Ukraine+Culture

*Culture*



__Beliefs__ ﻿ :
([|Ukraine Customs])
 * They are a family oriented people. Most holidays, such as Christmas, are very family oriented. Often, grandparents live in the house with the parents and the children. Both the parents and the grandparents help to raise the children.
 * Women work at home doing the cooking and cleaning while the men work outside of the home.
 * They are brought up to avoid public attention. If they are by themselves in public, they are usually quiet.
 * They love to have parties with family and friends. At these parties, guests are given loaves of bread with salt on top.

__Superstitions__
([|Ukraine Customs])
 * "Never shake hands, give keys or anything else in the doorway. It may bring misfortune to your guest."
 * "Never leave an empty bottle on the table, but if a bottle is opened, drink up."
 * "Try to sit between two people with the same name. It will bring you luck."
 * "Don't be alarmed when somebody spits three times over his left shoulder or sits on his luggage before going on a trip."

__Traditions__:
([|Ukraine Traditions])
 * Decorating Easter eggs <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[[image:eggs.jpg width="227" height="131" align="right" caption="Ukrainian Decorated Eggs" link="http://www.travelwithachallenge.com/Ukrainian-Eggs.html"]]
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Inviting guests into their house
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Bringing flowers to a home when you are a guest- but they only bring odd numbers of flowers
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Leave your shoes at the door in order to keep the house clean
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Men always take care of the women first. They pull the women's seat out, serve her food and beverages, and offer their seats on an overcrowded bus. They also pay for everything.

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__Societal Expectations__:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">([|Ukraine Traditions])
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Men offer to do everything for women.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Women work in the house cooking and cleaning, while men work outside of the house.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ukrainians invite people into their houses to have elegant parties. These parties have many homemade dishes and drinks. Often, they have their guests make a toast. They spend hours at the table talking.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ukrainians smile seldom in the streets and do not talk much in public.

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__Education__:
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">99.4% of people are literate. The expectancy for all Ukrainians is that they complete 15 years of schooling. Only 7% of the population has a college degree. They spend 5.3% of their Gross Domestic Product on education each year. ([|CIA Factbook])

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__Language__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The official state language is Ukrainian, and 67% of people there speak it. The other major language spoken is Russian ([|CIA Factbook])

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Religion __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ukrainian Orthodox is the most prevalent religion in Ukraine, with 76.5% of the Ukrainian population practicing it). There are two subsets, Kyviv Patriatchate (50.4% of total population) & Moscow Patriatchate (26.1% of total population). ([|CIA Factbook])

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">National Holidays __:

 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Christmas: the most important family holiday of the year. They have an extravagent Christmas Eve dinner with traditional foods such as kolach, didukh, kutia (the most important dish for this holiday), and uzvar (a drink containing 12 different fruits). Once everyone is seated, the father hands everyone a piece of bread dipped in honey that was previously blessed in church. ([|Ukrainian Christmas])
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Easter: the tradition of decorating Easter eggs originated here. They believe that the egg is powerful, releasing the earth from the restraints of winter.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Whitsuntide (the beginning of the summer)
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">New Years
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ivana Kupala: this holiday celebrates the summer solstice. It is a fertility ceremony and a purity ceremony using water. Usually, kids play pranks on each other using water.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">They also hold a festival every autumn to celebrate the end of the harvest. ([|Culture])

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__Music__:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Music is a very important part of Ukraine's culture. It describes the country's history, the landscape, the rules of social life, ethics, people's qualities, and describes national heroes. Choir, folk songs, and dance music are the most popular here. ([|Ukrainian Music])

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The song, "In a Glade," was sung by many during the war with the Turks of the Ottoman Empire. It is still a very popular folk song now-a-days. The lyrics tell the story of a girl who can't get away to see her boyfriend because he is at war far away. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">media type="youtube" key="k5O5rEhdUho?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">The English translation of the song, "In a Glade": //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">In the forest near the Danube river, // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">there is a nightingale singing, // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">he sings to gather everyone from his family //

//<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">In the forest near the Danube river, // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">there is a bass vibrating and a fiddle crying, // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">I think of a place where my lovely one is strolling now //

//<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">In the forest near the Danube river, // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">I am sick with my loneliness, // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">crying, I want to fly like a bird, // //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 88%;">to where my lovely one is now. //

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__Food__:
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The food served in Ukraine is all homemade and very rich in history. Some of it's most popular dishes include: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">([|Popular Dishes])
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Borsch: vegetable soup made out of beets, cabbage, potatoes,tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, dill, sometimes green pepper, served with sour cream.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Olivye: salad made out of cooked and chopped potatoes,dill pickles,broiled chopped eggs,cooked and chopped ham,chopped onions, canned peas, mixed with mayonnaise.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Breads such as Paska, Bobka, Kolach, Korovai. These breads are served for different holidays and shaped in different ways.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Perohy: Dumplings stuffed with fillings such as potato and cheese, often served boiled
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Deruny: potato pancakes, usually served with rich servings of sour cream
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Pampushky:fried, rich sweet dough similar to doughnut holes. It is frequently tossed with cinnamon sugar

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__Sports__:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ukraine's two most popular sports are soccer (called football there) and rugby. The soccer team qualified for the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany. They have four soccer leagues ranging from the top (Ukrainian Premiere League) to the Amatuer Level at the bottom. A national hero is famous soccer player, Andriy Shevchenko. ([|Ukrainian Sports])

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The first ever open international rugby beach competition was held in Kiev at the Hydropark, an island in the middle of the Dnieper River.([|Sports])

<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">__Art__:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Much of Ukraine's art is based on it's history and traditions. Here are a few examples: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">


 * General Information || Geography || History || Culture || Political System || Economics || Activities || Teacher's Page ||

Back to Ukraine Home Page