FIELD NOTES FROM UKRAINIAN CANADA
Vol. 8, no. 1 (Winter 2012)
Although in many parts of the country this December has been unseasonably mild, those who keep to the Julian calendar still hope to be able to celebrate a white Christmas. Whatever holiday readers commemorate at this time of year, we, at the Peter and Doris Kule Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at CIUS, want to wish you and your loved ones the best of health, prosperity and much joy not only in this festive season, but also in the coming year. Veselekh sviat!
Of course, it is fairly common for Canadian newspapers in centres with a large number of Ukrainian inhabitants to run stories about Ukrainian Christmas commemorations according the “old” calendar. To help to set the mood for this newsletter, we begin with a couple of heirloom pieces from the English-language Canadian press that bring to life the ghosts of “Ukrainian Christmas” past. The first article is from p. 20 of the 7 January 1926 edition of the Toronto Star, where the report ran under the heading “Ukrainians Hear Christmas Mass / Celebrate on the Date Fixed by the Julian Calendar”:
Christmas Candles lit up many Ukrainian homes last night to celebrate the birth of Christ, observing the Julian calendar. Keeping the customs cherished in Ukraine, the new Canadians made merry with Christmas dinner, for which the women folk had been preparing many days.
Underneath the table cloth, around which gathers the family, is spread a layer of straw, symbolic of the manger which the Christ child had been born. The meal begins with their favourite dish of Kutia (comprised of wheat cooked and served with honey).
Midnight Christmas eve mass was celebrated in St. Mary’s Hall, and attended by the Rev. Father A. Sarmatiuk, who is the priest of the congregation, conducting the mass.
The second piece is from p. 9 of the Edmonton Journal on 7 January 1930, where it appeared under the heading, “Ukrainians Hold Their Christmas Festive Season / High Revels Will Mark Ancient Greek Church Celebrations”:
Festivities in connection with the celebration of the Ukrainian Christmas commenced early Tuesday morning with holding of high mass by His Lordship Bishop Ladyka at 7:30 am., in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, 97 st.
The service was largely attended, the church being crowded to capacity. Holiday festivities are proceeding throughout the day, and for the two succeeding days, the Ukrainians, with traditional hospitality, keeping open house for their friends and compatriots.
When the first star peeps forth from the night sky Tuesday evening, the great event of the celebration―the Christmas dinner―will be staged in many homes throughout the city, while in the country high revels will hold sway.
Twelve courses are served at the Ukrainian Christmas dinner, and each guest at the table must partake of each course, while it is considered a tempting of providence for any guest to leave the feast ere it ends.
Similar festivities will mark the celebration of the Julian calendar New Year, on January 14, and festivities will again be continued for two or three days after the New Year’s Day celebration.
A follow-up article was then published in the Journal eleven days later, marking the conclusion of the busy Yuletide period. It ran under the heading “Ukrainians End Festive Season / New Year’s Widely Celebrated by Fasting and Later by Feasts” on 18 January (p. 17):
With special services in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, 97 st., on Sunday, the Ukrainian Christmas and New Year celebrations will be brought to an end.
Christmas, according to the Julian calendar which marks rites of the Greek Catholic church, fell on January 7, and was celebrated by fasting and later feasts.
New Year followed 7 days later on January 14, and was similarly observed. Custom decrees that both celebrations shall be maintained for two or three days after the actual event, so that this week-end sees the final observances for the Ukrainian festive season.
There is much old-world hospitality in the observance of the two great festivals of the Julian winter calendar, open house being kept, and traditional custom of house to house visits being kept up.
Observances in the country districts naturally keep more closely to the European form, the festivities there being maintained with all the color and pageantry usually associated with a people old in folklore and tradition.
While not the greatest examples of journalism, the articles were no doubt welcomed by the community for drawing attention to the uniquely colourful Ukrainian seasonal customs. That times have changed is indicated by the fact that nowadays Canadian media outlets reporting on Julian calendar Christmas observances often carry stories about the services celebrated in Russian Orthodox churches in Moscow. In the meantime many Ukrainian Catholic Churches outside of Ontario and Quebec have switched to the Gregorian calendar, as has the Orthodox Church in Greece, along with the Orthodox Church of America and Greek churches in North America.
Field Notes from Ukrainian Canada are compiled and distributed by the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.
Jars Balan (jbalan@ualberta.ca) Andrij Makuch (a.makuch@utoronto.ca)
Nota bene! New to Field Notes? If you have received our quarterly e-bulletin unsolicited and do not wish to remain on our mailing list, simply drop Andrij or Jars a line at one of the addresses above and we’ll be happy to send you to the recycle bin. We also welcome suggestions as to who else you think might be interested in getting our newsletter devoted to developments in the field of Ukrainian Canadian studies. Back issues of our notes can be accessed via the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre page on the Web site of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies: www.ualberta.ca/CIUS/ukrcan/uc-home.htm.
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Conferences
We are very pleased to report that the conference “Becoming Canadian: Ukrainian Canadians and the Second World War,” held in Winnipeg on 11-12 November, was a great success. A total of ten papers were given on a wide variety of topics that illuminated several different aspects of how the Ukrainian Canadian community was impacted by the war. Jointly organized by the Kule Centre at CIUS, the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at the University of Manitoba, and the Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre (Oseredok), where the sessions were held, the gathering drew an appreciative audience of scholars and Ukrainian community members who engaged in lively discussions stimulated by the presentations. One highlight of the conference was the screening of a 1943 American-made wartime propaganda film, The North Star―nominated for 6 Academy Awards, and featuring an impressive A-list of left-wing American creative artists, including the writer Lillian Hellman and the composers Aaron Copland and Ira Gershwin―which depicted the Nazi attack on Soviet Ukraine as imagined by Hollywood. The feature-length drama was preceded by a Donald Duck cartoon mocking Hitler and the Nazis, as well as a period newsreel, recreating the context in which the The North Star would have been originally shown in theatres. Another highlight of the conference was the concluding paper by Thomas Prymak, who evocatively chronicled the romantic relationship between the Alberta-born Ukrainian activist, Stephen Davidovich, and the Manitoba-born French Canadian author, Gabrielle Roy.
Arrangements are currently being made to have at least some of the papers from the conference issued in print. The organizers wish to thank the Wasyl Topolnicki Memorial Foundation and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba for their financial support, and everyone who took part in the conference.
The Shevchenko Scientific Society of Toronto on the afternoon of 10 December 2011 held a conference on the theme“Ukraintsi v Kanadi: Mynule i suchasne” (Ukrainians in Canada: Past and Present). The event took place at St. Vladimir’s Institute, and featured two sessions, with three of the six papers being delivered in Ukrainian, and three in English. In the first session, Andrij Makuch, spoke about “Mykyta Mandryka as the Canadian organizer for the Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1928–1931”; Iroida Wynnyckyj addressed the question “The Second and Third wave of Ukrainian Emigration to Canada. What was significant in the memories of women”; while Miroslaw Iwanek explored the topic “Neither at Home, nor in a Foreign Land (about the Immigration of Ukrainians from Poland in the 1980s).” In the second session, the following papers were given: Halyna Mokrushyna, “The ‘War of Ideas’ on Shortwave Radio: Canada’s Ukrainian Language Broadcasting to Soviet Ukraine”; Christina Sochatsky, “The Reluctant Welcome of the New Lands: Sons of the Soil by Illia Kiriak and Out of this Furnace by Thomas Bell”; and Halyna Kostiuk, “Emergency Aid from Natalka Husar: Aptecha.” The sessions were opened by Daria Darewych, with Maxim Tarnawsky and Dagmar Turchyn-Duvirak serving as session chairs.
The CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF SLAVISTS will be holding its annual conference from Saturday 26 May 2012 to Monday 28 May 2012 at the University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University, in Waterloo, Ontario, as part of the Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. The theme for this year’s Congress is “Crossroads: Scholarship for an Uncertain World.” Please note that the deadline for submitting proposals for individual papers, panels and roundtable discussions is 16 January 2012, the intention being to notify applicants of the Program Committee’s decision by 17 February. Anyone interested in presenting papers on Ukrainian Canadian topics should contact Jars Balan ASAP, and no later than 12 January, if you would like to be part of a thematic panel. Abstracts can be submitted by email as a .doc or .docx attachment to the Program Committee Chair, Tim Ormondt, at ormondt@gvsu.edu. Also please check the requirements for proposals by going to the CSP conference website, http://www.ualberta.ca/~csp/cas/conference.html. The latter still doesn’t include details of this year’s conference, but you can download the proposal forms from it.
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Publications: New and Forthcoming
A number of reviews of Re-Imagining Ukrainian Canadians: History, Politics and Identity have now been published, indicating the book is being discussed in various venues. The first, by Christopher Adams, appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press on 13 August, and the collection of essays has also been written up in the Ukrainian Canadian Herald by Myron Shatulsky. The latest review, by George Melnyk, of the University of Calgary, can be found in Labour / Travail, the official, semi-annual journal of the Canadian Committee on Labour History.
Collectors of Ukrainian-Canadiana should be aware that the newspaper, Homin Ukrainy, published a special 56-page issue devoted to the 120th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada on 25 October 2011 (Year LXIII, No. 40 (3426). Articles and essays in it cover an array of topics, past and present, and the pages are richly illustrated with both black and white and colour photos from every era of Ukrainian-Canadian history. Some of the material in the issue was researched by Andrij Makuch of the Kule Centre.
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Research Notes
We are pleased to share the following with those of you not only like to read, but also write, about Ukrainians in Canada. Here’s your opportunity to contribute to the scholarship on the Ukrainian Canadian experience.
CALL FOR PAPERS
CANDIAN ETHNIC STUDIES/ETUDES ETHNIQUES AU CANADA
Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes ethniques au Canada is currently accepting submissions for a special issue on Ukrainians in Canada to be published in 2012. The journal seeks scholarly articles related to all aspects of Ukrainian life in Canada. The deadline for submission is April 30, 2012.
For more information, please contact Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes ethniques au Canada atces@cc.umanitoba.ca or 204-474-8493.
Canadian Ethnic Studies/Etudes ethniques au Canada is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of ethnicity, immigration, inter-group relations, and the history and cultural life ethnic groups in Canada.
Natalia Aponiuk
Editor/Redactrice en chef
Articles should be approximately 25-30 pages long (text in Times 12 pt.). Shorter papers will be considered for inclusion as research notes. Delete all identifying references from your manuscript; the author’s name(s) should appear only on the title page. Include an abstract. Manuscripts should conform to the Chicago Manual of Style (the author―date system is preferred, although some subjects may require endnotes; CES does not publish footnotes).
Electronic submissions are accepted in Microsoft Word format; include an abstract. Please ensure that all identifying references have been removed from the electronic version. Send clearly identified files to ces@cc.umanitoba.ca
Complete instructions can be found at the journal’s website at http://umanitoba.ca/publications/ces/.
Please note that Canadian Ethnic Studies charges a processing fee equivalent to the cost of an annual subscription fee for each manuscript submitted. The fee must accompany the manuscript for it to be considered for publication. The fee is waived for current members/subscribers. The journal does not assess page charges or handling fees. The cost of an annual individual subscription to the journal is $100 for individuals, $65 for students.
Submission of a manuscript to another professional journal while it is under review by CES is unacceptable.
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In the Realm
We are happy to announce that the latest shipment of books has been despatched to universities in Ukraine thanks to the on-going partnership between the Ukrainian Pioneers Association of Alberta, the Alberta Ukrainian Heritage Foundation, the Ukrainian Kule Centres and the Libraries of the University of Alberta. Over 40 boxes of donated books went out to Chernivtsi and Ostroh Academy National Universities, consisting of Canadian titles (covering subjects in Canadian history, sociology, economics, political science, Native studies, literature, the arts and culture) as well as works from the library of the late editor and church activist, Mykhailo Chomiak. Other shipments are planned for the New Year as part of “Project Prosvita,” an on-going Alberta-based initiative to build libraries in Ukraine with Western publications in the fields of Canadian, Ukrainian, Ukrainian-Canadian and diaspora studies. At the same time, works published in Soviet Ukraine and in the Ukrainian diaspora are also being shared with Ukrainian studies programs at universities around the world. Funding to pay for shipping costs is derived from casino revenues the UPAA earns thanks to the Province of Alberta’s Gaming and Liquor Commission.
We are equally pleased to relay the news that the Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta has had its $3 million dollars in funding from the City of Edmonton reaffirmed (the money was initially approved by city council five years ago). enabling UCAMA to resume the multi-million dollar renovation of its Jasper Avenue property and future home. Construction work to transform the former rooming-house into an architectural award-winning facility was suspended for several years while promised financing was being secured from the federal and provincial governments. Work will now begin in earnest on the basement and first floor, which are expected to be completed in 2013, while additional fundraising efforts proceed to obtain money needed to pay for the final phase of this ambitious project. Six million dollars in grants from the federal and provincial governments will go towards finishing the second and third floors, leaving another $2 million to be raised to fully realize the $11 million dollar undertaking. UCAMA contains a wealth of archival holdings, publications and artefacts that make it an invaluable source of information for researchers working on Ukrainian Canadian projects, particularly those dealing with the history of the community in Alberta.
Andew Nikiforuk’s latest book, Empire of the Beetle, was short-listed but did not win this years’ Governor Gerneral’s Award for non-fiction. For a review see Richard Sherbaniuk’s “Pest’s ravages warn of looming ecological ordeals,” in the 10 September issue of the Edmonton Journal.
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Diaspora Studies Update
We are pleased to announce the publication by CIUS Press of Ukrainians in Argentina, 1897–1950: The Making of a Community. Between the 1890s and 1950 approximately 90,000 Ukrainians immigrated to Argentina, Latin America’s second largest country. They came primarily from the regions of Galicia and Volhynia, but a significant number originated from central and eastern Ukraine as well. The immigrants settled in various regions of Argentina, but they became particularly well-represented in Misiones, a territory wedged between Paraguay and Brazil. In this study, author Serge Cipko explores the organizational history of the Ukrainian community in Argentina and its ties with Ukrainians in neighbouring South American countries. The book is available for $29.95 in softcover, and $59.95 in cloth.
For more information or to order the book on-line go to: http://www.ciuspress.com/catalogue/history/313/ukrainians-in-argentina%2C-1897-1950-
Meanwhile, Serge was recently mining Library and Archives Canada for his next book, which will examine Canadian responses to the 1932–33 Famine. His latest article on this multifaceted topic was published in the Ukrainian Weekly (9 October 2011) as “The USSR’s Admission to the League of Nations and the Holodomor.”
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This and that
We would like to note the passing on 16 November 2011 of a daughter of Ukrainian pioneers who embodied the best characteristics of the first generation of Ukrainian-Canadians. Anne Woywitka (neé Andruski) was born on 6 December 1914 to immigrant parents Joseph and Lena Andruski on a farm near Opal, Alberta, north of Edmonton. On her mother’s side of the family, her grandparents had in 1908 homesteaded in the Waugh district, slightly to the southeast of Opal, and “a stone’s throw” from the Athabasca Landing Trail. In 1932 Anne married Bill Woywitka and settled with him on a farm in Waugh, where her husband supplemented his income playing the violin to help raise their three children. Always an excellent student and a lover of books, Anne had hopes of becoming a teacher but her parents could not afford to send her to Normal School. After moving with Bill to Edmonton in 1964, Anne took up writing, four years later tying for first place in a short fiction competition sponsored by the Edmonton Journal. In 1972, the same year that her husband passed away, Anne began contributing articles to Alberta History at the invitation of the quarterly’s editor, Hugh Dempsey. Over the years she wrote a number of interesting and well-researched pieces on a variety of topics, chiefly dealing with labour history and the experience of Ukrainian Canadian working people. Her articles in the quarterly included the following: “Strike at Waterways” (Autumn 1972); “Drumheller Strike of 1919” (Winter 1973); “Waugh Homesteaders and their School” (Winter 1975); “Recollections of a Union Man” (Fall 1975); and “A Struggle for Survival” (Summer 1989)―the last being the story of her maternal grandparents, Andrew and Eudochia Mandrusiak, of Nazirna, Western Ukraine. Anne was 96 years old when she died. (With special thanks to Bill Kobluk for his treasure trove of information about Anne’s publications.)
Finally, please note that Andrij Makuch will be recuperating from some health issues in the month of January, and that he will therefore not be available for consultations in the coming weeks. Please direct any queries that you might have to Jars Balan at the Edmonton Kule Centre office, and for Andrij, we wish a speedy recovery.
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Last Words
Seeing that Ukrainian Christmas carolling has a rich history both in “the old country” and in the New World, it seems appropriate to include something from the tradition to mark the spirit of the season. The first recorded instance of Ukrainians going carolling in Canada on an organized basis dates back to circa 1897–1898, when, according to the CIUS-publishedRecollections of William Czumer (p. 53), a group was organized by the trailblazing pioneer, Ivan Pylypiw (with Ivan Romaniuk acting as the musical director), to go carolling in the Beaver Creek district of Alberta, in the heart of Kalyna Country, northeast of Edmonton. The goal was to raise money for the completion of the church at Star that subsequently became the object of a lengthy lawsuit between Orthodox Russophile and Greek Catholic settlers. Ah, nothing like a good argument about religion to warm one’s blood at this festive time of year….
Be that as it may, below are words to a popular Ukrainian carol, “Dobryi vechir, tobi,” (Good Evening, to You) loosely translated and adapted in English, so that it works with the original melody. Seeing that we live in an increasingly self-serve―not to mention self-serving―society, we urge our readers to sing the carol themselves, and to wish everyone within earshot our best wishes for the holiday season. And in keeping with the custom of hosting carollers, you can also treat yourself to a pampushok, some khrustyky or a piece of makivnyk, washed down with a drink of your choice (alcoholic or not). Finally, and most important of all, send a cheque or money order with your donation made out to our favourite charity, the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Center at CIUS!
The Caroller’s Carol
(To the tune of “Dobryi vechir, tobi”)
Best of health good neighbour,
May your household prosper,
Celebrate!
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour.
Refrain
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour.
Set a festive table,
Raise a glass of spirit,
Celebrate!
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour!
Refrain
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour!
Christ is born, let’s praise Him,
Join in joyful singing,
Celebrate!
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour!
Refrain
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour!
Let us all be brothers,
Live in peace together,
Celebrate!
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour!
Refrain
Celebrate the birth of Jesus
Christ our Lord
Blessed Saviour!
As translated and adapted by Jars Balan ©
And on a final, related (end)note…
It is a little known fact that Ukrainian carols were brought to the Native people of Alaska by Orthodox priests from Ukraine in the late nineteenth century, or perhaps even earlier. According to Michael Oleksa, in Orthodox Alaska, “The Alutiiq and Unangan Aleuts enjoy the house-to-house visitations and festive atmosphere of “Starring,” during which they sing the same hymns in Slavonic, English and sometimes in their Native language as well.” (p. 188) Although Oleksa attributes the introduction of singing “Carpatho-Russian [sic] folk carols, koliady,” to the Ukrainian priest Fr. Jacob Korchinsky around 1905, Korchinsky was posted to Alberta in 1900 and in 1905 was serving in a Russian Orthodox Church in the United States.
