Since time immemorial, Ukrainians have created images of wealth, happiness and peace in their homes through the lore of Christmas rituals. For Orthodox believers, January 6, when sacred holiday preparations and the Holy super take place, and January 7, the Orthodox Christmas Day, are the most anticipated days of the whole year.

"As flakes of snow fall and frost covers the ground, silhouettes blur into shadowy forms as homes all across the country celebrate a miracle. But should you find yourself in Ukraine on Christmas, you should be aware of the country's many customs, each designed to guard the household against evil forces.

On the day of Christmas Eve, if you want to drop by a hostess's home early, you would be well advised to turn into a shadow and hide in a cozy corner. Paying a visit is welcomed, but, according to tradition, only at a particular time--after the Holiday supper has been completed. For this is a family holiday and its atmosphere is carefully guarded. All family members must be at home to great Christmas Eve. To spend this time with those who are not your relatives is not desirable, for it forebodes that you will be deprived of the comfort of home for the coming year.
All Christmas rites are aimed at recreating the atmosphere of the night when the Virgin Mary gave birth to her Son. It is believed that everything in the household, living or inanimate, must be in its regular resting place on Christmas Eve. Nothing should be left outside the house or in anybody else's hands, whether lent or forgotten. Homes are kept sparking clean, because it is believed that litter left in a room will stay there until the next Christmas.

All family members gather for supper on Christmas Eve and even those who have passed away are remembered. Before joining for the Holy meal, families go to cemeteries to pay tribute to their deceased relatives. Sunset on Christmas Eve dictates many more hallowed preparations: at the beginning of the evening, the host erects a home altar. He brings inside a small batch of straw called baba and a bundle of hay--didukh. From the doorstep, the host greets the family with, "I congratulate you with happiness, health and a Holy evening, so that you may greet this holiday in happiness and good health, and live to see many more, for hundreds of years or as long as God destines." Straw is placed on the floor and hay on and under the table. A plateful of kutia, a cold wheat and barley porridge and uzvar, a cold drink with stewed dried fruits, are nestled in the hay and on the table in remembrance of those relatives who have passed away.

Kutia is an essential part of the Christmas Eve meal. Hostesses may say to themselves that the "kutia boils wildly" as it simmers over the edge of the pot. Cooking this meal takes a lot of time, but the effort is well worth it. It is very tasty. To cook kutia, you first boil specially sifted and ground wheat or barley, filter it, and add ground and scalded poppy seeds and nuts. (You may also add raisins or honey with a bit of water). Eaten cold, kutia may be dense or watery. One more thing, the girl who grinds the poppy seeds with a makohan--a special stick for grinding--should not even think of licking it, for tradition says that if she does, she will surely marry a man with a head as bald as the makohon's end.

The dinner table overflows with dishes on Christmas Eve, symbolizing the wealth of the past year. The hostess usually prepared twelve meals without the use of butter or meat, including borscht (vegetable soup), varenyky (small potato dumplings), fish, golubtsi (rice with spices in cabbage leaf), mushrooms, bread and pies. When the star rises in the sky, announcing the birth of Christ, the family convenes at the table. After a prayer, the man of the house pronounces "Christ is born", put a symbolic cross over the kutia and takes the first spoonful. The rest of the family then follows, dishes are passed and conversation is leisurely. At the end of the meal, children who usually shepherd the cattle in the summer, must collect the spoons and tie them up in a bundle. It this is not done, lore says they will fail to keep the sheep together in the pasture next summer.

Christmas dinner retains its symbolic meaning throughout the year. If abnormal or mysterious things happen in your life in the next year, you must recall on what day of the week Christmas fell, what dishes were served at the Christmas table and in what order, and your bad spell will be gone in a wink.

The rite that crowns the Christmas dinner is koliada. Women and children, gripping rods with shining stars attached to their ends, go out to homes singing: "Good evening to you, mister host, and joy to you. And joy to you the Earth too, for the Son of God is born."

After carolers have greeted residents, they are presented with gifts which symbolize the richness of the home. In the eastern parts of Ukraine, children "bring the supper". Parents give them plates of traditional Christmas food and send them to great their close relatives--usually grandparents or godparents. These relatives welcome their guests, taste the meals and in return give gifts.

But when Ukrainians all across the country return home to await the arrival of guests, they bear in mind the "first foot" omen: it states that if you have bliss in the next year, your first visitor on Christmas Eve should be lucky and male. Many girls still attempt to learn their fates on Christmas Eve. They bake tasty cakes and arrange them on a bench, assigning their names to a particular cake. Then, a hungry dog is let into the room and the girls whose cakes are eaten are said to marry within a year.

Not all Ukrainian traditions take place indoors. On the streets, you will often see a two-story miniature portable house called a vertep in which puppets and amateur actors perform a four hundred year-old show. Before the first act, the actors light the "star that rises" over the roof of the woody vertep.; The first act is a nativity scene that features King Herod and the hapless Rachel. The second act features heroes like Zaporozhets (the Cossack), Zhyd (the Jew), Dyak (the Priest) and the common man -- Klym -- and his wife. Self-appointed thespians act out farcical episodes from everyday life, showing the joy of high spirits and the simple pleasures of everyday existence.

It is said that on Christmas, God wants to hear from all of his creatures--even animals are granted the gift of human speech for a short while. Mykolo Gogol, the great expert on Ukrainian Christmas mystification, believed that on Christmas night everything becomes possible; that on this night one could even use the devil to virtuous ends. So it is no accident that Christmas Day is full of ritual because in Ukraine, this is truly the day when the most common deeds of man gain devine significance and have an effect that only miracles can.