Drop-in and join a Canadian family for a cooking convention on their Christmas celebrations. Attain the process behind preparing and making traditional family-centered Ukrainian Christmas meals, on Christmas. Discover new recipes that have become a part of this family’s holiday tradition and rejoice in home-cooked meals!
Come Join the Chamryk’s on December 25th at 9 a.m. and learn how to make a unique Christmas supper with these traditional Ukrainian recipes!
This years Christmas menu includes:
- Traditionally cooked perogies
- Plump Ukrainian cabbage rolls
- Classic borscht soup
The Importance of Christmas
Christmas is a time when family and friends can get together and celebrate being with each other. It is a time when you can express your love, tell stories, contribute to traditional activities, reconnect with long lost family members, and so many other things. Jack Santino (1994:11) describes Christmas as a winter celebration which represents the end of the year, and starting anew. This is because Christmas is after the darkest day of the year, after that the days start to lengthen, which symbolizes a new start (Santino 1994:11). All families celebrate Christmas differently but usually follow a line of traditions that range from decorations to cooking.
Families cook meals that are mostly always traditional together, they also set up the table, and follow other traditional values they have. Jones (1988: 242) touches on the factor of food and the importance that comes with it “People experience food directly and in interaction with selected others. Compelling influences, then, would seem to be found in the qualities that make eating unique and that inhere in specific situations of food preparation, service, and consumption”. This is especially the case when it comes to holidays like Christmas. The traditional values that families follow every year on holidays like Christmas say a lot about them and their beliefs.
You will learn a lot about our family and our Ukrainian Christmas traditions. The way we cook, prepare the meals, and what we do in between all of that. Herman (2019:4) when talking about the importance of food says, “We eat, therefore we are. Terroir is experience and emotion, embodiment and immediacy, custom and invention, destiny and storytelling”. When learning about our customs and seeing how we go about celebrating this holiday. It can give you insight into your own family and your traditions. Lundy(2016: 296) touches on the impact of food “But people still unite around food because food taps into much deeper values.”. This quote supports why we still eat Ukrainian food on the 25th because food taps into the deeper value of what my family’s heritage is.
Ukrainian Christmas
Ukraine starts to celebrate their Christmas traditions starting on Christmas eve which is January 6th and ends on the 19th of January following the Julian Calendar. Since most of my family gathered on the 25th, they would bring traditional dishes that are additionally made for January 7th which involves 12 dishes. Some of the popular foods in the 12 dishes consist of things like perogies, cabbage rolls, Uzvar(healthy drink), borscht soup, fish, pickled vegetables, etc. Most of my family has moved to America therefore, we continue the tradition of involving Ukrainian foods like perogies(dumplings filled with potato) and cabbage rolls(cabbage filled with rice) for supper on Christmas. My Grandmother always said to “stack your plate” because when the family all gathered together, there wouldn’t be any leftovers.
The Meaning Behind the food
Sources
Jack Santino. 1994. “Introduction,” “Holidays in America: Ritual, Festival, and Celebration,” and “Homemade Holidays: Making Symbols, Making Meaning.” All Around the Year, xiii-46. Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois Press.
Lundy, Ronni. 2016. Victuals: An Appalachian Journey with Recipes. New York: Clarkson Potter.
Michael Owen Jones. 1988. “Afterword: Discovering the Symbolism of Food Customs and Events.” We Gather Together: Food and Festivals in American Life, Theodore and Lin C. Humphrey, eds., 235-245. Ann Arbor, MI: U. of Michigan Press.
Bernard L. Herman. 2019. Selections from A South You Never Ate. Chapel Hill, NC: U. of North Carolina Press.
