Bell-ringers to be trained in Lutsk
The Volyn Seminary has launched a bell-ringing group, which was blessed by the Bishop of Lutsk and Volyn Nifont. The classes take place in the ancient Lutsk castle. The teachers are the clergyman of Lutsk Holy Virgin Intercession Church, hierodeacon Anapit (Shpyniak) and Volodymyr Hrynko, the head priest of St. Catherine the Great Martyr Church in Velykyi Omelianyk, Lutsk raion.
The students are not only seminarians but also Lutsk citizens who have an interest in bell-ringing. To start with, the future bell-ringer are learning simple melodies, like “God is above Us,” “God’s People,” “God’s people, Go to the Temple.” According to the Volyn eparchy press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the churches started using the bells at the end of the fourth century. First, they were applied in Western Europe to gather believers for praying and to mark solemn parts in church service. Nowadays, in Rome, which is considered the Christian world’s capital, there are around 600 churches but the bell-ringers were replaced by recordings of melodies. New churches are often built without bells.
It known that the bells were used for community needs, like guiding lost people in bad weather, informing citizens about disasters like fire, or for gathering the nation to defend its motherland. People also used bells to announce victories and welcome the triumphant troops from battlefield.
Christmas sounds
As is known, on holy Christmas Day Ukrainians appeal to God not only in their prayers, they sing carols, too. Owing to ethnic festivals, the latter are perceived as a “living” tradition, not part of rudimentary calendar ritualism. So, next in turn is another ethnic event, the first international children and youth festival-competition called “Christmas melody,” initiated by the Chess Art Entertainment Company. The festival’s gala concert will be held on Jan. 9 and 10, 2010 in the House of Children and Youth’s Creative Work in the Holosiivsky district of Kyiv. The participants of the competition, aged between six and 25, will represent the arts of singing and choreography. As asserted by the organizers, the festival will be dedicated to the Christmas themes. So, the participants were picked through competition, where they sang carols, shchedrivkas (Ukrainian New Year’s folk songs), or variety songs, they could also perform a Christmas dance. The jurors include People’s Artist of Ukraine Maria Stefiuk, choreographer Volodymyr Shpudeiko, head and art director of the A-6 Ballet Group Andrii Yeriomin, sound producer Volodymyr Hryhorovych, “graduates” of the show Chance Pavlo Tabakov and Dmytro Todoriuk, as well as the head of the children’s music project Professor Kreif, Oleksandr Petrov. The main winning prizes of the competition will be a free recording of self-written song in a professional sound recording studio and recording of a duet with a Ukrainian show business star.
