Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 200 8 14 “I drew my first pictures and made appliqués on the window.” girl (appearing very rarely) drawing pictures with their fingers in the condensation on the window of a house. The window is invaded by houses, horses, dogs, and pine trees. 5 The fourth section of Shalaga’s album de - scribes winter. The first page shows children caroling with a star bigger than they are and a three- man band with a drum and two violins. In the house, the people at the window are obviously looking forward to their visit. The chores of the season are many: planting for the spring, digging potatoes, drying fruits, collecting cabbage, filling the larder with meats and the root cellar with vegetables, preparing the wood for the stove; collecting dry leaves to insulate cattle sheds and the exterior of houses, bringing the wheat to the mill to be ground into flour, shelling beans, making threads from hemp. With the snow piled high, mothers carried their children on their backs. There were no sleds — children used upside down stools to slide downhill. Skates were made of iron wire and fixed to the shoes with laces. People staged amateur concerts and were entertained by traveling theater troupes. On December 13, girls celebrated St Andryi’s day. The whole village would go to the river on the feast of Jordan and cut out a cross of ice. Village seam- stresses and tailors or shoemakers would be the busiest during that time of year as were weavers, carpenters, and cart makers. The blacksmith was the most important of them all because he made or repaired all metal work the villagers needed. One illustration in this section on winter shows the design of the interior of a house with the typical stove where children used to climb to keep warm and eventually sleep. 6 Bread is the topic of Chapter 5, which begins with the description of borders and field sections and continues with information about crop rotation, fertilizing fields. and preparing soil for sowing. It contains a complete essay on wheat seed treatment from sowing to harvest time. 7 Shalaga also provides a detailed explanation of the construction of the threshing floor which lasted an average of five years. The final step in the process of getting clean grain required a special sieve made by the village sieve-makers. Grain was kept in special trunks, tubs, and old barrels. At home people had manual mills. Shalaga gives a detailed layout of the bread oven under the kitchen stove, noting that it could accommodate up to six loaves of bread. He also mentions the borshch (beet soup) fermenting a nd explains how villagers made “kutya” (the special sweet dish consumed only at Christmas) by crushing wheat grain, poppy seeds, walnuts, and honey in a mortar. Traditions that involve the use of bread are also recorded as well as the memories of hunger. Shalaga recalls the public pantries and reminds us that straw was as important as the grain, mainly for cattle fodder and for making thatched roofs, beds, and exterior insulation. Two pictures in this section especially underscore the strong association of bread and life for newlyweds. 8 As the bride and groom returned home, relatives met them at the door with a loaf of bread and they were covered with a sheepskin coat, symbolizing that the new family would always have enough bread on the table and a roof over their heads. Grain was scattered for good luck, and the newlyweds were not allowed to step over the threshold of their house until a loaf of bread was placed in each corner of the doorway. The album ends with a chapter on folk art, a very endearing section of the work that entices readers to renew old traditions. Here Shalaga 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.
Page load link
Go to Top