As Orthodox Christmas approaches on Jan. 7, the Kyiv Post looks into the Christmas celebrations in Kyiv and in Lviv, a popular destination for winter holidays in Ukraine.
In Kyiv, main festivities will be held near the St. Sophia Cathedral and St. Michael’s Monastery. It will start at 3 p.m. with the exhibition of didukh, a decoration and a traditional symbol of Ukrainian Christmas. Didukh is made from a sheaf of wheat, a symbolic sacrifice taken from the best of the autumn harvest. It’s usually decorated with flowers, ribbons, a small wreath of sweet basil and other herbs.
A traditional nativity play, or vertep, is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Ukrainian vertep typically has specific main characters, including Deacon, Baba (a Ukrainian middle-aged woman), Moscal (a character from Russia), Gypsy, Barkeeper and Zaporozhets, a cossack from Zaporizhska Sich, who always makes witty jokes.
Vertep will be followed by Christmas carol singing at 6 p.m.
At Spivoche Pole Park (33 Lavrska St.), a Christmas Land of Dreams (Kraina Mriy) – an international festival of ethnic music and culture is going to take place on Jan. 7, 8 complete with traditional Ukrainian festivities and Ukrainian carols. Entrance fee is Hr 30.
Poshtova Square will also offer plenty of activities for children and adults where traditional Christmas food and souvenirs will be served.
Kyiv offers plenty of winter opportunities to explore this holiday season.
A Made in Ukraine Fair will be held on Kontraktova Square together with a show by Taras Chubai and Plach Yeremiyi band.
For outdoor activities, VDNH, or ExpoCenter of Ukraine (1 Akademyka Hlushkova St.) will offer plenty of choices. The biggest ice-rink in the city is set up there and during Christmas holidays all interested can join figure skating trainers for a skating class. Stilt show is also going to be held.
Mamayeva Sloboda (2 Dontsya St.), an open-air ethnographic museum, invites everyone to join Cossack-style Christmas celebrations, listen to church bells and join a professional choir to sing Christmas carols. Festivities start on Jan. 7 at 11 a.m.
Those who will celebrate Christmas in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv will not be dissappointed either.
Starting from Jan. 7 until Jan. 10 all visitors could try Christmas pampushky, Ukrainian-style doughnuts usually filled with poppy seeds or prunes on the Market Square in the heart of the city. A special theatrical performance called “When Angels Came Down from the Sky” is scheduled from 5 p.m. till 9 p.m. at the same location (1 Market Square). The hour-long show will feature professional mountain-climbers. Tickets cost Hr 30 for children and Hr 70 for adults.
Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life located near Vysokyi Zamok hill in Shevchenkivsy Gai, a park in the north-east part of the city, will offer special Christmas workshops, Christmas fairytale reading and singing of Ukrainian Christmas carols. Park admission is Hr 20.
Charity events are also available in the city. Walnut House Bakery (8 Tobilevycha St.) of Walnut House, a center for women in crisis in Lviv, gives a chance for everyone to order their special Christmas dinner (for Hr 1,500 or $57). The money from each order will feed 10 homeless people on Christmas Eve. The details are available at [email protected] and [email protected].
