Ukrainian Christmas traditions being kept alive by local family

For sisters Luba and Angie Wojcichowsky and their husbands Adam Peters and Clint Johnson, Ukrainian Christmas is an important time to remember loved ones and share long-held traditions with their own young children.

“For as long as I remember we celebrated Christmas according to the Julian calendar,” Luba said. “Now that my grandparents are both passed away my mom has sort of taken on the role of bringing the traditions in. So when I think of my own little girl I want her always to remember from early on celebrating these holidays ... so hopefully one day she will feel confident to pass on the traditions to her own children.”

Christmas Day is celebrated on Jan. 7, but the big celebration falls the day before, when families gather for the traditional “Holy Supper” — a feast consisting of 12 meatless dishes, each one representing an apostle of Christ.

Part of the tradition is to take part in a 40-day Nativity fast that begins on Nov. 15 and is broken on Christmas Eve. The fast doesn’t always mean going without food, explains Father Peter Wasylenko of Saskatoon’s All Saints Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but they avoid meat products and other luxury foods until the sun goes down on Christmas Eve and the first star is bright in the sky, symbolizing the birth of Jesus Christ.

“The Orthodox love to lent,” Angie laughs. “So we do observe the Lenten dinner on Jan. 6, but there is just so much going on, so that one can be hard.”

Johnson says some of his favourite traditions centre on the remembrance of family members who have passed, like the practice of setting a plate out in their memory — a tradition that has special significance because of his grandfather.

“My grandfather was fighting against the Bolsheviks during the Revolution and he was sent to Siberia,” he said. “In those days, if you got taken away you were dead, but he made his way back through the Caucasus and across Ukraine in a coal railcar. He ended up back in his village on Christmas Eve ... So that plate is always out for us.”

Luba, Angie and Johnson say they feel lucky their families decided to come to Canada, where they were able to continue to practise their religious traditions and welcome others, like Peters, who was not born into the faith and doesn’t have strong cultural ties to his own heritage.

Angie is also quick to note that Jan. 7 is not only Christmas for Ukrainians but is celebrated by many other Orthodox religions that follow the Julian calendar.

“Because there is such a high percentage of Ukrainians (in Saskatchewan) everyone thinks it’s only Ukrainian Christmas, but there are a lot of other people celebrating too,” she said.

“So, we’ll go to church and a lot of them will come as well because they may not have a church in the city where they can celebrate. So sharing that with them is special.”