Korinnya Ukrainian Folk Ensemble Gearing Up

2011-2012

Korinnya choir is commencing their fall season with rehearsals on the second Monday of each month, beginning on November 12, 2012.  To join this enthusiastic group and participate in Calgary's Ukrainian Folk Choir - Korinnya, contact info@korinnya.com

For more information contact the group President, Marcia Maluta, at mmaluta@hotmail.com.
 

Ukrainian Professionals to Hear About Espionage

Philip  W. Fodchuk is an expert at Digital Crisis Solutions, and he has a message to share with the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Canada, Calgary Branch, at its Afternoon Distinguished Speakers Series.  The topic is very timely! 

 

Corporate Espionage: A Daily Occurrence in Calgary - Phil Fodchuk

Calgarians can meet with Phil on Thursday, November 15, 2012 from 4:30 til 6 Pm at the Bow Valley Club (#370 - 250 6 Avenue S.W.)
and enjoy a drink and appetizers for a cost of $30 for the event. 

Connect at www.ucpbacalgary.ca

For more information about Phil Fodchuk of Urgentis Digital Crisis Solutions, check this Nov. 4 article from the Calgary Herald: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Protecting+corporate+intelligence+growing+business/7496008/story.html
 

  

 

 

Celebrating the Ukrainian Christmas Season

The Ukrainian Museum of Canada (Alberta Branch) will hold a special exhibit - Celebrating the Ukrainian Christmas Season - from Tuesday November 6^th until Sunday November 11^th at St. John’s Cultural Centre, 10611 – 110 Avenue, Edmonton. Admission by donation.

Exhibit hours are:

Tuesday November 6: 9:30 am – 9 pm with official opening program from 7 pm – 9 pm on Tuesday

Wednesday November 7: 9:30 am – 4 pm

Thursday November 8: 9:30 am – 8 pm

Friday November 9: 9:30 am – 4 pm

Saturday November 10: 9:30 am - 4 pm

Sunday November 11: 12 noon – 4 pm

For more information please contact the museum at 780-441-1062, email info@umcalberta.org or visit www.umcalberta.org

Ukrainian Wedding on the Prairies

zazzle.com

Crops are off the field, harvest is done, time for a feast - time for a traditional Ukrainian wedding!  Where are the besotted love birds?

Traditional Ukrainian weddings on the Canadian prairies have always included elements from the ancestral home and a lot from the new Canadian surroundings.

Today North American brides have so many choices - dresses, flowers, and all the details.  But in times long past, the wedding party was the most important detail - gotta get food, drink and a band - a good dance band!!

Planning for a Ukrainian Wedding - what do you need? 
First, a svatannya - the ritual asking parental permission to be married - arrange for food, drink and party!
Then, plan the day - service, photos, supper, and party.
Invite guests - make a long list, laughingly negotiate on a list, and party.
Vinkopletennia - just go out into the garden and gather some periwinkle (barvinok), weave wreaths while singing, and partying.
Call auntie to gather the ladies to make bread - a wedding korovai complete with a zillion pretty little bread doves (Ukie version of a wedding cake), and then party.
Cook a great Ukrainian prairie meal, Canadian version - Ukrainian holubtsi, Ukrainian cornmeal nachynka, gravy, chicken, pickles, and what for desert? 
Wedding day, getting the blessing from parents, and off to the service.
First the vows.  All the nervewracking concentration is over, and celebration day has arrived! Party!
Reception and meeting the guests, remember to toast the bride and roast the groom! 
Don't forget to plan for perepiiy - the reception line where everyone takes a drink as they personally wind past the wedding party, leaving an extra something in the basket for their new home.  Then the popravini (usually a day later, making things right, cleaning up and making sure nobody took offence at the dancing lamp shade).
A traditional Ukrainian wedding usually takes about three days, an elaborate one, possibly more!

It used to be so simple then - everyone played their part in the wedding plans, and things happened quickly - no bride or groom ever waited long for their wedding!

Some things do change though.  The white bridal gowns are marketed so heavily, and now food trucks serve up cultural variety at weddings.  Nonetheless, there are some ubiquitous elements - things that don't change. 

One of these is the music - and there are a huge variety of renditions of the Ukrainian Wedding March -

Zirka band plays a great Ukrainian Wedding March - it goes a bit fast for my taste but it is effective.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmRvFL5TqSY

Tommy Buick - of oldtime prairie wedding fame has another Wedding March to enjoy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inQgEUM5Wkg&feature=related

And the Kapusta Kids do another rendition -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w8Zl1SECYM&feature=related

Eugene and his accordian do another worthy rendition at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrM6NMGmiiY

Toronto's diaspora Ukrainian community enjoys this version at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGoqdXJPLWk

Toronto's Ukrainian Festival 2012 was an opportunity to enjoy it again at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8S7BpQdNR4&feature=watch_response

Music lingers in the mind, the melodies come from ancestral places deep in the family memory.  Let the dance begin! 

 

Canadian Feature Film - "Enemy Aliens" -

Finally, there is a film planned to portray the historical events from the Enemy Aliens episode of Ukrainian Canadian history!  In mid October the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation granted support to Actor/ Film Maker Ryan Boyko in his mission to produce a new Feature Film about Canada's First National Internment Operations of 1914-1921.  "Enemy Aliens" will tell the story of brothers who leave Ukraine just before the declaration of war in central Europe in 1914.  Ambitious and aspiring to a better life in Canada, the boys arrive and have their hopeful dreams dashed.  Like the stories of many new immigrants of the time, the ramifications of their arrival in Canada at this strategic juncture in world history are daunting.  The movie is a fictional account, full of adventure, love, betrayal, hopes, and dreams.  One alarming event after another will forever change their lives - and the lives of many more who were engulfed in this sorry experience. 

The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation has contributed a sum of 25 thousand towards this film.  If you should choose to support it too, you can donate directly to UCCLF ( Donations to "Enemy Aliens") , a not for profit organization that will issue tax receipts for donations.  The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund has also supported this project - check it out at www.internmentcanada.ca.

For more information on the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation, please visit their website at www.ucclf.ca. For more information on this and other upcoming projects, please visit www.ryanboyko.com and www.armisticefilms.com. rmisticefilms.com.