Let the Good Times Roll

It was very interesting last week in Ukraine.

For the practicing Christian (including Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists) in America, last week saw the start of Lent. The Lenten season starts with Ash Wednesday. This is a odd religious holiday where ashes are placed in the sign of a cross on the foreheads of the observers. The ashes come from the burned palms that are used on Palm Sunday. For the uninformed this can be an unusual day because you see people walking around with what you think is common soot on their foreheads. The date of Ash Wednesday can change from year to year because it is based on when Easter is celebrated. Most people think of Lent as being from Ash Wednesday until Easter but it is actually really up to Holy Thursday (the day of the Last Supper). The days before and including Easter are part of their own mini-season rather than a component of Lent.

Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday, is also celebrated during this week. (More precisely it occurs on the day before Ash Wednesday.) This day is also known as Shrove Tuesday and is the date when you should confess all your sins before the start of Lent. This is more of a cultural celebration prior to the fasting season of Lent. Mardi Gras can be celebrated over a few days with parades and parties that include the wearing of masks, costumes and beads. If you see a woman with a great number of beads you might ask her how they were obtained! This holiday is not traditionally observed in North America other than in ethnic French cities like Quebec and New Orleans. Of course, the worlds most famous Mardi Gras is celebrated as Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Let me get back to the wonderful week in Ukraine. First of all we are still talking about Lent but in the Eastern Orthodox religion it starts on a Monday. This Monday is called Clean Monday because on the day before, Forgiveness Sunday, you should have asked for absolution for all your sins. This period in Russia and Ukraine is called pancake or Maslenitsa week. This was originally a pagan ritual that became a Christian holiday. Be aware that we are not talking about the same pancakes that are found at IHOP. These are called bliny and except for the potential to have yeast, they are thin and similar to crepes. These can be topped with caviar, jam, sour cream, meat and butter. In fact, the word Maslenitsa comes from the Russian word for butter. In the distant past the pancakes were eaten to celebrate the passing of winter and the coming of spring. They are said to represent the sun because they are warm and round. As part of the religious celebration they are eaten to fatten up on the meat, dairy and eggs that you should not be eating during Lent. Maslenitsa is becoming a bigger and bigger holiday in cities such as Moscow. I was told by my students that something is actually supposed to be celebrated each day, such as one day where men are fed pancakes by their mother-in-laws, one day for sleigh riding and another day to visit god parents. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be able to come up with a complete list of these special days. I was surprised because I actually was given the impression that I  knew more about this week than some of my students but that may not be that unusual because of the suppression of religion during Soviet times. The week ended on Sunday when a large Maslenitsa doll was burned to say goodbye to winter. Additional Maslenitsa events can also include group fist fights, performing bears, singing and fireworks. Of course there is also plenty of vodka to go around.

There was a bonus holiday during this week in 2012. The week of Maslenitsa like Ash Wednesday can change from year to year but The Motherland Defender Day is always on February 23^rd which fell on Thursday of last week. Some people like to call this former Soviet Army Day as “Men’s Day” but other than some presents from women or maybe some special activities at work it can not be compared to International Women’s Day that falls on March 8^th.

Posted by John

This is the End!

The Holidays are finally over in Ukraine. This may seem odd to Americans because they were concluded two weeks ago in the USA. So maybe I should give a little more detail.

While Christmas is celebrated in America on December 25^th, this is almost a non-event in Ukraine for two main reasons. Ukrainians have a tendency to be aware of the American Xmas but sometimes they are uncertain of the exact date. (I was given some Christmas wishes and or presents by some of my students.) Americans celebrate Christmas based on the calendar introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582. The Gregorian calendar replaced the old Julian calendar because of an eleven minute error that causes a three day difference every four centuries. A handful of countries adopted the new calendar at first and ultimately the rest of the world accepted it as well. The United Kingdom, including the American colonies, agreed to the change in 1752. At that time, 11 days had to be eliminated because of the accumulated difference. Russia and Greece were two of the countries that held out until the 20^th century. They eventually had to drop 13 days from their calendar. So the first reason that December 25^th is just another day on their calendar is because the church decided to still use the Julian calendar for Christmas which is about two weeks after the American one.

New Years is on the opposite end of the spectrum. The Russian Empire followed the Orthodox Church which was part of the Roman Catholic Church until it split into the western and eastern versions. However, after the revolution, the secular communist government wanted to eliminate religion from the country. Because of this, the population was unable to celebrate Christmas openly so New Years became the big Holiday of the Year. Ukrainians celebrate New Years with fireworks, exchanging presents, parties, champagne and lots of vodka. It is like Christmas, New Years and the Fourth of July wrapped into one night. It is strange because this season I saw Christmas tree lots established after December 25^th. But they were not selling Christmas trees; they were New Year trees!

On January 7^th Christmas is celebrated as a lower key event because it was suppressed under the Soviets. Many of the religious aspects are the same as in the west because they have the same origins.

The last (actually not true because Epiphany is on 1/19) holiday of the season is Old New Year on January 14^th which as you may have guessed is the New Year Holiday following the Julian calendar. They do have one odd tradition on this day. For the last two years I have had someone knock on my door and when I answered it there were two young boys. They come in and sing or chant in Ukrainian and then toss cracked wheat on the floor. I think this is called the Posevaniya ritual? I’m not sure what they are singing but the wheat must mean that I will have a good harvest in 2012. Since I’m not raising crops maybe this means I will have a child?  Last year I gave the boys some candy but this year I provided them with a little money. I vacuumed the carpet before they came over and now I trying to figure out an acceptable time to sweep up the wheat.

Posted by John

A girl called by any other name is an angry girl

I guess, half of the dogs in Kharkov during the 90s bore the proud name of “Dick”, which might have appeared here in some way under the influence of American movies but nobody really managed to look it up in a dictionary.

So, I think, name confusion is caused by three reasons: first – the lack of knowledge, the second – names’ traveling from one culture to another, and the third – pronunciation.

Johann Bach, Sebastian Bach or Johann Sebastian? – That is the question. There is no such thing as a middle name in Ukraine or either in Russia , we only have the patrimony. Written in passport after the last name, it is used in formal communication. Somebody who is lower in status than you or much younger will use a full (not shortened) first name and a patronymic, talking to you. For example, you wouldn’t call your boss or teacher by first name without patronymic (at least in public). That’s why middle names are so confusing for Ukrainians: we don’t know whether we can take them out or not while writing or speaking and shouldn’t we leave out the first name calling a person by his/her middle one. For example I have learned once that I can’t shorten Austrian and German names by its middle. You may say “Amadeus Mozart” (instead of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), but “Wolfgang Mozart” is unacceptable. The same happens with Bach.

Since some cultures (like America) have a different policy about middle names, that makes it more convoluted to figure out what you should do, especially if you work on the border or in a bank and have to pretend you are a “know-it-all” person. In this position asking somebody which way their names should be written might seem too humiliating. That’s why John has so many different versions of his own name, and now it’s almost impossible to keep track of him with all his new aliases in Ukraine.

“WE, Nicolas the second”. Definitely nobody uses a “family” name in Ukraine, because there is a superstition about giving a person the name of a dead relative. And nobody would say “Helen the third” of “the fifth” because in the history only the kings and queens ever had an order number added to their names.

Russian names and aliens. But the most awkward thing for me is when other nationalities use Russian names for their children, which don’t match them (from my point of view) at all. Surprisingly, I found out that Korean boys and girls prefer to call them by Russian names which are randomly picked by them or their parents. At first I thought parents do that to simplify communication with Russian-speaking teachers, but recently I have realized they dislike their native names and don’t like me using them. Well, I don’t really think it has much to do with the fascination of Russian names, but maybe there is some sort of racial thing. I need some more time to figure this out.

Pronunciation. I’m not sure about all Russian names, but my name seems to be quite difficult to pronounce it right. I have heard miscellaneous “Elaine”, “Elena”, “Yeleina” and many others instead of my real name. That’s why I prefer Helen to Елена if I talk to English-speaking person.

Posted by Helen

A Rose by any other name is still a Rose.

In America, people have a propensity to work during the week and then buy stuff to clutter up their homes on the weekend. Being a poor English teacher in Ukraine I don’t have the disposable income to buy more crap from China. However, since the currency exchange laws were changed I have started to accumulate the “Exchange of Unspent Hryvnias for Foreign Currency” certificates. Since Russians don’t really understand the format of American names; none of them have my name listed the same way. According to the form, it should be surname followed by the given name. On one I can’t even understand what is written. Another is almost correct but it seems to have my given name as “Jon” plus it has my middle name. An additional document just has my two given names (first + middle) but is missing my last name. This name mystification seemed like a good topic for this humble blog about life in Ukraine.

Generally, in America when a couple gets married the women will take the man’s last name. Some famous women will keep there last name and other women may also do it for professional reasons. Some will even take a hyphenated name. For example, If Miss Jones marries Mr. Smith she may take the name Mrs. Smith-Jones.

These days it seems like people are always trying to come up with unique boutique names for their children. In the past, things were much simpler. For example during the 1960’s the top boy’s names were:

• Michael
• David
• John
• James
• Robert
• Mark
• William
• Richard
• Thomas
• Jeffrey

    There are four boys in my family and not only are all our first names on this list but so are half of our middle names. Obviously, my parents were not that original. They just followed cultural norms. Sometimes children are given first or middle names that were used by their relatives. For example, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s middle name came from his mother’s maiden name.  Russians do not have middle names. What seems like a middle name is actually the patronymic name. This is a version of the father’s name that means some thing like “daughter of” or “son of.” I guess this is like the Bible; Jesus was begot of Joseph (well that is probably what the neighbors thought anyway?) who was begot of Heli and so on and so on until Adam and Eve were begot of God.

Of course, it is also common to give the first son the same name as his father. The father would be John Smith Senior (Sr.) and the son would be John Smith junior (Jr.). If this tradition continued in future generations then you would have John III (the third), John IV, John V and John VI. Of course, if you had a really awesome name like say George Foreman for example then you could name all five of your sons George and have George Sr. thru George VI all running around the same house. I’m not quite sure what would happen if someone called and asked for George.

            I had a little trouble keeping up with all the Russian nicknames. Natalya = Natahia. Aleksandra = Sasha etc. The one that seems most amusing to Americans is Anastasiya = Nastya . Of course we also have our John = Jack, Edward = Ted, Richard = Dick and William = Bill.

Americans seem to have a picture or idea pop into their head for some Russian names. If they hear Boris & Natasha older Americans will think of an animated cartoon from the 1960s. Anastasia will invoke the image of the last Russian Royal Family and just do an image search on Google to see what they would think of for the name “Igor”.  Of course, many of the Russian names are mispronounced by English speakers. Igor for example doesn’t sound the way Americans think.

On a final note, I have heard of something called “Name Day”. I think I first learned of  this from a guide book. There are a number of days of the year noted as the day for a certain name. One name might have four of so days. Some of the days originate from when a Saint was born. Apparently, someone would take the first such day after their birthday for another special day. While I have heard of this tradition; I have never heard it mentioned once while I have been in Ukraine. It may have been more popular before the Revolution. There are a number of literary references including being mentioned in War & Peace.

Posted by John