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WORLD CULTURES & FOLK CUSTOMS

SIMO JELACA, Ph.D.

FOREWORD

This book summarizes information about culture and customs of different nations. Noticeable differences in customs are among Christian, Islamic and Buddhist’s nations, although in all prevails intention for nice and greatest.

It will be too much to include every country, as there are similarities among many nations of the same or close nationalities. Characteristic are Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Belarus, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, or as well as Germany and Austria. The similar conclusion values for Latin nations, among themselves too.

Readers will find basic information about each country, such as its location and size, population and Ethnic Make-up, Religion, Climate, Language, Etiquettes and others.

This book can equally be used for travelers, either as tourists or business people, therefore everyone will find necessary information about Etiquette of people at their homes as well as at the business.

My intention was to find as much good information as possible. How much I have succeeded readers will judge it.

Author

UKRAINA

CULTURE AND FOLK CUSTOMS

Location: Between Belarus; Hungary; Russia; Moldova; Romania; Black and Azov Sea; Slovakia and Poland.

Size: 603.550 square kilometers

Population: 48.8 million.

Capitol: Kiev, population 2.75 million.

Government: Republic

Identification

Ukrainian nationhood begins with the Kyivan Rus. This Eastern Slavic state flourished from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries on the territory of contemporary Ukraine, with Kyiv as its capital. The name Ukraine first appeared in twelfth century chronicles in reference to the Kyivan Rus.

Location and Geography

Ukraine, Europe's second largest country during the twentieth century, occupies 603,550 square kilometers. Its main geographical features are the Polissya and Volyn northern forests, the central forest steppes, the Donetsk eastern uplands (up to 500 meters above sea level), and the coastal lowlands and steppes along the Black and Azov Seas. The Carpathian mountains in the west reach 2,061 meters at Mount Hoverla. Roman-Kosh in the Crimean peninsula reaches 1,543 meters. Alpine meadows—called polonijna in the Carpathians and iajla in the Crimea—are another interesting geographical feature.

Ukraine's climate is moderate. The yearly average temperatures range from 6 to 9 degrees Celsius, except for the southern steppes and in Crimea, where yearly average temperatures range from 10 to 13 degrees Celsius.

Demography

Ukraine's population is about 52,000,000. A negative population growth was probably caused by economic and environmental crises. The census shows the following percentages of the population's ethnic composition: Ukrainians, 72.7 percent; Russians, 22.1 percent; Jews, 0.9 percent; Belorussians, 0.8 percent; Moldovans, 0.6; Poles, 0.5 percent; Bulgarians, 0.4 percent; Hungarians, 0.3 percent; Crimean Tatars, 0.2 percent; Romanians, 0.2 percent; Greeks, 0.2 percent; Armenians, 0.1 percent; Roma (Gypsies), 0.1 percent; Germans, 0.1 percent; Azerbaijanis, 0.1 percent; Gagauz, 0.1 percent; and others, 0.5 percent.

Linguistic Affiliation

Ukrainian is an Indo-European language of the Eastern Slavic group. Its Cyrillic alphabet is phonetic; its grammar is synthetic, conveying information through word modification rather than order. Ukrainian is spoken as a native language by 87 percent of the population, with 12 percent of Ukrainians claiming Russian as their native language. The use of native languages among ethnic groups showed Russians, Hungarians, and Crimean Tatars at 94 to 98 percent and Germans, Greeks, and Poles at 25 percent, 19 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Assimilation through the Ukrainian language is 67 percent for Poles, 45 percent for Czechs, and 33 percent for Slovaks. As a second language Ukrainian is used by 85 percent of Czechs, 54 percent of Poles, 47 percent of Jews, 43 percent of Slovaks, and 33 percent of Russians.

Symbolism

The traditional Ukrainian symbols—trident and blue-and-yellow flag—were officially adopted during Ukrainian independence in 1917–1920 and again after the declaration of independence in 1991. The national flag colors are commonly believed to represent blue skies above yellow wheat fields. When Ukraine was divided between the Russian and Austrian empires, the image of Mother Ukraine was transformed into the image of an abused woman abandoned by her children. After 1991 a new generation of Ukrainian writers began to free this image from its victimization aspects.

National Identity

National identity arises from personal self-determination shared with others on the basis of a common language, cultural and family traditions, religion, and historical and mythical heritages. Language issues focus on the return of phonetics, purged from Soviet Ukrainian orthography by Russification, and on the macaronic Russo/Ukrainian surzhenko. A revival of cultural traditions includes Christian holidays, days of remembrance, and church weddings, baptisms, and funerals. The Ukrainian Catholic Church emerged from the underground and the exiled Ukrainian Orthodox Autocephalous Church united formally with the Kyivan patriarchy.

Urbanism and Architecture

A prototypical architectural tradition was found by archeologists studying ancient civilizations in Ukraine. Excavations of the Tripillya culture (4,000–3,000 B.C.E.) show one- and two-room houses with outbuildings within concentric walled and moated settlements. The sophisticated architecture of Greek and Roman colonies in the Black Sea region in 500 B.C.E. –100 C.E. influenced Scythian house building. The architecture of later Slavic tribes was mostly wooden: log houses in forested highlands and frame houses in the forest-steppe. Stone as a building material became widespread in public buildings from the tenth century, and traditions of Byzantine church architecture—cross plan and domes—combined with local features. Ukrainian architecture readily adopted the Renaissance style exemplified by the Khotyn and Kamyanets'-Podilsky castles, built in the fourteenth century. Ukrainian baroque architecture was representative of the lifestyle of the kozak aristocracy. At that time most medieval churches were redesigned to include a richer exterior and interior ornamentation and multilevel domes.

The traditional Ukrainian house has a private space between the street and the house, usually with a garden. Striving for more private space, people in apartment buildings partition original long hallways into smaller spaces. Dachas (summer cottages) are a vital part of contemporary Ukrainian life. Laid out on a grid, dacha cooperatives provide summer rural communities for city dwellers.

Food in Daily Life

Ukrainians prefer to eat at home, leaving restaurants for special occasions. Meal times are from 7:00 to 10:00 A.M. for breakfast, from 12:00 noon to 3:00 P.M. for dinner or lunch, and from 5:00 to 8:00 P.M. for supper. The main meal of the day is dinner, including soup and meat, fowl, or a fish dish with a salad.

Ukrainians generally avoid exotic meats and spices. A variety of soups—called borshch collectively—is traditional and symbolic.

Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions

Culinary traditions in Ukraine are connected with ancient rituals. The calendar cycle of religious holidays combined with folk traditions requires a variety of specific foods. Christmas Eve supper consists of 12 meatless dishes, including borshch, cabbage rolls, varenyky, fish, mushrooms, various vegetables, and a wheat grain, honey, poppyseed, and raisin dish called kutya. On Easter Sunday food that has been blessed previously is eaten after Resurrection services. It includes a sweet bread called paska , colored eggs, butter, meat, sausages, bacon, horseradish, and garlic. On the holiday of the Transfiguration (19 August), apples and honey are blessed and eaten along with other fruits of the season. Various alcoholic drinks complement the meals. It is customary to offer a drink to guests, who must not refuse it except for health or religious reasons.

Basic Economy

Traditional Ukrainian food products are domestic. Pressured by the economic crisis, people grow products in their home gardens and dachas. City and village markets are places of bartering consumer goods and food products.

Land Tenure and Property

Private property rights were reinstated in Ukraine after 1991. Collective farms were abolished in 2000, and peasants received land titles. Privatization also has been successful in cities. Inheritance law in Ukraine, as in other countries, applies to transfers of property according to legal testaments.

Commercial Activities

Ukraine imports chemicals, specialized metals, raw rubber, metalworking equipment, cars, trucks, electrical and electronic products, wood products, textiles, medicines, and small appliances. Ukraine exports aircrafts, ships, and agricultural and food products.

Major Industries

Heavy industry in Ukraine includes aircraft plants in Kharkiv; shipbuilding in Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Kerch; and steel and pig iron mills in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhya oblasts. Electronics, machine tools, and buses are produced in Lviv, and one of the world's largest agrochemical plants is located in Kalush. Other important industrial products include ferro-alloys, nonferrous metals, and building materials. Lately, successful joint ventures with foreign partners produce consumer goods. Seventy percent of the land is in agricultural use.

Trade

The integration of Ukraine into the world economic system is indispensable for an effective export-oriented economic reform and for foreign investments. Establishing trade relations with the G7 countries (the seven largest industrialized countries: United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Canada) is a priority for Ukraine's international economic strategy.

Government

Constitutionally, Ukraine is a democratic, social, law-based republic. The people exercise power through elected state and local governments. The right to amend the constitution belongs solely to the people and may be exercised only through popular referenda.

The Relative Status of Women and Men

Males in positions of authority generally perceive women as the weaker sex. Women are welcome as secretaries or subordinates but not as colleagues or competitors. Women politicians and business executives are rare.

Marriage

Traditionally, young people choose mates at social events. Historically, parental approval and blessing were sought. Marriages against parents' wishes were rare in the past, and matchmakers mediated between the two families. The parents' role in the marriage has been preserved in contemporary Ukrainian culture through their responsibilities to organize and finance the wedding ceremonies and festivities for their children. Most marriage ceremonies today are both civil and religious.

In traditional society public opinion pressured young people to marry early. This still leads to many marriages between the ages of seventeen and twenty five. It also leads to a high number of divorces. The Ukrainian Catholic Church prohibits divorce and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church discourages it. Civil courts grant divorce, adjudicating property and custodial rights.

Domestic Unit

The traditional Ukrainian domestic unit is a single family. Elderly parents eventually lived with the child who inherited their property.The Ukrainian agricultural tradition clearly defined men's and women's parallel responsibilities. Men were responsible for tilling the fields and for their sons' socialization. Women were housekeepers, who also took responsibility for home crafts and budgets and for the daughters' socialization.

Infant Care

In 1992, 63 percent of children under age seven in urban areas and 34 percent in rural areas attended day care. These figures have decreased as current legislation provides paid maternity leaves for up to one year and unpaid leaves up to three years, recognizing Ukrainian women's preference for personal care of their children. Grandparents also provide care for grandchildren, especially in lower-income families. A well-cared for child is a traditional source of family pride.

Child Rearing and Education

Children attend school from age six. Education is compulsory and universal through nine grades. Students may graduate after the ninth grade at age sixteen and may work with special permission or enter vocational and technical schools

Higher Education

In post-secondary education undergraduate degrees are granted directly by universities. Candidates and doctor of sciences or arts degrees are granted by the Highest Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education in a bureaucratically complicated system. Every large and medium-sized urban center has at least one institution of higher learning.

Religious Beliefs

Religious beliefs are central to Ukrainian culture. Ukraine experienced a revival of many religions: Ukrainian Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic, Protestantism, Judaism—including Hasidism—and Islam. The constitution and the 1991 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religion provide for separation of church and state and the right to practice the religion of one's choice.

Religious Practitioners

Ukrainian Orthodox clergy are educated in divinity schools such as the Kyiv Theological Academy. The Ukrainian Catholic Church needs priests and provides a wide array of educational programs at the Lviv Theological Seminary. Protestant denominations, principally Baptists and Seventh-Day Adventists, train their ministers. Jewish rabbis have been completing their studies in Israel. Muslim clergy are educated in Central Asia and Turkey.

Rituals and Holy Places

Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic Churches share historic, ritual, and national heritages. Orthodox priests still perform exorcisms by the canon of Saint Basil the Great. The Holy Virgin icon and the spring of the Pochaiv Orthodox Monastery are believed to have miraculous healing powers.

Death and the Afterlife

Ukrainians observe ancient funeral traditions very faithfully. A collective repast follows funeral services and is repeated on the ninth and fortieth days and then again at six and twelve months. An annual remembrance day called Provody on the Sunday after Easter gathers families at ancestral graves to see off once again the souls of the departed. Provody is widely observed in contemporary Ukraine.

Literature

Writers of the 1980s and the 1990s sought new directions either in a philosophical rethinking of past and present Ukraine like Valerii Shevchuk (1939–) or in burlesque and irony like Yurii Andrukhovych (1960–). Contemporary culture, politics, and social issues are discussed in the periodicals Krytyka and Suchasnist'.

Performance Arts

An ancient kozak aristocracy, Mykola Lysenko (1842–1912) is known as the Father of Ukrainian Music. Lysenko created a national school of composition that seamlessly integrated elements of Ukrainian folk music into a mainstream Western style.

It will be continued

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