EDITORIAL: Our Christmastime traditions (01/02/00)

EDITORIAL

Our Christmastime traditions

Let's face it - and we don't need to be modest here - Ukrainian Christmas traditions are wonderful and quite unique. So, then, why has there not been a revival of the grand Christmas traditions in Ukraine?

Why is St. Nicholas not honored more widely? Why is the symbolic and also very tasty Sviat Vechir tradition of kutia, and 11 other traditional dishes ignored. Where are the koliadnyky and the vertepy?

Only in western Ukraine, and especially in the villages, is there no threat that the customs developed in the course of a thousand years of Christianity (some dating back to earlier, pagan times) could disappear forever.

There the young continue to eagerly await the appearance of the first star to mark the beginning of the Christmas Eve dinner that is a central component of the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Families still maintain the meatless fast and gather around a table piled high with varenyky, holubtsi, fish dishes and the fruity uzvar. They sing Christmas carols and await the arrival of carolers (koliadnyky) that present the vertep, a theatrical rendering of events associated with the birth of Jesus. The participants go door to door and present their mini-theater in the homes of friends and neighbors in return for a bit of money or some food and drink.

The evening culminates in a midnight celebration of the divine liturgy in both Greek-Catholic and Orthodox parishes.

But, elsewhere in Ukraine the traditions that Ukrainians in the western oblasts and in diaspora know and love so, are not widely practiced. If you will be in Kyiv on January 7 to celebrate Christmas, you will not see the vertepy. And, most likely, you will not sit down to a traditional Sviat Vechir meal, as most Kyivans do not maintain the custom, although you will probably gather for some sort of celebration, which will include plenty of food and drink.

For Ukraine the central celebration has become the New Year. Unlike in western countries, where the beginning of the next year is a time for public revelry, in Ukraine it is a joyous, but private affair and a time for family get-togethers.

The custom directly stems from the Soviet determination to eradicate Christian rites and traditions in pursuit of the glorious Communist future. While banning Christmas commemorations, Soviet authorities accented New Year's celebrations. The Soviet rulers replaced St. Nicholas with a figment of their own making called "Did Moroz," or Grandfather Frost. This Stalinist construct wears the red cap and long white beard of Santa Claus, but delivers his gifts to children on New Year's Eve. Today Did Moroz can be found all around Kyiv and Ukraine. St. Nicholas is rarely seen or mentioned.

Ukraine's drift away from its great Christmas customs, as with many other things, can be blamed on 70 years of godless communism. But the Soviets did not succeed in wiping out the Christmas tradition. Thus, it is puzzling that Ukrainians have not re-embraced their own in the last years.

This is especially so since, in the first years after the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, introduced perestroika and glasnost, and then after Ukraine declared independence, a renaissance of sorts occurred. During the late 1980s and early '90s groups of carolers could be seen roaming the streets of Ukraine's cities and villages, performing vertepy and singing ancient Christmas carols.

But, as with the brief language revival that also took hold at about that time, the revival of Christmas traditions has slowly died down.

Today some diaspora organizations are working in Ukraine to teach the young our customs. The Coordinating Council to Aid Ukraine annually sends hundreds of kids from Crimea to western Ukrainian homes during Christmas. There are also women's organizations in Ukraine who are studying the traditions and working to reinvigorate the dormant customs.

Such projects are encouraging and make us want to believe that soon St. Nicholas will return to Ukraine, every Ukrainian mother will make kutia on Christmas Eve, and that when one greets a Ukrainian on the streets of Kyiv, he will reply to the Christmas greeting "Khrystos Rodyvsia" with a resonant "Slavim Yoho!"

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