You might wonder after reading the name of this post: Why is she writing about Christmas? It's over. Done. Wait till next year! Well... it's not over yet if you live in Ukraine. Surprise! In Ukraine Christmas is celebrated after New Year, on the 6th of January we have Christmas Eve and a very special Christmas dinner. On the 7th of January, we say to each other instead of regular "hello" or "good morning/afternoon" "Jesus was born", and a traditional answer is "Glory to him!". But let me start from the very beginning. I bet you would like to know why Ukrainians celebrate Christmas after New Year and I am sure that some of you will wonder whether it's "real Christmas". So the roots of celebration on the 6th of January go back to the times of Roman Empire and Julian calendar. Sounds cool, right? But the question is "what is this Julian calendar about?" That was a calendar proposed by Julius Caesar and obviously called after him, and was used in the Roman world, most of Europe and by European settlers in the Americas. In the 16th century, it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar (here you can read more about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar) that was more accurate and reflected more precisely the Earth's rotation around the Sun. However, in some parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the parts of Oriental Orthodoxy the Julian calendar is still used which creates this 13-day difference in celebration of Christmas on the 24th of December by the most part of the world and the 6th of January in Ukraine. So that's the first big difference - the calendar, though I have to mention that due to our current President, Mr. Poroshenko we got closer to the rest of the world since last year he signed a document that acknowledges the 25th of December as a Christmas day. Of course, a lot of families will continue celebrating Christmas on the 6th of January including mine since changes like that don't happen quickly.
The big difference number 2. We do not exchange presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. "Poor Ukrainian children", you might think. No worries! Ukrainian children get plenty of presents (if they behaved) on St. Nicholas Day which we have on the 19th of December (unfortunately again according to that outdated Julian calendar). During the times of soviet union, we used to exchange presents on the New Year's Eve. Well, it was not an exchange, actually, if you were a kid. You were supposed to prepare a small performance: dance, sing or recite a poem in order to get our present from Ded Moroz, a guy dressed somewhat similar to Santa Clause thought his coat was not red but blue. While we were one of the 15 republics Christmas was actually banned along with any other manifestation of your religious beliefs. Any religion was proclaimed "opium of the people" and any kind of religious buildings were turned into warehouses or even trash disposals except those in big cities that could be used as museums or art galleries.
So back to the celebration of Christmas in Ukraine. The big difference number 3 is our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We take this dinner pretty seriously, at least in my family. It can differ depending on where in Ukraine you are, but the general idea is that you are supposed to prepare 12 Lenten dishes that symbolize 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. Why the dishes are Lenten? Because according to Orthodox church rules you are supposed to keep 40-day Lent before Christmas so that your body and soul get ready for the great event of Jesus Christ birth. So all day of the 6th of January Ukrainian women are busy cooking 12 dishes that in the evening they will put in front of their families. Some of the dishes are pretty unique. I will try to go through their list and explain you a little bit about each of them.
The first and the most important dish is kutya (koo-tia - I will try to provide some kind of transcript here). This is basically well-cooked barley mixed with raisins, crushed poppy seeds and honey. Doesn't sound too complicated but the trick is in cooking barley so that it's soft but not mushy. The importance of kutia is huge: it's the dish that you will start your dinner with after the eldest in the family says a short prayer. The origin of kutia is not very christian, actually, you will find nothing about it in the Bible or in some other religious book. But Ukraine has a very long history and before Christianity that came to our lands in the 10th century, we had a religion that worshiped many gods, most of which were associated with this or another natural phenomenon. We used to have a god of the sun, a god of thunder, a god of harvest and so on. A lot of our Christian celebrations still have features of old times that interwove with younger traditions that resulted in a real fusion. Just like Santa Clause has more in common with old Scandinavian legends and myths rather than with St. Nicholas so does have our Christmas a lot in common with ancient rites.
Other dishes on the table include varenyky (that's a kind of dumplings, Ukrainian ones are bigger than Chinese though) with fried sour kraut or potato, Lenten borshch (red beetroot soup with lots of other vegetables served with sour cream), beans or green peas puree, cabbage rolls (cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat if it's not Lent time) stewed in tomato sauce, some kind of fried fish, marinated herring, mushroom sauce, baked or boiled potatoes, uzvar (ooz-var - a drink made out of dried fruit), yeast rolls, stewed sour kraut with onions. Of course, in every family the set of dishes can slightly differ, for example, my mom makes amazingly tasty pancakes stuffed with poppy seeds. Kutia can also slightly differ depending on where in Ukraine you are, but it will definitely be on the table.
There are many more traditions related to Christmas on a bigger scale. I will name just few here not to bore you too much. So before the family gathers around the table on the Christmas Eve, children are usually given a task to look for the first star in the night sky which we call the Star of Bethlehem, the one that heralded the birth of Jesus Christ, because the dinner should start after the start sparkles in the sky. Then the master of the house should go to the barn and feed all the animals there (if a family runs a homestead). Father of the family then brings a didukh (dee-dooh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didukh) a special Christmas decoration made out of wheat straw that symbolizes prosperity and abundance. After the dinner is over not all the meals are taken away from the table. In my family, we always leave some kutia on the table for our deceased family members will come for Christmas dinner at night.
The next day we usually have a festive family breakfast during which a lot of meat dishes are served. During all the 7th of January we eat, talk, host family and friends and in the evening we expect carol singers. Carol singing is a very good business for children during the Christmas holidays because people give them money and sweets for singing carols. Usually, kids go to their neighbors and relatives but since Ukraine is a pretty safe country in small towns and villages children go to as many houses as they can. Of course, the most profitable audience is your own grandparents )) I was lucky to visit my father's mother who lived in a village where half the village were our relatives. So we were rehearsing with my cousins all day long and in the evening was our "hour of triumph". In many families, it is traditional to visit godparents on the 7th of January. You are not supposed to come empty-handed and the most traditional thing to bring is kalach (a round shaped shortbread sometimes with raisins or poppy seeds). Bread is of great significance in Ukraine whether you give it to somebody or somebody gives it to you. It always means prosperity and abundance. That's why we are very careful with bread and try not to have any leftovers or throw it away.
Of course, there are a lot more things I would like to tell you about Christmas traditions in Ukraine. But they say that eloquence is the sister of talent. I will pretend that it somehow refers to my writing )))
Have a great time of the day and behave! ))
A Didukh at my parents home last Christmas. The photo was taken by my father. All copyrights reserved.
The big difference number 2. We do not exchange presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. "Poor Ukrainian children", you might think. No worries! Ukrainian children get plenty of presents (if they behaved) on St. Nicholas Day which we have on the 19th of December (unfortunately again according to that outdated Julian calendar). During the times of soviet union, we used to exchange presents on the New Year's Eve. Well, it was not an exchange, actually, if you were a kid. You were supposed to prepare a small performance: dance, sing or recite a poem in order to get our present from Ded Moroz, a guy dressed somewhat similar to Santa Clause thought his coat was not red but blue. While we were one of the 15 republics Christmas was actually banned along with any other manifestation of your religious beliefs. Any religion was proclaimed "opium of the people" and any kind of religious buildings were turned into warehouses or even trash disposals except those in big cities that could be used as museums or art galleries.
So back to the celebration of Christmas in Ukraine. The big difference number 3 is our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We take this dinner pretty seriously, at least in my family. It can differ depending on where in Ukraine you are, but the general idea is that you are supposed to prepare 12 Lenten dishes that symbolize 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. Why the dishes are Lenten? Because according to Orthodox church rules you are supposed to keep 40-day Lent before Christmas so that your body and soul get ready for the great event of Jesus Christ birth. So all day of the 6th of January Ukrainian women are busy cooking 12 dishes that in the evening they will put in front of their families. Some of the dishes are pretty unique. I will try to go through their list and explain you a little bit about each of them.
The first and the most important dish is kutya (koo-tia - I will try to provide some kind of transcript here). This is basically well-cooked barley mixed with raisins, crushed poppy seeds and honey. Doesn't sound too complicated but the trick is in cooking barley so that it's soft but not mushy. The importance of kutia is huge: it's the dish that you will start your dinner with after the eldest in the family says a short prayer. The origin of kutia is not very christian, actually, you will find nothing about it in the Bible or in some other religious book. But Ukraine has a very long history and before Christianity that came to our lands in the 10th century, we had a religion that worshiped many gods, most of which were associated with this or another natural phenomenon. We used to have a god of the sun, a god of thunder, a god of harvest and so on. A lot of our Christian celebrations still have features of old times that interwove with younger traditions that resulted in a real fusion. Just like Santa Clause has more in common with old Scandinavian legends and myths rather than with St. Nicholas so does have our Christmas a lot in common with ancient rites.
Other dishes on the table include varenyky (that's a kind of dumplings, Ukrainian ones are bigger than Chinese though) with fried sour kraut or potato, Lenten borshch (red beetroot soup with lots of other vegetables served with sour cream), beans or green peas puree, cabbage rolls (cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat if it's not Lent time) stewed in tomato sauce, some kind of fried fish, marinated herring, mushroom sauce, baked or boiled potatoes, uzvar (ooz-var - a drink made out of dried fruit), yeast rolls, stewed sour kraut with onions. Of course, in every family the set of dishes can slightly differ, for example, my mom makes amazingly tasty pancakes stuffed with poppy seeds. Kutia can also slightly differ depending on where in Ukraine you are, but it will definitely be on the table.
There are many more traditions related to Christmas on a bigger scale. I will name just few here not to bore you too much. So before the family gathers around the table on the Christmas Eve, children are usually given a task to look for the first star in the night sky which we call the Star of Bethlehem, the one that heralded the birth of Jesus Christ, because the dinner should start after the start sparkles in the sky. Then the master of the house should go to the barn and feed all the animals there (if a family runs a homestead). Father of the family then brings a didukh (dee-dooh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didukh) a special Christmas decoration made out of wheat straw that symbolizes prosperity and abundance. After the dinner is over not all the meals are taken away from the table. In my family, we always leave some kutia on the table for our deceased family members will come for Christmas dinner at night.
The next day we usually have a festive family breakfast during which a lot of meat dishes are served. During all the 7th of January we eat, talk, host family and friends and in the evening we expect carol singers. Carol singing is a very good business for children during the Christmas holidays because people give them money and sweets for singing carols. Usually, kids go to their neighbors and relatives but since Ukraine is a pretty safe country in small towns and villages children go to as many houses as they can. Of course, the most profitable audience is your own grandparents )) I was lucky to visit my father's mother who lived in a village where half the village were our relatives. So we were rehearsing with my cousins all day long and in the evening was our "hour of triumph". In many families, it is traditional to visit godparents on the 7th of January. You are not supposed to come empty-handed and the most traditional thing to bring is kalach (a round shaped shortbread sometimes with raisins or poppy seeds). Bread is of great significance in Ukraine whether you give it to somebody or somebody gives it to you. It always means prosperity and abundance. That's why we are very careful with bread and try not to have any leftovers or throw it away.
Of course, there are a lot more things I would like to tell you about Christmas traditions in Ukraine. But they say that eloquence is the sister of talent. I will pretend that it somehow refers to my writing )))
Have a great time of the day and behave! ))
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