Natalie Kononenko lectures on modern rituals in Ukraine

by Irena Bell

OTTAWA - About 75 people gathered on March 16 to hear Prof. Natalie Kononenko speak about the rituals of marriage, birth and death as they are practiced in the villages of central Ukraine today.

Prof. Kononenko had been invited to deliver the 15th annual Ivan Franko Memorial Lecture, co-sponsored by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa and the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Ottawa.

Prof. Kononenko described traditional rituals - the ones contained in published sources and in archival manuscripts. Then she explained how rituals were transformed in the Soviet era when religion was banned and paying homage to Lenin, the Communist Party and the Soviet state was mandatory. Lastly, she described contemporary rituals, using information from her own fieldwork. Prof. Kononenko illustrated her lecture with over 100 slides taken while she was in the field. The slides are part of a Slavic folklore digital database that is currently being constructed at the University of Virginia and should soon be open for public use.

According to Prof. Kononenko, during the Soviet era ritual activities were hidden or encoded. If villagers wanted to celebrate a baptism, for example, they might do so in a private home or out in the field in back of a row or trees. With weddings, virtually everyone performed the obligatory Soviet civil ceremony in the local "klub." Those aspects of the wedding that might have a nationalist flavor, such as wearing traditional Ukrainian dress, were done in the home, hidden from official view.

Likewise, if ritual towels, or rushnyky, with a religious meaning were used, this meaning was hidden. For example, the protective power of the Trinity was conferred upon the couple by giving them a rushnyk with an encoded Trinity: three large embroidered roses. Because sending the soul of the departed into the afterlife properly was so important, older women kept hand-copied Psalters and prayer books so that they could read over the deceased.

In modern-day Ukraine, three- and four-day weddings still occur. There has been a religious revival and many people have church weddings, baptisms and funerals. Many villages have converted old school houses or other public buildings to churches and donated their icons and rushnyky to decorate these. There is a great deal of debate about what proper religious behavior and ritual behavior should be, but, according to Prof. Kononenko, villages are vital and vibrant. People there retain a strong sense of commitment to generations past and future. There is also a love of the land that is manifested in all ritual practices.

Prof. Kononenko is professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Virginia, and president of the Slavic and East European Folklore Association. Her 1998 book on bandurists "Ukrainian Minstrels: And the Blind Shall Sing" has won two best-book prizes.

More information on wedding and other Ukrainian rituals by Prof. Kononenko may be found on the website http://www.brama.com/art/traditions.htm.

Ivan Franko Lecture marks 15th anniversary

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 6, 2001, No. 18, Vol. LXIX

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