Ukrainian traditions

    The Ukrainians, like any other people, have their own customs and traditions: many of these are very old, some appear nowadays. Most of the customs are connected with the religious festivals or with Ukrainian dwelling. The most popular holidays are Christmas, Easter, New Year and a lot of others.

   Christmas is the most favourite holiday in the Christian world. No wonder that every country has its own traditions of celebration. In the most countries it is kept on the 25^th of December. But in our country it is marked on January the 7^th. We have many interesting traditions to celebrate Christ’s birth, and most of them come from the ancient times. In Ukraine this holiday symbolizes the reunion of the whole family. This holiday brings a fairy tale to our lives and wakes a very special feeling of the family and tradition.

   As for me, Christmas is my favourite holiday. It is very special. We celebrate it only in the family circle. The evening before Christmas is called Holy Eve, and mother cooks Holy Supper. The supper consists of twelve traditional dishes, and after the prayer we taste each of them. In the corner of the room father puts “didukh”(sheaves of wheat), which represents all our late relatives. It symbolizes the reunion of the whole family. That’s why Christmas is not only my favourite holiday; it’s much respected by all Ukrainian people.

   On the Christmas Evening the religious people go to church; some of them spend the whole night there – they pray and listen to Christmas religious songs which glorify Christ’s birthday. Another religious festival in winter is Twelfth-day or the Jordanian Holiday which is celebrated on memory of Jesus Christ’s christening on the 19^th of January. In the morning of the Jordanian Holiday the festival procession goes from a church to a river or to a pond where christening of water takes place. After that the priest consecrates the peoples’ homes and things.

   The last winter holiday is Pancake day or Maslyanitsa which dates back to the ancient Slavic tradition of saying farewell to winter and welcoming spring by singing, dancing, burning the straw effigy of Maslyanitsa and eating pancakes. On this day people dance, sing songs and play folk games.

  There are many other interesting customs and traditions in Ukraine, too. We must respect our traditions and continue them because it is our history.