Ukrainian traditions, customs and ordinances have survived thanks to those who managed to pass through love for the country for many years and pass it on to the descendants. From small stories a great nation forms. About the connection with the past, about the museum, created from family relics, and about the moving love of people from Zhytomyr.Travel sincerely shared the teacher of Zhytomyr State University Mariia Maslovskaya
“I was born in the family of Volodymyr Dovgyi, who was wearing a Cossack surname. He endlessly loved this land, taught me to understand that I am a Ukrainian. Another little one took me by the hand and spent great holidays – Christmas, Easter, Green holidays – in the church. My grandmother sang on the wing. Then in school I was reproached that I’m going to the church, because that’s not what the Octites, Pioneers and the Young Communist League should do, but we still did not renounce God. Subsequently, the grandmother baptized my son in the house. Through all kinds of obstacles, we did everything that man should do on this earth: to be tied to her with a cord, to believe in the Almighty, to observe his own traditions and customs. It was very easy for me to read such disciplines as “Ukrainian Studies”, “Folklore”, “Ethnography”, because I saw them all at home. I saw and knew what to do on Christmas Eve, on the Rich corner, how to decorate the house on green holidays. I sincerely thank God, who was born in a family in which all this taught me”
“Love for all Ukraine either exists, or not. She is given with the mother’s blood. When I go to the street and see that my mother goes with her baby, she speaks to him in Ukrainian and tells us that here is a maple leaf, he is yellow-red; winter has come – he threw that leaf on the ground, but spring will come, and he will again appear on the tree. And the way a mother speaks these words in a beautiful Ukrainian language, and how their child catches them, tells me that a Ukrainian will grow from this child. Or when I go to the trolley bus and hear how a young man whispers something to his beloved Ukrainian in the ear, then in my soul a wave of heat rises right away”
“It is good that today those who live on this earth understand: in order to save the state and the nation, it is necessary to carry the genetic code. If it is in our souls and hearts – we will eventually build a country in which nationally conscious citizens will live. People build the future of their state. The most important components of the state are the language, health of the nation and education. Healthy nation builds healthy Ukraine. If there is no quality education, people will not understand how important it is to preserve the language and nurture the national idea. Those of the great of this world today understand that there are three whales that hold the strength of the nation and the power of the state are wise men”
“The most important thing in this world is the family. Kindergarten, school only complement family education. I thank my family for the love of Ukrainians living in my soul”
“I graduated from the Berdychiv Pedagogical College, then studied at the University of Gorkyi (today Drahomanov). At one time I worked at a kindergarten, a school, and I always had a corner of Ukrainians. How can one show on fingers, what is the flag of Ukrainians, what embroidery? It is our wealth. If you go to a Japanese university, you must know more than 100 folk songs, and when you go from university, then you have to study 300. Project change any Ukrainian – so much will not know. Although if we collect works of various folk genres together: both fairy tales, songs, and sayings, then perhaps in my arsenal 200 will be gathered, songs from them – more than 50. In my family, embroidered – sang, wrote pysanky – sang. Mummy and grandmother sang, sewed, embroidered, knitted, crippled – they all taught me from my childhood, and I brought it into life”
“In the Museum of Antiquities, which I founded at the University, there’s half of my antique belongings. There is even a scarf of my great-grandmother. I brought small scarves and bigger ones here too. From this began the birth of the museum, and stop there no. I thank the students, because they supported my admiration. Today we are happy to invite people from other countries to the museum. The Czechs, Canadians, Americans, Poles, and Englishmen, Swedes and Swiss were also coming to visit us. I’m happy: there is something to show them. Ukraine is a rich country. We have different regions, each of them has its own special embroidery, an Easter egg. Not all women were able to draw, but they reproduced irises, peonies, roses in their canvases as they saw them. In my collection there are over 500 towels, and there is no one like that. Each shirt, embroidered with a woman, was unique. It was only afterwards that the Soviet-era education accustomed us to be the same. Going to the stage – and you have to be like everyone else. And once a woman on Easter was wearing one shirt, on Green holidays – another, married out – in the third. There were funeral shirts, in which women only went to the funeral. There were shirts in which women only walked into the church. From the age of seven, girls began to teach embroidery, and the boys were accustomed to “male” labor. The word “tradition” is a great word. Each family passed knowledge and skills from mother to daughter, and so was from generation to generation”
“In my collection there are embroidered XIX century. The oldest shirts were embroidered on cannabis or linen products. Ukrainian woman tried to decorate even night shirts”
“We had a subject “Ukrainian studies”, where I taught students to embroider, work with beads, with natural material, to make dough products. Today there is a school of Easter eggs, on which I teach everybody who wants to write Easter eggs, with which you and your children participated. (Smiles). Next year we will write again – I will say in advance. And I’m glad that I have someone to convey the art of Easter eggs. This pysanka is written only alive. She does not cook. We have now learned to “blend” the content to be able to save as much as possible the pseudoscope, which serves as a wardrobe. There are Easter eggs in the museum for over 20 years”
“Since the beginning of December, young people have already gathered at evening parties and taught carols. Such December holidays as Catherine, Savva, Barbara, Andrew, Naum, and Nicholas are called “Nicholas holidays.” The most important of them is the celebration of Nicholas. Fortunately, I opened the museum on this particular day. And every year on December 19 – the day of open doors in our museum”
“There is such a legend that Borzenko sent two of his disciples, Nicholas and Cassia, to their eyes to see how people live. They put on their white robes and went to the ground. On the way, Nikolai saw that there are many troubles in people’s lives. Grandma walked past her, she slipped and fell into the pool. Nikolay lifted her up, she tightened, she went on. Subsequently, he saw a man bring wood, but the car turned over, and the wood fell apart. Nicholas, of course, helped her to lay them down. He has done many more good things. When they returned and before God, their God asked: “Nicholas, why do you have such dirty clothes?” Nicholas told about what he was doing on the earth. A Kasiyan stood near him in a pretty little clothes. God looked and realized that Mykolay was the saint who always cares about people and said: “Nicholas, you will be honored by people: for your kindness, for your honesty, for the fact that you are not indifferent to their fate.” Therefore, Nikolay celebrate twice a year: December 19 and May 22. “And you, Cassia, are indifferent to human misery, and therefore you will be mentioned once in 4 years – on February 29, in a leap year”
“Nicholas himself is good, and because of good deeds, the mustache carries his hands and soul to his mother’s nests and puts them under the pillow. I am glad that today Nicholas comes to Ukrainian homes, brings kindness and joy to our little Ukrainians”
“Christmas holidays include three great holidays: Christmas, Melanka, Epiphany. The most important attributes of these holidays are related to the sun. A lot of Christian holidays have kept pagan elements. Our ancestors celebrated the Birthday of the Sun on Christmas Day and specially baked the book before this holiday. In our family, the grandmother with a glass of champagne or flashed such a circle, and then bake a bread, like a passover. My grandmother did not know why. This is what I later learned that he symbolizes. On these holidays cooked a corner – a memorable dish. And still the Didukh (grandfathers spirit), which made every mistress of rye, wheat, barley, was treated. Knit as many bunches, as many people died in the family. We sat at the table with the first star and began the dinner from the inviting souls of the dead. It was believed that these holy evenings all the relatives had to gather together in the hut. It was not easy to walk somewhere, because it was thought that you would be alive for the whole year. You could not borrow money. It was believed that the storage and transfer of traditions brings happiness and prosperity to the family ”
“I’m already the same age, when I do not have a grandmother, there is no mother, but I want to go to Christmas in the village to hear how our little young Ukrainians go to charm with the bells. And when under the window it sounds: “Let me charm”, I’m shaking and sore a little – I’m happy with that. They go and carry God’s blessing to every home. We have a lot of chocolates and generosoles because we want them happiness, well-being and everything else. Once the carols were divided into boys, girls, hunting, military, fabulous, fantastic, farming. Today there are agricultural and Christian survivors, other species have survived. Although, I think the military can return because many of our boys are in the East”
“I can not say that I’m too in love with Zhytomyr, but I’m the bird who does not drown in his nest. I still dream of a trail with which I went to school, until now my mother’s dreams are dreams, until today I see my mother near the house and in the yard. Until today I see mother’s flowers. I have such poetry “My cradle, My sick heart”, because I was born in Nehvorosh and Andrushevsky district of Zhytomyr region. And this cradle holds me. Especially since I was born at home, because my mother did not have time to work … And my navel was buried there, and that navel binds you for life to the place where you were born”
“Student is a unique phenomenon in my life. Students give me inspiration, youth, the right not to aging, to keep up, to grab on the fly. If I were asked what kept me at the students, I would answer: “Love to them.” Big Frying pan said: “Who does not love animals – does not love people.” And I love the insect, the dog, the kitschku and the people, and the students are the hardest of them”
“When I go to church, I put five candles. The first candle is for me, the second one for the son, the third for the family and the acquaintances, the fourth for the students, the fifth for the Ukraine. All my students know about it, because I do it, since I work at the university ”
“The house is not built right away … Now it is difficult for us, Ukrainians, but we step by step go to our goal. If not we, our children, our grandchildren will be happy on this land … For otherwise it can not be”
“One day a woman called me and asked to tell how and with what to go to the family – the son wants to marry. I told her everything. After some time, she calls again: “The son got married. Wife is pregnant. What should I do to protect my mother and baby? “I told her again. Time passes, she again calls back: “Mariya Vladimirovna, was born miaupushka, girl, how to choose her name?” I gave advice. When she last called, she said: “Mariya Vladimirovna, I would like to meet you”. She asked me about the christening, and then began to spit on the wishes: “To be healthy, that you have healthy grandchildren”. I cried out and said: “In misfortune, I have no grandchildren. My son is a non-union. ” I told her that I did not cry for that, because my destiny was not the way I would like it. I cried out from the fact that people are as it should be … I would like everyone to be happy ”
Translated by Aliona Matushevich
