There lived a man and a woman, and they had two daughters - the elder Anna and the younger Mariyka. The elder was dark-haired, but headstrong, with a cold heart. And the younger - fair-haired, gentle, like a spring day, with eyes as clear as the sky.
Everyone in the village loved Mariyka. When she went to the well, birds would follow her and dogs would wag their tails. But no one noticed Anna. Because of that, Anna was secretly jealous of her sister. That jealousy grew in her heart like a dark shadow under a viburnum bush.
Once a rich young man came to his parents and asked for their hand in marriage. The father thought that the young man had come for Anna, because she was the eldest. Then the young man said: «No, I came for Mary’s hand because I love her.» Anna cried secretly, and her heart was filled with blackness.
Before the wedding, the sisters went to the forest to pick berries, each with a basket. They walked through the thicket, picking red viburnum. But Anna thought and reconsidered everything. She took her sister to a deep ravine, where no one goes, only viburnum grows wildly.
And a disaster happened there - so terrible that it is difficult to tell. Mariyka did not return from the forest. Anna buried her under a viburnum bush, and then raked the ground on top. And she returned home alone, crying, as if: "My sister is lost, I don't know where she went." They searched the whole village - they did not find her. The parents cried, the groom cried, and they had to go on living.
Winter passed, spring came. In the very place where Anna buried her sister, a viburnum grew - lush, abundant, with berries as red as blood. A young shepherd was walking through the forest, got lost. He saw a viburnum bush, and near it was such a quiet place, as if sadness had settled there.
The shepherd liked a thin, straight branch of viburnum. He cut it off and carved a beautiful little flute. He took it to his lips and blew on it, and the flute sang not with music but with tiny, tiny words: "Slowly, slowly, shepherd, play, my heart is full of longing. My sister led me away from the world, my song is from under the viburnum.".
The shepherd was surprised, frightened. But he understood - it was a magical flute, grown from the viburnum itself. He carried it to the village, to the hut where they cried about Mariyka. He went in, bowed. "Listen, good people, to what my flute is singing.".
The shepherd played. And the pipe again softly sang: "Oh, dear father, oh, dear mother, my sister left me in the forest, she laid me in the ground near the viburnum, she decorated me with red berries." The father and mother cried. Anna turned pale, her eyes lowered, she trembled like an aspen.
The parents learned about their sister's evil deed. They went to the forest and found their youngest daughter under a viburnum. They buried her humanely, in a cemetery, with towels and prayers. And Anna herself left the world behind, out of shame and remorse. But they say that she traveled for a long, long time, crying and asking for forgiveness, until she realized how terrible she had done. And the viburnum pipe played for a long time in the village - reminding everyone that the truth will always come out, like that red viburnum from under the snow. And since then, viburnum has been revered in Ukraine as a symbol of truth and memory.
💛 The truth cannot be hidden either underground or underwater - it will come by wind, pipe, word.