Cossack Mamay
Cossack Mamay (Template:Lang-ua) is a Ukrainian folklore hero. Mamay embodies the appreciation of Ukrainian people to their defenders - Zaporizhian Cossacks. Tales about Cossack Mamay can be encountered in legends, folk stories and proverbs. Art is perhaps best suited for someone interested in finding Mamay. In paintings, Cossack Mamay would often be shown with a bandura - a symbol of a musical soul of the people; a horse, which represented freedom, and an oak symbolizing the people's strength.
1997 Coin with Mamay
On this 1997 coin minted by National Bank of Ukraine, Cossack Mamay is dressed in a rich coat with fur and sits in a Turkish way, smoking a pipe and playing a bandura. Traditional depictions of Cossack military life circle Mamay: a horse with a good outfit, tied to a spear with a small flag on its top, plunged into soil; green oak-tree with a hanging sabre; a pistol and a stone powder case; high Turkish hat and a bottle of "okovyta" (Ukrainian vodka).
The coin's external circumference has inscriptions: (Template:Lang-ua, Cossack Mamay) - at the left and (Template:Lang-ua, Knight of Freedom and Honor) - at the right. Above, these inscriptions are separated with a small flag at the spear top, underneath - with a conventionalized guelder-rose spray.
The Mamay coin is a part of "Heroes of Cossack Age," Ukraine's commemorative and jubilee coins.
Mamay, the film
Based on ancient Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar folklore, this is a Ukrainian version of Romeo and Juliet. A fugitive Cossack falls in love with a stunningly beautiful Tatar woman who saves him from certain death. Their love defies age-old hatred between their respective peoples. The film features cinematography by Serhiy Mykhalchuk and a soundtrack by composer Alla Zahaykevych. Directed by Oles Sanin, 80 minutes. Mamay was Ukraine's 2003 submission for a foreign language film Oscar Award.
External links
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