Happy New Year!

A year ago, I celebrated Christmas in Ukraine for the first time…both times! Most Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on January 7^th, according to the Julian calendar that is used by the Orthodox Church, although a few celebrate on December 25th. Last year, I spent Roman Catholic Christmas at my counterpart’s and I spent the Orthodox Christmas with another colleague and her lovely family. It was wonderful to spend both Christmases with the same families again this year. I’ve spent the last several months hardly able to believe that I’ve been here a full year…and celebrating Christmas with these families for the second time really reminded me that things have come full circle (at least as far as a lunar cycle is concerned…). 

I think I’ve mentioned before that I love the way Ukrainians celebrate. Holidays are a big deal here—there are more holidays than I would ever be able to get a grip on, even if I lived here for another decade. Feast days, minor religious holidays, secular holidays—they all receive equal amounts of fervor and glitter. And although I was without my own biological family for Christmas this year for the second time, the thing I love the most about the way Ukrainians celebrate Christmas is that it is a family holiday. They don’t give gifts for Christmas—there is no wild, consumer chaos in the weeks leading up to Christmas. It is not a gift-giving holiday. It’s a holiday to be celebrated with family and friends over the span of two days. First, Christmas Eve, or Sviaty Vechir (Свіятий Вечір) is a dinner with 12 special, vegetarian dishes that all have a special significance. The next night is celebrated with another large dinner with many of the same dishes. Groups of children go from door to door, caroling in exchange for candy and money and extended family members drop in and out throughout the evening, bringing candy for the children and sitting down to chat over food. 

Despite having been here for a year, my Ukrainian is still mediocre at best, and so I can’t always understand the conversations that are going on around me. But I’m usually happy to just sit in the midst of it all, thankful to have somewhere to spend the holidays that would slip by unnoticed if it weren’t for kind friends and colleagues who have taken me under their wings. 

In this year away from home, I’ve realized much more acutely than I ever would have if I’d never left just how much family means during holidays. Even though I like the fact that Christmas here is a much less materialistic holiday and I love the family-oriented nature of the day, it still doesn’t feel like Christmas without my own family and without my own traditions. 

I missed picking through the stockings my Nana and Pop-Pop always filled with little goodies and a giant candy cane. I missed eating appetizers and sitting around on Christmas Eve with my mom, dad, and brothers, opening all our presents and laughing together. I missed seeing all my extended family and sitting in my Grandpa’s living room, surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

Still it was a wonderful Christmas—both times. And maybe the fact that I got to celebrate twice made up for missing Christmas at home. 

And I probably would have been a little more despondent about missing Christmas with my family if it weren’t for the fact that my parents will be here in three days! Seeing them will definitely make this holiday season infinitely brighter (and it was already pretty bright to begin with…so that’s saying something!) 

I have no real New Year’s resolutions to speak of, but I’m sure somewhere later on in the year I’ll come up with a list of things I want to do more of/less of, like I did last year. That was fairly successful—more successful than any list of New Year’s resolutions I’ve ever had. So I think I’ll wait ‘til the spirit moves me to do that again, since that seemed to work last time. 

And while I don’t have any particular resolutions, I suppose I do have some goals for this coming year, although they’re rather vague and they’re things I’d like to always remember and strive for. I want to be a person always worth knowing. I want to be someone my students respect and learn from—inside and outside the classroom. I want to do good things for other people. I want to always continue to try to be a better person. I want to be happy. 

I hope that you, wherever you are, enjoyed the holidays and I wish you a very happy New Year. I feel fairly confident that 2011 is going to be a good one.