Ukrainians - Religion and Expressive Culture



Rational knowledge acquired throughout centuries played an important part in the life of Ukrainians. Some of this knowledge, especially in the fields of medicine, veterinary medicine, pharmacology, agriculture, meteorology, and astronomy, has been recognized by modern science. In folk medicine, this includes the use of plants and medications of animal and mineral extraction as a preventive treatment, physiotherapy (compress, massage, bath), folk methods for back problems, and so on. The same is true about the system of common law—ancient legal traditions that determined relations between people and their behavior. Among the Carpathian highlanders, for example, methods of electing the head of the highland gromada (deputy), conditions of collective cattle breeding and distributing the produce, as well as paying the sheperds, were mainly indigenous.

Religious Beliefs. In the past, Ukrainians held cosmogonic concepts about the origins of the earth and the universe and personified natural phenomena. Nature was perceived as a living world inhabited by magic powers, and humans were a fundamental part of it. There were also ancient totemistic and animistic concepts about the life of plants, animals, and the environment. Fire and its purifying power were very important in the beliefs and superstitions of the Carpathian highlanders in particular. Pagan cults were dominant before Christianity was adopted in Kiev Rus'. Along with the deification of natural phenomena and stars, ancient Slavs created a multitude of gods, the most powerful among which were the gods of the sky (Svarog), the sun (Dazhbog), the wind (Stribog), and fertility and cattle breeding (Veles).

Beliefs related to evil forces, demonic creatures of forests and water, and the power of people endowed with magical capabilities date to antiquity. Christianity has coexisted with different pre-Christian ideas (beliefs in magic, evil eye, etc.). Although these beliefs have mostly lost their original meaning, they retain a certain aesthetic appeal or serve as entertainment.

The most important folk morals have always been respect for and love of free labor, ideals of kindness, beauty, and knowledge of one's genealogy and civil duties; negative features such as drunkenness, laziness, insincerity, robbery, and stinginess were condemned. According to folk conceptions of the world, a human was an inalienable part of nature. Even age was associated with the seasons of the year (childhood with spring, youth with summer, etc.). From early childhood, a Ukrainian was taught to value singing, folk poetry, and his or her land.

At least by the second century B.C. , Christianity was widespread in Ukrainian lands, although it was officially adopted only in 988 under Prince Vladimir to replace paganism as the official religion. The Kiev metropolis was under the canonical jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople, and since the 1680s, under the patriarch of Moscow. After the Brest Unia (1596) and the unification of the Orthodox church with the Vatican under the condition of preserving the Eastern ritual, the Ukrainian population of the western regions comprised the Uniats or the Greek Catholics. The Russian czars and later the Soviet regime banned the Greek Catholic religion and repressed others many times. In 1946 the Lwiw church council decided to abolish the Brest Unia and return to Orthodoxy. After independence and the declarations of freedom of conscience and religion, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox church (which was legalized within the period 1920 to 1930) were restored.

Alongside these religions the so-called Rodnaya Ukrainskaya Natsionarnaya Vera has become widespread in Ukraine; it was born within the Ukrainian communities of the United States and Canada about thirty years ago and it worships nature and a single god of nature, Dazhbog.

Ceremonies. Ukrainians have created an original folk calendar—cycles of social agricultural festivities and traditions, symbolizing the beginning and end of industrial labor. The most popular holidays are Christmas, Shrovetide, and Easter. New Year and Christmas carols— shedrivkas and kolyadkas —were original. In the eastern Ukraine carols were sung with a star, in the western Ukraine with a vertep —a box in the form of a multistoried house with the help of which different puppet shows of a religious or secular character were shown. Ukrainians celebrated spring holidays more frequently than other East Slavs. There are picturesque festivals at the end of the harvest and, in the Carpathian Mountains, at the return from the alpine pastures.

The so-called Soviet holidays and traditions created after the October Revolution have not become very popular because of their artificiality. These were usually celebrated formally and almost never recognized, although some of them, based on traditional customs (the holiday of the first haystack), are still celebrated.

Arts. Ukrainian folk art is distinct and extensive. In choreography there are round dances and dances that mimicked everyday activities, the famous gopak among them. The best known musical instruments are the stringed kobza and bandura, and they accompany the singing of the dumas (folk epics glorifying heroic deeds of the people). Professional music in the Ukraine was formed mostly on the basis of folk music. High professionalism is seen in church music both in one-and two-part singing. The development of professional theater was influenced greatly by the concepts of the folk puppet theater ( vertep ). Various forms of folk art continue to evolve on the basis of centuries-old folk experience. In Dniepropetrovsk Province, for example, painting under glaze on ceramic tiles is as common as before, pre-Carpathian folk artists are successfully adapting the traditions of decorative carving and etching in wood, and those from Lwiw are making difficult kinds of glass. Ukrainian decorative art (fabric prints, bright rugs, wooden objects, ceramics, paintings, and murals) is popular in many countries, and the best works of Ukrainian artists have received international awards.

In the last few decades, many forms of western European culture have become popular among Ukrainians, and many folk traditions that fell into disuse during the Soviet era are being revitalized.

Death and Afterlife. The complexity of funeral customs relates to the cult of ancestors and the necessity of ensuring a successful transition of the dead "soul" into the world of ancestors. Death brought about a change in the behavior of people and the use of cultural markers (a white sheet was hung out, young women let their hair down, men did not wear any headgear). In the funerals of unmarried young men and women, wedding customs are observed. Since death is not considered the end of existence but a transition into a new state, it is not perceived as a tragedy, which explains why funerals are accompanied by various games. After the funeral, as well as on the ninth and fortieth day after death, commemorative feasts are held.

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