LETTER TO THE EDITOR (12/12/99)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

A Ukrainian festival run by non-Ukrainians

Dear Editor:

First of all, let me thank you for your informative newspaper, which I look forward to receiving each week (but which I sometimes don't get as some issues seem to be "lost" in the mail). Therefore, I don't know if you published information about the Ukrainian festival, held in Springfield, Ore., this year.

It was held on August 7, and is held each year on the first Saturday in August. What makes it unique, are the efforts of so many non-Ukrainians, who spent endless hours in preparation: dancers, singers, cooks, stage-builders, costume-designers, sign-makers. This community of many nations becomes Ukrainian for one day.

When the Oregon Slavonic Choir sang the Ukrainian national anthem, my soul stirred. I saw faces from many nations and the director of the choir from Korea, singing familiar words, beautifully and phonetically, in Ukrainian. They included works of Taras Shevchenko and Ukrainian folksongs.

The many young dancers were also not Ukrainian, yet their families had spent endless hours sewing traditional Ukrainian costumes. Their Canadian instructor volunteered months of his time, choreographing and teaching the intricacies of Ukrainian-style dancing, to young people, most of whom never heard of Ukraine.

There was delicious Ukrainian food for sale, and demonstrations of ancient Ukrainian arts of icon-painting, pysanka-painting, wreath-making, and books about Ukraine.

When I tried to find the "Ukrainian" organizers of the festival, I kept finding that people of many nations were involved in every phase of the preparation. The man in charge of tickets was from India, the food server was German and the stagehand was Afro-American.

What a great tribute to Ukrainians! These hard-working people of Springfield honored and recognized our language, history and traditions in such a beautiful way, yet so many, of Ukrainian descent, have forgotten or don't have time to carry on such traditions. Sometimes, it takes "foreigners" to preserve Ukraine's rich heritage.

I thank this West coast community, in the memory of my Ukrainian parents, and grandparents who struggled so hard to reach America for a better life.

Halia Pushkar
Cos Bay, Oregon

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