September 2, 2016

Lemko activists from U.S. participate in festival on ancestral land

More

Vlad Deineko

The Organization for the Defense of Lemkivshchyna is honored with a plaque for 80 years of service. From left are: Mark Howansky, Mykhaylo Chomyk and Olya Deineko.

On July 22-24, as the president of the Organization for the Defense of Lemkivshchyna in the United States, I had the privilege and pleasure of attending the 34th Lemko Vatra in Zdynia, Poland. This three-day festival, organized yearly by the Union of Lemkos, celebrates Lemko culture on the very territory from which the Lemkos were resettled after World War II.

While I am an American by citizenship, I was raised to know that I am Lemko-Ukrainian and to understand the history and culture of our people. My family lived in the Lemko region for centuries, until the Polish government forcibly relocated them to western Poland during Akcja “Wisła” in 1947; so it was very moving to return to my ancestral land.

My paternal grandparents, Damian and Fotyna Howansky, were born in Zdynia and lived there until 1947. That year, the Polish government also imprisoned my grandfather for seven months in the Jaworzno concentration camp because of his Ukrainian identity. My maternal grandparents, Dmytro and Melania Lozyniak, were born and lived in the village of Smerekowiec, only a few miles from Zdynia.

I was honored to participate in the opening ceremonies of the Lemko Vatra in Zdynia, where I was among numerous organization heads to ring a “peace bell” to remember those forcibly relocated through Akcja “Wisła.” The organizers of the festival asked me to say a few words on stage on behalf of OOL and then awarded the OOL with a beautiful plaque to recognize the organization’s 80 years of work. I wish to publicly thank the Union of Lemkos, especially Wasyl Szlanta, for the invitation and the hospitality that they showed me.

Mark Howansky, president of the Organization for the Defense of Lemkivshchyna, rings the peace bell to honor victims of Akcja “Wisła.”

Sofiya Fedyna

Mark Howansky, president of the Organization for the Defense of Lemkivshchyna, rings the peace bell to honor victims of Akcja “Wisła.”

While in Zdynia, I attended the Presidium of the World Federation of Ukrainian Lemko Associations (SFULO), an umbrella organization of which OOL is a member. The meeting, led by SFULO President Sofiya Fedyna, included Lemko leaders from Poland (Stefan Klapyk, Emil Hojsak), Serbia (Bogdan Vilavski, Joachim Hrubenya, Velemyr Paplatsko), Croatia (Zvonko Kostelnik), Slovakia (Petro Sokol, Ivan Laba), Ukraine (Stefan Krynytsky, Stefan Majkovich, Mykola Vovk, Ihor Duda) and Canada (Andriy Rotko). We were also joined by a few special guests, including the head of OOL’s New York City branch (Mykhaylo Chomyk), the governor of the Ternopil Oblast in Ukraine (Stefan Barna), and the Head of the Borderland Center at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Taras Rad). The next SFULO Congress will be held in Zymna Voda, Ukraine (near Lviv) in late August 2017.

Although my trip to the Lemko region was only a few short days, I enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with Lemkos from around the world, including Dr. Yaroslava Galyk, whose research the Lemko Research Foundation in the U.S.A. has supported. To my pleasant surprise, during the festival, I bumped into OOL members from our various branches and their relatives, including from the Kowalczyk, Jacewycz, Mamrosh, Chomiak, Senick and Denaiko families. I am grateful to OOL member Mykhaylo Chomyk for not only organizing transport and housing, but personally driving me around the Lemko region to visit the historical sights of my homeland.

Already, OOL has started to plan a Heritage Tour, open to all OOL members and their families and friends. Tour participants will visit surrounding Lemko villages during the week prior to the Vatra in Zdynia and then attend the festival. There will also be educational and social activities geared to the younger generations as part of the tour. Anyone who is interested should contact this writer at [email protected] for more information.

Comments are closed.