Growing up in the USSR

Hello World! Hope you are still doing fine, spinning and floating in the endless Universe. Here, on the planet Earth, humans are temporary settlers. But despite this fact, we behave very arrogantly and feel more like the kings of the Universe, which we are not. I don't want to go into the environmental issues that we cause our planet but take a look at the things related to the way we organize ourselves in what we call counties. Civilizations come and go but we still are not able to learn anything and to live in peace with each other. I was born in a country that no longer exists. Not many people can say it about their place of birth. Usually, people simply move from one place to another, or from one country to another. In my case, I was born in the USSR and ten years later I already lived in Ukraine, an independent state, without moving anywhere. Not many people can say something like that, right?

When people learn that I'm from Ukraine, they try to remember something about my country. And it turns out not so easy and eventually they start talking about Russia and Soviet Union. Somehow people all over the world know a lot about the Soviet Union and associate it with a weird set of things: some name Perestroyka, some remember Gorbachev, but what they definitely remember is Cold War and Carribean crisis and the communist party, of course. But not many people realize that the Soviet Union was a socialist state. Everyone talks about commies and red villains, but when you tell them that communism was never implemented in the USSR people don't believe me. That's why it's very hard for me to hear socialist slogans in the modern societies all over the world and see how young people gladly support those ideas without even trying to figure out what they are offered.

So let me tell you how it felt to live in a socialist country and how all the slogans you hear from everywhere nowadays are just slogans and nothing more.

Utopia is going to be a core word for today's story. Utopia stands for an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. That's exactly how I would describe the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). I will not go into theory and history how did USSR appear but rather focus on my experience of living in it. 

I was born in 1981. It's pretty amazing because the only leader of the communist party that I remember clearly was Mr. Gorbachev, who headed the party in 1985. Between 1981 and 1985 we had three General Secretaries (that's how they were called): Brezhniev "ruled" till he died in 1982, next one was Yuri Andropov till he died in 1984, then we had Chernenko who died in 1985 and his successor was Gorbachev. Quite a carousel, right? I don't remember all of them, as I've mentioned already, but I do remember that people were complaining and jocking at the same time that they were sick and tired of the Swan Lake ballet on the one and only main TV channel since mourning for a deceased party leader was a state thing and all union was supposed to mourn together. Yes, you understood it correctly "one TV channel". It was called soviet central television channel or shortened CT-1. Later on we had one more channel CT-2 but it's signal was pretty weak and it didn't work that great. How many channels did you have in 1981 or 1982? Of course, the main concept of the channel was to inform about the progress of the soviet government and to entertain the citizens but in a highly moral and controlled way. So when somebody appeals to my memory saying: Do you remember those cartoons about Bugsbunny from the 80s or starts throwing at me names of some other tv shows for children I have to answer that I watched them much much later, in the middle of 90s when we became independent and western movies, tv-shows and movies started coming to our television. What did I watch as a kid? Well, we had a bunch of soviet cartoons and movies for children. Some of them were a copycat of western production but I learn about it much later as an adult. 

The key word for any soviet citizen was the word "connections". If you knew somebody who had access to some benefits you could have a bit better lifestyle than others. Unfortunately, it was impossible to go to a store and simply buy things you needed. I really mean it. And I mean any kind of need including food. So that's where "connections" played a crucial role. I was lucky to be born in a family with "connections" )) My grandfather is a dentist, an extremely good one and on top of that, he has a very out-going personality. So when he needed to buy me some winter clothes he would make a couple of phone calls and get me a coat, pants, sweater, boots and an ear-flapped hat. The same way he would get some toys for me, books, some devices for home, necessary medicines (better ones than the ones available in the pharmacy) and other things that were absent from the shelves of our stores. By the way, our stores were often empty or carried some junk that nobody wanted to buy. During the "rule" of Brezhniev the economy entered a stagnation period and never recovered from it. 

"New era" socialists promise everyone free education and medicine. Well, what to tell you. I can understand free medicine only if to talk about a set of medical services that any citizen can get for free whether he or she has medical insurance or not. However, to make all medical services free of charge is impossible. Our "free" clinics and hospitals were the most horrible looking place on the Earth and if you wanted to get decent service and treatment better you had "connections". Otherwise, you would be treated like dirt and made to buy some basic tools for your own medical examination. That's where socialist "free medicine" would quickly turn into "paid medicine". You would need to buy syringes, needles, alcohol, drippers, bandages and what's not. Don't forget to express your gratitude to the doctor, especially if we talk about some kind of surgery. Not a bribe, but "gratitude". You would learn the amount of "gratitude" from the clinic personnel. As I've said before, I was from a family with "connections" and my grandfather, a doctor, knew other doctors and they would help each other in critical situations. 

Free education was also an interesting concept. The chances to study in a good higher education institution were higher if you had "connections" ))) Children of high standing communist party authorities could enter any university or institute even if they were the dumbest students in the whole world. Both my parents were lucky to get a good education but mostly because they are smart and very diligent people. Both of them experienced situations when somebody important's son or daughter would get high grades just because. The same situation was with employment after university/institute. If you knew somebody there were chances you wouldn't be sent to work in the middle of nowhere in Kazakhstan or Siberia. 

One of my friends keeps telling me that I'm a courageous and frugal young woman. She admires my cooking skills or ability to find a good bargain. Well, these are the skills I attained in spite of, not thanks to the circumstances I grew up in. I will never forget the dress my mom made for me when we had a new year's celebration at school. These were times of Independent Ukraine, but our 90s strongly resembled last decade of the soviet union. So my wonderful mother made me a dress out of her old velvet dress and satin shirt. That was the most trendy and unique looking dress. Her skills to turn an old dress into fashionable attire or a one bedroom apartment into a cosy home for three are even more worth admiration than any of my skills. My dad made furniture for our apartment himself since it was very hard to buy furniture in the soviet stores. He didn't have "connections" of my grandfather, but he has two golden hands and great designer skills.  

I have allergies to socialism and anything connected with it. I don't think that capitalism is the best form of social structure, but it's much better than the "free cheese in the mousetrap". My country was in that mousetrap for over 70 years and we still feel the consequences of making everyone equal both in their needs and abilities. Just remember, socialism will not just give things but it will also take all possible resources from you so that they can distribute them equally among everyone, both those who were laying on the sofa all day long and those who worked hard 24/7.

Value what you have and strive for better. Try to make the world a better place, but don't get fooled but those, whose work is only to throw attractive slogans at you and who has hardly worked a single day doing something real and physically demanding.
Behave!

Sincerely yours )))

Just a couple of photos from the Internet that depicts all the "fun" of socialist well-being

Soviet dolls, as you can tell none of them resembles Barbie )) 

Typical soviet furniture for the living room. 

Soviet car "Lada". Still produced by Russia.

Soviet cassette player. 

Soviet version of "Gameboy"))) Had one game and it was pretty hard to buy it. One needed "connections" ))

Hospital room. Of course, some hospitals were in much better shape, but you could never know what kind of accommodations you would have to deal with.

Home gown, typical attire for many women and not just at home. 

Soviet-style shopping.

A line to the shoe shop. It was very hard to buy good quality footware. 

Soviet version of playstation

Typical soviet bathroom. 

What do Ukrainians do in summer?

What's up, the world? How is it going? The planet is spinning, the seasons are changing and we are already past the summer solstice. Time flies. So, summer is officially everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Have you noticed that everything slows down in summer? I always found it interesting. You see, you would assume that since it's too warm in summer for quick movements and intensive activities, in winter it should be on the contrary - everyone should be energized and productive. But it happens that it's not exactly true - everyone is cold and complains about freezing temperatures outside and grey skies and when they get into warm premises they turn into a jellyfish. In summer people definitely don't like to think about work or stay at work. All their thoughts are occupied about rest, for some unknown for me reason. You see, most of my professional life I've been a freelancer and right now I'm doing a job that is pretty much 7 days a week. So even during summer, there are no options for me not to work. When I worked as a language tutor I tried to have at least a week or two of vacations in summer, but I discovered that my travelling wasn't very enjoyable during this time - there were crowds of people literally everywhere: in the streets, in the restaurants, in the museums, on the beach and in the forest. Not fun at all! So now I have a plan to go on vacations in between the touristic seasons because the best rest can take place only in a quiet atmosphere.
But, there is still the main question unanswered! What do Ukrainians do in summer?! Well, from the end of May Ukrainians start dreaming about vacations. Any office worker is literally daydreaming about holidays and the sea. The work tangibly slows down and every new post on Facebook with the sea, beaches, lakes and foreign cityscapes collects a ton of likes and jealous comments. People exchange recommendations as for restaurants, prices, routes and hotels. But, not all Ukrainians spend summer travelling. While I studied at school and university my summers took place at my grandparents' house. I bet you are surprised that I didn't try to find a part-time job as many students do in the US, but Ukraine in the 90s and 2000s young people didn't have too many options for part-time jobs. Most employers didn't want to play the games with inexperienced young people that would work for them only 2-3 months a year. So my options for summer mostly consisted of visiting my grandparents and helping with their homesteads. In summer I would tan while gardening, taking care of chickens, collecting strawberries, deweeding onion, carrot, tomato etc. patches, cleaning the house, cleaning around the house, watering garden, collecting ripe fruit and vegetables and many many other activities. Doing all that in summer I still somewhat envied my peers that went to visit their grandparents in the villages. All summer long they were herding cows and goats, took ducks and geese to the ponds, lakes or rivers. Their summer seemed so much more exciting to me than mine in a small town where I could do some shopping, or have something tasty in a cafe. Now I understand that these were the best summers: I could read as much as I wanted, play badminton with my friends, ride my bicycle, swim in the river at the end of our property along with doing something useful. Summer also is a period of time that we, Ukrainians, use to prepare for winter. We pickle and marinade a lot of vegetables, make jams, confitures and jars of fruit butter, harvest potatoes, onions, carrots and other veggies that can be preserved in cellars through winter.
So you might wonder whether anything has changed since then and whether in 2019 Ukrainians still spend summers the same way I did back at the beginning of the 2000s. I can't tell you about all Ukraine but there are definitely more changes in lifestyle. Office workers with good salaries try to travel in summer abroad. One of the most popular countries until recent was Turkey with its all-inclusive resorts. After receiving visa-free access to most of the European countries people started broadening their horizons and improving the quality of their travels. A lot of people that don't have the opportunity to travel abroad either stay at home, take trips to relatives or explore Ukraine. The latter activity becomes more and more popular because of a great number of resources that promote internal travelling. Ukraine is historically and naturally very rich country and it has a lot to offer not just to its own citizens but has a lot to surprise with people from all over the world.
In case you would like to refresh how wonderful is my country, I welcome you to read my other story https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/what-to-expect-from-trip-to-ukraine.html

I just want to wish you a wonderful summer Friday and even better summer weekend!
Behave!

Sincerely yours!

All photos were taken by me. All right reserved. 

Chornobyl

A bit of a spoiler for today's story. You are looking at the photo of the Chornobyl Nuclear Station after the fire was finally put out. Today's story will be my scarce memories about those events. 

(the photo was taken from Pinterest)

Hey guys! How is life? Looks like I took a pretty long break, but I guess it happens once in a while with blogging. Mainly because Life keeps happening and even in the life of an average person do happen a lot of things. It took me some time to start writing today's story mostly because I was trying to figure out which way I want to go with it. I don't know how many of you watched the mini-series by HBO Chernobyl (the correct way to spell would be ChOrnobyl though) but I think that a lot of people in the world have heard about this tragedy that touched my land and many other countries in the world. After watching the third episode on Monday I decided that it's time to share my experience and tell you how it felt to be a 5-year-old kid in 1986 and how it influenced my adult life.
So, on the 26th of April 1986б in the middle of the night, an explosion on the 4th reactor of Chornobyl nuclear station shook the grounds of the town Prypiat that is located 4 miles away from it. My mom remembers that night very clearly: she celebrated her birthday in the circle of our family friends. It was a very warm night and when her and my dad went to see off the guests the chestnut trees were already blooming. People that went through very tragic events say that they usually remember the very day if the accident clearly and with a ton of details. Americans I talked to about the 9/11 tragedy remember what they were doing and where they were when heard the news. When Chornobyl explosion happened there was a very limited circle of people who have detailed memories of that night and there are a couple of reasons for that. The main one is that to know anything about what happened you either had to be part of the nuclear station team, an inhabitant of Prypiat or a top official in soviet government. If you were an average member of the public you didn't know anything about what was going on till some time in May.
As a little kid I spent each summer at my grandparents. That year I came to them earlier than usual since I didn't go to school yet. I spent a lot of time outside since we have a very nice house and a good amount of land around it. That's why I remember clearly that my grandmother talked to my grandfather on the phone and after that, she commanded me inside. My soft, kind grandmother literally commanded me inside, though it was a nice summer day, the sun was warm and bright. I wasn't allowed to go outside or even leave the door open. And my grandmother started putting a wet bed sheet over the entrance door. A couple of days later came my parents and took me back home. That was another weird thing because it was just the beginning of summer and I would usually go home at the end of August, not at the beginning of May. The thing is that my grandparents live in the northern part of Ukraine and if you look on the map it's on the same line with Chornobyl. My parents live in the southwest of Ukraine and at that point, it seemed a good idea to move me as far away from the possible influence the explosion could have on the nearest parts of Ukraine. We didn't know that the radioactive cloud has covered almost all Ukraine and it really didn't matter where you were. Much later we learned that the town where live my parents (Zalishchyky, Ternopil region) was covered with radioactive iodine and strontium-90. Natural strontium is a harmless metal that is highly reactive. Strontium-90 is a completely different story: it can be absorbed by the human body and stored in bones just like calcium. And if swallowed or inhaled it gets very harmful and can cause bone cancer and leukemias. The Japanese scientists back at the end of the 80s warned the soviet government that there would be two main waves of people affected by the radiation: those who were involved in the liquidation of the catastrophe right away, and another wave was to be statistically visible 26-28 years later since that's the half-life of strontium-90. Nowadays every 42nd Ukrainian has cancer. Most people of my generation have an enlarged thyroid gland. We have never clearly explained what it means. But knowing that thyroid is one of the most vital glands that produces hormones needed by every single cell in your body makes a lot of people nervous.
When watching the mini-series by HBO I felt nothing but fear. That was not the fear and suspense you experience when watching a horror movie. In a horror movie, everything is a fake and your reactions are caused by grim scenery, well-selected music, and unexpected actions of the main characters. When watching something based on real-life events your brain keeps reiterating: it's all real, those people are real, those events are real. When you see a body of dying station worker covered in blood, you do know that radiation caused all his vessels slowly degrade and now all his body is an open wound. Unfortunately, reality sometimes is even scarier than somebody's imagination. Then you see all those important looking people sitting around the table and determining human fates as if it's a card game. In my opinion, Chornobyl catastrophe is one of the biggest crimes in the history of soviet union, mostly because we, the people of the country, were not told the TRUTH. There is nothing scarier when you don't know that truth.
If you decide to watch the mini-series, please, don't think that the people shown in it are a small circle of people that suffered from the consequences of the catastrophe. Think about the numbers of victims that equal the population of the country, I would even say the population of several countries because the radioactive cloud didn't care about the boundaries or nationalities.
Life goes on. Our planet has a lot of scars made by its unwise inhabitants. But it can heal itself and even Chornobyl exclusion zone proves it. Almost no human presence there has resulted in the renewal of wildlife: wild animals like bears, elks, wolves, foxes started returning there and feel very comfortable with no humans around. The rivers are cranking with fishes. Nature has started a very long process of revival. Is humanity able to heal itself? I doubt it. Chornobyl tragedy hasn't taught us much. Fukushima happened not so long ago in a highly technological Japan. I guess we made our choice.
I think if I had three wishes I would spend one of them on humanity to gain wisdom.
So try to be wise and behave!

SIncerely yours )))

P.S. No photos today. I have never been to Chornobyl, but this trip is on my bucket list. I want to see the dead town of Prypiat and to pay my dues to the monument dedicated to all the people that died trying to save me and millions of people. However, I will leave here a link to the project I work with. They have been to the exclusion zone and talked to people that moved back to their homes despite the radiation. Their stories are simple but very sincere.

https://ukrainer.net/self-settlers-of-chornobyl-returning-home/


https://ukrainer.net/prybirsk-life/

https://ukrainer.net/a-return-to-the-exclusion-zone/

How I was baking Easter Bread (Paska)

Hey guys! Here is my photo report on my first ever Easter Bread or as we call it in Ukraine - Paska.

The recipe is pretty simple and there are not too many ingredients: 2 pounds of flour (I haven't figured out which flour is better: self-rising or all-purpose, this time I used self-rising), stick and a half of butter, 6 yolks and 3 eggs, a cup of sugar (can be a bit more since the US sugar is less sweet than Ukrainian), one bag of yeast, one box of raisins (I mean the bigger one), cup and a half of milk.

Now, let's go step by step:

Sift the flour even if the package says it's already been sifted since in the process of sifting flour gets saturated with oxygen and it makes the dough fluffier.

With a mixer beat the yolks and eggs into a foam (I have no clue how people lived without mixers, hallelujah to technical progress!)

Take milk, slightly warm it up, just a bit, then add a teaspoon of sugar and a bag of yeast (yeast likes sugar and warm liquids)

Cut a stick and a half of butter like that

and melt it in a microwave like that (or in any other way you know)

Add eggs, yeast mix and butter to the flour

and start mixing all that together

after a couple of minutes, the dough will stop sticking to your hands. Keep kneading the dough for at least 15 minutes and form a ball out of it.

Let it sit in warmth for one hour, but don't put in on any heated surface, cover it with some clean kitchen cloth.

In an hour it will increase at least two times.

Let's have some veggies! Just kidding, I bout these big cans to use as baking cups since Paska should have a certain form. In Ukraine, I could buy special baking cups in a supermarket, here in the US I had to use my creativity )))

A proof that I did take all veggies out )))

I cut out bottoms of wax paper so that my Paska didn't stick in the process of baking.

So you cut off a piece of dough, make it flat and put as many raisins as you like. You can put other stuff like dried pineapples or cranberries or anything else you like. I prefer raisins, A LOT of raisins ))

 

Then you roll the dough like this and cut it in half in the middle

Put your roll into the can and flatten it at the bottom so that the dough takes 1/3 of the can

I had way more dough than just for 3 cans so I made some other things out of it. Next, you cover the forms again and let them sit for another hour.

Warm up the oven to 370F and put the Paska inside. Bake for 30 minutes. I can tell you that there is a big difference between baking yeast dough in an electric stove and a gas one. I prefer gas ovens, but I have an electric at this point. 

TADAAAAM!!! Not exactly what I expected, I wanted my Paska to grow higher, but as I've mentioned at the beginning, I picked self-rising flour and I'm not sure whether it's a good choice for yeast dough. But, there will be another year and another experiment with all-purpose flour. Maybe even sooner than next year )))

Bon appetite, and Jesus is Risen! He is risen indeed! Христос Воскрес! Воістину Воскрес!

Have a great weekend and behave!

Q & A about Ukraine

Hello everyone everywhere! Hope you have a wonderful Friday and get ready to have a relaxing weekend. Every time I write about Ukraine I wonder if I do a good job telling about my country. I know that all of us are busy with own problems and lives and very often we don't have time to think about things that have no direct influence on us. However, I do want to tell the world about my country and I do want to hope that someone might get interested and decide to see it with own eyes. 
That's why today's text I will write in the form of question-answer format and all the questions I will take from the Google search. So let's begin. 

• Is it safe to travel to Ukraine?

Yes, it is safe to travel to Ukraine. It is the biggest country in Europe and if you take a look at the map you can see that the military conflict takes place on a small territory far away from major big cities or the capital.

• Is Ukraine part of Russia?

No, Ukraine is not part of Russia. We used to be one of the Soviet Union republics and prior to that we were part of russian empire for some time, but since 1991 we are an independent state that tries get away from under russian influence. Unfortunately, it cost us not just a lot of effort but also loss of some of our territories. But we don't give up.

• Is there still fighting in Ukraine?

Yes, unfortunately. Every day our courageous soldiers do everything they can to protect the rest of our country and let all of us live a peaceful life and develop as a democracy.

• What does Ukraine speak?

We speak Ukrainian, a lot of us are bilingual or even trilingual depending on where from the country you come. We speak Ukrainian and Russian, or Ukrainian, Polish and Russian, or Ukrainian, Russian and Hungarian, or Ukrainian and Czech. There are a lot of different combinations since we have a lot of neighbors in the west and it really influences which languages people can speak. A lot of Ukrainians learn English at school but they can be very shy to try speaking with foreigners. 

• Is Ukraine a developed country?

We are a young country, just 28 years old and after the soviet union collapse we were left with empty pockets. Most money stayed in Moscow and never made it back. So from an economic standpoint, we are a developing economy. You might hear a lot of complaints from Ukrainians about their well being, at the same time it's quite an advantage if you plan to travel to Ukraine.

• Is Ukraine a democracy?

Definitely YES! Our latest elections demonstrated it to upteenth degree. We are a parliamentary-presidential republic. It means that our Verkhovna Rada (an analog of the US Senate) has more power than our president. The president is responsible for foreign policy and is a Commander in Chief.

• Is it safe to go to Chernobyl?

A lot of people in the world have heard about the technogenic catastrophe In Chernobyl in 1986. I plan on writing a longer story about what happened there. To cut the long story short one of the nuclear reactors exploded causing horrible radioactive pollution to a quite extensive area both in Ukraine and Bilorus. Nowadays, you can go to the 30-kilometer exclusion zone and see with your own eyes the nuclear station and the ghost town of Prypiat. Your trip will be planned and controlled so that there is no harm to your health. Such a trip is on my bucket list because I want to see with my own eyes what influenced and changed the lives of so many people from my generation and not only.

• Is Ukraine a NATO member?

 Unfortunately not, otherwise we wouldn't have the problems with russia we currently have. At the same time, our troops are going through different military drills together with NATO troops and on the state level, we have proclaimed that NATO is our goal.

• What grows Ukraine?

Ukraine has 30% of the world's black soils. It means that we are an agricultural country and can grow pretty much anything that can be planted according to 4 seasons that we have. We export more than 30 million tons of grain every year. So no matter where in the world you reside, there are pretty high chances that the bread you eat might contain grain grown in Ukraine. 

• Is Ukraine a member of the EU?

No, we are not. We signed a so-called association with the EU. From a practical point of view, the association is beneficial for Ukrainian exports. A lot of goods produced in Ukraine are of good quality and can compete with the ones on the European market. From 2016 Ukrainians don't need visas to travel around Europe if they don't exceed the 90-day limit. As for foreigners, most travelers don't need visas if they come to Ukraine if they plan to stay not longer than 90 days. If they do want to stay in Ukraine longer, they can just cross the border and come back right away and stay for another 90 days. Convenient, right?

If you would like to get answers to other questions, I would be very glad to answer them. 

Enjoy your weekend and behave!!!

Pysanka and Krashanka

Hello dear everyone! How is life? What's new? I want to tell you about EGGS! I promise not to be as boring as modern scientists that can't decide whether eggs are healthy or not healthy food. I want to tell you about the sacral meaning of eggs across the centuries and cultures. Have you ever thought why Easter and eggs are going so well together? And why a bunny looks kind of weird in this team? So, eggs. An egg is a symbol of life in many cultures. In ancient Egypt, an egg has a symbolic role in the myth of Creation and in Christianity, it symbolizes Jesus Christ's emergence from the tomb after his resurrection. So you would wonder where is the bunny? That's very right, no bunny, at all. Easter Bunny showed up and became popular in the 19th century and is more of a marketing thing rather than any kind symbolic creature. On the other hand, a lamb is an animal that is directly connected to Jesus and when as a child I saw a lamb on Polish easter cards somehow I knew what it stood for.
So back to eggs, it is believed that when the Roman Emperor didn't want to believe that Jesus Christ resurrected the boiled eggs on his breakfast table turned red. Since then red colored egg symbolizes Jesus Christ's blood and cracking the egg on Easter morning symbolizes his emergence from the tomb. With time egg cracking turned into Easter game and the winner is the person whose egg stays intact after hitting the egg of the opponent. As kids, we always were trying to find an egg with the potential of the unbreakable hero ))
In Eastern Orthodox tradition exist four different kinds of Easter eggs: krashanka, pysanka, driapanka and krapanka. Each name derives from the method of putting ornament on them: krashanka comes from the verb "krasyty" - to paint (to paint with one color), pysanka comes from the verb "pysaty" - to draw or write, driapanka comes from the verb "driapaty" - to scratch (the egg is covered with one color and then an ornament is scratched on its surface with a sharp pointed object) and krapanka comes from the verb "krapaty" - "to drip" (when the ornament is made by dripping colors on the egg surface).
The most popular and widespread in Ukraine are Krahsanka and Pysanka. In my family, my grandmothers would usually make krashanka since they are the quickest and easiest way of decorating eggs. You just need to take a lot of onion skins which house ladies start collecting before Easter, boil them in a pot and you will see that the water changes its color to very intensive dark red. Then you put there either raw eggs or boiled ones. And in a couple of minutes, you will have a bunch of reddish colored eggs. If you feel very creative you can tie to the egg small cool shaped leaves like parsley, for example, and then immerse it in the colored water. There is a bunch of natural colorants that can be used to make the Easter eggs be more fun, especially if you have kids or grandkids all this coloring can turn into a really fun activity.
Pysanka is way more elaborate looking Easter egg and more loaded with symbols and meanings. Ukrainian pysanka tradition dates back to Pre-Christian era when the most important deity was Dazhboh (the God of the Sun). It was impossible for a human to get anywhere close to the Sun but birds could fly in the skies and it looked like they could get closer to the Sun than the human. Hence, the ability to harvest eggs that laid birds that could get closer to the Sun provided the connection between the human and the most important deity of that period in human history. In addition, the appearance of life out of hard eggshell embodied it with the power of giving life. The egg was a part of many rites and celebrations all year round. So when Christianity system of beliefs was forming the egg with its great load of meanings was made part of it. Pysanka combines centuries of traditions and can be read as a book if you know what each symbol stands for. In order to make a pysanka you will need a pysak (a kind of stylus) and wax. The wax gets melted and then you dip the pysak into it and draw an ornament on the egg. When you are done the egg is put into the colored water and after it's dry you put next ornament and immerse it into next color. This way the ornaments and colors on pysanka can be very complex and various. Traditionally all this process takes place at night when children are already asleep and all housework is done. The eggs were decorated exclusively by women after they pronounced a traditional prayer. Nowadays, in order to preserve this ancient tradition, you can attend workshops conducted both by male and female craftspeople. The Hutsuls (an ethnic group that lives in the region of Ukrainian Carpathians) have a legend that says the life on the Earth will last as long as the tradition of making pysanka will be preserved.
The variety of ornaments and colors can be really impressive and also depends on the region of origin. The main colors used on pysanka are red, black, yellow, blue, white, green and brown. The ornaments are numerous and represent both Christian and Pre-Christian symbols.
There are more methods of decorating eggs for Easter celebration. The laziest one is to buy Easter stickers. Another one that looks pretty impressive is to make ornaments out of beads. Wax coating is put on an egg and then beads are embedded on it.

So with this post, I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter and Tasty Easter Bread as we say in Ukraine. Unlike everyone on the 21st of April Ukrainians will abide the Palm or Willow Sunday and our Easter will take place a week later. All this mess is again because of "old" and "new" calendar. Hopefully, at some point, we will be able to celebrate Easter and Christmas with the rest of the world.

With all of this said and done I wish you a great weekend and as always - behave!

Here are a couple of photos of incredible Pysanka and Krashanka. All of them are taken from the Internet except the one showing my silver coin Easter Pysanka.

My precious ))) (imagine me saying it with the Gollum's voice from the Lord of the Rings)

This coin is a copy of Vegreville pysanka monument located in Canadian town Vegreville. If you want to learn more here is a Wikipedia link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegreville_egg

Photos taken from the Internet.

Do Ukrainians celebrate Easter?

Hey Guys! How are you? Did you miss me??? I'm sure you did, you just didn't know how to tell me about it ))) So here I am! Spring is a great time of the year. If you live somewhere with 4 seasons you do know what I'm talking about: nature wakes up, birds are chirping, the grass is getting green, tree buds are turning into beautiful flowers and all the worries and depressions go away. Well, maybe not all of them but at least some weather relates ones at least )) Spring is also the time of one of the most loved and celebrated holidays of Easter. Even if you don't know much about its religious background I am more than sure you still do like it. From my own experience, I know that it is celebrated differently in the US and Ukraine. So here's how Ukrainians celebrate Easter.
To begin with, I want to remind you what spring is a very important season for everyone who's involved in different agricultural activities. I've written about it before and if you missed it here's a link to my story about Ukrainian spring activities:

https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/03/what-do-ukrainians-do-in-spring.html

So everything starts on the Palm Sunday or as we call it in Ukraine, Willow Sunday. You see, we don't have palms like in Jerusalem so palm leaves were changed for willow branches since willow is one of the first trees to get bright green buds. On this day Ukrainians make small bouquets out of willow branches and take them to churches to be blessed with the holy water. After the Sunday service, people slightly whip each other with the bunch of branches saying: It's not me whipping, it's the willow is whipping you, Easter is in a week! There is a whole bunch of different traditions connected to this day, and some people believe that if you have a sore throat and you eat a bud from a willow branch blessed on Willow Sunday you will get rid of the sickness almost instantaneously. That's why people keep those bouquets for the whole year will next Willow Sunday. They also believe to have a protective power against anything evil. Monday is the first day of all the fun! Starting Monday all the cleaning and preparations in full swing set off: cleaning in the house, outside the house, cooking and sometimes even some bigger things like painting inside and outside (fences, benches and what's not). One of my grandmothers was very big into Easter preparations. Every spring she would clean all the windows, whitewash inside the house and even paint the wooden floors. 
On Thursday all the "dirty" work was supposed to be finished since it is called the Pure Thursday (Maundy Thursday, commemorates the foot washing and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles). In old times people that ran homesteads had to clean every corner of their property paying a lot of attention to barns and stables since even their cattle was supposed to have clean premises for the Easter. 
Easter Friday or as we call it Passion Friday is the day when Jesus Christ was actually crucified and to honor him this day no loud music, laughter or any kind of entertainment is allowed. Of course, it's not a must and in big cities, you will not notice any difference between regular Friday and Easter Friday but in smaller towns and villages this peculiarity is usually more noticeable. Another big thing about Easter Friday is that this is the day of baking Paska. It is a traditional Easter bread if you have ever had Panettone that's the closest you can get to Ukrainian Paska. Since it's a yeast-based bread the process of making it is quite challenging and not all ladies of the house have mastered this art. Apart from being not that easy to make there is also a great variety of traditions and rules of behavior when making Paska. Nowadays you can buy Paska in all big supermarket chains since they usually have own bakeries or you can order it from small confectionaries. In my family, Paska is usually baked by my grandfather and my mom in case my grandfather's Paska hasn't turned out well and there is no power in this world to persuade my grandpa to buy one, even if you used to negotiate with terrorists you still won't be able to make him buy a Paska. 
For me, Easter Saturday always associated with planting potatoes. My grandfather and I would do it every Easter Saturday together. I don't know if we broke any church rules by doing it but it was our own tradition. In the afternoon we would usually put together an Easter basket and go to church to bless it. According to more strict Easter rules you are supposed to go to the Easter Vigil that starts at midnight and at the end of this service your Easter basket will be blessed by a priest with the Holy Water. With years the church has developed more liberal rules for people who don't go to all church events and created an alternative option that is very popular with many families. We always go to bless our basket on Saturday afternoon. 
When I was a kid my parents took me to the Easter Vigil once. I will never forget that experience. It was special because of several reasons. As you know religion was forbidden in the Soviet Union but closer to the end of the soviet union existence many restrictions were ignored by people. One of them was connected to religion and churches. That night all the churches in my native Volodymyr were open and priests were serving the Vigil. I was sitting on my father's shoulders so that I could see the priest dressed in a festive gown and I was breathing in warm night air mixed with incenses. I was too little to understand that it was the smell of freedom in the air. There was a big crowd of people, all of them were happy and joyful, we met a lot of our acquaintances and some relatives. The best part was that we didn't go to one particular church but we made a real tour to a couple of them and everywhere we went there was this great spirit of joy. 
What do we put into the Easter Basket? Well, in my family we put an Easter bread in the center, some specially prepared eggs that we call pysanka or krashanka (I plan to write about them a separate story), homemade sausage and salt. In other families, the variety of items can be different, but the Easter bread and eggs are a "must". When people come back from church this food can't be touched till morning unless you went to the night service and came back home early morning, because all family is supposed to get around the table and start their breakfast with the blessed food. Since all the time before Easter is a very strict lent, the breakfast is the first meal when the meat is back on the table. Before starting the meal the eldest person in the family says a short prayer asking God for health and an opportunity to meet the next Easter in the same circle of people. The blessed egg is the first item from the basket to be eaten due to its sacral meaning as a symbol of life and a role it had according to the Bible. The next meal of the day is usually a time when relatives and family friends pay each other a visit. 
In Ukraine Easter is celebrated three days. The most fun day is Monday, it's called Wet Monday because it's an official tradition to pour, splash, sprinkle water on girls and young women (you can try it with grandmas too but I don't think they will be very happy about it). Real water battles take place on this day because in order to avoid gender discrimination girls strike back! One year my best friend and his cousin decided to "surprise" me with an unexpected visit to my home. They did the worst thing that could come to their heads - instead of water they used (for some unknown reason) perfume!!!! I couldn't get rid of that smell for the next couple of days. 
During all Easter holiday period and till the Holy Trinity Ukrainians don't greet each other differently than "Christ is risen!" and the answer would be "Indeed, he is risen!"

Next Sunday after Easter, we have a so-called Antipascha or St. Thomas day, the day when we go to cemeteries and commemorate our deceased family members and relatives. We bring Easter bread and eggs to share with them and leave lit candles. 

So that's my story for today! Hope you had a great Palm Sunday. Ukrainians will abide Palm or as you know now Willow Sunday next week because of the calendar shift that I've described in my Christmas story (https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html).

Have a great Sunday and behave yourself!

As always here are some photos of Easter bread and Easter basket that my best friend was so kind to lend for my story (and she makes the best Easter bread I have ever had in my life!!!)

Traditional Easter basket

Easter Bread

An embroidered serviette saying "Christ is risen" embroidered by my friend's mom