Customs and Traditions of Ukraine

Ukrainian traditions

Ukrainian traditions are very interesting and have been supported through many generations although currently it seems to have lost some of the old colorful ceremonies.
Happily, today's young people are very interested in reviving the ancient costumes and traditions.

Increasingly, this revival sees the old traditions being celebrated during religious and traditional holidays. You will experience the full flavor of Ukrainian traditions and customs if you witness a wedding in western Ukraine, make a trip on the holiday of Ivan Kupala (early July), during Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, St. Nicholas Day and many other holidays. All these occasions will enchant you with their splendid   colors, folklore, traditional dances and costumes, treats, food and everything else that happens on these special days. Ukrainian weddings are full of customs, superstitions and other interesting activities that continue for several few days and, from this, you will learn a lot about Ukraine culture and traditions.

       

Ukrainian land is fertile and offer generous harvests and hardworking people of the land are happy to use the gifts of nature to prepare a variety of delicious dishes!

Ukrainians have traditionally been hard working farmers and gardeners, growing different crops such as corn, sunflowers, flax, etc. Ukrainian cuisine is very satisfying and has many ingredients to add magnificent flavors into the dishes. The food is very nutritious as the land workers need energy for their hard physical work.
Vegetables are most served on a plate and mixed allowing you to choose what you want. Potatoes make up much of the vegetable servings and became almost a second bread, giving rise to variations such as delicious vegetable pancakes, home-style potatoes, mashed potatoes, stewed, fried or baked in a casserole. Potatoes are also an essential ingredient of almost all soups, borsch, kapustnyak, kuleshov, rozsolnik and solyanka.      

 The most famous Ukrainian dish is red borscht! Traditionally every woman has her own special secret for cooking borscht, but the main components must be the same - beetroot, potatoes, cabbage and many other vegetables of your choice, with or without meat. Served with sour cream and donuts, garlic, onion and bacon (pig fat).
Borscht is a symbol of family components, smoldering in the casseroles in the oven, it allows the taste to permeate, creating an unique flavor!         

                  

There are many styles of delicious stuffed cabbage, dumplings, zavyvantsi stuffed with meat, rolls, homemade sausages, stuffed fish, dishes with eggs, cheese cakes, nalisniki and other goodies from a combination of meat and vegetables and most have a lot in common with dishes of Belarusian cuisine and Western Slavs. There are also many similarities with Russian recipes. The style of cooking is quite sophisticated as almost all dishes are prepared in several stages, including boiling and then stewed or baked, fried and then the dish succumbs to the final preparations, which is mostly stewing, boiling and baking rather than frying and also salting rather than smoking.
          
The dishes are complimented with a range of different pies and baked goods, homemade bread and pancakes.
            
Meat is mostly pork and pig fat (bacon), beef and chicken. Widely used in Ukraine cuisine are the river fish, including carp ,catfish and pike (baked and stuffed under sauce). Ukrainians enjoy pig fat! It is eaten raw, baked, boiled, seasoned with first courses and included in stuffed rolls and other dishes. It is a symbol of wealth and good life. Very tasty and traditional is the "roast at home" which is meat with potatoes baked in casseroles. It is served with Ukrainian benderchiki, pudding, crispy cracklings, potato pancakes, onions, cabbage or other vegetables ... Yum!
The most famous porridge is millet, pumpkin and buckwheat. In Transcarpathia region is the very tasty Banosh or Mamalyga, which is prepared with wheat, corn and other cereals, and served with sour cream, butter, cheese, fried onions or meat ... cook to your taste!        
Drinks include the very popular kvas, compote, uzvar, dairy-ryazhanka and Kislyak. Alcohol is usually home made vodka with different nastoykami, including honey, hrenovuha, kalganivka, pepper, different brandies and homemade wine

Honey and bee products are becoming increasingly popular.

Modern restaurants, cafes and kavyarni (coffee places) delight you with traditional Ukraine dishes as well as dishes of different countries and they will prepare dishes to your taste preferences. In the capital city of Kiev, the average check for the dinner will be 200-400UAH ($10-20 or more) per person, while coffee and tea ranges from 40UAH ($1.50 - $2) in a cafe in the city center. Prices may vary from inexpensive cafes to chic restaurants. In small towns and in western Ukraine prices are much lower than in the center, south and east of the country.

Ukrainian Customs and Traditions in Ukraine

Traditions in Ukraine are interesting and unique, they are versatile and widespread! It is interesting that your young people are pleased to keep them – the tourists tell us. It is really true. This fact confirms the existence of the folk soul, gratitude to our ancestors, deep memory (the scientists call it the archetypical memory) and perception of generation connection. Ukrainian traditions, living and rather interesting folk heritage has been formed for many centuries. That is why despite our culturoligic European status and relatively short history of state we can take care of the spiritual continuity and we know well our native unwritten laws – the Ukrainian customs and traditions.

Ukrainian customs and traditions

The words “custom” and “habit” are paronymous words in the Ukrainian language. It is an element of our everyday life which is bred-in-the-bone – we take it in with mother's milk, with singing of the beloved grandmother or with the legends of our land. It is our pleasure to share the merry Ukrainian customs with the guests of our country, invite them to celebrate Maslenitsa (Pancake Week) or Ivana Cupala holiday, give very beautiful wedding songs, amulet or embroidered towel, raise the glass of vodka or wine and offer a round loaf of bread or treat the guests with the delicious ritual food – pancakes, kollyva or Easter cake. And to share the joy of unity of the countries, times and people.

Our guests notice the main regularity: traditions in Ukraine are closely connected with the everyday, calendar and religious life. It is quite natural. Like in many nations, a lot of Ukrainian traditions and events were connected with the agricultural calendar. Harvest songs, Christmas carols or merry songs to meet the spring have accompanied the seasonal works since long ago. It was impossible to work hard without household magic rituals and to rest without masquerades, entertainments or ritual greetings and going round. Natural hospitability and cheerfulness was passed on from generation to generation exactly through these everyday Ukrainian customs.

Family is very important for the Ukrainians. Its origination and existence is accompanied by many Ukrainian rituals and rites, Ukrainian customs and traditions. Making a formal proposal of marriage (in a traditional ceremony with matchmakers coming to the house of the prospective bride's father), engagement, arrangements and covering the head of the bride (a move from the maidenhead to the married life), bachelorette party (hen party) or wedding train, invitation and wedding march with many ransoms for the bride – our contemporaries follow all these merry elements with pleasure. By the way, our girls are very ‘tolerant’ now – if they do not like the future husband, then they would give a baked pumpkin to the matchmakers in accordance with the Ukrainian custom. And the young couple really respects the parents – they bow from the waist to them after receiving round bread with salt. Generally speaking, the ceremony of marriage is called here “fun” (‘veselye’) – it is real fun!

Ukrainian customs

Ukrainian customs connected to the birth of a child are filled with the rites and using of amulets. And also with many omens traditional in our country. The pregnant women are not recommended to meet the sick persons, look at the snakes or have their hair cut, sew or cut, buy something for a future child. The less people know about the future pregnancy – the better. Men and some women are not allowed to visit a newborn baby during the first 40 days. The Ukrainian rite of baptism is a very important one. It is a big sin to refuse the title of a godparent. A traditional Ukrainian crosswise haircut is performed at the first anniversary of birth. The Ukrainian omens are brought together with the Orthodox ones in these ritual actions.

Traditions in Ukraine are connected with the Old-Ukrainian heathen attributes. The youth, mischievous, poetic and very old holiday of Ivana Cupala (the night to July, 7), like in many Slavic nations, was connected with the Day of solstice some time ago. Nowadays you can see the girls to sing and dance in a ring and put the wreaths made of the flowers into the water and the guys jump over the fire and look for the blossoming fern. There is one more old Ukrainian tradition connected with the turn of the sun – January 7 (now – Christmas). Long time ago people used to tell fortunes in that winter time. Nowadays the Christmas Ukrainian customs include fortune-telling and addressing to the natural forces. Just before the Old New Year (January 13) children and teenagers still go round carol-singing. If you can sing or wish to celebrate someone you can earn a little of Ukrainian hrivnas or sweets. These children going round looks like American Halloween. One more Ukrainian tradition is to sanctify the water at Epiphany and believe in its wonderful and healing features at the night prior to the holiday. We clean our apartments on the Great Thursday (prior to Easter). We color the eggs and bake Easter cakes. We pray for the dead at the Commemoration Day. We see the winter off and meet the spring on Maslenitsa. We sanctify the fields and decorate our homes with the flowers on Trinity Sunday.

Ukrainian omens

And now a few words about the Ukrainian omens for you not to be very surprised spending your time in Ukraine. Put something on inside out is considered to be an omen that you will be beaten. Do not give anything across the threshold not to quarrel – better step on the threshold or even more better – come inside. We guess it is the evident sign of the famous Ukrainian hospitability! If you wish your future husband to be red-haired – do not eat up (however, it is impossible to do – the dishes are very tasty). If you wish your new home to be prosperous – let a cat be the first to come in. If your aim is loneliness – have a sit at the corner of the table and then by the Ukrainian omens, you won’t get married. If you wish to give the flowers – buy the odd number of them (the even number is given at the funerals).

And if you are not afraid of all these traditions – visit Ukraine! You will make sure in the cities and villages, in every family, in children day care centers and schools, at weddings, baptism and anniversary ceremonies that the traditions in Ukraine are real folk property and you will be given part of it from the open heart!

UKRAINIAN NATIONAL CUSTOMS, TRADITIONS AND HOLIDAYS

Ukraine is a wonderful country with rich culture and extremely interesting traditions. Ukrainians pay great attention to observing holidays. They try to keep all traditions and customs of their ancestry. As for the elements of Ukrainian character, first of them is kindness. There is hospitality, and friendliness. There is respect for elders, for the deceased; love for children, love of nature and animals. Ukrainians have a knack for humor; they are musical, artistic and wonderful craftsmen famous for their mastery in weaving, wood carving and ceramics. But skills and diligence in working the land is perhaps the greatest talent the Ukrainians possess.

The country's customs and oral folk literature reflect Old Ukrainian pre-Christian, and Christian cultures. The rituals derive from the folk calendar, religious celebrations like Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, Ivana Kupala (St.John's Eve), New Year, and the autumn folk festivals dedicated to the end of the agricultural work.

Ukrainians have typical wedding customs, family traditions connected with crafts and jobs (the first day of sowing, beginning of the harvest), along with traditional symbols (straw didukh, decorated pysanka Easter eggs, holy water, and traditional dishes like kutia (boiled wheat with honey and poppy seed), paskha Easter bread, varenyky (something like ravioli), and pancakes. The rituals include folk dances, carols, and fortune telling, and blessing with water.

Christmas in Ukraine

For the Ukrainian people Christmas is the most important family holiday of the whole year. It is celebrated solemnly, as well as merrily, according to ancient customs that have come down through the ages and are still observed today. Ukrainian Christmas customs are based not only on Christian traditions, but to a great degree on those of the pre-Christian, pagan culture and religion. The Ukrainian society was basically agrarian at that time and had developed an appropriate pagan culture, elements of which have survived to this day.

Ukrainian Christmas festivities begin on Christmas Eve ([G]Dec.24; [J]Jan.6.) and end on the Feast of the Epiphany. The Christmas Eve Supper or Sviata Vecheria (Holy Supper) brings the family together to partake in special foods and begin the holiday with many customs and traditions, which reach back to antiquity. The rituals of the Christmas Eve are dedicated to God, to the welfare of the family, and to the remembrance of the ancestors.

With the appearance of the first star which is believed to be the Star of Bethlehem, the family gathers to begin supper. The table is covered with two tablecloths, one for the ancestors of the family, the second for the living members. In pagan times ancestors were considered to be benevolent spirits, who, when properly respected, brought good fortune to the living family members. Under the table, as well as under the tablecloths some hay is spread to remember that Christ was born in a manger. The table always has one extra place-setting for the deceased family members, whose souls, according to belief, come on Christmas Eve and partake of the food.

Ukrainian Cuisine

Ukrainian cuisine is closely linked to the customs, culture and way of life of the Ukrainian people. It is famous for its diversity and quality of flavor.

The most popular Ukrainian meal is "borshch." This thick, hearty and delicious soup is prepared with a variety of ingredients including meat, mushrooms, beans, and even prunes. Mushroom soups, bean and pea soups, soups with dumplings and thick millet chowders are also popular.

Holubtsi are Ukrainian cabbage rolls. The filling is mainly rice with a small amount of hamburger (unlike other East European cabbage rolls which are mainly hamburger with a small amount of rice). Cabbage leaves are steamed to make them soft and then the filling is added. The holubtsi are placed in a large pot, covered with tomato soup (or sauce) and baked. The word "holub" in Ukrainian means "dove," and holubtsi are in the shape of a dove.

Of course, every region of Ukraine has its own recipes and traditions.

Ukrainian Borshch

Ingredients 
1 3/4 lbs. soup meat with bone (or equivalent beef marrow bone
10-12 cups of cold water
1 teaspoon salt
1 large chopped onion
6 small beets, cut into thin strips, along with their leaves and stems
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped string beans
3 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup chopped tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, diced or crushed
1 tablespoon flour
lemon juice
salt and pepper for taste
fresh chopped dill
3/4 cup sour cream
2 or 3 bay leaves
1). Place the meat in a large cooking pot filled with the cold water. Add the salt and bring it slowly to a boil. Skim off any fat on the surface. Cover and let simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.
2). Add the bay leaves, onions, and beets and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the beets are almost done. If you are using young beets, cook them with the other vegetables. Chop up the leaves and stems of the beets and put them in.
3). Add the carrots, potatoes, celery and string beans and continue cooking another 10 minutes. Add the cabbage, cooking it until it is tender. 

 Triytsya — Ukrainian traditional holiday

The Feast of Triytsya, (Trinity Sunday), which commemorates the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles (Pentecost) falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter. In English, it is also called Whitsunday, and in Ukrainian it is also known as Pyatydesyatnytsya (derived from the word p’yatdesyat, that is fifty) because it is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter. In Ukraine, a predominantly Orthodox Christian country for more than a thousand years, there are many age-old traditions connected with church holidays which combine the Christian spirit with the pre-Christian folk customs and lore. Some of these traditions, those that are still alive and those that are already dead, are described by Lidiya ARTYUKH.

The time when Triytsya is celebrated coincides with the Feast of Zeleni Svyata, Green Holidays (also called Klechalni Svyatky), and though the latter is definitely of a pre-Christian origin, in the collective consciousness of the people the two feasts have merged.

Triytsya is the time when the vegetation comes into full force in Ukraine; the grass is mowed for hay, the meadows, liberally sprinkled with wild flowers, are a joy to behold. Peasant houses and village squares used to be and still are adorned with leafy branches of birches, maples and ash-trees. The gates and the rooms were festooned with flower garlands and fragrant grasses which were believed capable of protecting against the evil forces. The icons were adorned with garlands of flowers and grasses too, and the floors were covered with carpets of wild flowers and grasses.

The day before Triytsya, that is Saturday, was called Didova subota, the day of the commemoration of the dead. It differed from all the other commemorative days of the year. On that day prayers were said for all the dead — baptized and not baptized, those who died of old age and those who took their life. Bread or honey or other sweets were taken to church to be blessed; the old and disabled were treated to food, and at the cemeteries food was left near the graves for the dead to take part in the festive repast.

In the central square of the village a whole tree, the bole of a tree or a large branch was erected and adorned with garlands of flowers and grasses, and the place was the focal point of the Zeleni svyata week-long holidays, particularly popular with the young. The girls would cook food — fried eggs with bacon, pies stuffed with cottage cheese or cabbage, bread in the shape of braided ropes, and sweet pastry, and the young men would bring beer and other drinks. The girls spread tablecloths on the ground and laid the food on them, and then everybody would sing and dance in a ring. You were supposed to touch the leaves or the branches every so often. The picnic over, everyone proceeded back home to continue celebrations.

Traditions in different parts of Ukraine differed but little; in the lands of Slobozhanshchyna and Poltavshchyna, usually the trunk of a dead tree was erected instead of a leafy one, and a wheel was fixed to the top of the trunk. The wheel and the songs about nature’s revival in the spring symbolized the change of seasons with the sun being the major force, the life giver.

In the Land of Polissya, a good-looking girl was chosen to be the central figure in the rite of kust (bush). She was adorned in leaves, flowers and herbs which were sewn and fixed together so as to form a green skirt and a green shirt. Her head was crowned with a garland of flowers, fragrant grasses and ribbons. The festive crowd of the villagers would then walk around the village with the “bush” girl at the head of the procession. Songs were sung and dances were danced.

“We take this bush

To the river.

Oh river,

Give us water,

Give us rain,

Golden and copious,

So that we have a harvest Rich.”

In the lands of Poltavshchyna and Slobozhanshchyna instead of “the bush,” the festive processions were led by “the poplar” (there is a Ukrainian phrase, “slender as a poplar” to describe a svelte girl). Though honorary, the role of the poplar also involved a considerable physical strain — the girl had to be walking around with her arms raised straight up, all wrapped up in garlands, beads and decorative shawls. The celebrants wished those they met on the way a good harvest and well-being, and were given in return ribbons, beer and other drinks, pies and pancakes.

“We walk the poplar

We drink mead and beer.

Grow, poplar, grow,

Be strong to withstand the wind,

Never break,

Only bow to the field of grain.”

The week of Zeleni svyata was the time of meat eating — right after it was over, another period of fasting began which lasted until the Day of St Peter. In addition to meat, a lot of onions, garlic and reddish were consumed too. Soups were made with sorrel, spinach, pigweed, nettles, tops of beets; these green things were also used as stuffing for pies.

Triytsya was — and to a great extent is — one of the major Christian feasts in Ukraine. There are many churches in Ukraine which are dedicated to the Holy Trinity. In Kyiv alone there are several churches of the Holy Trinity, the best known of which is the one which is situated right above the gate to the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery. It was built in the twelfth century.

Voznesinnya Hospodnye, or The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which falls on a Thursday, is celebrated ten days before the Pentecost (Ascensiontide). It used to be — and in many places of Ukraine still remains — a very joyous and boisterous feast. After the religious ceremony was over at church, the second half of the day was devoted to feasting. Guests were welcome, and the guests were supposed to bring some food with them — bread, pies, cookies, bacon, sour cream, cottage or hard cheese. The most popular dishes cooked for this holiday were cabbage or beet soup, jelly made with rooster meat and bones, baked meat, home-made pasta and jelly-like berry dessert. A particular care was taken to make cookies of various shapes and ingredients. There were tiny pies made which were called drabynky, or “steps,”— with rolled-up pancakes placed on them, they symbolized “the stairway to Heaven.” Some of these drabynky were taken to the grain fields and left there “to encourage the grain to grow and become bread.”

Drabynky also reflected the pre-Christian Ukrainian motif of the World Tree (which is also called The Cosmic Tree) as the centre of the world. It is a widespread motif in many myths and folktales among various preliterate peoples, by which they understand the human and profane condition in relation to the divine and sacred realm. Two main forms are known and both employ the notion of the world tree as centre. In the one, the tree is the vertical centre binding together heaven and earth; in the other, the tree is the source of life at the horizontal centre of the earth. In the vertical, tree-of-knowledge tradition, the tree extends between earth and heaven. It is the vital connection between the world of the gods and the human world. Drabynky were the steps to climb up or down The World Tree.

Pilgrimages to the Pochayivsky Monastery in the Land of Ternopilshchyna, and the Pechersk Lavra Monastery in Kyiv were taken to worship and pray for “good weather for the harvest season.”