Votian and ingrian folk songs

The initial formula Tehkää üksi ümbärikko (‘Let’s gather in a circle’), summoning people to dance in a circle, is followed by an image of maidenhood in paternal home, where the birth family nurtured the maiden and did all the chores for her.

Valpuri Vohta has called the song a wedding song—as the happy life in childhood home is one of the main themes in wedding songs. The song was sung at weddings while dancing in a circle, which was a common way to perform many other wedding songs. Oudekki Figurova, who has performed the Votian variant of the same song Kui miä kazvõlin, kanainõ (’When I was growing up, dear hen’), has described her dancing in a circle while singing this song.

In Ingrian, ymbärikko is a general word for a circle, and a dance circle may be also called karavood or karavana. The dancers may step “frequently”, that is at every note, or at walking pace. The lead singer may be inside the circle, but also part of it. People danced alone or in pairs, holding each other’s hands, shoulders or scarf. The free hand(s) was/were moved and waved above the head, sometimes waving an apron or a handkerchief. Dancers moved vigorously, kicking feet, twirling, jumping in squats, and the rhythm was accentuated with stumping feet, fingersnaps or clapping hands, dancers shouting along to the rhythm, crying “like wolves“, as one folklore collector has put it.