Holidays in Ukraine

​Recap and New Video
By Steve Richards

“Welcome home”, the customs agent told me when I arrived in Miami late last week from Warsaw, the last leg of my latest trek to Bucha. A flight that had me sitting next to a Warsaw native who told me about his last trip to Miami when he had to dive under a table when a shooting interrupted his dinner on South Beach. We “joked” about how life in the USA is not so different than life in Ukraine when comparing the chances of catching one’s demise from random, uncontrollable violence. Of course, in Ukraine the threat is a missile/drone strike, something I experienced for the first time this trip.

That is how we begin the short video (two and half minutes) we are posting today; a collection of clips from my trip that documents a bit of the holidays I experienced. It is set to Christmas music all are familiar with; the Carol of the Bells which is Ukrainian.

Since heading to Ukraine on Christmas Day, I’ve left a trail of posts from the road including Christmas in Kyiv – Lights, Trees, Songs and Missiles about the missile strikes I witnessed, New Year’s Eve in Kyiv – As Quiet as Could Be about the subdued New Year’s festivities in Kyiv, and Christmas in Vinnytsia about the ongoing Christmas celebration in Ukraine. All of these are represented in the new reel.

But the main reason I went to Bucha this time was to screen Back to Bucha for the stars of the film there. We premiered on January 5th with the sponsorship of Bear Witness at Jul’s Coffee and Peace, a place that all who have seen the film know well, especially its owner Julia, who has taught me so much about the holiday traditions there. Julia was raised in the Orthodox church and is a proud and patriotic Ukrainian from Donetsk. There is a readjustment for Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful to move the celebration of Christmas from January 7th to December 25th and most are still getting used to the idea, including the carolers we see in the Vinnytsia village.

Julia is a mother of five, including three young girls whom we see in the picture below with one of her sons and husband in front of the tree on New Year’s Eve, the time when gifts are often found under the tree. Here’s what she said about the festivities:

​We actually did go to the pool and sauna, and on the way back I picked up the last present from the post office. We came home to have lunch and took a nap until 17:30…Then at 21:00, all nicely dressed we sat down at the table. Just our family, nobody else. We started with wishes and hopes for the next year and when everyone was not hungry anymore, we started to play a quiz specifically for New Year’s Eve. Six different envelopes with tasks to do were hidden all around the house and the kids were looking for them. Reading and doing. It is really fun. While they were running, I had time to put all the presents for them under the Christmas tree. It was a surprise. Santa Claus came quietly while they were busy 😂😂😂. They left him a glass of milk with biscuits near the window 🥹 So when the quiz was done, they came to see what was under the tree. They found lots of presents. Happily laughing they opened them at 23:00. And at 23:40 we started to watch President Zelenskyy’s speech. At 00:00 with a glass of champagne we congratulated each other on the New Year. Kids played more with their new toys until 2:00. 😀😀

Julia and her family on New Year's Eve in Bucha

January 7th had me in Vinnytsia where my friend Ben introduced me to the local blacksmith he is working with for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner, an excellent night’s rest, then a Christmas Day breakfast with his family. Next a visit to the shop and a visit to a local Orthodox church where I caught villagers caroling house to house in the freezing cold morning.

The Ukraine premiere screening was in front of an enthusiastic audience including representatives from Ya Buchanec to whom I presented a $1,150 check from a fundraiser/screening at St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Boston. Being that they had no idea what to do with a paper check I went shopping the next day with Liubimyr Janov, head of Bucha’s Youth Council, to buy a powered speaker and camera for the local youth center to replace items pilfered by Russian soldiers during Bucha’s occupation. The remaining funds are being held on account which also includes additional funds raised at another St. Andrew’s screening, this time at the Episcopal church in Lake Worth, FL.

Check presentation to Ya Buchanec

The video ends with real church bells from St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. Framed in stark juxtaposition to destroyed Russian armor in front of the church, they are a fitting summation of Ukraine during the holidays where I’m pretty sure the Christmas trees are still up.