Ukrainian Canadians Celebrate Easter

Many Ukrainian Canadians will be celebrating Easter or “Velykden” this year on April 19, 2009, a week after their Catholic and Protestant brothers and sisters. The reason for this is that Ukrainian churches follow the ancient Julian calendar and used by most Ukrainians rather than the newer Gregorian calendar that was created in 1582. In so doing, Ukrainians of the Orthodox and some of the Ukrainian Catholic rite adhere to the ancient formula that “Easter is to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon, after vernal equinox and after Jewish Passover.”

The Jewish Passover clause in determining the date of Easter is important for all those on the Julian calendar because they believe that according to Scriptures, Christ participated in the Jewish  Passover Seder meal on Holy Thursday and thus His Resurrection occurred after the Jewish holy day.

Ukrainian Canadians of Orthodox Christian denomination (in their entirety) and some Ukrainian Catholics (others celebrate according to the Gregorian calendar) will be engaging in the spiritual journey from “Christ’s Death on the Cross – Holy Friday [Good Friday] to the triumph of His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.” In addition to Ukrainians, other Orthodox Christians in Canada, including Serbians, Greeks, Russians, Bulgarians, Romanians and Macedonians, will also celebrate Easter on April 19.

Ukrainian Canadians are most proud of the spirituality the Easter season brings, demonstrated by making elaborate Easter eggs called pysanky, preparing the Easter food basket for the annual blessing, singing a triumphant Easter hymn and using a popular Paschal greeting.

Pysanky are an integral part of Ukrainian Easter. The multi-coloured and mostly symmetrical designed eggs are created based on ancient wax writing and colour dying methodology. Many children and youth members in the community are exposed to this tradition in their homes, schools (especially those with a Ukrainian-English Bilingual program) and organisations such as Oseredok - Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre and St. Andrews College in Winnipeg, which this year held seminars on pysanky writing).

The Easter basket of foods is meticulously prepared in each home of Ukrainian Canadians and brought to church at Easter for the blessing ceremony. The basket includes foods such as paska (Easter bread), babka (rich cake bread), ham, hard-boiled eggs, garlic sausage (kovbassa), horseradish, butter, cottage cheese, as well as pysanky (which are non-edible eggs) and krashanky (coloured edible boiled eggs). The breakfast brunch on Easter tastes exceptionally good after fasting for 40 days during Great Lent.

Ukrainians in their spirituality sing repititiously a most triumphant hymn during Easter and the following 40 days that reflects upon the spiritual message of Christ’s Resurrection and states:

“Christ has risen from the Dead,

He has smitten death with His own Death,

And to all those in the tombs,

He has granted eternal life!”

In addition, Ukrainians and other Orthodox Christians greet each other with the Paschal greeting “Christ is Risen! (Khrystos Voskres)” and reply with “Indeed He is Risen! (Voyistynu Voskres)” These examples of the spirituality of the Easter season have a deep and religious significance for all Ukrainian Canadian believers.

The strong spirit of Paschal hope and triumphant victory, are important elements in the celebration of Easter by all Christians. Whether on the Julian calendar and later in the spring season than their brothers and sisters on the Gregorian calendar, nonetheless, celebrating Easter is still the most meaningful Christian feast of the entire year.

Dr. Roman Yereniuk is Acting Director of the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at the University of Manitoba

Please contact your local Ukrainian Canadian churches and organisations for the local celebrations and festivities.