The Ukrainian Vechornytsi Celebration Held in Winnipeg December 7th Teaches Many Cultural Traditions

A century ago the most colorful and most successful form of gathering of young people in Ukrainian villages was a celebration called Vechornitsi.  At them, young people had the opportunity to relax, have fun, and even establish relationships. Music, singing, dancing, elegant clothes, a joint dinner - everything spoke of the extraordinary.

On Sunday, December 7, Ukrainian Vechornytsi were held in the UNF in Winnipeg. All visitors had the opportunity to immerse themselves in a real evening of Ukrainian culture. Authentic household dances, games and rituals gave all guests the opportunity to feel the special spirit of extremely rich Ukrainian traditions.

What role did Vechornytsi play in the life of Ukrainians and how young people had fun at evening gatherings, see further in the story.

"The global idea is to show the Ukrainian culture as it was two hundred years ago, and not as the whole world knows it is," says Yevgenia Tatarenko, the organizer of the evening. The woman assures that viburnum, lard, borscht and hopak are not the genetic code of Ukrainians, but only a stereotypical image planted by the Soviet Union in order to make the original Ukrainian culture primitive, short-lived and worn.

"For the world, Ukrainian culture is hopak, dancers, perogies, beautiful girls. This is how Ukrainian culture was shown during Soviet times, but before that it didn't even look like that," says Tatarenko.

She explains that Vechornytsi events heralded winter celebrations. They were held at a time when nature was going to sleep. Grain and vegetables had been collected, so it was time for "meetings", that is, evening parties. And since our great-grandfathers did not have social networks, everyone looked for acquaintances precisely at such evening gatherings, because for young people it was the only way to "show themselves".

Tatarenko says that the holiday event was made possible thanks to the work of a large number of volunteers. Most of them are newly arrived Ukrainians who seek to build and develop Ukrainian culture in Canada:

"I have 35 volunteers and 95% are newly arrived Ukrainians who arrived just a few months ago. I see how much they want to help, and it gives me wings. It is important for them to be part of a large Ukrainian family, to help, to be useful, and I am pleased to give them this opportunity."

Evening parties were a real folk school of life. As in the family, young people were taught various crafts here. So, in addition to entertainment, young attendees learned carving, embroidery and weaving.  And at today's event, children and adults had the opportunity to learn many of the folk arts of Ukraine.

The main feature and surprise of the evening was the show of national clothing and its characteristic features. Eleven girls wore clothes which represented eleven different regions of Ukraine.

No evening gathering was complete without fortune-telling. So today, the girls had the opportunity to look into the future and find out their destiny.

On this miraculous evening, the rite of baking kalyta was not missed. This is the name of a large cake made of white flour with a hole inside, which was traditionally baked by all the girls together. They kneaded the dough in turn: from the oldest to the youngest. It was baked in the oven until it became a rusk, and the top was decorated with dry cherries or raisins. The large donut-shaped cake was then dangled from a red thread from a stick. The young men took turns trying to get a bite of the cake which was moved about high above their heads. This was done in order for unmarried girls looking on to be able to appreciate how smart, brave and able each man was to find solutions in unforeseen situations.

At this event, Yevhenii and Miroslava flew from Edmonton to teach folk dances to the Ukrainians of Winnipeg. For the master class, the simplest dances were chosen so that beginners could easily learn.  There were couple and threesome dances.

"We remembered what Ukrainian traditional dances are, because in the modern world we don't dance them, unfortunately. Today we danced buckwheat, the moon and the favourite Ukrainian potato dance", says Myroslava Oksentiuk.

Yuliia Kovalenko, Ukrainian View, U Multicultural