Happening Now! Ukrainian Christmas

Wood cut of carolers. Source: Infoukes

The holiday season is in full swing in Ukraine.  Christmas Day was January 7, according to the Julian Calendar, which is followed by both Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholics. New Year's is celebrated on January 14.  The season continues until January 18, the celebration of the Epiphany.    Then, winter sets in.   Many Ukrainians greet each other on Christmas with the saying "Krystos narodyvsa," which means "Christ is born," and answer with "Slavimo yeho,"  "Let us praise Him".   The  Christmas holiday is more religious than the celebrations in the United States, but its roots go back into pagan times.
Caroling is an important part of the Christmas celebration.  Villages and city, all are full of caroling.  Some cities, like Lviv have parades of carolers, carrying symbols of the holiday.

Christmas parade in Lviv, Ukraine.

Musician playing the tsymbaly, accordion and violin in Beatlya, Ukraine

The carolers are groups of people who go from house to house, a little like trick or treating in the United States, they ask for treats, but the have to perform in order to get them.  There are at least three members in a caroling group.  One carries the star, which is mounted on a pole.  One is the bag carrier, who collects the treats and gifts,  and one is dressed as a goat.  Often there are musicians playing the violin, tsymbaly (hammered dulcimer) and in some areas a traditional long horn. 

Carolers knock on the window of a house, asking permission to come in and sing.

The groups approaches a house, knocks and ask permission to sing.  After they come in, they sing for each member of the household.  Then the put on a skit featuring the goat.  The goat, a symbol of fertility, has pagan origins.  In the skit, the goat dies and then is revived, symbolizing the end of winter and the coming of spring.  The carolers finish up by reciting short poems, wishing each member of the household a good holiday.  Gifts are given, and they proceed to the next house.

Christmas carolers, from an old Christmas card.

There are two types of  Christmas carols in Ukraine, Koliadky, which are sung on Christmas eve and Christmas day, and shchedrivky are sung on the Epiphany.  Koliadky and shchedrivky are the oldest carols. "The Carol of the Bells" is a shchedrivka, originally about the end of winter, with wishes for a prosperous new year. In these ancient carols, pagan elements have been replaced by Christian themes.  Other carols are about Ukrainian history, especially the princes of Kiev, who lived in the 9th and 10th century.  Read more about the Carol of the Bells

Christmas Carolers, painting by Oleksandr Leschenko

The holiday celebration continue into the new year.  New year's eve and New Years day celebrate Malanka, the Feast of St Melania.  Her story is reenacted in many Ukrainian villages.  It is also the Feast of St Basil.

Malanka in Vaskivtsi, in the Bukovina region of Ukraine.

In the United States and Canada, Malanka is celebrated like New Year's Eve.

The holidays end with the Epiphany or Jordan. This holiday commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan River.  People attend church and bring home small containers of holy water, which they keep in their homes for the next year.

Epiphany observances in Kiev, Ukraine.  Source: The Guardian.

Some Ukrainians believe that a dip in  icy river on The Epiphany prevents illness.

Source:  Brama.com

Kristallnacht: One Boy's Story--An Education Lost and Found

The Klepper Family, Ottilie, Manfred, Charlotte, Moritz

Nothing was going well in Mehring for the Klepper family. Mehring was the home of the Klepper family, a village on the Mosel River, near the city of Trier in western Germany. The Klepper’s, Ottile and Moritz, their children, Charlotte and Manfred were Jewish with deep roots in the Mosel region.  They ran a general store in the village, a business once owned by Ottille’s first husband. He fought for Germany and was wounded in World War I, but that meant nothing to the Nazi controlled government that ran Mehring.  It took the Klepper’s home and store so the family moved into a building owned by Otillie’s parents in Trier.  

 

Merhring (in red) is on the Mosel River, in western Germany

Ever since Hitler and the Nazi Party gained control of the government in 1933, everyday life was getting more and more difficult for the Jewish people of Germany. The Great Depression caused serious world wide economic problems, which lead to the election that gave control of the government of Germany to the Nazi party in 1933.  Democracy ended in Germany when Hitler became Chancellor.  Germany was divided into districts, each one headed by a person appointed by and responsible only to Hitler.

Changes came quickly. In 1933, the owners of the Kaufhaus Hass, a fashion house in Trier, Albert and Max Haas, were taken into “protective custody” and later jailed.  Members of the Communist and Social Democratic political parties were arrested and tortured. Jewish businesses were boycotted and Jewish children were harassed in school. The goal of Gustav Simon, the Nazi appointed director of Trier, was to make the area a model of the Nazi state. In 1937 Hitler visited Trier, the name of the square around the Porta Nigra, built by the Romans, was changed from the Porta Nigra Platz to the Adolph Hilter Platz.  By then all Catholic youth organizations were banned and Jewish children were not allowed in public schools. By November of 1938, all Jewish owned businesses were “aryanized.”  The local police were replaced by the SS and Gestapo, members of the Nazi Party; the SS wearing brown shirts, the Gestapo wearing blue.

 

Nazi Rally in Trier, 1937

Jewish families began to leave Trier, when the Nazis came to power, some moved to Holland, others left for the United States.  Otille’s sister and brother-in-law left for Chicago in 1935.  It was getting harder and harder for Jews to get exit papers from the German government and difficult to get residence visas from foreign governments. After a long wait, Otilie’s parents and sister got their papers and left Trier for the United States in 1938.  The Kleppers had applied for exit visas and permits to immigrate to the United States, but nothing had worked out yet.

Manfred Klepper turned six in November 1938.  He should have been in school, but no Jewish children were allowed in public school.  Synagogues stepped in and expanded their religious schools to teach Jewish children regular school subjects.  This ended on November 9, 1938, the first day of the Kristallnacht, “The Night of the Broken Glass.”  After that, it was  too dangerous to leave the house.  Manfred’s mother left only to visit the City Hall to check on the status of the family’s exit papers. His father Moritz disappeared. All the shopping and errands were taken care of by Anna, the family housekeeper.  She became their link to the outside world.
Read Manfred's eye witness story of the Kristallnacht

 

News off the Kristallnacht in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov, 1938

 A small school with only three pupils was started in the Klepper home. Ottilie and the woman upstairs who lived upstairs were the teachers, with assistance from the Sisters from the convent behind their house.  The Sisters gave the assignments to Anna and came over at night to teach reading, writing and math.  They brought books for the children to read, textbooks and school supplies.  When the assignments were completed, Anna took them over to the convent to be marked.  This continued for a year, until 1940 when the Klepper’s exit papers finally came through and they were able to leave Germany. By the end of that year, Manfred could read and write German and had mastered the basics of math.

 

Winter Holidays in Eastern Europe: Verteps and Szopka

Portable Vertep stage with puppets.

Christmas was the beginning of a festive time in Eastern Europe.  In Ukraine, festivities began on Christmas day, celebrated on January 7, according to the Julian calendar and concluded  on January 19, with the celebration of the Epiphany.

 

Vertep puppets, 17th century.

Ukrainian Vertep

One of the most interesting  Ukrainian Christmas customs was caroling and vertep.  Vertep is a portable puppet theater, which was carried by carolers from village to village. This custom began in the 16^th century, and reached the height of its popularity in the 1750’s.  Students at the Mohyla Academy in Kiev, contributed many ideas to the theater, including the two part performance.

 

Vertep, 1945, Ivano-Frankivsk Region

The theater itself was small and portable.  It was a two-story structure, with two stages, one on top of the other. The stages had horizontal and vertical grooves cut into the floors, which enabled the puppeteer to move the puppets around. The puppets were wooden, with a wire attached to one leg, which enabled the puppeteer,who was standing behind the stage, to control the puppet’s movements.  The plays were accompanied by music, a choir, cymbals. flute, drum, violin and bandura, a  large Ukrainian stringed instrument, similar to a lute. 

Each play had two acts.   The first act, performed on the upper stage, was religious.  The nativity story was presented and sometimes a story about Rachel and King Herod was performed.  The second act took place on the lower stage.  Short, humorous scenes were performed to entertain the spectators.  There were stock characters, representing people in village life.  Every play included “Kozak Zaporzhets,” a character who represented a hero popular in Ukrainian folk tales.  The Kozak character was always larger than the other puppets, he smoked a pipe and played the bandura.  The stories were about daily life with characters representing greed, cowardice, and cheating.  The Kozak always prevailed, outwitting all, including the devil. 

 

Kozak Zaporzhets, a character in Vertep plays

Vertep plays declined in the middle of the 1800’s, which is probably why my grandmother and great-aunts never mentioned them. Vertep lives on in miniature nativity scenes displayed in people’s homes, and carolers dressed up as characters from the vertep plays.  Vertep plays continue today in Ukraine and the United States with live actors instead of puppets playing the characters.

 

Carolers dressed as characters from Vertep plays

Polish Szopka   

A custom similar to Vertep developed in Poland.  It began in the 13th century with a creche, displayed in a church in Krakow.  Living nativities followed and when dialogue was added they became jaselka plays.  By the eighteenth century the still figurines in nativities  were replaced by puppets, first stick puppets, then marionettes. Puppet shows were banned from the church, and moved into the towns and villages. They became associated with caroling and lost some of their religious connections. The plays were a reflection of daily life in Poland, making fun of everyday situations.

 

Szopka with two stages.

The  theaters, called szopkas, were carried from town to town by carolers. They performed religious and secular plays often with real Polish characters such as Tadeuz Kosciuszko, or mythical ones like Pan Twardowski and the Dragon of Wawel. 

Krakow is the center of szopka making and many are made for the tourist market. People built elaborate szopkas with two towers, resembling St Mary’s Church in Krakow and a central dome modeled after the Zygmunt Chapel of Wawel Castle.  The practice of building szopkas declined during World War I, but was revived in the 1920’s. Today, the city of Krakow  sponsors a Szopka contest every year. 

Contemporary Szopka puppets in front of traditional characters.

Sources:  

Brama, "Ukrainian Christmas Puppet Theater, VERTEP". www.brama.com/art/christmas
Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, "Vertep, New Year,  Epithany". www.encyclopedia of Ukraine.com

Polish American Journal, "Szopka, A Fairy Tale Stable." www.polamjournal.com/holidays

Rukutvory-Ukrainian Folk Art on Line, rukutvory.com.ua

Genealogical Mysteries: The Final Word on Joseph Koshuba

The mysterious Joseph Koshuba was the subject of my first blog post in March of 2013.  Since then I solved the puzzle of the identity of Joseph, several times, and most of my solutions were way off.

Joseph Koshuba was my great uncle, and brother of my grandfather, John Koshuba.  Joseph died suddenly in 1919, leaving his wife Florence and three children.  I have a lot of family pictures, and my main source, my mother, identified many (unknown to me) family members.  In the wedding picture below, my mother identified the man in the first row, on the  far left as Joseph Koshuba. 
  

Wedding of John Koshuba and Pauline Rychly , November 1916.

The picture above is  of my grandmother Pauline Rychly Koshuba's wedding to John Koshuba in November, 1916.  Florence Koshuba is in the first row on the far right. My mother also identified her. I assumed that the man standing behind her, with his arm on her shoulder was Joseph Koshuba. At the time I assumed that because his hand was on Florence's shoulder. Since my mother was born in 1918, two weeks before Joseph died, I assumed that she was just guessing that the man on the left was Joseph. Now I know that she was right.  How could I prove it?

Top row from the left: Florence and unknown man,. Front row: Fred Koshuba, Joseph Koshuba and Katherine Florence. Source: Susan Strickler.

This picture was also taken at my grandmother's wedding.  It is of Florence, her two children and  the man I assumed  to be her husband Joseph standing next to her. The seated man with the little girl on his lap appears to be the man on the left in the picture above.  Why is he in this picture?  I revised my theory.  Maybe he was John Koshuba's brother-in-law, Peter Wons or perhaps he was Dymtro Popko, since his wife, Pelagia Rychly Popko was standing behind him in the large wedding picture. This picture was sent to me by Joseph Koshuba's grand-daughters, and they said that the baby girl was their aunt, Katherine Florence. So why was she sitting on Peter Wons' lap?  Well, since I assumed he was her uncle, it would make sense.

 

Wedding of Florence Holmberg to Joseph Koshuba, Feburary 1913.  Source: Ed Wons.

This picture is from the wedding of Florence Holmberg Koshuba's to Joseph Koshuba in February, 1913.  It was sent to me by Ed Wons,the grandson of Peter Wons and a Koshuba family cousin. This picture proved my theory about the identity of the man in the pictures from my grandmother's wedding wrong. Ed said that in this picture Peter Wons is in the second row, on the left right behind his wife, and John and Joseph's sister, Teckla Koshuba Wons.The two little boys in the picture are their sons. Now I know that Peter Wons is definitely not the man behind Florence in the group picture of my grandmother's wedding.

 Florence was identified as the bride by her grand-daughters. The groom is Joseph Koshuba, since I have the record showing that he married Florence Holmberg in February, 1913. The man on the left with with little girl on his lap in the 1916 wedding picture is Joseph. The man standing next to Florence in the Koshuba family picture taken at my grandmother's wedding in 1916 is not Joseph, neither is the man standing behind Florence in the large group picture from her wedding.

Joseph  and John Koshuba with an unknown man in the middle, wearing sashes and hats of the Zapororzhie Sich Society. 1912. Source: Pauline Noznick.

The next mystery:  who was the man with the moustache?  In this  picture from 1912,  Joseph Koshuba is on the left and John Koshuba is on the right.  The man with the mustache is in the middle. He may either be a relative or a close family friend.  Look again at the Holmberg-Koshuba wedding--is the man with the moustache in the second row on with right--without the mustache? If it is him, he had regrown the mustache by 1916.

What conclusions have I drawn from this mystery? Don't be a lazy or sloppy genealogist . DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING.  Wait until proof is found.   Remember, patience is the genealogist's friend. I have fallen into these traps myself--first, I assumed that my mother misidentified Joseph Koshuba.  Then I assumed that another man was Joseph, mainly because he had his hand on Florence Koshuba's shoulder. In order to make my story work, I assumed that the man who turned out to be Joseph was either Dymtro Popko or Peter Wons.  All wrong.  I found documentation of Joseph and Florence's marriage when Joseph's grand-daughters identified Florence as the bride in the 1913 wedding picture.  I also had a copy of the marriage license, documenting the marriage. That solved the mystery of Joseph Koshuba--and the identity of the man in my grandmother's wedding picture.

BLOG POSTS ABOUT THE KOSHUBA FAMILY

Big Breakthrough in the Koshuba Family
Finding Fred Koshuba
Joseph Koshuba One Year Later 
Assumptions: The Fred Koshuba Story
The Koshuba Brothers
The Genealogy of the Holmberg-Koshuba Family
The Genealogy of the Kleviak Koshuba Family

Winter Holidays in Eastern Europe: Hanukkah.

An Eastern European silver Hunukkiah.

While Christians in Eastern Europe were celebrating St Nicholas Day and Christmas, Jews celebrated Hanukkah, known as the “Festival of Lights.”  Hanukkah, a festival lasting eight days usually occurred in December.  The holiday is based on a historical event, the liberation of Israel from the Syrian Greeks in 164 BCE (I am using the abbreviation for Before the Common Era, an alternative to the older BC or Before Christ).

The composer Handel wrote an oratorio about Judas Maccabee.  It is often performed  during the Hanukkah season.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the ruler of the Syrian Greeks, began to harden his rule of Israel,  defiling the Temple in Jerusalem and banning the Jewish religion and requiring the Jews to follow Greek cultural practices.  The Maccabees, a group of Jews led by Judah Maccabees and four of his brothers, sons of the priest Matthias, fought for over three years to liberate and rededicate the Temple in Jerusalem.  Because the victory happened during the holiday of Sukkot, which happened in early fall, the Maccabees decided to celebrate Sukkot after the Temple was rededicated, on the 25^th day of the month of Kislev, in the year 164 B.C.E.  Since Sukkot is a seven day observance, Hanukkah used the same time frame.

 

Painting by Auguste Dore, "The Victor, Judas Maccabeus"

The story of Hanukkah was told by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, writing 250 years later, calling it the Festival of Lights. In the Mishnah, the oldest part of the Talmud, written a century after Josephus, the Festival of Lights became known as Hanukkah, (dedication in Hebrew) In the Talmud, completed 600 years after the victory of the Maccabees, the story of Hanukkah centered on the miracle of the jar of oil.  Although the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks was unexpected, the fact that a jar of oil, containing enough oil for one day, lasted for eight was considered miraculous.   By this time, fasting and mourning were not allowed during the Hanukkah festival.

A special candelabra, called a Hanukkiah was used for the holiday.  It had places for either eight candles or oil pots, and one spot for the Chumash, a candle used to light the others.  At first, the Hanukkiah was simple, but with time, they became more elaborate or fanciful. 

Chocolate coins made in Israel by Elite.

Hanukkah was a happy holiday, no work was allowed while the candles burned, so that time was filled with games. Children played dreidel, a small spinning toy, and adults played games of chance. Children were given coins as gifts on the fifth day of the holiday, a part of this small gift was expected to go to charity. 
 

Old dreidel.

Gelt remains today as foil covered chocolate coins.  My father-in-law always gave everyone in the family a dollar bill, announcing that it was Hanukkah gelt. Fried foods, usually prepared using rendered goose fat were eaten all over

Sufganiyot, jelly doughnuts.

Eastern Europe during Hanukkah. In Poland, jelly doughnuts were the preferred treat, in Lithuania, fried potato pancakes called latkes were favored. Cracklings, fried crisp goose skin, called gribenes in Yiddish, were a special treat.

Potato latkes

With the development of Zionism, Hanukkah took on a new meaning.  The idea of fighting for freedom and for national identity became associated with Hanukkah.  As Jews left Eastern Europe for Palestine in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, often they had to defend themselves.  The story of Hanukkah and the Maccabees was the story of freedom and liberty.  The founding of Israel continued these ideas.  The Jews defeated the Greeks in 164 BCE, because they were deprived of their religion and identity. The Holocaust raised the same issues of oppression, religious freedom and cultural identity that Hanukkah did two thousand years ago.

Celebrating Hanukkah in the Lodz Ghetto, World War Two.  Source: Yadvashem

I have not been blogging for the past few weeks, since my brother was very ill and passed away on November 16, 2014.  he suffered from leukemia and developed acute myeletic leukemia.He was a great brother, and had many friends. I miss him.

Pete and me, January 2012.

Winter Holidays in Eastern Europe: St Nicholas Day in Ukraine and Poland

St Nicholas Day, painting on glass by Yaroslava Surmach Mills, 1975.  In the painting, a Ukrainian St Nicholas is with an angel and a devil.  Notice the boy on the right with a branch in his hand.  He appears to be crying, probably because a gift of a willow branch means that his behavior needs to improve.

St Nicholas Day is a children's holiday.  It is celebrated in December, either on the sixth or the nineteenth, depending on people's religious affiliation.
Saint Nicholas, who lived in the fourth century, was the Bishop of Myra in Lycia, which today is in Turkey.  He is known as the patron saint of children, agriculture and sailors.  
 

Icon of St Nicholas, the patron saint of mariners.

He is one of the most popular saints in Ukraine, his icon is displayed in Ukrainian homes and churches. Many Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic churches are named in his honor.  St Nicholas Day is a very old festival,coming to Ukraine with Christianity in the tenth century.

Ukrainian postage stamp showing parents putting gifts under their child's pillow, with St Nicholas watching through the window.

Saint Nicholas, known to Ukrainian children as Svyaty Mykolay, wears a bishop's mitre and carries a crozier.  When he visits, he is accompanied by an angel and occasionally, a devil.  He brings gifts to children, usually fruit and cookies.  Sometimes the angel quizzes the children about religious subjects, and St Nicholas reminds them to do good deeds.   In some areas, St Nicholas comes after the children are asleep and leaves small gifts under their pillow. He might leave a willow branch under the pillow to encourage a child to be on his/her best behavior. In other areas, the children leave their empty shoes and St Nicholas fills them with goodies for  the good children and coal for the bad. Many churches put on plays and pageants about St Nicholas, telling his story, and encouraging children do good.  

St Nicholas Pageant, 1912.  St Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, Mahony, PA

My first and only encounter with St Nicholas was in St Paul, Minnesota.  I was a  young child, and my grandparents recruited a relative to dress as St Nicholas.  When he came into their living room, dressed in bishop's vestments, and I began to cry out in fear.   The next year, Santa Claus came down the chimney and left gifts under the tree.  St Nicholas never reappeared.

St Nicholas visits the children of the Svitlychka Ukrainian Cooperative Nursery School, Jenkintown, PA.

In old Ukraine,  St Nicholas Day took two forms.  One was warm Nicholas,  his festival was the twenty-second of May.  This was an agricultural celebration, since St Nicholas was also the patron saint of farming.  Farmers would take their horses to the fields for their first grazing, sheep would be sheared and buckwheat sown.  It was also believed that St Nicholas would protect livestock from wolves.  

St Nicholas Icon from Holy Spirit Ukrainian Orthodox Sobor, Regina, SK.

The other form of St Nicholas was "old" or "cold" Nicholas," celebrated in December. Saint Nicholas day heralded the beginning of cold winter weather.  Folk beliefs said that old Nicholas brought the first snow by shaking his beard.

In Poland, St Nicholas comes riding a white horse or rides in a sleigh.  He is accompanied by an angel.  He usually brings a special cookie called a pierniczki, fruit and holy pictures.  In some homes he leaves gifts under the children's pillow, in others he leaves them in their shoes. Some Polish children write to St Nicholas asking for gifts.  If they are well behaved, the gifts may arrive on Christmas day.

Polish children and St. Nicholas. The Polish St Nicolas wears a Roman Catholic bishop's mitre, the Ukrainian saint wears an Eastern Rite mitre.

Pierniczki

Poppy Day, Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, Veterans Day

photo by Carla Anne Coroy.

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918,  the hostilities of World War One ended.  It was an armistice, an agreement to lay down weapons and stop fighting.  There was no surrender by defeated parties.  Combat ended and the soldiers went home.

The end of the War is remembered  in countries involved in World War One on November 11.  For many years it was called Armistice Day, but in the United States in 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day.  Today, In many countries it is called Remembrance Day, and the symbol associated with it is a red poppy.

Remembrance Day, London 2014.  photo from The Daily Mail.

A few days ago I saw a story on the national news about Remembrance Day in Great Britain.  For this year's commemoration, an artist created a red ceramic poppy, each one representing a soldier from the British Empire who died in World War One.  The poppies were placed in the moat surrounding the Tower of London.  In Great Britain, Remembrance day is the Sunday closest to November 11.  Last Sunday, the crowds came to see the poppies, people hung pictures of family members who died in World War One on the fence around the moat.  It was quite a sight, especially since World War One was fought one hundred years ago.

How did the poppy become the symbol of the end of the most devastating war the world had known?  It started with a poem written by a Canadian doctor, Lt. Col. John McRae, in 1915, who was serving in Europe during World War One.  He titled his poem "We Will Not Sleep".  It is known today by its alternate title, "In Flanders' Fields." 

Illustrated 'In Flanders' Fields"  from the collection of the Canadian War Museum

A woman, Moina Belle Michael, who was volunteering in what we would call today a USO, in New York City, saw a copy of the poem in a magazine on November 9, 1918.  She vowed to wear a red poppy as a sign of remembrance.  She started a campaign to make the red poppy a symbol to remember those who lost their lives in The Great War.  In 1919, the newly formed American Legion adopted the memorial poppy as a symbol.  In 1921, artificial red poppies, made in France, were sold in the United States to raise funds for rehabilitation and resettlement of areas in France that were devastated by battles in the War.  Although the poppy did not become a symbol for Armistice Day in the United States, Poppy Day did become a way to raise funds for the American Legion at Memorial Day in May.

In 1954,  The Armistice Day holiday became Veterans Day.  Instead of  remembering war dead, it honors all living veterans.  Memorial Day, the last Monday in May is the day that honors American soldiers who died in wars. 

However in many other countries, November 11 continues to be a day of remembrance for those who died in World War One, and the red poppy is the symbol of those who lost their lives in World War One, one hundred years ago.