As you may have already figured out, Belarusians love to spend their time in good company. And many Belarusians would agree: the best place to relax, grow plants, go to a sauna and spend a nice time with their friends and family is the dacha. “Dacha” is a term for both their wooden country house and the few hectares of land around it where they do leisurely stuff.
If you ever find yourself near the city limits of Minsk on a nice Friday evening in spring, you may notice a lot of traffic driving out of the city. This is the start of the “Big Dacha Move”. Many city dwellers, especially seniors citizens, move away from their city flats for the entire summer and actually live on their dachas all the way through till mid-autumn. Family members who stay in the city visit their parents or grandparents and help them out on the land. In return they get a nice escape from the city, including a barbeque, a sauna and fresh produce straight from the garden!
You will be amazed at the quantity of vegetables and fruits Belarusians grow on their land. Not only BULBA (beloved potatoes), but also apples, pears, raspberries, gooseberries, cherries, plums, strawberries, lettuce, onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. And if for some reason, you don’t have any apples growing on your land - no problem! You just exchange some of your raspberries with the neighbour for some delicious apples!
An important feature of the dacha is the Belarusian bathhouse, called ‘banya’ in Russian and ‘laznia’ in Belarusian. Usually the banya is located on the premises of a dacha, but not all dachas have this nice feature, of course. There are also many public banyas in the cities that you may visit to get the experience.
It’s really a unique experience, and once you’ve discovered a banya, you’ll never want to wash yourself in any other way! A very special ritual that Belarusians perform in the banya is ‘bench slapping’. This involves lying on a bench in turn, while you are slapped with a bundle of thin oak or birch branches and leaves tied together. It may sound like a HELLISH practice, but it’s actually very relaxing. After washing yourself and drinking a little bit more beer, you wish one another “S legkim parom” which literally translates to ‘with light steam’ and is a figurative congratulation on a great cleansing.
Despite the sometimes Spartan conditions in the dacha (like cold nights and no real plumbing), the warm, relaxing and welcoming social experience of it will leave you with the best memories, making you want to come back for more again and again!
What is your favorite part of the Dacha experience? Share your comments with us!
Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!
If you ever find yourself near the city limits of Minsk on a nice Friday evening in spring, you may notice a lot of traffic driving out of the city. This is the start of the “Big Dacha Move”. Many city dwellers, especially seniors citizens, move away from their city flats for the entire summer and actually live on their dachas all the way through till mid-autumn. Family members who stay in the city visit their parents or grandparents and help them out on the land. In return they get a nice escape from the city, including a barbeque, a sauna and fresh produce straight from the garden!
You will be amazed at the quantity of vegetables and fruits Belarusians grow on their land. Not only BULBA (beloved potatoes), but also apples, pears, raspberries, gooseberries, cherries, plums, strawberries, lettuce, onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. And if for some reason, you don’t have any apples growing on your land - no problem! You just exchange some of your raspberries with the neighbour for some delicious apples!
An important feature of the dacha is the Belarusian bathhouse, called ‘banya’ in Russian and ‘laznia’ in Belarusian. Usually the banya is located on the premises of a dacha, but not all dachas have this nice feature, of course. There are also many public banyas in the cities that you may visit to get the experience.
It’s really a unique experience, and once you’ve discovered a banya, you’ll never want to wash yourself in any other way! A very special ritual that Belarusians perform in the banya is ‘bench slapping’. This involves lying on a bench in turn, while you are slapped with a bundle of thin oak or birch branches and leaves tied together. It may sound like a HELLISH practice, but it’s actually very relaxing. After washing yourself and drinking a little bit more beer, you wish one another “S legkim parom” which literally translates to ‘with light steam’ and is a figurative congratulation on a great cleansing.
Despite the sometimes Spartan conditions in the dacha (like cold nights and no real plumbing), the warm, relaxing and welcoming social experience of it will leave you with the best memories, making you want to come back for more again and again!
What is your favorite part of the Dacha experience? Share your comments with us!
Read more about Belarus on our newest platform HiFive Belarus!
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