Hey, guys! Hope you are having a wonderful day! So it's not so many days till St. Valentine's Day! Wow, you would think, she really waits for this holiday! Well, I just opened a calendar and checked how many days left till my vacations and realized that St. Valentine's day is in the same batch )) But how about you? Are you getting ready? Do you have any ideas on how to celebrate it? Are you planning to celebrate it? Even if you don't, the moment you enter local supermarket all the teddy bears and boxes of chocolate in the shape of the heart start calling to you: Buy me! You need to buy me! It's coming! You better buy me! Unfortunately, we went very commercial when it gets to certain celebrations. We started to have an assigned day for almost everything. It's sad but at the same time, it's our choice to follow mainstream or to do things our own unique way. So we have already figured out that Ukrainians celebrate Christmas, the next logical question would be: do they celebrate St. Valentine's Day? And the answer will be .................... drum roll, please ................ yes! and no! Ha-ha )) No straight answer from me )) Of course if you go to big cities and smaller ones too you might see people in the streets with flowers or small purple hearts on their clothes or some young people with heart-shaped balloons during the daytime. And, of course, if you try to go out in the evening of the 14th it can get a bit crowded in the restaurants and a lot crowded in the cinemas. The places where you will experience well organized and full of excitement celebration of the 14th is in Ukrainian schools. The reason for it is that most of the English language teachers use St. Valentine's Day as a purely English-speaking world holiday and it's a great motivation for their pupils to be part of small performances and demo lessons organized by teachers at schools. Oh, I forgot to tell you, it was compulsory )) That killed all the fun somewhat but was OK. I remember taking part in two of such "celebration", though I am sure there were more of them. During one of them I was reading Robert Burnes poem Red red rose and during the other one, we were singing Yesterday by the Beatles to a real piano accompaniment. But if course the most exciting part was getting the Valentine's! That was the indicator of popularity and what else is a teenager more obsessed about? I have to confess that I still keep a Valentine cut out from a notebook with a luminescent marker on the edge and some greeting words. And the reason why I still keep it is not that I had some romantic feelings to the guy that gave it to me, but because it was the most unexpected sign of appreciation. The thing is that I used to help him out with tasks in physics and chemistry during the tests. I knew that he wasn't going to continue his education after school, so technically I was just helping him to finish school with decent grades in science which eventually happened and, as far as I know, he became a car mechanic. He literally made that Valentine during the break but it was sweet of him.
Memories, memories )) You can believe it or not, but I never missed my school or university years. I just keep in memory a couple of stories and that's it. I clearly remember my teacher of English saying straight in my face that I won't ever be able to learn English and be decent in it. Ha-ha! She's funny ))
So, back to St. Valentine's Day celebration! As I've mentioned before in big cities you will definitely see a lot of things going on like concerts, club parties, romantic movies in the cinemas and, of course, jewelry stores with a lot of hears in their window displays. Those guys also start using the western strategy of hinting that it's the perfect day to pop up THE QUESTION. It's all great and wonderful, and there is nothing wrong for cultures to intermingle. But... I believe that we also have to preserve what we originally have in our traditions and not let all this commercial knick-knackery make us forget certain things.
As I've told you before Ukrainian traditions and customs have a lot of features that were preserved from the times before Christianity. On the night from the 6th to the 7th of July, we celebrate Ivana Kupala (eevana-coo-pala - I again try to transcribe a bit) or Kupala Night. The name derives from the Christian John the Baptist (Iōánnēs ho baptistḗs in Ancient Greek) and Kupala stands for "the one that gives bath" and is believed to be John Baptist's nickname that people came up with.
Date-wise it all gets a bit complicated again because our ancestors connected this night celebration with the summer sun solstice that takes place on the 21st of June, but because all that mess with Gregorian and Julian calendars (here you can read my explanation as for all this confusion https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html) it all got messed up again and now we celebrate it on the 7th of July.
This celebration has a lot of very cool traditions that get more and more popular among young people. One of them is jumping over a bonfire. Sounds exciting, right? Of course, nobody makes a bonfire too big because nobody wants to create any experience close to Joan of Arc's one but the main thing with fire is to check if the couple that jumps over it will be together in the future. The way to check is pretty simple: when a guy and a girl are preparing to jump over it they hold each other's hand and if they keep doing it during the jump - they will be a couple now and on. The Kupala Night fire also is believed to have purifying qualities: the moment you jump over it whether alone or with the beloved one, the fire will clean your body and soul.
Since the celebrations are usually held next to the rivers, all the day long girls collect different flowers and make wreaths that they will put afloat later on so that they can fortune tell their future fiancee. I'm more than sure that you wonder: HOW??? Well, when the girls set their wreaths on the water the guys are usually spying somewhere not far and then they go into the water and fish out the wreath of the girl he really likes and gives it back to her. This way you skip that awkward part with saying "I kind of like you" and all that sweating of nervousness because you are wet already after the river anyways.
There is a lot of traditional singing and dancing in a ring. A lot of people wear traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka (an embroidered type of clothes both for men and women). But the coolest tradition is about going to search a flower of a fern. You will say: fern does not bloom, you silly girl! Well, it doesn't, but according to the legend if you find one you will have supernatural powers: be able to understand any creature on the planet, know qualities of all the herbs and... AND!!!!! be able to see where any kind of treasure is hidden!!! That's almost like winning Powerball, isn't it???
There are more traditions connected to this day and, of course, they will slightly differ depending on the region. Ukrainians are not the only ones to abide this holiday. If you travel to Poland, Serbia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and some of their neighbors you will find celebrations similar to ours. As for me, I always liked the fact that this celebration interweaves with the natural cycles and even worships them to a certain extent.
So, guys, I wish you all to be in harmony with yourself and the natural world around you and what's the most important: remember that LOVE is one of the most important emotions in our life. It does not matter whether it's love to yourself (if it does not turn into egocentrism of course, then it's too much), to the people next to you, your pets, to nature or even the whole world. As long as you are able to feel it, you are alive!
So love and be loved, and behave!
Truly yours!
Memories, memories )) You can believe it or not, but I never missed my school or university years. I just keep in memory a couple of stories and that's it. I clearly remember my teacher of English saying straight in my face that I won't ever be able to learn English and be decent in it. Ha-ha! She's funny ))
So, back to St. Valentine's Day celebration! As I've mentioned before in big cities you will definitely see a lot of things going on like concerts, club parties, romantic movies in the cinemas and, of course, jewelry stores with a lot of hears in their window displays. Those guys also start using the western strategy of hinting that it's the perfect day to pop up THE QUESTION. It's all great and wonderful, and there is nothing wrong for cultures to intermingle. But... I believe that we also have to preserve what we originally have in our traditions and not let all this commercial knick-knackery make us forget certain things.
As I've told you before Ukrainian traditions and customs have a lot of features that were preserved from the times before Christianity. On the night from the 6th to the 7th of July, we celebrate Ivana Kupala (eevana-coo-pala - I again try to transcribe a bit) or Kupala Night. The name derives from the Christian John the Baptist (Iōánnēs ho baptistḗs in Ancient Greek) and Kupala stands for "the one that gives bath" and is believed to be John Baptist's nickname that people came up with.
Date-wise it all gets a bit complicated again because our ancestors connected this night celebration with the summer sun solstice that takes place on the 21st of June, but because all that mess with Gregorian and Julian calendars (here you can read my explanation as for all this confusion https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html) it all got messed up again and now we celebrate it on the 7th of July.
This celebration has a lot of very cool traditions that get more and more popular among young people. One of them is jumping over a bonfire. Sounds exciting, right? Of course, nobody makes a bonfire too big because nobody wants to create any experience close to Joan of Arc's one but the main thing with fire is to check if the couple that jumps over it will be together in the future. The way to check is pretty simple: when a guy and a girl are preparing to jump over it they hold each other's hand and if they keep doing it during the jump - they will be a couple now and on. The Kupala Night fire also is believed to have purifying qualities: the moment you jump over it whether alone or with the beloved one, the fire will clean your body and soul.
Since the celebrations are usually held next to the rivers, all the day long girls collect different flowers and make wreaths that they will put afloat later on so that they can fortune tell their future fiancee. I'm more than sure that you wonder: HOW??? Well, when the girls set their wreaths on the water the guys are usually spying somewhere not far and then they go into the water and fish out the wreath of the girl he really likes and gives it back to her. This way you skip that awkward part with saying "I kind of like you" and all that sweating of nervousness because you are wet already after the river anyways.
There is a lot of traditional singing and dancing in a ring. A lot of people wear traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka (an embroidered type of clothes both for men and women). But the coolest tradition is about going to search a flower of a fern. You will say: fern does not bloom, you silly girl! Well, it doesn't, but according to the legend if you find one you will have supernatural powers: be able to understand any creature on the planet, know qualities of all the herbs and... AND!!!!! be able to see where any kind of treasure is hidden!!! That's almost like winning Powerball, isn't it???
There are more traditions connected to this day and, of course, they will slightly differ depending on the region. Ukrainians are not the only ones to abide this holiday. If you travel to Poland, Serbia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and some of their neighbors you will find celebrations similar to ours. As for me, I always liked the fact that this celebration interweaves with the natural cycles and even worships them to a certain extent.
So, guys, I wish you all to be in harmony with yourself and the natural world around you and what's the most important: remember that LOVE is one of the most important emotions in our life. It does not matter whether it's love to yourself (if it does not turn into egocentrism of course, then it's too much), to the people next to you, your pets, to nature or even the whole world. As long as you are able to feel it, you are alive!
So love and be loved, and behave!
Truly yours!
Even a heart of stone can be warmed up by the sun rays ))
The photo from my personal collection dedicated to Michelle, a person with a big heart!
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