David-Haradok

David-Haradok stands on the Horyn in the deep Polesie, a town recorded from the twelfth century whose modern reputation rests on two things. One is seeds: households here have grown and traded vegetable and flower seed for generations, selling across the former Soviet space, and the trade is the town's economy, visible in the greenhouses and the packing that goes on in yards. The other is Koniki, held on the old new year on 13 January, when groups in masks and costume, including a horse figure carried by two people, go from house to house through the night with songs and demands for food and drink, a midwinter rite that has survived here in fuller form than almost anywhere.

History

The town lay in the Pinsk county of the Brest Litovsk Voivodeship in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, on the trade route between Pinsk and Mozyr, and from 1586 it was a private town of the Radziwiłł family. Russia acquired it in the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, and its people lived mainly from gardening, growing vegetable seed, drying fish and making shoes (Wikipedia, Davyd-Haradok).

Highlights

• The Koniki rite - the masked house-to-house procession on 13 January.
• Seed growing - the greenhouses and packing yards of the town trade.
• The Horyn - the river running past the town.
• The old settlement mound - the site of the medieval town.

When to go

13 January for Koniki, which runs through the evening and night and is the reason to time a visit. May to September otherwise for the town and the river. Seed trading peaks in late winter and spring.

What to expect

Koniki is a night-time rite in a small town in January with severe cold and no visitor provision; participation is by households and observers should be discreet. Outside it the town is ordinary. Facilities are minimal.

Nearby

Stolin lies south; Turov is east.

Key facts