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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 2009 17 OUR LI FE Monthly, published by Ukrainian Na tional Women’s League of America Vol. LXVI JANUARY 2009 SHARING THOUGHTS, VIEWS, & NEWS As has been the tradition for many years, the UNWLA was invited by the Voice of America to greet the people of Ukraine on the occasion of Christmas and New Year’s. On December 26, Anya Dydyk -Petrenko contacted me from the VOA studio in Washington, D.C., and the greeting was recorded for airing on New Year's Eve; however, Ms. Dydyk-Petrenko also confirmed that, after 59 years on the shortwave airways of Ukraine, due to lack of funding, the program would be ending. The New Year’s Eve program would sadly be its last. VOA began its long run on shortwave radio in Ukraine on December 12, 1949. It became a beacon of hope, providing truthful information about Ukraine, the United States and the world in general. “Unfortunately, we are going off the air at a very crucial time for Ukraine,” Ms. Didyk -Petrenko observed. Because greetings from the other major Ukrainian-American organizations who had annually contributed to this Christmas/New Year airing could not be recorded before VOA’s last program, UNWLA’s greeting would be the only one aired —the last greeting offered from Ukrainian Americans to Ukraine on New Year’s Eve 2008. And I was very honored to be the one delivering this historic greeting. I would like to commend all our Regional Councils and Branches for enriching our communities’ Christmas season through their many programs. Many of you bring our magnificent Christmas koliady to the homes of friends and neighbors, enhancing the atmosphere of this blessed season. The Branches or Regional Councils who administer our preschools instill in our children the love of our traditions while impatiently awaiting the coming of Saint Nicholas with them; some of you prepare Christmas baskets filled with traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dishes and deliver them with affection and warm greetings to elderly UNWLA members or to other elderly and housebound members of our communities. And what would the Christmas season be without the traditional “yalynka”? Hosted annually by many of our Branches, these festive events bring people together to decorate a Christmas tree with traditional hand-made Ukrainian ornaments; often, the trees are displayed in American venues and become a way of sharing our rich culture with our non-Ukrainian neighbors. In connection with this theme, on December 12, I was very happy to attend the Regional Council of New York’s traditional, annual “Christmas Tree lighting.” As par t of this wonderful program, the members of Branch 127 beautifully sang several Christmas carols. One of these was “Shchedryk” or, as the melody is known to non- Ukrainian audiences, “Carol of the Bells.” Also known as the " Ukrainian Bell Carol," this is a choral miniature work created by composer Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych. Throughout the piece, a 4-note motif is taken from an ancient pagan Ukrainian New Year's chant. “Shchedryk” premiered in December 1916, sung by students at Kyiv University, and was introduced to Western audiences by the Ukrainian National Chorus during its concert tour of Europe and the Americas. It premiered in the United States at Carnegie Hall on October 5, 1921, and was later adapted into an English-language version by Peter Wilhousky in the 1930s. Since then, many notable American musicians and singers have performed this well-known melody.
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