THE THINGS WE DO...: "Vesna krasna" - beautiful spring (04/08/01)

THE THINGS WE DO...

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

"Vesna krasna" - beautiful spring

God-willing, if those Colorado lows miss us in prairie Canada, and the Alberta Clippers miss you folks in the United States spring is on its way. Ah, to have been in Washington, when the forsythia bloomed in February, while in Winnipeg the temperature still hovered at 40 degrees below zero (that's both Centigrade and Fahrenheit!).

Well, at least here in the center of the continent, there are no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no mudslides (too flat), and no pollution (the wind just blows whatever there may be straight north-south from Hudson's Bay straight down to the Gulf of Mexico). The Red River does flood periodically, but does it very slowly, so there is time to prepare the sandbags. And the mosquitoes won't be out for another few months.

But while winter is here in Manitoba for many more weeks, the signs of spring are all around. The "soroky" (magpies) have been collecting twigs for a while now. "Ukrainian paska bread" [sic] is already on sale in the bakeries and supermarkets, along with hot-cross buns, and there is a run on pysanka supplies. There are already people walking around with dye-stained fingers, and they are not members of some obscure punk cult.

All over the world, in temperate climates where seasons are recognizable, people greet spring as a very special happening. I would like to share a few of the many beliefs and customs of ancient Ukraine regarding "vesna" - spring.

In the very very old days - we're talking pre-Christian, going into the Stone Age - there were only winter and summer, as the people saw them. There was eternal conflict between cold and warmth. The ancestors of the Germans believed in three seasons, winter, spring and summer.

Among the ancient Slavs, there was a season called prolet'ye [pre-summer]. The Slavic word for spring, "vesna," appears in the first Slavic Bible. Among some Balkan Slavs, Vesna (accent on the first syllable) is also a woman's name. Another word in Ukrainian and other Slavic languages which means spring is "yar" (as in yara pshenytsia - spring wheat). Spring does not begin with a set date, but varies, depending upon climatic and weather conditions, which are not exactly the same each year.

The first spring rituals begin with the feast of "Stritennia" (in our church, the feast of Christ's Presentation in the Temple or Candlemas Day in the Roman Catholic Church). The word means "meeting," and before Christianity a certain day was chosen as Stritennia, because this was when the old woman Zyma (winter) met the young Vesna.

Actually, the return of the migratory birds marked the beginning of spring. The swallows, larks, wild ducks, kingfishers and cranes were greeted with special joy, as were the prairie dogs and the pikes. People judged and foretold the future by the timing of these creatures' return. Spring was celebrated on the feast of the "Soroka Sviatykh Velykomuchenykiv" - the 40 Martyrs (March 9 by the old calendar) - by baking birds out of dough.

This was the day the larks usually returned. Children sang spring songs as they carried around their little baked dough birds, calling spring, making sure that she will return.

With the coming of Christianity, many pre-Christian spring celebrations had their dates changed to coincide with church holy days, and this often caused difficulty. Originally, before there was any "Pist" [Lent], there was no reason to refrain from merriment. The "vesnianky" and "hahilky," ritual spring songs, were originally sung during the whole spring season. The spring games, with their merriment and matchmaking, also lasted as long.

With the new faith, these customs were not forgotten, just moved around to suit the new religious calendar, the Church authorities grudgingly accepting them after many centuries of official resistance. Most merrymaking now took place in the days before Lent and the weeks following Easter.

A special part of spring eagerly awaited by young adults looking for mates was "Vulytsia" (the word itself means "street"). This was a gathering and dance for the young which took place outdoors from Easter to the Feast of Simon. In some places, Vulytsia happened almost every evening, in others only on Sundays and holidays, or on the eves of holidays. Young people gathered to sing, dance, tell stories and, of course, to meet the opposite sex.

Oleksa Voropay, a renowned ethnographer, wrote: "Spring Vulytsia in the Ukrainian village - this is the best memory of anyone who spent their youth in Ukraine. Quiet May evenings, nightingales, orchards and youth create such a symphony of original beauty, such a spell of your own natural elements that whoever experienced it even once in his life will never forget it, as he will not forget his own, truly alluring, God-given Ukraine."

In our urban environment, it is hard to keep to old irrelevant customs, if we even know them. But the first robin or swallow is really something to see and talk about (even reported on the evening news), as is the first crocus and pussy willow. We do not believe anymore that we must do certain things to ensure that the spring returns every year, but there are things that we look forward to.

After hearing the wistful, nostalgic stories about the beauty of a Ukrainian village in the spring, completely awash in white and pink blossoms of the orchards, I long to see it for myself sometime. I can only imagine it - especially seeing the resulting multitude of fruit on those trees in August, as we travel through the villages of Ukraine. "Vesna krasna," indeed.

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