The members of Harmonia are Marko Dreher - violin, Alexander Fedoriouk - cimbalom, Andrei Pidkivka - sopilka, nai (panflute), Walt Mahovlich - accordion/clarinet, Gheorghe Trambitas - taragot, Adam Good - bass, and Beata Begeniova - vocals.

Beata told us what the holidays are like in Medzilaborce, in Eastern Slovakia, her native country: "Christmas in my hometown was very exciting for little kids. We got presents from our parents; we expected to get a lot of presents - that's what it was about for us when we were little. And then the most exciting thing was getting together with all the family--10, 15, 20 people and having dinner. 15 meals! And singing Christmas carols and waiting for Santa Claus to come and bring us presents. And then the most exciting thing was 2 days off afterwards! (laughs)

Well, actually it was 10 meals. (The Christmas Eve meal) starts with bread, garlic, honey--that comes with each meal. Then we have cabbage, cabbage soup, then fish with potato salad. In my family we don't eat any meat. Then we have beans and plum soup, then a dish that consists of round dry biscuits, with milk and honey or sugar. There are nine or ten meals, depending on what region it is. We have a big dinner on Christmas Eve around 5 or 6 o'clock, and presents come right after Christmas Eve dinner.

On Christmas Day we don't really do anything--we relax, talk, sing Christmas carols. We don't really go anywhere. We go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day is for us, for relaxing. The most exciting thing was getting the live fish. We went to the city to get a carp. We kept the fish in a bathtub for a half-day then we killed it, prepared it for dinner and ate it on Christmas Eve. After we took the carp out of the water, we put a lot of money into the same water. That was supposed to mean you'd be healthy and have a good life, and have a lot of everything you need for the next year."

Learn more about Harmonia at harmoniaband.com.