Ukrainians carol at Rockefeller Center to celebrate Julian calendar Christmas

by Deanna Yurchuk
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

NEW YORK - An estimated 350 New York Ukrainians, most sporting orange scarves in support of Ukraine's President-elect Viktor Yushchenko, ended their Christmas day on January 7 by caroling at Rockefeller Center. This was the first time that the renowned tree was left illuminated for the Julian calendar Christmas celebration.

The event took place thanks to the efforts of Olena Turkalo of Ridgefield, Conn., who back in December started an e-mail campaign to the Property Management Offices of Rockefeller Center asking for the tree to be kept lit in honor of all those Eastern rite Christians who celebrate Christmas according to the old Julian calendar.

When Peter Dillon, director of marketing at Rockefeller Center Tishman Speyer Properties, notified Ms. Turkalo on December 17 that the tree would remain standing through the evening of January 7, the news quickly spread through the Ukrainian grapevine. According to Ms. Turkalo, people were so moved by having their request granted that they made plans to bring their Ukrainian Christmas celebrations to Rockefeller Center.

In addition to an article that appeared in The Ukrainian Weekly in late December, many organizations announced the event through mass e-mailings, and priests urged their faithful on Christmas Day to participate in this historic event.

Ukrainian carolers started encircling the famed light-bedecked Christmas tree around 7 p.m. on Friday, joining in the festive singing of traditional Ukrainian carols. Some attendees brought candles and songbooks, which they graciously shared. After about an hour, as most carolers headed home, lingering participants huddled together in smaller circles and continued caroling.

Orest Stashkevych, originally from Lviv and now from Brooklyn, noted that he was glad the caroling took place, but he would have liked to see it organized more practically. According to Mr. Stashkevych, it would have been better if someone had led the singing with an explanation of the event announced over a megaphone for the American public. Then the carolers would have stayed longer.

Slavko Kiciuk of Yonkers, N.Y. noted that it was inspiring to see such a crowd of people from all segments of the Ukrainian community. He noted that the events of the "Orange democratic movement have unified the earlier waves of Ukrainian immigrants with the [the most recent] Fourth Wave." Indeed, immigrants of all waves, as well as American-born Ukrainians, were represented, celebrating and caroling in unison.

Members of the Fourth Wave seemed particularly energized by the event. It was another opportunity for them to gather together to celebrate the recent democratic victory in Ukraine. Olha Azarova, who hails from Ivano-Frankivsk and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, said, "A great future awaits Ukraine, and we can't wait to go back to help to realize it."

Ms. Turkalo noted that thank-you letters were sent to officials at Rockefeller Center, including Mr. Dillon and Alison Wechsler.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 23, 2005, No. 4, Vol. LXXIII

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