On December 18 to January 14, one can come and see in Kyiv the venerable St. Nicholas (Mykolai), whom children love so much. As the organizers told The Day, St. Nicholas’ official residence was set up in a traditional Ukrainian house built in the style of the Middle Dnipro region, next to Tytar’s mansion and the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the territory of the 17th- and 18th-century Cossack village of Mamaieva Sloboda, near the source of the legendary River Lybid.
St. Nicholas Day, traditionally marked on December 19, is one of the major winter feasts, especially favored by little children who know they will receive gifts and relish honey breads and candy on this day.
According to the organizers from the Cossack Mamai Center of Folklore Studies, St. Nicholas chose the village of Mamaieva Sloboda as his official residence in order to enlist Cossack support for all his good deeds. Before the residence was opened, Sloboda houses saw the sacrament of cooking honey-based dough, baking “signet honey breads” (mykolaichyky) in old-style ovens and tasting them. Children, well-known actors, and public figures took part in this ceremony. Visitors could walk around Mamaieva Sloboda, ride on a horse-drawn sleigh, listen to a canticle and psalm singing concert, as well as church-bell ringing in honor of St. Nicholas. To keep adults from freezing, they were treated to varenukha, the favorite Cossack liquor, in the inn Scythe over Wine Glass.
St. Nicholas’ official residence will remain open Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and all mail can be sent to the address: Mamaieva Sloboda, 2 Dontsia St., Kyiv, 03061, with the note “St. Nicholas’ residence.”
