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ful. In the Verkhovyna, another centruries old custom sur vived. It is the baking of the Keretchun. Now Vasyl’ Gren- dzha-Donskyj speaks as an ethnographer and a linguist through the Grandfather’s words. He explains to his son what we today call the Solstice of Winter:” On that day people baked the Keretchun, the bread of the shortest day of the year. In Ukrainian, "Korotyty” means to shorten, therefore, Keretchun, sometimes pronounced Korotchun, reflected the people’s wish to honor the Sun-God and ask him to promptly make the days longer.” Slowly Peter learns about the meaning of the various rituals and makes these rituals a part of his life and his future Christmas celebra tions. The flour for the making of the Keretchun is com posed of ground grains of all crops. Once baked, it is equally shared by the people and the animals. People con sume it at their table; animals eat it with their feed. Dressed in their “Sunday best”, the Grandfather and his Grandson enter the barn to feed the animals. Vasyl’ Grendzha-Donskyj emphasizes in his play the harmony that exists between Nature, people and the animals. As they walk out of the house, the Grandfather poetically explains, “At midnight, the heavens will open and the animals will be allowed to talk to their Creator. By mixing the Keretchun with their feed, we reassure ourselves that their report to God on humans will be a good one”. After leaving the barn, Grandfather and his Grandson walk to the orchard. There the child is initiated into one of the oldest rituals which pertain to the cult of Mother Earth. A straw wreath is shaped and placed around each fruit tree trunk, and the Grandson is given the responsibility of tying the wreath while the Grandfather explains the dual purpose of this ritual: “First, we thank the fruit tree for all the fruits that we enjoyed; and second, we want to be good Hospod- ars by protecting the tree from any undesirable insects. In the Winter, you see, the insects look for warmth. They like to crawl under the bark and thus they infest the tree. Now that we wrapped the tree trunk with a wreath, the insect will fing refuge in the straw and our tree will be safe. In the Springtime, we will remove the wreath and burn it with all the vermin hidden inside of it”. The Grandfather then pro ceeds to hit the tree times with his ax, saying, “if you should not produce next year, it’s this ax you should fear!” In the orchard, they both go to visit the beehives. The Grandson is again given a specific assignment. The Grand father asks him to run seven times around the beehives as if to create an invivible circle towards which all the bees will faithfully return seven days a week. The ritual is not fully explained, but the bees in Vasyl’ Grendzha-Donskyj’s poems and folk tales are the type of insects that the writer cher ishes, respects and whose lifestyle is offen presented as a model to follow. The idea of the magic circle underlines the idea of unity and of belonging. This concern is vividly stressed during the Christmas season when the whole fam ily unites for the Christmas supper either physically or in spirit. To this day, this concern is embodied in the tradition of an empty plate set at the dinner table for those who have died or for those who are away and the mention of their names during the blessing prayer. For the young unmarried women, Christmas Eve is very specisl, because it is the night of fortunetelling. Vasyl’ Grendzha-Donskyj portrays the young maidens on stage listening to the sounds the wind brings to their ears: A bark ing dog may foretell from which neighboring village their future husbands will come. The j playwright selects this moment of the play to introduce this amusing custom as a transition to the idea of the family unit and the house. As the Grandfather and Grandson return to the house another unique ritual is reenacted. The Grandfather leaves his ax by the doorway, and above the door, places a knife. These gestures symbolically assure the house protection from anything that may be undesirable: evil spirits, evil people and especially sickness. As they enter the house, we reach the climax of the celebration. The Grandfather asks his Grandson to name all the meatless dishes on the table. As the child sees the dish and names it, each word creates an imprint on the child’s mind. His world of Christmas will forever be the Ukrainian world of Christmas with the Kutia, the red beets, the borshtch, the pickled herrings, the mush rooms, the pyrohy, the baked palanytsi, the beans, the spe cial peas known as the “bib”, the common peas, the com pote cooked from dried fruits, and the dried nuts. And this Christmas Supper menu will also speak of his Ukrainian identity. As the play comes to an end, the Grandfather per forms the very last gesture so unique in the Verkhovyna. Surrounded by his family the Grandfather will act as a High Priest. With a chain, the elder encircles the legs of the din ing room table. As the end links of the chain are tied together a wish is made: “May my sons never leave this home!” The chain with its links symbolizes the family unit. Each link represents a member of the unit. If one fails the chain is broken and so is the family. If one leaves the land, the family unit weakens and becomes an easy prey. The sons for the elder are the new keepers of the land. If they leave, the land will suffer because all the ritual gestures which assured the land’s bounty would have been forgot ten; and what was once sacred for one people will be wasted by others who do not know how to respect the earth and make it productive for mankind. It is not surprising, then, that the play ends with a chorus of “shchedrivky” or pagan songs, which fill the air announcing next year’s plen tiful crops, mixed with “koljady” or Christian songs, which reiterate the birth of Christ. As people sing both types of songs, they reaffirm their ancient past and their thousand year old Christian traditions. Vasyl’ Grendzha-Donsky’s theater for children, espe cially “Sviatyj Vetchir Na Verkhovyni”, serves two purposes. First, it fosters the maintenance of the Ukrainian Language in a non-Ukrainian milieu; and second, it explains the var ious rituals that accompany the celebration of a Ukrainian Christmas. It is, therefore, both entertaining and didactic. In the last play, he especially emphasized the cult of Mother Earth which illustrates the Ukrainian love of the land and the natural understanding of man’s role in the cycle of sea sons to preserve Nature’s bounty. The ecological lesson that the Grandfather teaches his Grandson is unique, because that child learns from his elder a certain way of life, a certain meaningful closeness with the world that sur rounds him, and an awareness of his responsibility toward the environment and, therefore, for his own survival. НбІ&пе N. Turkewicz-Sanko, Ph.D. John Carroll University © Helfcne N. Turkewicz-Sanko, Ph.D., 1996
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