Ukraine has already kicked off the Christmas season with St. Nicholas Day, when the children are always the center of attention. We now look forward to New Year’s and Christmas, which most people here celebrate according to the Julian calendar (although those of us in the English Language Bureau did manage a small Christmas party yesterday for those more accustomed to the Gregorian way of passing the time), with everything being topped off by the traditional blessing of the waters on Epiphany. It is a time of joy when the white snow breaks out in a bouquet of the country’s colorful traditional folk costumes and the cold winds resound with carols, known here as koliady, once again demonstrating that nobody anywhere has ever quite managed to surpass Ukraine when it comes to choral traditions. After all, The Carol of the Bells, so much beloved in the English- speaking world, is actually sung to the tune of Ukraine’s traditional Shchedryk and was introduced to the United States by a Ukrainian choir in 1923.
Of course, with all this holiday merrymaking, it becomes impossible to get much of anything constructive done, and this digest will have to take a couple of weeks off. The printers close shop, and there is simply no way and no place to print the paper. Everybody gets time off, and this particular time with the Gongadze scandal seeming impossible to bring to closure, the cooling off period will be particularly welcome. Happy holidays from The Day. See you in three weeks.
