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OUR LIFE MONTHLY, published by Ukrainian National Women’s League of America VOL XXXVII__________________________________JULY — AUGUST 1980 _________________________________ NO 7 EDITORIAL “THE MAGICAL WORLD OF ANCIENT FOLK CUSTOMS” In the past few decades, one can observe an unprecedented interest in ancient cultures, customs, art... Anthropology seems to literally attract students and re searchers. Ukrainians, too, seem exceptionally intrigued by this field. The more time and space separates from our homeland, the more we value ancient arts and customs. Up until the war, Western Ukrainians collected and studied folk art and provided exhibits of folk costumes and customs for others. Often, entire groups would travel to large cities to present live demonstrations of wedding rituals, Christm as caroling etc. The Cooperation of Ukrainian Folk Art, as well as Soyuz Ukrainok and other organizations, were especially active in these presenta tions. These days, there appears to be an expanded interest in our folk art, embroidery in particular. Soyuz Ukrainok hasjust recently initiated a collection of art objects for the Ukrainian Museum, as well as the cataloging of private folk art collections. Soyuz Ukrainok has also begun the organization of “Folk Art Lovers Circles” . The Region of Philadelphia has recently organized courses in folk costumes and in embroidery. Folk art, however, lies not only in art objects. Folk art lives also in the spoken work, in songs, customs, rituals, sayings etc. And it is just these “pearls” of folk art that can vanish without a trace unless we preserve them for poste rity. Take, for instance, the saying which appeared in "Our Life” no. 4, pg. 3. Grandma Nastia used to say it many years ago. A littlegirl listened and remembered the saying and now she passed it along to us. Thus we are asking our readers to record such folklore as they remember; not only proverbs and songs, but also customs and rituals must be preserved. The interest in ancient traditions has now taken on more than a passive role; we are bringing old customs up- to-date and using them in today’s events, especially in weddings. The “korovay” and the “wedding tree” — a symbol of the tree of life, can now be seen not only in Hunter, Soyuzivka and Glen Spey. They have now entered the wedding ceremonies in luxury hotels etc. In this issue, we are entering descriptions of several wedding rituals, including a scene from “Proshcha”, when the bride and groom ask their parents for a blessing. This scene took place at a wedding in Philadelphia. For com parison, we also include a description of the same scene from Wolodymyr Shuchevych’s book “Hutzulshchyna”. The search for and the return of ancient traditions began in Ukraine when the young people of Kiev began celebrating anew “ Ivana Kupala”. Naturally, the govern ment kept close tabs on the groups that gathered at the Dnipro on that dark summer night. Our ancient Ukrainian folklore is opening up for us the "pearly gates” of ourancestors’wisdom, romanticism, and magical world, composed of part fairy tale and part truth. It would be a shame if these treasures were smothered by the age of technology, moral chaos and even anarchy. They are an unmeasurable well of beauty and poetry, which even today we can usetoembellish our life and being. M. Jarym owycz UKRAINIAN WOMEN PARTICIPATED IN THE PLENARY SESSION OF NGO — IYC IN THE UNITED NATIONS The Committee of Non-governamental Organi zations for the International Year of the Child had its final plenary session in New York at the United Nations Building on May 15th and 16th 1980. The Motto was: "What for the Child Tomorrow?" On the agenda were: opening and welcome by Helaine Plaut, Vice-chairman of the NGO-IYC Committee, statements by James Grant, Executive Director of UNICEF, by John Grun, Director of the NGO-IYC Committee. Representatives of many working groups from different countries, as: England, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Fiji, Rwanda, Italy, Israel, Australia, and the USA, took part in the plenary session. The World Federation of the Ukrainian Womens’ Organizations, as a correspondent member of the committee, sponsored the World Commission of the Year of the Ukrainian Child, which was represented by Christina Nawrocky — Vice-president of the 24 НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ, ЛИПЕНЬ-СЕРПЕНЬ 1980 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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