ETHNIC HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

In preparation for the upcoming holidays I have been reading & researching Russian holiday traditions. I found the funny Ukrainian tradition (below) for the day after Christmas. This day after Christmas tradition seems reminiscent of Halloween rather Christmas to me!

My Russian ancestors' family home was in in the Ukraine but I think they still considered themselves be White Russians, so I am not sure if my Russian ancestors would have celebrated this way of not.



www.uazone.net/holidays/christmas.html

Christmas in Ukraine is celebrated January 7 according to the Gregorian calendar as in most of other Orthodox Christian countries...

...Next day in some villages in Western Ukraine people organize some folk performances which obviously were inspired by ancient pagan habits. They dress up themselves as monsters with pelts and horns and run through the village trying to scare people. After that they run to the special place on the outskirts of the village and there happens the main act: they fight with all people of the village and finally are defeated. The scarecrows are burned in the big fire. And all people are dancing around this fire. This symbolizes the fight of Good and Evil and that Good defeated Evil for the whole next year.

As I locate more interesting holiday traditions I may add to this blog.

MORE ADORABLE GRACIE KITTEN PICS

RETIRING THE TONY SPIELBERG PICS FROM THE PROFILE

Lots of people like the newer belly dance shot taken at a show just before I left town in early Oct. 07. The Tony Spielberg pics are some of the best yet so I am not taking them out of the blog altogether. (Here they are.)

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MY BABUSHKA'S GRAVESITE SOUTHERN CA

My father would like it if I were buried here with my babushka. Her husband, my grandfather, was cremated & his ashes were spread somewhere else. My father, her 1st son, will probably be buried with my mother in northern CA. My uncle, her 2nd son (who is also facing brain cancer now) does not seem to be interested in be buried at Santa Margarita. My babushka is all alone here. I was close with her & I think sometime down the road in the future maybe I will be buried in Santa Margarita CA, with my babushka, Princess Tatiana Wolkonsky.

MY RUSSIAN ANCESTORS ON THIS HISTORICAL ANNIVERSARY

Just getting started once again...

I have been so slow getting back online after coming home from my brother's funeral. Then NPR reported today, Nov. 7, 2007, is the 90th anniversary of the Bolshevik's takeover in Russia. The radio reminded me once again of how my family's futures changed so drastically when the group (who became the Soviets) took power. I remembered the memoirs I have just read, the memoirs that discussed my grandmother's exodus from Russia, and the old family pictures I was given when I visited my father recently. I want to post at least some of the Russian family pictures here (& eventually in Tribe.net & already loaded in Myspace) to aid in the search of other Wolkonskys who may still be alive & looking for family, as I am. I will start with a couple of the old Russian family photos today & continue as I complete scanning more of these old family photos. I have not decided yet how much to tell from the memoirs because they are still unfinished & unpublished.

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My Russian Babushka when she was young, Princess Tatiana (Tanya) Dmitrievna Wolkonsky Kelley. She was a gifted linguist & nurse. She was considered quite beautiful and incredibly spirited. More on my Babu later. I am supposed to be very much like her in many ways.





My Russian great Dedushka (grandfather), Prince Dmitri Wolkonsky. He was a diplomat. I only learned who he was in the last month. Oddly enough I thought that I look rather like this great grandfather. This pic is an antique. This great grandfather died almost a hundred years ago.