To Get Ukraine by Oleksandr Shyshko

Author:Oleksandr Shyshko [Shyshko, Oleksandr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783840250
Google: dkVvrgEACAAJ
Publisher: Glagoslav Publications
Published: 2015-04-28T03:52:52+00:00

A touch of the exotic: age-old traditions and customs

I feel compelled to give my narrative about Ukraine some sort of ethnographic and folkloric hue. For example, I’d like to tell you about some of the customs and traditions which have existed for centuries – some of which live on to this day. It is traditions and customs such as these that make each people unique and exotic to the outside world.

In former times, rites and ceremonies served as an unwritten way of organizing the lives of those who lived off the land. Special types of food, household and familial magic, the paying of respects to our forefathers, fortune-telling and divination – these extremely important events were accompanied by these actions both on working days and public holidays. As one would expect, it was all connected with the cyclical calendar governing agricultural work. The start of the ploughing and the sowing, driving the cattle out to pasture, and finishing the harvest: these things were all accompanied by special rites. In family life, rites accompanied every stage of human life: birth, weddings, and funerals. The performance of the rites was supposed to ensure prosperity and happiness in the home, provide a good harvest and fertile cattle, and ward off all sorts of evil. I have no doubt, though, that there are similar traditions among all the peoples of the earth, isn’t that the case?

I shall describe some of the rites and ceremonies in Ukraine; it may be interesting to see to what extent they differ or are similar to the equivalent traditions in your country.

I am not going to talk about the really ancient traditions; after all, this is not an archaeological dig. It makes sense to talk about the customs and ceremonies which can still be observed to this day in some shape or form.

Let’s take the ceremonies seen in the run-up to the celebration marking the Birth of Christ, for example. In this country, the preparations for the celebratory dinner have been transformed into a real ritual. As Ukrainians see things, all the objects which are related in some way to the ceremonial dinner table have assumed miraculous strength. For that reason, in order to make sure that the coming harvest is abundant, the home-owner would place ‘didukha’ – a ritual sheaf of rye or wheat, decorated with dried flowers from the fields – under the icons, in pride of place. On Holy evening (Christmas Eve) a set number of dishes would be prepared: 7, 9 or 12. A compulsory feature of Christmas celebrations was caroling, when groups of young people would walk around the yards of their home village singing special Christmas songs and wishing health and plenty to all the members of the family. A separate song of good cheer was sung for each member of the family. If there was a little child in the family who had taken a long time to say his first word, the child was given some water to drink from a small ceremonial bell.

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