Ukrainian Catholic University greets Christmas visitors (02/05/06)

Ukrainian Catholic University greets Christmas visitors

by Petro Didula

LVIV - As part of the Christmas Together event for January 2006, Lviv hosted approximately 7,000 guests from eastern and southern Ukraine. Of these, 560 high school and college students came to the city through the mediation of the organizing committee of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU). The young guests came from Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv, Kramatorsk, Odesa, the Poltava region, Symferopol and Kharkiv.

For the event's second year, the number of families that received guests from the east into their homes, both from the UCU community and the city in general, decreased drastically. In 2006 there were approximately 60 participating families, while in January 2005, more than 300 families told UCU's Christmas Together organizing committee of their desire to be hosts.

Consequently, this year only a small portion of the guests were able to greet Christmas in a family setting. So the vast majority of them tasted "kutia" within the walls of the university, with the participation of the UCU rector, the Rev. Dr. Borys Gudziak, and approximately 60 staff and students of UCU.

"At the end of [2004] we experienced a great national uplift," said Nadiia Rodnienkova, head of UCU's Christmas Together organizing committee for 2006. "The end of 2005, on the contrary, passed with significant disillusionment. And this could not help but leave its mark on the Christmas Together event. But along with this, we noticed this year that the practice of inviting guests from the east of Ukraine is becoming a tradition for Lviv. For example, the parish churches of St. Anna, the Most Holy Eucharist and Protection on their own initiative received guests this year."

The majority of UCU's guests arrived at Lviv's main train station on the morning of January 6. Students and staff of the UCU greeted them in an organized manner and, thanks to the help of a local transport association, brought them to their lodgings. These included Holy Spirit Seminary in Rudno (a suburb of Lviv), and the dormitories of the Military Institute and the Iron-Cement Construction Factory. Lodging in families was organized by 10 local parish churches.

"The first day, some of the guests even expressed to the organizers of the event their open discontent that they were not to stay with families. But this attitude changed by the end," said Ms. Rodnienkova. "The leader of a group from Yuzhnoukraiinsk came up to me with pretensions: Why wasn't her group to lodge in a family? But already the next day she put a kolach [large, round loaf of bread] in my hands in gratitude. 'Now I understand,' said the woman, 'how much you have done so that we would really experience this Christmas.' At the end of the event, I didn't hear any complaints from our guests about the living conditions. Good organizing of the event 'washed away' all the little inconveniences."

The program for the participants of the event was very full. Within the walls of the UCU, Christmas Eve dinner was served to 560 people, including 60 people with special needs. In addition, breakfasts and dinners were organized for the guests at their places of lodging and lunches were offered at the UCU.

There were excursions through Lviv and to museums, to the neighboring towns of Krekhiv and Univ, visits to theaters, roundtables, meetings with groups of carolers and verteps (Christmas plays). Each guest received a sack with a book of carols and liturgical texts for Christmas, spiritual and historical literature, and a schedule of religious services at various churches in Lviv.

"This year I received guests from the Poltava region," said Hryhorii Kozii, a resident of Lviv's Riasne neighborhood. "But, if last year we ourselves kept our guests from the east of Ukraine busy, this year the guests pretty much only spent the night at our house. The program for them was so full that there was nothing left for us to organize. Or maybe just to listen in the evenings to their enthralled accounts about Lviv and Christmas."

Numerous organizations and businesses helped organize the event. The St. Volodymyr Fund organized excursions through Lviv and more than 30 organizations provided produce and necessary expenses.

Produce and even prepared dishes were brought for the guests from all over Lviv. Bread, varenyky, cookies and pastries, fish, mushrooms, wheat, fresh coffee, bottled water, disposable utensils and even mobile phone costs were taken care of by various generous local businesses. Local television and radio stations and a newspaper provided informational support.

"Our main goal was to initiate in human souls, in the souls of youth, the desire to live out their religious and national traditions," said Myroslav Marynovych, vice-rector of the UCU. "In Ukraine these traditions are varied. We don't want to impose the traditions of Halychyna alone on all Ukraine. Our aim is to call forth this interior work of the soul, directed at reviving local religious and national traditions. There is a possibility that soon Christmas Together will take place in Kharkiv, where they celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ according to Slobozhan traditions, and this time with the participation of guests from Halychyna."

"It's very good that such events exist," said Khrystyna Iliina from Crimea. "They make people tolerant, kinder and more attentive to one another, regardless of the political situation in the country."

"I never thought that I could celebrate Christmas in such a merry way!" said Daryna Tsupko from Kharkiv.

"I am grateful that we had the opportunity to encounter the fairy-tale wonder of Christmas," said Aliona Horbatko from Mykolaiv. "Great organization, hospitable people, pleasant meetings. For us this was an unforgettable Christmas. We became more deeply acquainted with the traditions of Ukrainians."

Further information about the UCU in English and Ukrainian is available on the university's website at www.ucu.edu.ua. Readers may also contact the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation, 2247 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60622; phone, (773) 235-8462; e-mail, ucef@ucef.org; website, www.ucef.org. The phone number of the UCEF in Canada is (416) 239-2495.

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