Culture of Ukraine

A performance of a traditional Ukrainian dance by Virsky dance ensemble

Ukrainian culture refers to the culture associated with the country of Ukraine and sometimes with ethnic Ukrainians across the globe. It contains elements of other Eastern European cultures as well as some Western European influences. Within Ukraine, there are a number of other ethnic groups with sizable populations, most notably Russians. Ukrainian customs are heavily influenced by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Pre-Christian Alpine traditions still present in Slavic mythology.

Ukraine has a shared culture with neighboring nations, dating back to the 9th century and the Land of Rus. Mutual influence is particularly apparent among the culturesof Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Belarus.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Ukraine

Religion is practiced throughout the country—Orthodox Christianity and Eastern Catholicism are the two most widely practiced religions. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the largest in the country. Faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the second largest, practice Byzantine rites but are united with the Roman Catholic Church.

Customs

Social gatherings like Vechornytsi have a long history in Ukrainian culture and so do traditional holidays like Ivan Kupala Day, Maslenitsa, Koledaruvane and Malanka, where people gather in large groups. "Razom nas bahato, nas ne podolaty" is a popular cultural and political statement of both traditional and modern Ukrainians. It translates as "Together we are many! We cannot be defeated!"

Cuisine

Main articles: Ukrainian cuisine and Ukrainian wine

Food is an important part to the Ukrainian culture. Special foods are used at Easter as well as Christmas, that are not made at any other time of the year. At Christmas time, for example, kutia - a mixture of cooked wheat groats, poppy seeds, and honey, and special sweet breads - is prepared.

An average Ukrainian diet consists of fish, cheeses and a variety of sausages. Head cheese is also quite popular in Ukraine as well as Kolbasa ([Ковбаса́, Kovbasa] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)), a type of sausage. Typically bread is a core part of every meal, and must be included for the meal to be "complete." At Christmas time, for example, it is tradition to have a twelve-course meal. Included at Easter are the famous pysanky (coloured and patterned eggs). Making these eggs is a long process, and they are not actually eaten, but displayed in the centre of the table (usually around the bread).

Ukrainians often toast to good health, linger over their meal, and engage in lively conversation with family and friends. Often they will drink tea (chai), wine, or coffee afterwards with a simple dessert, such as a fruit pastry.

Popular foods in Ukraine include, Salo, Borshch (national soup), Cabbage roll, Chicken Kiev, Vareniki, Pączki and Crêpe.

Music

Main article: Music of Ukraine

Dance

Main article: Ukrainian dance

Traditional dances are popular within Ukraine, many of which derive from rural Cossack villages.

One Ukrainian style of dancing is called Kalyna. Both men and women participate in this type of dancing.

• The women wear colourful costumes, sometimes featuring a solid-coloured (usually blue, green, red, or black) tunic and matching apron, and under that an open skirt, and below that a white skirt with an embroidered hem that should reach an inch or so below the knee. If they wear a tunic, then under that they wear a long-sleeved richly embroidered white shirt. Traditionally, women wear a type of red leather boots to dance in. They also wear a flower head piece (vinok), that is a headband covered with flowers and has long flowing ribbons down the back that flow when they dance, and plain red coral necklaces.
• The men wear baggy trousers (usually blue, white, black or red) and a shirt (usually white, but sometimes black) embroidered at the neck and down the stomach. Over the shirt they sometimes will wear a richly embroidered vest. Around their waist they wear a thick sash with fringed ends. Like the women, they wear boots, but these can be black or white in addition to red.
• Kalyna dancing involves partner dancing. One dance, called the pryvitannia, is a greeting dance. It is slow and respectful, the women bow to the audience and present bread with salt on a cloth and flowers. Another, called the hopak is much more lively, and involves many fast-paced movements. Hence hopak as a dance is derived from hopak martial art of Cossacks.

Weddings

Main article: Ukrainian wedding traditions

Weddings traditionally take place in churches, the bride in white and the groom in black. Wedding celebrations are known to continue for days, even a week. They are accompanied by lively music and dancing, drinking and eating, and fellowship. Some particular wedding customs include:

• Before the wedding, the groom goes with his friends to the bride's house and bargains with "money' to get a bride from her family.
• When leaving the church, the bride carries a basket of candies or sweets to throw to children and the crowd
• The groom carries her down any stairs
• At the reception, the bride dances with each of the unmarried women present, and places a special veil on each of them. This veil symbolises that they are still pure, but that the bride hopes they will get married soon. She also throws her veil and the girl who catches it first will likely be the next to marry.

Traditional art form

Every aspect of ordinary life is transformed into an art form on special occasions in Ukraine. Pysanka, rushnyk, korovai, vyshyvanka and ochipok are examples that illustrate extensive decorative finishes used throughout.

Dress

For men, traditional dress includes Kozhukh, Kontusz, Żupan, Sharovary, Lapti. For women, traditional dress includes Vyshyvanka, Kozhushanka, Ochipok for married women, and Ukrainian wreath for unmarried girls.

Weaving and embroidery

Rushnyk, Ukrainian embroidery

Artisan textile arts play an important role in Ukrainian culture, especially in Ukrainian wedding traditions. Ukrainian embroidery, weaving and lace-making are used in traditional folk dress and in traditional celebrations. Ukrainian embroidery varies depending on the region of origin and the designs have a long history of motifs, compositions, choice of colors and types of stitches. Use of color is very important and has roots in Ukrainian folklore. Embroidery motifs found in different parts of Ukraine are preserved in the Rushnyk Museum in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi.

National dress is woven and highly decorated. Weaving with handmade looms is still practised in the village of Krupove, situated in Rivne Oblast. The village is the birth place of two famous personalities in the scene of national crafts fabrication. Nina Myhailivna and Uliana Petrivna with international recognition. In order to preserve this traditional knowledge the village is planning to open a local weaving center, a museum and weaving school.

Vernacular architecture

Museum of Decorative Finishes in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi

Different regions in Ukraine had their own distinctive style of vernacular architecture based on local traditions and the knowledge handed down through generations. The Museum of Folk Architecture and Way of Life of Central Naddnipryanshchyna is located in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi. The open air museum contains 13 theme museums, 122 examples of national architecture, and over 30,000 historical cultural objects. The Museum of Decorative Finishes is one of the featured museums that preserves the handiwork of decorative architectural applications in Ukrainian architecture. Decorative finishes use ancient traditional patterns like the lozenge shape featured on the Pysanka Museum.

Sports

Donbass Arena (opened in 2009)

Ukrainian tennis player Sergei Bubka

Main article: Sport in Ukraine

Ukraine greatly benefitted from the Soviet emphasis on physical education, which left Ukraine with hundreds of stadia, swimming pools, gymnasia, and many other athletic facilities.

Football is the most popular sport in Ukraine. The top professional league is the Vyscha Liha, also known as the Ukrainian Premier League. The 2 most successful teams in the Vyscha Liha are rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Shakhtar Donetsk. Although Shakhtar is the reigning champion of the Vyscha Liha, Dynamo Kyiv has been much more successful historically, winning 2 UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, 1 UEFA Super Cup, a record 13 USSR Championships, and a record 12 Ukrainian Championships; while Shakhtar only won 4 Ukrainian Championships and one and last UEFA Cup.

Many Ukrainians also played for the USSR national football team, most notably Igor Belanov and Oleg Blokhin, winners of the prestigious Golden Ball Award for the best football player of the year. This award was only presented to one Ukrainian after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Andriy Shevchenko, the current captain of the Ukraine national football team. The national team made its debut in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and reached the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions, Italy.

Ukrainian brothers Vitaliy Klychko and Volodymyr Klychko have held world heavyweight champion titles in boxing.

Ukraine made its debut at the 1994 Winter Olympics. So far, Ukraine has been much more successful in the Summer Olympics (96 medals in 4 appearances) than in the Winter Olympics (5 medals in 4 appearances). Ukraine is currently ranked 35th by number of gold medals won in the All-time Olympic Games medal count, with every country above it, except for Russia, having more appearances.

Other popular sports in Ukraine include handball, tennis, rugby union, basketball, gymnastics, and ice hockey.

See also

• Russification of Ukraine
• Ukrainian architecture
• The Seven Wonders of Ukraine are the seven historical and cultural monuments of Ukraine
• Ukraine

Print sources

• Dubrovytskyi Visnyk. November 2007. “…I ne pereshkoda letu lita”

External links

• Treasures of the national library of Ukraine displayed via The European Library
• MA in Black Sea Cultural Studies. International Hellenic University-School of Humanities
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