May 4, 2013

What a beautiful Easter Week we have been enjoying. In telling of our last week’s activities I will weave in the Easter Traditions here in Ukraine as promised.

Last Sunday, or Palm Sunday we took our monthly trip to Lutsk. What a different trip from a month ago when everything was still covered with snow. Sunday the fields were beautiful and green where the winter wheat was growing and the fields that had been plowed were a rich chocolate brown. I know why this is called the bread basket of Europe because they have such wonderful soil. But that soil comes at a price. Everywhere we saw the piles of natural fertilizer waiting to be tilled into the earth. Years of this effort has produced a soil that will grow the outstanding crops that are grown here each season.

Preparing gardens

Spring flowers

It was the beginning of a beautiful day when we began our trip. The mission office missionaries went with us as we had some deliveries of missionary materials that had to be delivered on the way. It was the Ricks' first trip to Lutsk so everything was new and exciting for them. Since our time was limited we didn’t have time to stop for pictures so we made notes of places we wanted to stop on the way home.

  

As we passed through the towns on the way the courtyards of the orthodox churches were filled with people with their pussy willow branches (the earliest blooming plants) to be blessed in church in lieu of palms, which are largely unavailable and expensive in Ukraine.   When they return home they place the branches behind their icons and holy pictures. Then the week of religious services and food preparation leading up to Easter Sunday begin.

 

Lady with willows

Lines outside orthodox church

We had a wonderful time with the branch members in Lutsk. I spent part of my time in primary and loved being with the cute little children. I love hearing children speak Ukrainian and even more I love to hear them sing in Ukrainian. There were more people at church today than ever before and we were pleased that the gospel is having a wonderful impact on so many people. There are now eight missionaries there and this branch will be in the newly formed L’viv Mission when it opens in July.

 

Lutsk primary

Missionaries in Lutsk

After the church services and our luncheon were over we decided to make a stop  at the Lutsk Castle or Lubart’s Castle before leaving town. Lutsk is one of the oldest Ukrainian towns.  Many important historical monuments including the castle still remain today in the old part of the town.  The castle was built in 1340-1383 by Dmytro Lubart to serve as his prime residence. It has also been the residence of Witowt, the Grand Duke of Lithuania. Upon Witowt’s death, the Polish King attempted to seize this stronghold however during the Lutsk war of 1431 the guards withstood the siege and secured the independence of the land.   For many centuries it was a seat of the regional government. Today it is a museum and the venue of folklore festivals and knights tournaments.

 

Outside of castle

Within castle walls

Climb to castle walls

Stairs to bell tower

Wooden chess set (life size)

Printing press

When leaving the castle, it started to rain. And when it rains in Ukraine, it rains hard.  Therefore, our picture taking opportunities were limited on the way home. It is always important to remember the old adage to take advantage of every opportunity when it comes along the first time or it may never return.

  

Mating storks

Patchwork hills

Swan house

Monday was the first of two working days in Kyiv. Not only is it Easter Week, since Easter was so late this year, Wednesday and Thursday were the two days of the Labor Day Holiday and then Friday, Good Friday. The Ricks have wanted to see some sights in our neighborhood so they came in after work and we took them to see Khrushchev’s dacha and the monastery where all of the fruit trees have just started to blossom.

Apple blossom lane

Resting in sunshine

St. Nicholas Cathedral

Washing windows

Khrushchev's dacha

Tuesday we invited the Sisters Filipovska and Russavage and their investigator Julia to go to pizza and then to the ballet. (On the way we walked through the Monastery to see all of the trees in blossom.) In three weeks there will be twenty-two sisters coming to the Kyiv mission and each sister missionary will be training two new sisters so we wanted them to have this opportunity in case it would be their only chance.  We went to see Giselle and it was wonderful.  Julia is a lovely person, a great investigator, a music major, and an English teacher.  She is going to help us with our Russian which is also a great thing.

Julia, Sister Filipovska, and Sister Russavage

At the Ukraine National Opera House

At the ballet

Giselle

Thursday is called Holy Thursday and before this day, which commemorates Christ’s passion, everything has to be cleaned, gardens planted, clothing ready for Sunday, pysanky made and all the cooking and baking done because after Holy Thursday, no work is performed. Instead, attention is paid to religious services.

So now we will talk about pysanky. Pysanky are the beautiful Ukrainian eggs. Some are real eggs that are dyed using a very intricate wax drawing and dying method and the other are wooden and hand painted.

 

We had a relief society activity a few weeks ago where we learned the art of making pysanky.  It was a lesson in love and appreciation for the care and labor intensive task it is to make these beautiful eggs.  First you melt wax in a stylus and then draw whatever you want white on the egg. The egg is then put into a yellow dye. Then you cover everything you want to remain yellow with wax and dip the egg into an orange dye. Same procedure until you get to black dye.  My egg could never even compare with the ones done by our teacher, (kind of like how all my relief society projects have turned out in the past) but I will never look at these eggs again without knowing and appreciating all the work that goes into them.

 

Getting ready with Sister Callister

Egg painting

How pysanky should look

On Thursday after the windows were all washed, the house cleaned and the work done, we headed out to the pysanky display at Ivan Franko Park.  It was just a beautiful exhibit and had pysanky eggs displayed of every kind you can imagine.  Eggs that school children had panted (looked a lot like the one I made) and ones done by professionals.  I wanted to stay there all day thinking there could be nothing more beautiful but we had planned to go to the tulip festival so we were off.

Pysanky festival

Pysanky display

Pysanky fountain

Words cannot explain the beauty of the tulip festival.  Tulips are absolutely my favorite flower so I was totally entranced. Pictures can never depict the true beauty of something but I think you will agree it was a beautiful scene.

Tulips...

tulips....

tulips...

and more tulips!

My favorite!

On Good Friday, the churches set up a plashchenytsia representing the tomb of Christ for worshippers to pray at.

 

Holy Saturday is the day that the people prepare their wicker baskets of food to take to church to be blessed. Since we live on the street to St. Nicholas Cathedral it is fun to watch out our fifth story window as the families go by with their baskets. Sunday morning after worshiping all night they have their Easter breakfast. The basket contents are just a small portion of the delicious food that is prepared for the all day Sunday feast. The items that are put in the basket are all symbolic. The white linen that lines the basket symbolizes the shroud of Christ. The little lamb that is made of butter, dough or even wood represents Jesus, the Paschal lamb. The eggs symbolize new life or the resurrection; baska bread represents the bread of life given by God; meat and sausages are symbols of the resurrected Christ; horseradish represents accepting the bitter with the sweet in life; vinegar symbolizes the vinegar given to Jesus on the cross; salt is to add zest to life and preserve us from corruption, and sweets suggest the promise of eternal life or good things to come. And a candle always goes into the basket and is lighted during the blessing in church.

People start arriving at 3:00 pm Saturday and the basket blessing goes on until 1:00 pm on Sunday. All night thousands of people made the pilgrimage up Artema to St. Nicholas with their baskets. This is truly a major even in this part of the world.

My favorite part of the holiday is the greeting that is given to all on Easter Sunday or Paska. Everyone greets each other with, “Khrystos voskres!” (“Christ is risen!”) And the response, “Voistynu Voskrese” (“Indeed He is risen!”).

And that, my friends is how Easter is celebrated in Ukraine. 

And how do the Mormons celebrate Easter in Ukraine? This particular Easter we will begin to fast on Saturday evening. On Sunday we will go to church at the temple site. We will sing, pray, take the sacrament and have an opportunity to testify of the Savior’s resurrection and His atoning sacrifice for us. We will give a fast offering to help those who are less fortunate. We will attend classes that teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will return to our homes with peace and gratitude in our hearts and break our fast with a delicious Easter dinner. And hopefully we will do as we promised in our sacramental covenants…….Always remember him.

I have loved this Easter Week. The weather has been perfect and the many delightful things we have seen and experienced have made this an Easter to remember.

 

Quote for the week from Believing Christ by Stephen Robinson:

   “We often think that having faith in Christ means believing in his identity as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. But believing in Jesus’ identity as the Christ is only the first half of it. The other half is believing in his ability, in his power to cleanse and to save………Not only must we believe that he is who he says he is, we must also believe that he can do what he says he can do. We must not only believe in Christ, we must also believe Christ.”

Spring at last April 30, 2013