Houston's Ukrainian community decorates tree for holiday display

HOUSTON - A Ukrainian Christmas tree is among the many featured during the holiday season at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The theme of this year's display is "Cultured Pearls," and the Ukrainian tree picks up on that general theme to focus on "The Ukrainian Language: Pearl of Our Culture." The Ukrainian display was prepared by members of the Ukrainian American Cultural Club of Houston, under the leadership of Larisa Scates. Those who helped decorate the tree were Olia Dub, Joan and Phillip Brandt, Bill Palmer, Vasyl Dijak, Halia and Alex Filenko. On the tree are ornaments with Ukrainian letters on backgrounds of yellow or blue; yellow and blue banners are draped all over the tree with the well-known quotation from Taras Shevchenko's poem "My Friendly Epistle" in both Ukrainian and English: "Educate yourselves, my brethren - think and read. Learn about others, but do not forsake your own." In addition, the tree is decorated with white glass globes bearing red and black Ukrainian patterns on them and many strings of "pearls." Topping the tree is an embroidered "rushnyk," or ritual cloth.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 5, 2003, No. 1, Vol. LXXI

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