| Sunday, 22-Jan-2006 00:00 |
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Vodokhreshchennya v Pidhajtsakh (Epiphany Ceremony in Pidhajtsi)
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These are photos of the Epiphany ceremony that was held in Pidhajtsi, Ternopil region, Western Ukraine last year, 2005.
This statement about this Xtian holiday is from the following website http://www.cresourcei.org/cyepiph.html
"The term epiphany means 'to show' or 'to make known' or even 'to reveal.' In Western churches, it remembers the coming of the wise men bringing gifts to visit the Christ child, who by so doing 'reveal' Jesus to the world as Lord and King. In some Central and South American countries influenced by Catholic tradition, Three Kings’ Day, or the night before, is the time for opening Christmas presents. In some eastern churches, Epiphany or the Theophany commemorates Jesus’ baptism, with the visit of the Magi linked to Christmas. In some churches the day is celebrated as Christmas, with Epiphany/Theophany occurring on January 19th."
For Uniate Catholics in Western Ukraine, this day indeed is meant to celebrate the day that Jesus was supposedly baptized in the River Jordan.
Western Ukraine is to this day very traditional and religious. It seems that there are religious holidays involving a day off and lots of feasting with family and friends every couple of weeks, especially from the end of the harvest season in October to the beginning of Lent. This has been to the great chagrin of Western capitalists (er, um, businesspeople) trying to do business in Ukraine; in particular, one Ukrainian newspaper (which in many ways is largely, though not entirely, a blowhorn for mostly Westerners that want to see a turn toward unbridled neoliberal economics and American-styled capitalism in Ukraine) once wrote an op-ed begging for fewer days off in the Ukrainian work calender. To my mind, the holidays and the feasting with family and friends are part of the great charm of contemporary Ukrainian culture and serves as part of the baby that I hope does not get thrown out with the bathwater as Ukraine integrates and "restructures" further westward. In short, Ukraine has the chance to develop a capitalist society with a much healthier balance between work and leisure than that exists in the workaholic nation called the US.
Check my blog sometime this coming week for a piece about what family life is like, from my experience of it, in rural Western Ukraine (www.dykun.blogspot.com).
One more thing about the holiday: Since Jesus is said to have been baptised in the Jordan River, this holiday is also refered to as "Yordan." It is the also considered the end of the Xmas season, and the night before the Feast of the Epiphany is called the Second Holy Evening, which is another chance to eat more of the scruptious kuttja (a delicious grainy gruel sweetened with honey, eaten as a representation the gruel the poor of Jesus' time and place ate). Notice in the pictures that people believe that the waters of the river thusly blessed on this day have healing powers. For someone not used to drinking this water is promised a belly ache.
Notice the orange ribbons here and there in the photos; Yushchenko still had not yet been inaugurated Ukraine's first post-OR president when this ceremony took place.
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