The "Carol of the Bells" song, which is part of Western popular culture, comes from a Ukrainian independence song called "Shchedryk", or New Year's song, written by composer Mykola Leontovych and first performed in Kyiv on Christmas in 1916. The Kyiv concert on 24 December 2023 will recreate the first performance of Shchedryk in the United States, at Carnegie Hall in New York, in October 1922. "Shchedryk is a pre-Christian song. That is, we show through our folklore that we are an ancient people. Our language is ancient, and our statehood is ancient. We did not appear in 1991," says researcher Tina Peresunko. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES N°348X2TE