JOURNALIST'S NOTEBOOK IN UKRAINE: Holiday time in Ukraine (02/09/97)

JOURNALIST'S NOTEBOOK IN UKRAINE

by Marta Kolomayets

Holiday time in Ukraine

The Christmas holidays in Ukraine are over. Finally. It seems that Ukrainians have been celebrating for weeks. Actually, they have been celebrating for a month. The holidays began with St. Nicholas descending upon Ukraine on December 19, and according to legend (begun, I think, by journalists who wanted to continue the merry-making) leaving earth on January 19, on the Feast of the Epiphany.

Needless to say, the Ukrainian government did its share to give its citizens the opportunity to celebrate during this holiday season, granting them extra days off from work by creatively managing the calendar. For example, January 1 and 2 - a Wednesday and a Thursday - were declared days off. Friday and Saturday, January 3 and 4, became working days, while January 5, 6, 7 and 8 - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - were declared official holidays, with people going to work on Saturday, January 11, in a swap for having Wednesday, January 8, off.

Confusing, you say? It was so confusing for most of Ukraine's citizens that many of them took off at 1 p.m. on December 31, 1996, and did not go back to work until Monday, January 13, 1997. Of course, those who celebrate old-style New Year and the Feast Day of St. Vasyl on January 14, did not make it back to work until January 15.

Although President Leonid Kuchma this year extended not only New Year's greetings to Ukrainians throughout the world, but Christmas wishes as well, the meaning of Christmas still tends to elude many of the people in this society controlled for decades by an atheistic regime. Five years plus since independence has demonstrated little progress in educating Ukrainians - the majority of whom are Christians - about the birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior.

In his Christmas message President Kuchma noted: "Today, Christmas is a life-giving source of spiritual rehabilitation, inspiring us to unity and cooperation for the sake of our Motherland." He noted that Ukraine appreciates the social mission of the Church, and its role in the cultural and moral development of the nation. But, despite such convictions, little has been done by the state to educate its people about the role of the Church. And that's right here in Kyiv, the cradle of Slavic Christianity, where Prince Volodymyr baptized the land and its people more than 1,000 years ago.

The lack of importance attached to the Christmas holiday is underscored in a recent poll conducted by SOCIS-Gallup and published in Den, Ukraine's national newspaper. When readers were asked what their favorite holiday was, only 16.6 percent said Christmas, while 17.3 percent declared Easter their favorite celebration. Also noted were a person's birthday, coming in with 15.8 percent, and International Women's Day (March 8), with 2.7 percent.

The most popular holiday in Ukraine today is New Year's Day - cited by 48.7 percent of the population. So many people consider this day the highlight of the winter season and this is the day for which they spend weeks preparing. On New Year's Eve the fir tree, adorned with lights, candies, ornaments and garland, goes up in people's living rooms; (there is no Nativity scene under the tree); on New Year's Day gifts are exchanged among friends and family.

This is the holiday that most families spend together. New Year's Eve is not marked by wild parties and dances in large hall and restaurants - although a lot of drinking does go on. It is often met in the comfortable surroundings of one's home, with loved ones gathered around a table laden with Ukrainian delicacies and bottles of the bubbly.

Another poll, also conducted by SOCIS-Gallup and published in Den, shows that 75.2 percent of those surveyed celebrate New Year's Eve in their family circle, 15.2 percent celebrate with close friends, while less than half of one percent celebrate with colleagues and only 0.2 percent spend it in restaurants or cafes.

Since my arrival here during the Christmas season in 1991 (I arrived in Ukraine on New Year's Eve according to the Julian calendar - January 13 and known here as Malanka), there has been a significant change during the holiday season, at least cosmetically. It used to be that the streets were dark and only once in a while did one spot a silver tree in a storefront window. Although, as far back as my friends here remember, there was always a big tree in the center of October Revolution (now Independence) Square, little else marked the holidays in the nation's capital.

In the past two to three years, Ukrainians have been catching on. As Western businesses come into Ukraine, they bring with them the grandeur and garlands of their world. Besides the central square's Christmas tree this year, the streets were decorated with slogans and billboards, greeting people with "Khrystos Rozhdayetsia" - "Slavim Yoho." Companies like Coca-Cola and Marlboro spread the word of peace and good tidings with the same zeal and money they spend in the West.

Cosmetically things are beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Ukraine (there was even a lot of snow on the ground this year, making it a white Christmas), but it does not look like the true meaning of Christmas will be understood here in the near future. Little is being done to teach children the story of Christmas. Sunday schools at some churches, be they Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant, have made some attempts to teach children Bible stories, emphasizing morals and ethics. But, those schools are small and don't reach a large number of children.

The state does fund a number of plays, skits and shows for children, called "Yalynky," but they have only entertainment value. These plays are indeed plentiful one of my friends took her children to six such events in the span of a week.

I happened to go to one of these events with my godson, who is 5 years old. I was confused about the play, so I can't imagine what message he received during the two-hour performance. It included everything from dancing bears to wobbling snowmen, to baby Jesus and King Herod. St. Nicholas made it across the stage once or twice, and a few dancing snowflakes whirled around him. There was no coherent story.

As we were walking home from the show, "Did Moroz," who is described by some people as the atheist cousin of Santa Claus and St. Nicholas, greeted us at Independence Square. This particular one - and there were many roaming around the Square - was very young (I don't think he even shaved yet) and thin as a rail, but he was armed with a Polaroid and ready to take our photo for 5 hryvni.

Christ is Born. Businessmen rejoice.

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