair. Music and dance merge with competitions involving homegrown produce, homemade crafts and commercial displays. Fairgoers have diverse options, from munching fresh, hot verenyky and examining needlework to buying a new dump truck.
This year, the national fair drew exhibits by more than 500 companies from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova. Firms displayed consumer goods, farm equipment and livestock.
Perhaps the fair's biggest attraction is the musicians, singers and dancers that bring it a carnival atmosphere.
Only about 4,000 people live in Bolshye Sorochintsy (Big Sorochintsy) year-round, but the village 340 kilometers east of Kyiv is said to get as many as a million visitors during the annual festival. Options for overnight accommodations are limited in the village itself, where residents will rent a room for as little as Hr 20 per night. Most visitors stay in hotels in Mirgorod, a 30-minute drive away.
Sorochintsy Yarmarok was named the nation's official national fair in 1999, but its history far pre-dates that. Legend has it that the fair can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the Saracens, but it is without a doubt one of the nation's oldest fairs, held each August to celebrate the harvest.
The fair owes a heavy debt to Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol for its success. The 19th century novelist, who was born in the village, immortalized the fair in his work. Gogol is best known for Dead Souls, which many consider a masterpiece. Characters from the book are represented at the fair. Actors dressed as Gogol's characters, include Khivrya, a villainous mother-in-law, Cherevyk, her husband and a demon. The fair's opening ceremonies are held at Khata Khivri (Khivrya's House).
In addition to the theatrical staging of Gogol's work, there are concerts each evening, fireworks, street entertainers and dance demonstrations.
While the fair has its history and legends, the village where it is held has its own as well. Sorochintsy traces its past to a Cossack legend.
It is said that Ukrainian Cossacks, who were battling to retake the Steppes from the Turks, found many beautiful girls in the village. As it was impossible to take the girls with them into battle, they decided to leave them at the crossroads, looked after by 40 monks. The girls were pretty, and the monks, it seems, were not as pious as the Cossacks believed. On the warriors' victorious return, they found the girls' virtue had been compromised, so to speak.
The Cosacks' revenge was swift, and the amorous monks were buried alive. The crossroads has since been known as Sorochintsi, or "Forty monks."
Today, the fairgrounds stand at those ancient crossroads.
A large windmill stands near Zhabokritskiy Square, where crafts and artwork is displayed as it was in Gogol's day.
Gogol observed: "[F]ine fences are everywhere. Over them twine hop-vines, upon them hang pots; from behind them the sunflowers show their sun-like heads, poppies blush, fat pumpkins peep. All is luxury itself!"
Crafts are demonstrated in the khatas, village huts dating from the 18th century. Fairgoers examine trucks, watermelon and embroidered vyshyvanka shirts with equal interest, while others choose from several varieties of pyrozhki or pose with a group of passing Cossacks, who, having just finished dancing, are buying souvenirs to take home. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the performers from the audience in such a setting, and that may be the point. The fair itself is a kind of theater with everyone taking a part.
Gogol wrote: "Heavens! What is it that you cannot buy at this fair! Wheels, glass, tar, tobacco, onions. All these merchants altogether."
What the modern fair lacks in tar sales, it makes up for in entertainment. Two large venues are set aside for dancing, and the streets provide ample space for the crows to gather around singers. All day and into the evening, musicians play everything from pop tunes to folk songs to the marshal music provided by the Emergencies Ministry band. Don't hear the musical style you like? Walk a few meters or wait a minute, and you'll likely hear it.
Gogol penned: "The chorus of voices flood each other, not a single word sounds distinct. The head swims, perplexed at what to see, what to do next."
Fairgoers everywhere know that food is part of the experience, and that is no less true at Sorochintsi, where pirohy, holuptsi, varenyky, pampushki and all sorts of pirozhki abound. There's a "beer city" as well, to help wash down that extra order of shashlyk or fried fish.
Ukraine has been called Europe's breadbasket, and the baker's art is on display as well. Fairgoers can sample a number of traditional Ukrainian loaves, including korovaj, the wedding bread. This wheat bread with caraway seeds is decorated with symbolic figurines, making it as interesting to view as it is good to eat.
Visiting the Sorochintsi fair is an experience for the senses. To paraphrase Gogol:
"Heavens! What a well-to-do man I am! What is there that I have seen not? Birds, buildings, granaries, everything I take a fancy to. Genuine distilled vodka; pears and plums ...poppies, cabbages, peas. What is there that I have not seen? I should like to know what there is that I have not seen?"
Yulia Pushko is a journalist for Willard News Service, an online publication (www.wns.kiev.ua).
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