We are one month away from Christmas. The end of year celebrations will be here quickly. I thought it would be nice to describe to you how things are going in my family and explain how we do Christmas in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Christmas, a mix of religion and paganism.

We are Orthodox Christians. Although a little angry with my faith, I still tend to respect most of the rules and customs attached to it. Until 2022 I would have told you that we celebrate it on January 7th because Orthodox Christians follow the Julian calendar but since 2022 it has been decided in Ukraine to officially move Christmas to December 25th (to move away from the Russian Orthodox Church which used religion to pour propaganda into Ukraine) and although we had not lived there for 8 years at the time we decided to follow suit.

Music for me in Christmas time

In Ukraine, with my older sister, we were part of a group of a capella singers who sang Christmas carols in the streets in exchange for some sweets. So when I arrived in Dublin I joined a choir. With the approach of the end of year holidays we started to learn Christmas carols and then our teacher played a few notes of “Carol of the Bells” on the piano and I started to cry with joy and emotion in front of the incredulous eyes of everyone.

“Це пісня, яка йде з мого дому” “This is a song that comes from my home” 

Indeed I may be telling you this but But “Carol of the Bells” is the English version of “Щедрик” (Chtchedryk) Composed by Mykola Dmytrovytch Leontovytch (Микола Дмитрович Леонтович) in 1914.

Below I give you the words in Ukrainian, the pronunciation and finally I give you the translation.

Well, it’s off to a good start, I’ve barely started this article and here I am already digressing.

Anyway, the month before Christmas I like to put on one of the jewels that belonged to my sister and with my brother and sometimes friends, go and sit in a street or a park to sing traditional Christmas carols, mixing in a few songs in Ukrainian.
It’s a way for me to feel close to my sister despite her disappearance.
Sometimes passers-by leave us a little money, everything that is collected is given to good causes.

The importance of ancestors

Dad collects ears of wheat and makes a дідух (Didukh), it’s a sheaf of wheat used as Christmas decorations. It is said that the spirits of our ancestors reside there during the end-of-year holidays and that if we take good care of it then they bless us. We burn it at Masnytsia (Масляна) a week before Lent to celebrate spring, we eat lots of good things there.

We have Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve which is a little different from here in Ireland where the meal is traditionally eaten on Christmas Day itself.
For the preparation of the meal we cook together Miranda, the woman who has made my dad happy for 3 years now, my brother and I.

Traditionally in Ukraine we do a long fast of forty days beforehand and on Christmas Eve, we eat 12 lean dishes representing the 12 apostles.This Christmas fast gives people the opportunity to purify themselves physically and spiritually by praying, fasting and repenting on Christmas Eve.

At home we don’t respect that anymore, it reminded us too many bad memories of my anorexia period so we don’t fast and eat more festive dishes. On the other hand we kept the tradition of preparing Kutya (кутя). A mixture of boiled wheat, honey and poppy seeds.

This mixture represents eternal life, abundance, fertility, generosity, happiness and sweet existence.
At the end of dinner we always leave a piece for the spirits of the ancestors who are supposed to visit us on Christmas Eve.

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Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 200g wheat grain
• 100g poppy seed
• 100g crushed walnuts
• 70g raisins
• 50g honey (3 tablespoons)
• Candied fruits (to your liking)
• 500ml water
• 1 pinch salt

Method:

1. Leave the wheat soaking overnight in water
2. Drain the wheat and boil in 500ml salted water until cooked (1h to 1h30)
3. Crush the walnuts
4. Put the poppy seeds in boiling water for 15min and drain them.
5. Mix the cooked wheat with all the ingredients and leave to stand for 1h or 2 before serving.

Smachnoho (смачного) bon appetit.

I will post the rest of our menu later.

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When preparing the table and setting the table, we add 5 more for the people who are no longer there. My mom, my sister, my grandparents on my dad’s side and my grandfather on my mom’s side. It is always an emotional moment for Babusya and I but we make a point of taking care of this task every year.

We start to eat when the first star appears in the sky (apart from the sun, you smart guys!)

At midnight it’s time for mass. In Ukraine it can last until 4am and I admit that I don’t miss it! Well, I may have been young but I always fell asleep there. We still go to mass in Ireland because Miranda and her children are Catholic and it’s important to them. It’s when we’ve left for mass that a neighbor who is a good friend comes to the house to leave our presents under the tree to make Noah, 6, believe that Santa Claus has been.

It’s early in the morning that we open our packages.

And there I think I’m pretty much done with our little traditions. I hope you enjoyed this little article!