Author: Orysia Paszczak Tracz

Ladies, there’s a Ukrainian event coming up and you want to wear your Ukrainian finery – a “vyshyvanka.” That word is fairly recent and refers to an embroidered (or woven) Ukrainian “sorochka” (shirt). So you have a selection – the traditional sorochka you or your Mama or Baba embroidered years ago, or a contemporary one...

If it hadn’t been for Henry Kostiuk, we would have still been roving the tree-lined gravel roads around Olha, Manitoba. For a day trip, my husband, Myroslaw, and I decided to visit Olha, where there is a mass grave and monument to over 40 Ukrainian children and three adults who succumbed to scarlet fever just...

On May 14, a group of members of Alpha Omega Alumnae and friends drove one and a half hours southeast of Winnipeg and entered the world of the first Ukrainian pioneers to Manitoba 125 years ago. The region with the towns of Gardenton, Stuartburn, Tolstoi (there’s a long story on its renaming) was one of...

Those of us who are bilingual or even multilingual are blessed. We have the ability to live in two or more worlds through each language. Depending upon which language we’re speaking, our thoughts come out differently, because each language is so different in philosophy and grammar. The national character subtly comes through. The vocabularies, the...

Maidan and the war in eastern Ukraine have patriotic Ukrainians around the world coming out of the woodwork. People with barely one gram of Ukrainian heritage are wearing blue-and-yellow everything, and boasting tryzub tattoos. The tryzub (trident) has always been a special, meaningful symbol for Ukrainians, and anathema to the Russians. The insane world of...

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – It sold out in a day – even before it was announced to the general public – and the buzz on social media is still going on. On January 27, the Royal Canadian Mint announced an “Advance Product Notice” of new coin releases to preferred Masters Club Members. These are the coin...

“We should live according to the European, world calendar, not the Muscovite one.” (Ukraine) “It is not good to leave tradition. But, in order to separate ourselves from the Muscovites, we can try.” (Ukraine) “I treasure January 6 and 7. For me it is a true Christmas with none of the commercialism.” (U.S.A.) The issue...

My father began singing about young Vasylko getting on his beautiful horse, taking off his hat and bowing low to say good-bye, riding off into battle with his spear and sword, and meeting a beautiful “kniazivna” (princess). It was after supper on “Sviat Vechir” – Ukrainian Christmas Eve, and I was around 7 or 8...

Dear Editor: For the most part, we have succeeded in getting Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Dnister into the English-speaking world. We’re still working on Kozaks (instead of Cossacks). Now, how about working on eliminating the titles “prince” and “princess” for Volodymyr, Yaroslav, Olha and the other rulers of the ancient Kyiv state. “King” and...

It was another perfect sunny sky-blue Manitoba early Sunday morning in late June.  My husband, Myroslaw, and I decided to visit a parish outside of Winnipeg, a short drive north, in the area of Rossdale.  It is called “Parky” by Ukrainians, a Ukrainian version of “parks,” the old historical regional name for the fields in...

The boys of Poltava wanted me to pass a message on to Ukrainians in North America. They are disappointed, dismayed and disgusted with the present government in Ukraine. We sat outside a pub (or “pab,” as they say in Ukraine) at the foot of Shevchenko Boulevard, next to the pedestal of what used to hold...

There I was – in the Kvitka Cisyk Museum in the Kvitka Cisyk School on Kvitka Cisyk Street across from Kvitka Cisyk Park in Lviv. She is very much a presence in Ukraine, even though she passed away at the young age of nearly 45 in 1998. A possibly irreverent and strange thought flashed through...