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ANOTHER SPRING FOR THE NATION — AND FOR ITS WOMEN M A R T H A B O H A C H E V S K Y -C H O M IA K Київ, 1990. Марта Богачевська-Хом’як і Іван Драч. Kiev, 1990. Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak and Ivan Drach. Easter in early Christianity was the major feast of the Church; it still remains such in the East. Easter in Ukraine was an especially joyous feast. Ancient rituals, which predate Christianity itself and its introduction into Ukraine a millennium ago had become an integral part of the celebrations. Pealing of bells, h a h ilk y — those special dances performed only on the holiday, the legendary Easter eggs themselves — underscored the Christian message of eternity and of renewal, of rebirth and of the triumph of life over death. In Western Ukraine, moreover, Easter was also linked with the abolition of serfdom in 1848. That event was indelibly carved in pea sant memory, and each village erected a cross to mark the day. And even though that abolition was an aboli tion in name only, it was the one that the peasants remembered. When the communists came to power they out lawed public religious service, the Orthodox Autoce phalous Church and Ukrainian Catholicism illegal; they melted the bells in church belfries or banned their peal ing, and forbade the h a h ilk y . And so it was for seventy years in Eastern Ukraine, and forty in its western lands. But, rather unexpectedly, two years ago, in L’viv the h a h ilk y came back — the result of community action and community pressure. Girls chanting the spring rites, girls dressed in peasant costumes, frolicking outside the wooden churches tha had been brought to the open air museum in L’viv’s park. “Spring’s resurrected! What does it bring us?” they sang the words of the ancient h a h ilk a . It brought us much this year, and all newspapers were full of the drama of Easter in Ukraine. For the first time since the communist takeover, religious celebra tions were open, bells pealed and in Western Ukraine, the Catholics of Ukrainian rite, outlawed since 1946, worshipped openly and legally. It was another abolition of serfdom. It marked dramatically the dawn of new era, a drama that was not lost on its makers. I was lucky to be able to be in Kiev and L’viv during the Easter celebra tions. I was struck by the most siginificant development in Ukraine — the emergence of open community organiza tions and the rapid growth of political activism and polit ical sophistication. I was especially struck by the se riousness and alacrity with which the whole democratic precedure is being mastered in Ukraine. This trip, unlike my previous trips to Ukraine which had been research oriented, was to have been a vaca tion. No planned papers, no classes to give, no official meetings to attend, a minimum of interviews and formal presentations. I did not even have to prepare myself for ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЖОВТЕНЬ 1990 23
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