A Glimpse of Ukrainian Culture

After a nice lunch at Gibson's Fish and Chips last Saturday,we drove  west across the river to check on the annual Easter  Tea and Bake of the Ukrainian Community in Saskatoon .The events were held at  the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral and  at St. George's Ukrainian Cultural Center. It was a very enlightening afternoon for the three of us as we took a peek into  the  rich and colorful  Ukrainian culture which is deeply anchored into their Christian faith.

                           

A statue of St. George

The  design of the cross similar to the one shown above is a recurring motif  in baking the Ukrainian Paska bread.

                           

The Tea and Bake was attended  mostly by senior citizens.

                           

Easter eggs for sale was in abundance at the tea and bake.To the the Ukrainians, the decorated eggs symbolizes life or  rebirth. Most of the designs are attributed to pagan symbols which have been adapted into the Christian orthodox religion.

                           

Pysanka or Pysanky are what  the colorful and intricate Ukrainian Easter eggs are called.  The decoration is done with a wax-resist technique. This is similar to the  Southeast Asian Indonesian Batik coloring method.

                           

On Easter Sunday morning, an Easter basket containing the Paska and Babka breads is brought  to the church to be blessed by the priest. The Paska is then eaten with breakfast.

                           

Paska bread are decorated with the twirled cross cross design. It is placed on the breakfast table  surrounded with Pysankas at  its base.

                           

A lady selling miniature twisted  bread with what looks like a foot at the end. Looks like little angels too.

                           

                     

The mini twisted breads. I forgot to ask what they are called.

                     

This was our hands down favorite Ukrainian pastry. It is called Horishke. This melt in your mouth  crumbly pastry balls is filled with a delicious creamy filling with pounded nuts.Almonds, I suspect. It is sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Addicting.  I must find a recipe for this.

                         

Perogies are the European version of dumplings. They are filled with mashed potatoes and mixed with either cheese, bacon or onions. This is one Ukranian comfrot food that we have embraced. It is eaten with sour cream. It is also eaten with sausages.

                         

Homemade cabbage roll. The rolls are stuffed with rice and meat and baked slowly in the oven with tomato sauce.

                           

Kolbasa is the traditional Ukranian  smoked ham sausage.

                           

Pysanky laden with flowers that welcomes spring and symbolizes rebirth

                           

Eggs decorated with Orthodox icons.

                           

Religious icons are integral  to the Orthodox Church just like the Filipino Roman Catholics. notice that the images look similar.

Here is an interesting excerpt from Wikepedia about Christian Orthodox icons and why the look similar..

                        "The term Icon comes from the Greek word eikona, which simply means image. The Orthodox believe that the first icons of Christ and the Virgin Mary were painted by Luke the Evangelist. Icons are filled with symbolism designed to convey information about the person or event depicted. For this reason, icons tend to be formulaic, following a prescribed methodology for how a particular person should be depicted (including hair style, body position, clothing worn, and background details). Icon painting, in general, is not an opportunity for artistic expression, though each iconographer brings his own vision to the piece. It is far more common for an icon to be copied from an older model, though with the recognition of a new saint in the church, a new icon must be created and approved. The personal, idiosyncratic and creative traditions of Western European religious art are largely lacking in Orthodox iconography before the 17th century, when Russian icon painting was strongly influenced by religious paintings and engravings from both Protestant and Catholic Europe. Greek icon painting also began to take on a strong romantic western influence for a period and the difference between some Orthodox icons and western religious art began to vanish. More recently there has been a strong trend of returning to the more traditional and symbolic representations."

 

                           

                           

                           

Comments

[lyn]

tried to google "horishke"for the recipe but,it wasn't available. would love to have the recipe.

[angelo a.k.a eatmatters]

lyn,
i tried googling for the recipe too. don't worry i'll try to ask around and post the recipe on my blog if i can stumble on one. it's really delicious.